Whether the goal is to identify and describe trends and variation in populations, create new measures of key phenomena, or describe samples in studies aimed at identifying causal effects, description plays a critical role in the scientific process in general and education research in particular. Descriptive analysis identifies patterns in data to…

A "knowledge society" relies on a workforce with high-level skills in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Continuing development of ICT will arise partly from research undertaken by doctoral graduates. However, compared to other cognate disciplines, ICT has relatively few students taking up doctoral studies. This article…

Education Indicators in Focus is a recurring series of briefs that highlight specific indicators in OECD's Education at a Glance that are of particular interest to policy makers and practitioners. They provide a detailed look into current issues in pre-primary, primary and secondary education, higher education, and adult outcomes from a global…

Reports results of a survey of 151 accredited law schools that examined the status of advanced level legal research courses. The survey included questions on the need for such courses, the best methods for providing instruction, the origin of impetus for courses, teacher selection, and course content. (CLB)

Describes a debating program in a Pennsylvania high school, in order to show how debating can sharpen students' intellectual dexterity. Debate promotes critical thinking, careful listening, and effective use of library resources. (TE)

By not specifying what they will attend to, and by virtue of the relatively extended amount of time they devote to exploring their phenomena, qualitative inquirers have practically no limit to what they can uncover. This is illustrated through data on the role of ethnicity in an ethnically diverse high school. (Author/BJV)

Academic librarians who have faculty status must meet the same criteria for promotion and tenure as other faculty members, including doing research. However, library schools may not be training librarians adequately in the research skills required for entry level academic positions. In order to determine whether library schools in the United…

Compared are boys' and girls' abilities and achievement in a research class which included both classroom and research institute experience. It was found that boys were more active in classroom interactions and that the ratings of girls and boys were otherwise not significantly different. (CW)

The purpose of the project described in this three-part report was to test the value of hypermedia for library instruction. The project included the development of a hypermedia program built around a marketing topic; implementation and testing of the program with one group of students assigned to use the new program; evaluation of the project by…

Asserts that the teacher as researcher movement increased awareness of the human interventionary nature of teaching. Maintains that the human interventions of regular classroom practice must be subject to the same ethical scrutiny that applies to all professional endeavors. (CFR)

Reviews issues cited in "A Nation at Risk" and other studies calling for educational reform, and discusses the role of libraries in general, and academic libraries in particular, in improving education in the United States. Library programs at three universities, involving information literacy, research skills, and peer counseling, are…

Educational planners and policymakers are rarely able to base their decision-making on sound information and research, according to this book. Because the situation is even more difficult in developing countries, educational policy often is based on research conducted in others parts of the world. This book provides a practical framework that can…

Based on the assumption that librarians can benefit from a better knowledge and understanding of information needs and behavior, this paper presents a review of the literature on information needs and information seeking behavior from 1971 to 1986, a report on a survey of 100 graduate students enrolled in a course on educational research at…

Discusses the need to teach undergraduate students the critical thinking processes necessary to formulating and researching a topic, rather than the technicalities of online catalogs. The development and design of an online catalog at Dickinson College, which forces students to make informed choices throughout the search process, is described.…

Describes the development and design of an undergraduate course which utilized a marketing principles class to teach students information gathering techniques as part of a college wide competency requirement. The materials and procedures used, roles of instructors and librarians in the course, and evaluation of the project are discussed. (CLB)