Umbrella reviews (reviews of systematic reviews) are increasingly used to synthesize findings from systematic reviews. One important challenge when pooling data from several systematic reviews is publication overlap, that is, the same primary publications being included in multiple reviews. Pieper et al. have proposed using the corrected covered…

This volume provides alternatives for tackling existing empirical, methodological, and analytical challenges. It does so by providing a broad overview of less established, as well as emerging methods, which are of great relevance for current research on professional learning and development. As such, it offers a comprehensive collection of…

This paper explores two concepts. Firstly, it explores how child-led photography was effectively used by as a research methodology with young children, aged three and four. Twenty children at two Australian preschools were given the opportunity to express how they experienced place at their early childhood educational. Each child was given a…

This brief provides tips writers can use to make impact research more digestible and actionable for policymakers and practitioners. The brief emphasizes five tips: make the contrast clear, make causal statements only when they result from causal research designs, present numbers simply and concretely, describe effects in meaningful units, and…

This article provides guidelines for conducting, reporting, and evaluating mixed research studies in 3 sections: research formulation, research planning, and research implementation. To date, no such guidelines are available. Detailed descriptions of each subsection are included. The authors hope that these standards assist researchers from the…

This issue of "FOCUS" discusses external validity and what rehabilitation researchers can do to help practitioners answer the question "How far can we generalize this finding-- is it applicable to other clients/patients, with different characteristics, in dissimilar settings treated by other clinicians?," which clinicians and…

This article reviews the 15 years of research development efforts of the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research (IASWR); delineates IASWR's roles in relation to the social work practice, education, and research communities; presents the transdisciplinary and transorganizational partnerships in which IASWR engages to influence…

This paper aims to contribute to reflection on how rural research can better serve rural communities. Using the results of literature searches across the disciplines, it explores some major 21st Century debates about improving the usefulness of research for policy and practice. The paper begins with an examination of different debates in…

More applied research is needed on the education and treatment of hearing-impaired persons. Such research should be purpose-oriented, provide applicable knowledge to the profession, and be highly pragmatic. Quality applied research uses direct observation, measures socially important behaviors in natural settings, and focuses on generality of…

Several developments in the use of the new method of meta-analysis give cause for optimism. First, different meta-analysts are doing work in the same areas, leading to increased confidence in meta-analytic results. Second, meta-analysts are beginning to include raw data in their reports, which helps readers pinpoint the exact studies that lead to…

A general learning impairment model and a reasoning insight model, both in rats, were reviewed for parallels to theories of human cognitive deficiency, leading to the conclusion that animal models of the cognitive deficiency states of mental retardation are underutilized and that human mental retardation researchers would benefit from greater…

The purpose of this article is to provide direction to those entertaining a developmental research project. There are two categories of developmental research, both of which are examined here. The two types vary in terms of the extent to which the conclusions resulting from the research are generalizable or contextually specific. This article…

Empiricists work with general concepts defined by their observed sets of objects. Their explanations involve their general concepts derived by trial and error from their untheoretical observations and experience. This paper distinguishes empirical educational research from scientific research to avoid confusion between the two. A reason for the…

Reflects on the past three decades of increasing specialization and on the diverse conceptual frameworks guiding research in the field of educational administration. Describes heterogeneity among researchers, field-based research and policy studies, linkages across specialty areas, and key points of remaining articles. Fifty-three footnotes are…

Used experimental tasks--spontaneous telling of a story, reading, and parsing--to determine whether empirical data reflect narrative structure of stories. It was concluded that spontaneous pausing reflects the narrative structure and can be used as a guide to constructing theories of narrative structure and deciding between competing theories.…