The Centre for Principal Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education is a new organization devoted to research and professional development. This paper describes the framework for the center's research program and reviews research reported since 1985 that is relevant to each of the components. The review serves two purposes: (1)…

A research team from the School of Journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, designed a research methodology for tracing the flow of interpersonal communication in a community in a crisis situation. They devised a completely detailed research plan including advance arrangements, a trained research team, a suitable survey instrument, and…

The author conducted a cross national analysis of sociological research reported in leading journals at two points in time over a ten year period to determine if sociologists' ability to produce valid social generalizations had improved significantly over the recent past. The official journals of the United States (American Sociological Review),…

Previous research on class size has serious limitations because factors such as the abilities of pupils or the experience and teaching style of teachers were not controlled, and because of inconsistent criteria for large and small classes and for criteria of success. A major two-year study was mounted with four class sizes, random assignment of…

A study on administrative problem solving is introduced in this paper, which summarizes the theoretical and methodological bases of the study and outlines the research design and data collection process. Three research areas are explored: (1) the relationship between problem solving and decision making; (2) types of administrative problems; and…

Recent findings in the literature on child abuse have been inconsistent and often contradictory, perhaps in part because most researchers treat child abuse as a homogeneous psycho-social phenomenon and commit the error of group averaging. One methodology which deals directly with the problem of homogeneity error is the typology approach. This…

Seven Oaks School, a high school in Winnipeg (Canada) recently conducted a followup study of its graduates using a unique approach. High school seniors helped develop the structured interview instrument and carried out the research. As it gathered important information to help the school district in its planning, the study provided students with…

Step-by-step description of the community analysis and survey project undertaken by Grande Prairie Public Library (Alberta, Canada) includes discussion of use of American Library Association's "Planning Process for Public Libraries" as a guideline for designing staff, citizen, and user surveys. Statement of revenue and expenses (1982) is…

Teachers engaged in action research are involved in a process that focuses on how they and their students construct and reconstruct learning experiences, thereby extending professionalism and creating additional learning opportunities for students. This paper describes the evolution of an action research project involving an elementary school…

The design and evaluation of a rating scale for program evaluation in problem-based medical curricula are described. The design process was guided by a theory of how students learn in problem-based learning as modeled by W. H. Gijselaers and H. G. Schmidt (1988). The rating scale was used in an evaluation of a new problem-based, community-oriented…

Student participation during and subsequent to an ethnographic study of peer collaboration in a primary classroom is explored through a long-term investigation. The original study was designed to study patterns of collaboration using a variety of techniques including interviews with the children, first seen in a split grade one and grade two…

The major objectives of a project initiated by the Canada Council in 1976 were to develop measures of subjective social indicators and to examine factors responsible for variation in those indicators across Canada and over time. Subjective social indicators are interpreted as measures of personal perceptions, preferences, attitudes, and values.…