The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of selected teacher education faculty members engaged in electronic portfolio development. The research questions driving this study were (a) What are the faculty members experiencing as they adopt eFolios? (b) How do these professors understand and make sense of the role eFolios…

This article reports the findings of a study of the Penn State Cooperative Extension program evaluation Web site. The study was performed to investigate whether a Web site could be used as a vehicle for organizational learning in evaluation, and, if learning does take place, what aspects of the site make learning possible. Our research suggests…

Kensington High School is a neighborhood school located in the Kensington area of Philadelphia. After a successful campaign led by Youth United for Change, Kensington High School was broken up into three small schools, with a fourth to be built. Youth researchers explored the relationships between adults and students in all three of the new small…

This article looks at the lessons that a novice qualitative researcher learned from interviewing an adolescent on AIDS education. The data informs us of what can be missed when adolescents are surveyed and not talked "to." As Toni informs us, "They should teach you this." The article points out how reciprocity, responsibility,…

Reforms funded by the School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA) were enacted to help USA students learn career-related skills and prepare for entry into careers or post-secondary education. Information about the effectiveness of these reforms is critical to address students' career preparation needs and inform future policy. Yet few quantitative…

This study explored how and why special education policy issues were treated as they were in the formulation of Pennsylvania's charter school law, Act 22 of 1997. The qualitative study utilized formal and informal interviews of state policymakers, review of documents, review of archival records, and participant observation. Findings indicated a…

Giving Back to the Community: African American Inner City Teens and Civic Engagement was an exercise in ethnographic research. Intentionally different from the more common quantitative studies conducted on civic engagement, this qualitative data gathering project was intended to focus solely on the patterns of civic engagement habits of low income…

Through a Pennsylvania statewide curriculum integration project involving 11 school districts, this research examines the curriculum reform process and determines which factors, or combination of factors, are absolutely essential for successful curriculum reform. Comparing programs and their respective levels of success makes it clear that only a…

The purpose for conducting this study was to explore, with credentialed and qualified women educators, career paths in educational administration. The research was qualitative. Data were collected through focus groups and mailed surveys. Six persons attended two focus groups that lasted approximately 90 minutes each. The interaction of the members…

The Temple University Center for Vocational Education Professional Personnel Development (PPD), one of three regional centers in Pennsylvania, used qualitative strategies for steering PPD programs. Center personnel found that collecting quantitative data was absolutely necessary to determine whether objectives were being met, but was not always…

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the availability of computers in educational settings. Since the technology became available for all ages, the amount of technology usage increased in early childhood classrooms (Haugland, 1997). Despite of the dramatic increase of computers in early childhood classrooms, there are still…

This paper is another installment in the ongoing project on early language learning in a Japanese FLES program, conducted by ELLRT (Early Language Learning Research Team): Richard Donato and G. Richard Tucker with graduate students from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. The Japanese instructor in this FLES program, Yoko…

In this article, we present a novel way to integrate psychological theories and research methods in an applied social psychology course as a means to foster engagement in a university-community partnership. We taught an advanced course on the application of social psychological theories and research methods to junior and senior undergraduates. Our…

Attrition is a consistent feature of higher education--only about half the students who start college will ever receive a degree. The attrition rates of African-American students is even higher than that of their white counterparts. Attrition in general, and especially that of high risk students, is of great concern to university administrators…

This document contains papers from a Pennsylvania conference on adult and continuing education research. The following papers are included: "Violence against Women: Looking behind the Mask of Incarcerated Batterers" (Irene C. Baird); "Refocusing Faculty Development: The View from an Adult Learning Perspective" (Patricia A.…