Examines the values of the concepts of symbol, language, ideology, belief, ritual, and myth in understanding the creation of new cultures and in unraveling the related processes by which entrepreneurs give energy, purpose, and commitment to the organizations they are bringing into being. (Author/IRT)

Describes the educational research community in Great Britain and the methodological principles of inquiry upon which it is based. Explores the crisis that threatens to undermine the growth and development of Centres of Excellence in educational research. Challenges the British Educational Research Association to develop political strategies as a…

This article outlines how the past decade has witnessed a substantial increase of interest in the nature and extent of bullying in British schools. It presents case study methods as an alternative to the existing quantitative methods that have generally been employed to investigate bullying within schools. (Contains references.) (CR)

The field manual for a series of coordinated studies of the spontaneous acquisition of a second language by adult immigrant workers provides a theoretical and practical framework for the entire project and a source of information about it for other researchers. Chapters 1 and 2 describe the project's objectives and organization. Chapter 3 reviews…

A study was undertaken to investigate, from a uses and gratifications perspective, the effects of serious television drama shown in a foreign country. Specifically, the study examined the impact of "Roots," a highly acclaimed American television drama on slavery, in Great Britain and provided comparisons with the findings of…

The objective of this investigation was to collect data on the needs of information users which could serve as a basis for the design of information systems in the social sciences. Research habits of social scientists were explored to identify research procedures and problems of research including circumstantial and environmental variables. A…

The reading and mathematics performance of five groups of primary school age children (four of which were receiving special education in various forms) were compared longitudinally using a national representative sample. There was little difference in the reading progress of ESN(M) children in ordinary and special schools although the latter made…

Analysis of teachers' questions, part of the ORACLE (Observation Research and Classroom Learning Evaluation) project research, is examined in detail. Scarth and Hammersley argue that the rules ORACLE uses for identifying different types of questions involve levels of ambiguity and inference that threaten reliability and validity of the study's…

Major literature is reviewed in the course of describing and assessing the role of operations research (OR) in educational administration. Increased use of OR approaches in education and a compounding of the present disagreement about the application and potential of OR are forecast. (MJL)

This critique points out problems in the methodology used by Robinson and Bell in their analysis of societal differences between the United States and England and makes suggestions about future investigations. (EB)

Describes a survey of expert system producers that examined the number, nature, and scope of expert systems in Great Britain; methodologies used in their development; and the background and skills of those working in this area. The potential for library and information science professionals to become involved in expert system development is then…

Critiques a study that found greater cultural sensitivity among British compared to U.S. preservice teachers. Identifies questionable research methods and interpretations of the findings. (SK)

This paper summarizes an experiment conducted to examine the counting performance of 7- and 8-year-olds. Analysis of variance was computed on counting errors produced when enumerating a set of squares on a computer screen. The factors included in the analysis were age, gender, array size, error type, proximity, and error form. The primary…

An examination of the technical and theoretical strengths and weaknesses of three British research studies on the effectiveness of selective and nonselective schooling shows that the reorganization of British schools has not produced the lowering of educational standards that politically motivated groups would like people to believe. (RM)

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),…