This commentary discusses the articles that comprise this special issue on attachment in middle childhood. Central to this discussion is the distinction between verbal, strategic, and conscious responses to questionnaires as compared to verbal and nonverbal, automatic and largely unconscious responses to interviews. Both methods have been…

As pressure builds to assess students, teachers, and schools, educational practitioners and policy makers are increasingly looking toward student perception surveys as a promising means to collect high-quality, useful data. For instance, the widely cited Measures of Effective Teaching study lists student perception surveys as one of the three key…

Six stages are hypothesized that define the behavior of returning mailed questionnaires: receiving the questionnaire, opening the mail, forming an overall impression, answering the questions, returning the questionnaire, and dealing with nonrespondents. The researcher must provide incentives at each stage if potential respondents are to complete a…

Provides 14 guidelines that can be applied in questionnaire construction to ensure that the researcher obtains useful and accurate data and results. (Author)

Presents a rationale for graduate students' use of semistructured interviews to enhance the interpretation of data derived from questionnaire returns. The writer experienced deeper understanding of the data and intense satisfaction with results when using this technique in a research project involving new teachers. Includes eight references. (MLH)

A major problem of research into religion is whether religion is uni- or multi-dimensional; a model maintaining the advantages of both approaches is suggested with general religiousness as a broad construct (higher order factor) that is subdivided into a set of more specific factors. (CMG)

Presents guidelines about how to conduct a public opinion poll and discusses such specific areas as the sample, the questionnaire, the interviewers, and the poll report. (DF)

Introduces the process of survey research, focusing specifically on the questionnaire method. Lists and discusses eight essential steps in the process, reviews the relevant literature, and ends with the hope that readers will become better consumers of research and possibly researchers themselves. (SR)

Reviews test construction strategies used in the development of many current questionnaire measures of temperament and critiques these measures. Shows the selection of coefficient alpha as sole criterion for inferring unidimensionality to be insufficient, and suggests improvements for construction of temperament measures. (SKC)

Examines Blumenschein's "Description of Various Libraries in Europe" as an early example of library research methodology; discusses his methods of data collection; describes his use of a questionnaire; and suggests the necessity of further studies of the development of research in library and information science. (Contains 10…

Teacher effectiveness is an issue that has received increased attention in recent years, as researchers have become aware of limitations in models that see the school as the key arena for improving pupil learning outcomes. This renewed interest makes it timely to look again at the methods used in teacher effectiveness research. This article…

Presents a proposal for professionals in family counseling and family assessment to use sibling interaction as a source of stimulation to improve developmental processes. Includes a reference guide for dealing with everyday problems in sibling relationships. Contains a questionnaire to obtain information about parents' thoughts and actions…

The purpose of this paper is to give evidence for the thesis that if teachers using a questionnaire as a data collection instrument have the questionnaire items translated from one language into another, they cannot assume that the translated items are valid simply because they were translated. Even if the original questionnaire items were…

Discusses the design of effective questionnaires based on the concept of a hierarchical classification of Levels of Information: global (Level I), general concept (Level II), and specific (Level III). By tying question types to the information desired, the entire questionnaire can be improved. (JJD)

Criticizes the methodology of a questionnaire-based study that found a discrepancy between the beliefs of sexually active adolescents about condoms and their use of condoms. Discusses six methodological problems in the study to demonstrate how the overly simplified treatment of complex behavior can lead to invalid conclusions. (FMW)