The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is committed to strengthening relations between research and practice and to the development of a coherent knowledge base that is usable in practice. The need to work toward connection and coherence is not unique to the field of mathematics education. Fields such as medicine, software…

Identifying an area of research a topic, deciding on a problem, and formulating it in to a researchable question are very difficult stages in the whole research process at least for beginners. Few books on research methodology elaborates the various process involved in problem selection and clarification. Viewing research and problem selection as…

This methodological brief introduces the readers to the propensity score matching method, which can be used for enhancing the validity of causal inferences in research situations involving nonexperimental design or observational research, or in situations where the benefits of an experimental design are not fully realized because of reasons beyond…

Professionals mostly agree that scientific research should guide practice in education. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA; 2004) and the No Child Left Behind Act (2002) require that students with disabilities receive research-based practices in the "least restrictive environment." Because the least…

This article describes how to design program assessment for mathematics departments, in two-year and four-year colleges across the Midwest, based on a set of components that was generated from a Delphi survey. An example is provided to illustrate how this was done at a small four-year college. There is an alignment between these components and a…

How to deal with the relationship between the researcher and the "researched" is a crucial thing in design of a language research project and the analysis of data. The paper mainly focuses the influence of power relations between the researcher and the "researched" people. To do social research "on, for and with" the…

This paper draws on research that documents the work, financial and personal benefits, and skill trajectories of trade and bachelor graduates' for the 10 years after completion of their initial education. The primary aim of the project is to better understand how people draw on their initial education and training. We suggest that while there is…

This article reconceptualises the meaning of critical theory and its tools of emancipation and critique within the subjective content of cross-cultural literature, globalisation and learning organisation. The first part of the article reviews literature on globalisation and learning companies. The second part discusses the critical approach and…

In experimental designs with nested structures, entire groups (such as schools) are often assigned to treatment conditions. Key aspects of the design in these cluster-randomized experiments involve knowledge of the intraclass correlation structure, the effect size, and the sample sizes necessary to achieve adequate power to detect the treatment…

Teaching computer programming to novices is a difficult task due to the complex nature of the subject, as negative stereotypes are associated with programming and because introductory programming courses often fail to encourage student understanding. This Protocol outlines the plan that is to be followed in order to investigate the effectiveness…

This article describes a 5-step model of intervention research. From lessons learned in our work, we develop an outline of core activities in designing and developing social programs. These include (a) develop problem and program theories; (b) design program materials and measures; (c) confirm and refine program components in efficacy tests; (d)…

Considering Canada's Tri-Council statement on the ethical conduct for research involving human subjects, we discuss some of the ethical challenges of doing research on teaching and learning in which one's own students and teaching act as the context of such scholarly activity. We advocate establishing basic principles based in the complex…

The article grounds the structure of the external evaluation of colleges at the level of the non-university higher education sector, and it reveals the problems met in this process as well as possibilities for their solution: the phenomenon of the external evaluation of colleges is discussed and its concept is presented; the external evaluation…

The reflective and interrogative processes required for developing effective qualitative research questions can give shape and direction to a study in ways that are often underestimated. Good research questions do not necessarily produce good research, but poorly conceived or constructed questions will likely create problems that affect all…

Sampling has been the single most influential component of conducting research with lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) populations. Poor sampling designs can result in biased results that will mislead other researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. Investigators wishing to study LGB populations must therefore devote significant energy and…