Many volunteer literacy tutors in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, have not completed their 1-year tutoring commitment. Consequently, an action research project was undertaken to determine the causes of the high tutor turnover and to identify ways of improving the tutor retention rate. All tutors involved in the program from 1998 onward were asked…

A survey of 243 New England colleges and universities found a strong relationship between institution size and the scope of its institutional research function, reporting relationship, and size and qualifications of the research staff. Size of staff and qualifications of the institutional director were significant predictors of involvement in…

A study in a new university investigated the relative importance of six factors (job security/promotion, availability of research resources, contribution to university mission, personal stimulation/challenge, colleague relationship, and professional recognition/development) on research commitment and productivity. Discipline, rank, and gender were…

This volume contains five reports of practitioner research projects within adult education programs in Virginia. "Learning in Everyday Life" (Susan Erno, Diane Foucar-Szocki) explores use of a monthly calendar as a time management and goal-setting tool for adult learners in a workplace setting. "Factors Related to Student Retention…

This volume contains one paper defining the initial operating parameters of the Research and Development Exchange (RDx) and four of a series of papers contracted for the program. The overview paper touches on a variety of topics of continuing concern: the general problems toward which the RDx effort is directed, understandings affecting the design…

The status of women and minorities in higher education is discussed, and two intervention strategies are described that were implemented by the Higher Education Resource Service (HERS, Mid-Atlantic) of the University of Pennsylvania to assist in training and advancement. In conjunction with Bryn Mawr College, HERS designed a month-long summer…

The Training Program for Urban School Research and Evaluation Personnel was a highly selective program for preparing partially-trained students for research work in urban education. The University of Chicago held a proposal competition for students in the Department of Education and related departments. From among those submitting research…

An academic teacher at a maximum-security prison in Virginia conducted a study to determine how to improve instruction and motivate adult learners in a correctional facility. Data were collected through a survey that was distributed to 22 individuals and completed by 20 of them (2 academic teachers, 1 vocational instructor, 6 students, and 11…

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Area Labor-Management Committee (SPALMC), which serves approximately 180 adult students annually, was experiencing inconsistencies in performance among its adult education staff. The problems included teachers arriving late 50% of the time and individualizing instruction only 70% of the time. To remedy these problems,…

Many of those now accessing archives through online finding aids are encountering primary materials (albeit virtually) for the first time. These users are often unfamiliar with finding aid structure, terminology, and principles. This article reports on a qualitative, exploratory study of a subset of these novice users. The study concentrated on…

The Pennsylvania Adult Literacy Practitioner Inquiry Network (PALPIN) project was conducted to establish statewide and regional inquiry groups to help adult literacy practitioners improve their performance by raising and investigating issues meaningful to their day-to-day practice. The conceptual framework underlying Philadelphia's Adult Literacy…

This monographic series volume contains two separate monographs. "The Training of Student Teachers in Discovery Methods of Instruction and Learning," (John Heywood, Sarah Heywood) discusses the polarization of discovery learning and expository teaching. It describes a unit in the applied psychology of instruction, commonly known as…

A series of interviews carried out over a 6-month period investigated: (1) why and how five New York City high school teachers used writing-to-learn across the curriculum, and, (2) the outcome of conducting research on one's own colleagues. Subjects were a math teacher, a physics teacher, and a career education teacher from a high school for…

Instruction in reading, writing, and thinking has an important place in all classrooms. A study examined the effect of writing instruction on students' mathematics achievement, as measured by grade point average in math class and scores on the New York State Regency Competency Test in Mathematics. Subjects, 56 ninth-grade students involved in a…

A curriculum project is described which illustrates the use of collaborative inquiry, a cooperative effort between university researchers and educational practitioners. Four tenets of collaborative inquiry are outlined. (1) Researchers and school practitioners work together on all phases of the effort. (2) The effort is focused on real world as…