Adopting the position, expressed by A. P. Bochner in his critique of small group communication research, that placing measurement in a secondary role increases the danger of accepting the claims of experiments with excessive error, this paper examines nine current quantitative small-group communication studies. Using a schema developed by J. F.…

This paper presents a historical overview of the use of action research in education and describes the basic assumptions and expectations that continue to characterize collaborative research projects today. Action research was initiated in the 1930's by Kurt Lewin and adapted by educators in the 1940's. Interest in action research declined between…

Cross-Cultural psychology refers to the collective efforts of researchers who work among people who live in different societies, with different languages and different forms of government. There are a number of benefits to the study of human behavior which can be accrued by carrying out research in various cultures, largely concerned with better…

There are a variety of ways in which the two-year or community college can be distinguished from other institutions of higher education. These differences affect the ways in which evaluation is implemented at the two-year college. One difference relates to the mission of the community college. The community college's open-door policy changes the…

Innovation includes not only the production of new technology but also its use. From the user's perspective several stages are indicated including acquiring initial awareness of the new technology, deciding about its merit, adopting, implementing and deploying, and eventually establishing routine use. This process is longitudinal, involving units…

Indicators that the prospects for meaningful curricular reform are not optimistic are developed in this paper. The first premise is that research on curricular reform has been limited in its applicability to practitioner concerns. Another dilemma in the translation of research on curricular reform for practitioners is the continuing wide gap in…

Educational research and evaluation have had less impact on policy and decision making in education than hoped for, since research and evaluation represent fundamentally different kinds of endeavor than policy and decision making do. Evaluation has more impact than research because it is a more administrative activity and is more integral to…

Linking Outcomes to Organizational Planning (LOOP) was initiated during the 1984-85 school year in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District. LOOP was designed to ensure that evaluation, research, and informal findings became part of the instructional planning loop; to provide information to the Superintendent on progress toward priorities…

The author takes the position that federal support for basic research should be increased. The suggestion is made that the National Institute of Education sponsor a mapping of fields of inquiry in education and endeavor to bring patterns of support in line with ongoing inquiry in education. Increased support for new research and new researchers in…

Recent commission and task force reports calling for significant improvements in American education are considered in this set of three papers, and methods for implementing the recommendations are suggested. In his paper, Glen Harvey reviews the reports, noting the extent to which they fail to consider change implementation research and commenting…

This paper examines how educational comparisons might be used by the educational practitioners, and how the educator can contribute to the comparativists' work. Currently, it is argued, a gap exists between comparative educational study and the theory and practice of education. This leads to three areas of need. First, professional comparativists…

An experience in attempting to transform research into practice is described, with questions raised about the relationship between research and practice. The author begins by describing the two research traditions which exerted the most force on the design of the program. How the philosophy and findings of those traditions were interpreted and…

Wheeless' trust and solidarity scales are examined under conditions of positive and negative target person. Valence of stimulus is shown to have a strong influence on the performance of the scales. The problems on Wheeless' scales were not detected in the original validation studies because of the normal validation paradigm. That paradigm…

In order for education to evolve from a craft to a profession, a spirit of inquiry must be infused into the beliefs and activities of education faculty members and practicing teachers. For faculty members in professional schools, the responsibilities of teaching, research, and service should be integrated activities for which inquiry serves as the…

Designed to help institutional researchers transform data into useful information, this paper discusses principles for presenting research results to administrators in the top levels of management. The first section describes ten fundamental principles of data presentation: knowing what information is needed; knowing when the information is…