In order to help underprepared students entering college in an open admissions program learn to write original research papers, a method was devised which relates the students' experiences in the nonacademic world to their academic assignments. Students first visit a local business, store, or institution with which they are familiar and write an…

Some scholars have publicly criticized large research universities for failing to provide undergraduate students with the skills and abilities needed to succeed both in life and in the workforce. One strategy, taken at UCLA, is to use its strength as a research institution as the foundation of curricular reform; for example, by bringing research…

The process from information to knowledge is discussed as part of the learning process students must go through to achieve a successful and effective outcome of the process. In a school situation models for the information-seeking process are too general, rational and linear to give indications for practice. Four didactic dilemmas are discussed in…

The World Wide Web provides a convenient source of databases and examples of survey resources for those who teach research methods. For example, lottery numbers as sources of data, demographic-based search engines, and surveys and their results can be found on the World Wide Web. These can stimulate discussion and lead to student analyses…

To incorporate Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" into a course on writing may be to subvert the author's purpose. Pirsig meant for his book to be read aimlessly--like a Zen experience whose goal is only realized after it is achieved. Pirsig might even object to the "teaching" of "Zen and the…

The effect of an educational administration course at Washington State University on graduate students' acquisition of research skills and knowledge base is explored in this paper. The first part discusses the need for student-conducted case studies in educational administration. The second part describes how the course provides students with…

A diversity of practices exists with regard to the actual content taught in graduate-level courses in introduction to educational research. In a recent Delphi study, a national panel of 21 experts in educational research generated a list of 114 skills and knowledge areas they considered worthy objectives in an introductory course. What remained…

A technique for teaching writing in academic English as a second language (ESL) to students bound for college-level courses focuses on one essential reading and writing skill: using multiple sources as input for writing. The program is designed for any level and consists of a series of readings and a number of questions, the answers to which…

This study assessed teacher perceptions of research use and barriers to use. Specific purposes were to: (1) assess the frequency of review of the research literature, actual practice of research, and research dissemination by teachers; (2) describe the level of teachers' training in research methods; (3) describe views of the adequacy of training…

This paper represents an initial exploration of researcher-informant relationships which develop when naturalistic researchers spend long periods of time watching and recording the details of classroom activity for which a teacher has basic responsibility. The goals of this paper are to present a discussion of the significance of…

This paper argues that more cooperation is needed between scholars and librarians. Toward this end, we need first to produce more literary scholars who are truly skilled in librarianship, and second, we need to produce more librarians who are true scholars. Some library-oriented professors give copies of their lesson plans to the reference…

Researchers working in foreign settings are often influenced by a number of factors which are quite different from factors which influence research activities in one's own culture. The hypothesis is that these cultural differences can influence research in a positive or negative way depending, at least partially, on the degree of sensitivity shown…

A research team approach was selected for an ethnographic project to identify those variables that influenced the adult beginning readers' acquisition of reading strategies and their effect on reading achievement. Weekly staff meetings focused on (1) identifying initial conceptualization and emerging foci reflected in the data, and (2) continually…

An institutional research project undertaken at Arizona State University to review the graduate curriculum in statistics and research methods is described. The research investigated the following: the needs for quantitative research skills in various degree programs; departmental requirements for research courses; the enrollment in graduate…

The effectiveness of a computer simulation model as an alternative means of teaching research methodology to students was investigated. Four sections of an introductory course on the subject were included in the study. Two were taught through the use of the simulation system, while the remaining sections were taught in the traditional lecture mode…