Communication scholars should be skilled in the use of focus groups in communication research and in interpreting the data this approach generates. The focus group is a discussion group that concentrates on a particular topic or topics and typically consists of eight to 12 participants. The group is facilitated by a moderator who follows a…

Speech communication workers have been reluctant to use physiological variables in their work. The arguments against their use have ranged from a fear of invading the realm of the psychologist or physiologist, thereby damaging the uniqueness and disciplinary identity of speech communication, to a feeling by certain scholars that the appropriate…

An ex post facto study involving a survey of exceptionally good and exceptionally problematic principals of Ohio secondary schools was undertaken to assess a method of obtaining a high response rate. The sample included 50 subjects (31 principals of good schools and 19 principals of problem schools), representing 7% of the 720 secondary schools in…

Three general approaches are available to help discipline the use of qualitative methods in educational research without sacrificing subjective understanding, according to this paper. The most private, least confirmable, yet richest approach is the intuitive, which depends on the researcher's thorough immersion in the field setting and…

The document describes the use of weather maps and data in teaching introductory college courses in synoptic meteorology. Students examine weather changes at three-hour intervals from data obtained from the "Monthly Summary of Local Climatological Data." Weather variables in the local summary include sky cover, air temperature, dew point, relative…

A maximum likelihood estimation procedure is developed for the simple and the weighted additive models. The data are assumed to be taken by either one of the following methods: (1) categorical ratings--the subject is asked to rate a set of stimuli with respect to an attribute of the stimuli on rating scales with a relatively few observation…

A method and apparatus for collecting and interpreting eye movement data is described that is both relatively inexpensive and portable. The study lists and describes hardware and software components of a data collection and data analysis system which provides precise information regarding the location, duration, and sequence of eye fixations while…

Cultural anthropology's methods of "emic" and "etic" analysis have potential applications in the theory, research, and practice of educational administration. In "emic" analysis the native informant is made the ultimate judge of the researcher's descriptions and analyses. In "etic" analysis, however, the…

A successful program to improve personnel attendance has reduced sick leave in 40 New Jersey school districts without increasing dismissals, grievances, or costs. The author describes the five steps in this Attendance Improvement Program (AIP), including (1) analysis of data on staff absences due to illness; (2) preparation of operating guidelines…

The paper describes a data collection system useful for monitoring the progress of severely and profoundly retarded clients. Three studies are reviewed which utilized data based systems: a staff injury prevention program with eight employees, a program which taught instruction following skills to 59 severely and profoundly retarded adults, and a…

The data reported here were gathered in three ethnographic studies in different research settings: a single school, school district, and research center/school district team. These longitudinal studies incorporated the use of ethnography for purposes of collecting data about classroom teachers, principals, staff developers, central office…

Important to the cost analysis process is prior consideration and precise description of the scope of the activity and the tasks to be included so that proper methodology can be applied and the data can be collected with consistency and accuracy. The preparatory steps involved in doing a cost study, particularly in the area of cataloging in a…

This paper concerns the construction of a bibliography of written materials about Aboriginal science and technology drawn from books, theses, dissertations, scientific and non-scientific journals, conference papers and newspapers etc: in fact, articles about the science and technology that relate in some way to Aborigines, from whatever source,…

Large-scale surveys of educational attainment gather data about the proficiencies of a sample of students to support inferences about the distribution in the populations. Several approaches to gathering data have been used, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Several scales have also been used to bring results together from different…

Although multi-institutional data are more available than ever, researchers still face daunting hurdles when collecting data from multiple institutions. These hurdles are particularly high for stand-alone projects. This paper makes the case that, despite the difficulties, results from multi-institution research benefit both participating colleges…