Individuals engage in media behavior several times daily. If a medium is actually used, that decision is one of a series of points which constitute a media behavior unit. The media behavior unit is used in several ways. First, by looking at particular attributes, researchers can determine whether an individual is consistent in medium…

Notes weaknesses in current writing theory as it fails to deal with the affective domains--emotion, memory, motivation, and value. Recommends that future studies should try to make knowledge of the affective processes clear and useful to teachers and students. (NH)

Robert Burns wrote: "The best laid schemes of Mice and Men oft go awry". This could be considered the motto of most educational innovation. The question that arises is not so much why some innovations fail (although this is very important question), but rather why other innovations succeed? This study investigated the success factors of…

This paper aims to show how its author/researchers were brought to reconsider some of the assumptions behind a small arc project that was being conducted on the professional development of student teachers in Australia. A small group of English Method students were invited to participate in three focus group interviews: before their first teaching…

Noting that teachers' research is found in personal journals, professional conversations, computer networking, formal research studies, and publications or presentations, this paper answers, in outline form, a series of questions on the expanding role for special needs educators. These questions are: what "teacher as researcher" means;…

A study examined 20 years of research represented in the National Reading Conference (NRC) Yearbooks with the purpose of creating an NRC Yearbook database. The study analyzed overall trends in research topics and paradigms used by individuals whose work was reported in the NRC Yearbook between 1975-1995. The analysis was guided by the following…

Describes potential anthropological contributions to two components of nutrition education research: (1) the study of dieting behavior (food habits), and (2) the evaluation of nutrition education activities. (DS)

Reviews, from an anthropological viewpoint, the concept that food is more than nutrients. Discusses human food-related behavior in the context of a great length of time and describes traditional dietary patterns as behavioral adaptations. (DS)

Background: Teacher education programs in the State of California are increasingly held accountable for the assessment of teacher candidates' competencies and performance. One salient assessment tool is the utilization of portfolios in teacher education programs (Wolf, 1989; 1991). Among the newest and most innovative templates of portfolios in…

This paper presents aspects of a study in progress on the legitimate function of fiction in research. A section on methodology describes how the study started with a project of narratives written in response to the black and white photographs of one of the collaborators. Analysis of the response process revealed a connection between fiction and…

These three papers are from a symposium that was facilitated by R. Wayne Pace at the 1995 conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development (HRD). "High Performance Work Systems" (Martha A. Gephart) assesses the state of theory and research on high performance work from a "systems" perspective and identifies challenges…

This review critiques the use of Lev Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) in quantitative research that focuses on the role communication plays in learning. A study that makes claims in terms of the ZPD should include a pretest, a problem-solving activity, and a posttest. Without these minimal elements, researchers are not…

Since the inaugural meeting of the Southeastern Association of Community College Research in 1975, the research conducted at community colleges, as well as the issues facing researchers, have remained fairly constant. Research has been consistently understaffed and the themes of research have tended to focus on relating student progress to…

The most effective activity for teaching communication research students the nature of the social science research process is to provide students with the opportunity to conduct an actual research study. Such an experience promotes and emphasizes active, rather than passive, learning; students finish the class with a strong understanding of the…

An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) is done to correct for chance differences that occur when subjects are assigned randomly to treatment groups. When properly used, this correction results in adjustment of the group means for pre-existing differences caused by sampling error and reduction of the size of the error variance of the analysis. The…