A study extended the work of M. Allen and R. Preiss (1990) that analyzed the issues in public speaking textbooks and the level of accuracy with which scientific information is represented. A total score analysis of 112 textbooks showed no significant improvement in the accuracy of textbooks over time or with new editions. Findings of the…

In an era of ever-shrinking dollars for education and especially for educational research, one must ask the question, "Does the proposed research add value to agricultural education?" Although it may not be possible to answer the question completely, a framework can be developed within which the answer can be pondered. Researchers,…

Emotional intelligence has been defined as "the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions" (P. Salovey and J. Mayer, 1990). As a subset of social intelligence and of personal intelligences (H. Gardner, 1983), emotional…

If they are to develop more effective social intervention strategies, social scientists must pay attention to social causality in their research. This will lead to more credibility for the social sciences and more support for research funds. Social causality is defined as a social process that produces a change in some dependent variable. It…

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…

A study conducted in 1987 focused on the extent to which a graduate introductory educational research course was helpful to the students who had taken it. Responses from 340 former students indicated that they had been able to utilize in their jobs basic skills developed in the course. The purpose of the present study, which focuses on those 340…

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…

Prior to 1961, the cost and inflexibility of colorcasting commercials and the limited number of color television sets in the United States had deterred advertisers from switching to color commercials. From 1961 to 1967, however, color's popularity grew significantly. It was hypothesized that, because research on television color effectiveness…

The Lindeman Center for Community Empowerment at Northern Illinois University is seeking to relate its resources to the "invisible poor." The Center works with minority and other poor communities and groups in Chicago to strengthen and support them in their self-help efforts. One of the tools for empowerment that the Center is using is…

To examine programs currently in place, an evaluation model was designed to insure inclusion of all those who have a stake in program performance. The evaluation design includes: (1) a set of researchable questions which are to be answered by the evaluation, each question referenced to one or more appropriate audiences; (2) for each question, the…

A five-page questionnaire was mailed to 709 persons on the subscriber list of the "Newspaper Research Journal" to determine if a problem existed between academic journalism researchers and practitioner consumers of the research. The questionnaire was constructed to measure the usefulness of various sources of information to the…

On the premise that legal research in mass communication should be scientific and grounded in theory based upon available knowledge about how the world works, it is argued in this paper that the research paradigm used by most communication-law scholars is inadequate. In the first section of the paper the current, "institution-centered"…

Emerging educational needs in the interdependent world of the Information Age are explored. The current global human predicament in the historical context of the evolution of human systems is examined. A description is given of a systems view of the current evolutionary stage and the new educational needs of the Information Age that can be derived…

This paper describes "currere", a method of critical reflection upon educational experience devised by William Pinar and Madeleine Grumet. In teacher education, this autobiographical method is employed to reveal how the classroom situation is determined by the kinds of questions asked of it. The methodology is related to dominant themes…