A rejoinder to Anton E. Lawson's criticisms of a previously published review article by the authors on Piagetian research is offered. (PN)

Discusses the nature, scope, and significance of basic philosophical issues in the preparation of researchers, focusing on two assertions: (1) that the curriculum for preparing educational researchers continues to be dominated by logical empiricism; and (2) that research education places a disproportionate emphasis on technical methods and…

While traditional literature reviews have functioned to clarify a single field, the interpretive review may contribute to research that challenges the perceptual habits of reviewers and extends the ways in which research questions can be constructed and studied. The interpretive review may bring many disciplines together for a new approach to the…

Explores the purposes of reviews of educational literature in the context of contemporary educational theories. A review, whether explicitly seen as interpretive or not, represents a form of technical knowledge appropriate to a particular conception of education as technical, effective action. (SLD)

The author argues that Fagley's and Miller's criticisms of his Contexts Pyramid Model of Classroom Writing Competence (TM 510 548) reflect a misunderstanding of the purposes and the assumptions underlying the model. (BS)

Sections of this paper are: basic framework for the review; fundamentals of choosing contrasts in multivariate analysis of variance; principles and procedures for orthogonal and in nonorthogonal MANOVA; general problems and principles in the analysis of multivariate dependent variables. References. (Author/VW)

This article elaborates on the misrepresentations in Nagy and Griffiths' review of Piagetian research (EJ 275 527). The limitations of their treatment of important methodological and theoretical issues is discussed. (Author/PN)

Introduces a set of companion essays that examine reviews as a mode of inquiry. Explores the practice and outcomes of reviews in their political and conceptual contexts as research methodology and considers what a review is, what it reveals, who benefits from a review, and the actions implied by review findings. (SLD)

Eight studies that explored the effects of vocabulary instruction on subsequent reading comprehension found an increase in work knowledge but only a few studies reported any reading comprehension improvement. Methodological and instructional differences across studies are examined in an attempt to account for the different results. (Author/PN)

Arguments supporting the use of the exploratory case method in evaluating reviews of multivocal literature are repeated, and points of general agreement with M. Q. Patton and R. F. Elmore are reviewed. Disagreement is expressed with R. K. Yin about the value of grounded theory in analyzing multivocal literature. (SLD)

Empirical research examining the social competence and affective functioning of children with mild disabilities was reviewed. Findings are interpreted in terms of social comparison theory, and methodological issues that should be addressed in considering social competence and affective characteristics of children with mild disabilities are…

A comprehensive review of the debate over the inclusion of children with disabilities in educational programs needs to explore research and issues beyond those considered by F. Gresham and D. MacMillan. Some of those issues are reviewed, focusing on a shift away from the medical deficit model. (SLD)

Missing data analyses have received considerable recent attention in the methodological literature, and two "modern" methods, multiple imputation and maximum likelihood estimation, are recommended. The goals of this article are to (a) provide an overview of missing-data theory, maximum likelihood estimation, and multiple imputation; (b) conduct a…

In this rejoinder, R. Slavin responds to a broad range of technical and philosophical issues about his use of best-evidence synthesis to research the effectiveness of mastery learning. (RB)