It is important to be able to describe instructional practices accurately in order to support research on "what works" in education and professional development as a basis for efforts to improve practice. This report describes a project to develop procedures for characterizing classroom practices in mathematics and science on the …

The use of fieldwork in evaluation presents the fieldworker and agencies connected with educational evaluation with a number of critical problems. Four of these problems are identified and discussed: 1) definition of the "problem"; 2) multiplicity of signals, expectations, and responses; 3) dispensation of fieldwork data; and 4) collection of data…

The "CSE Program Evaluation Kit" is a series of nine books intended to assist people conducting program evaluations. This volume, the fourth in the kit, explains the basic assumptions underlying qualitative procedures, suggests evaluation situations where qualitative designs are useful, and provides guidelines for designing qualitative…

This paper outlines some of the interview approaches and observational techniques that social scientists use in field study. Discussed are scheduled interviews, open-ended interviews, the delphi technique, participant observation, process observation, and lurking. (Author/AV)

In the conduct of field studies, there are three different points at which data may be collected unobtrusively. The first is when there is a "search" for an area of study. The second point in which data may be gathered unobtrusively is when the researcher is attempting to further the analysis. The third point in which data are collected…

Noting the increasing interest in qualitative research in general and ethnographic research in particular, the authors of this report clarify the place of the latter within the former. The authors present six criteria for an ethnographic approach to education, illustrated with examples, and discuss ethnography's advantages and disadvantages. The…

IN A SOCIAL SCIENCE FIELD RESEARCH PROJECT 80 YOUTH IN THE BEDFORD-STUYVESANT AREA OF BROOKLYN WILL BE TRAINED TO GATHER DATA ABOUT THEIR COMMUNITY AND WILL BE TAUGHT TO CODE AND EVALUATE THEIR FINDINGS. FOLLOWING THE COMPLETION OF THE COMMUNITY SURVEY, ONE-HALF OF THE TRAINEES WILL CONTINUE IN A 6-MONTH TRAINING PROGRAM IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION,…

Examines problems of field research conducted by female researchers in policy settings. Proposes ways to manage role, entree and access, data gathering, reciprocity, and reporting. Raises issue of male-female dynamics in field research, and suggests appropriate roles for female researchers in policy settings. (Author/KH)

Three problems which arise in the analysis of data from natural classroom settings are examined. The effects of the use of different statistical procedures are illustrated with data derived from the 1969 Home Environment and School Study in Canberra. (Author/MLW)

In contrast to Bogdan's approach (outlined in a preceding article), which considers fieldwork to be a research method, this author views ethnographic fieldwork as a paradigm. His graduate course in fieldwork concentrates on interpretation and stresses the quality, quantity, and intimacy of human relationships between observers and their subjects.…

A major problem in social science research is that of successfully carrying out the random assignment of persons to experimental and control groups. In this study a computer-based random assignment procedure operated successfully on a weekly basis for 17 consecutive weeks in a program serving over 360 ex-offenders. (CTM)

The microcomputer offers social science field researchers a valuable tool for managing qualitative research data. In addition to the flexibility and efficiency of the microcomputer, the logic governing its programming and operation imposes a framework on the research process which necessitates that research decisions and strategies be explicit and…

The Michigan Department of Education conducts an annual follow-up survey to determine the employment and continuing educational status of students who have graduated or withdrawn from its secondary vocational education programs. This standard survey form was modified by presenting a range of values and increasing the question length to improve the…

This paper attempts to provide evaluators, administrators, and policy makers with the advantages of and methodology of merging formative and summative data to enhance summative evaluations. It draws on RMC Research Corporation's 1980-81 California Statewide Evaluation of Migrant Education. The concern that evaluations typically fail to obtain the…

This field studies manual, developed by biology students in the 1971 Georgia Governor's Honors Program, was designed for collection of data pertinent to freshwater and estuarine habitats. In addition to the various methods of sampling the ecosystem and for quantification of the data, instructions for dividing the field study into three logical…