This manual, which is intended for vocational education and training (VET) providers, does the following: explains fundamental market research concepts; highlights situations where market research can help VET providers with their planning and policy development; and illustrates the uses of market research in VET institutions. The following topics…

The 11 papers in this volume were presented at the 1996 American Statistical Association (ASA) meeting in Chicago (Illinois), August 4 through 8. This is the fourth collection of ASA papers of particular interest to users of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) survey data published in the "Working Papers" series. The…

This book includes: a theoretical summary of the various facets of motivation, an examination of how the theoretical insights can help classroom practitioners in their everyday teaching practice and practical recommendations on how motivation can be researched and assessed. The following chapters are included: "Main Challenges of Motivation…

Until the past decade or two, educational administration has been notably laggard in attacking its problems by methods approximating the scientific. Tradition, sentiment, rule of thumb, temporizing compromise--these have been, and unfortunately still are, the dominant methods in this important field of human enterprise. One of the largest problems…

A survey of 43 Texas community college libraries reveals that although 90 percent of these colleges have a developmental education program, less than 28 percent provide large number of library services to such programs, and particularly lack bilingual handbooks and special library instruction for developmental students. Twenty-two references are…

This paper describes the task analysis of performance-based science tasks that were designed for the 1994 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) science assessment, now postponed until 1996, and field tested in 1993. A brief description of the science performance tasks is followed by a description of the task analyses performed and a…

The perceived self-efficacy concept plays a significant role in predicting human performance in several areas of human effort, but self-efficacy theory has seldom been applied in the fields of adult literacy and English as a second language (ESL). This study designed a questionnaire for adult literacy and ESL learners to assess their self-efficacy…

Institutional research has long relied on surveys to learn about student experiences. This study describes and evaluates two methods of using electronic mail to gather information from students about their experiences. Data were based on two case studies conducted during spring 1996 and fall 1997 at a 5,000-student state university. The report…

This paper discusses the development of a Cultural Anxiety Scale (CAS) for Chinese students studying in the United States. One hundred items were developed using the anxiety research literature, a survey of research on stress and anxiety among college students, and Chinese cross-cultural studies. Face, construct, and content validity analysis were…

This study attempted to develop a reliable and valid instrument for assessing work environment and continuous quality improvement efforts in the non-academic sectors of colleges and universities particularly those institutions who have adopted Total Quality Management programs. A model of a work environment for continuous quality improvement was…

The effects of prenotification, ink color, and return deadline on sincerity and rates of response to mailed questionnaires concerning desirable characteristics of teachers were investigated in Thailand. Questionnaires were mailed to 800 public secondary school teachers in Bangkok. Some teachers received prenotification of the survey by mail, while…

Nonresponse issues are investigated for the base year (1988) survey of the United States Department of Education's National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), a national probability sample of middle schools and eighth-grade students in the spring of 1988. The total eighth-grade enrollment for the NELS:88 sample of schools was 203,002;…

A framework is described for preparing process profiles of two different surveys conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES): the Recent College Graduates Survey and the Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) Fall Enrollment Survey. The process profile examines the adequacy of the entire survey process, using…

This study investigated the effects of medium of instruction, task difficulty, and gender on continuing motivation. A total of 139 fifth and sixth graders with previous computer experience completed an initial learning task in one of the two media formats (computer or paper/pencil) and under either a hard or easy difficulty level. Students' choice…

This document contains a collection of literacy program evaluation instruments from developing countries, as well as several papers describing how to use evaluation instruments to assess various types of systems. The following titles (with author or country of origin) are contained in this collection: "Designing a System of Evaluation and…