A comparison of 142 public administration doctoral dissertations from 1981 with 165 from 1990 found that the latter showed substantial improvement in quality based on 6 criteria (purpose, design, theory testing, causation, important topic, and cutting edge). Little improvement was found in selection of topics. (SK)

This paper describes our experience of managing a two-year research project that involved University staff from two different disciplines and three industry partners. It describes the benefits we gained from the involvement of multiple parties, such as the ability to call upon diverse expertise, the capacity to study a complex issue and the…

The challenges involved in the design of ethical, nonexploitative research projects with sex workers or any other marginalized population are significant. First, the size and boundaries of the population are unknown, making it extremely difficult to get a representative sample. Second, because membership in hidden populations often involves…

The purpose of this article is to provide direction to those entertaining a developmental research project. There are two categories of developmental research, both of which are examined here. The two types vary in terms of the extent to which the conclusions resulting from the research are generalizable or contextually specific. This article…

Which factors promote student transfer from California Community Colleges (CCC) to baccalaureate-granting institutions? How do community college practices support this transition? Which student behaviors and characteristics particularly facilitate their movement to four-year colleges and universities? The Research and Planning Group for California…

Research in Indigenous Australian education is at a dead-end. Researchers are still heading out into the field to look for new knowledge to answer old questions. The same epistemology dominates how we look, and where, while the methodology provides the researcher with a forced choice, one where either the student or the teacher is blamed for the…

The Delphi method is an attractive method for graduate students completing masters and PhD level research. It is a flexible research technique that has been successfully used in our program at the University of Calgary to explore new concepts within and outside of the information systems body of knowledge. The Delphi method is an iterative process…

In this article we explore the concept of quality in teacher action research by re-examining our participation with science teachers in several different collaborative action research projects. We conducted second-order action research and generated a series reflexive conditions for promoting and ensuring quality action research. We assert that a…

The decision to organize English 112 courses around a research project entitled "A Survey of the Freshman Composition Requirement at Richmond Area Colleges and Universities" resulted from concerns as the fall of 1993 approached. English 112 emphasizes the study of literature and the production of a research paper that presents an…

This study examines the modification of smoking behavior resulting from smoking on command of a tape-recorded message. Neither paced groups nor the self-paced control group significantly differed in reductions in smoking at six-month follow-up. Cognitive dissonance is suggested in explanation of initial smoking reductions for self-paced subjects.…

Criticizes studies of egocentric development in children using cutaneous perception procedures. Also questions study contribution to the understanding of the development of decentering. (Author/SDH)

This manual discusses major differences between academic and commercial educational research (CER) and provides suggestions to help researchers who want to conduct CER. The paper is based on the experiences of the TAFE National Center for Research and Development Ltd in Leabrook (Australia). Focus is on describing how to apply for grants and how…

TRAINING RESOURCES FOR YOUTH, INC. (PROJECT TRY) WAS DESIGNED TO PROVIDE A COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH 600 17-21 YEAR OLD MALES IN THE BEDFORD-STUYVESANT AREA OF BROOKLYN COULD LEARN VOCATIONAL, PERSONAL, AND SOCIAL SKILLS. SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH TECHNIQUES WERE USED TO PRODUCE POSITIVE CHANGES IN ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS OF…

In order to discover the attitudes, wants, and needs of rural youth as perceived by young people from ages 16-23, a survey was designed by Elmo Roper and Associates. The rural population was defined as people who live in towns of less than 2500 or open country which falls outside the "unknown fringe" defined by the Bureau of the Census. In…

The study of PASS 2 (program analysis of service systems) had two aims: to investigate the internal statistical properties of the evaluation instrument and to compare the relative quality (as measured by PASS 2) of services to the mentally retarded delivered in community versus institutional settings, to different age groups, in several human…