This chapter serves as a guide for quantitative researchers who seek to approach their research questions critically.

Examines relevant case law regarding confidentiality in educational research. Argues that the benefits to society of educational research and the notion of academic freedom provide a rationale for extension of limited legal privilege of confidentiality to educational researchers. Proposes a code defining the nature and extent of research…

If research is to be truly integrated throughout the entire spectrum of nursing education, then graduate education must use the resources and potentials of nurse researchers more productively and more constructively. (Author)

The term "problem" has been poorly defined in the literature on the research process. The author has attempted to define the term more specifically than as an instance of indeterminacy. It can be determined as one of four instances of indeterminacy: anomaly, unverified facts, uncharted areas, or conflicting evidence. In each of these…

Suggests an R&D process which has demonstrated its utility as a means of allowing researchers to communicate more effectively with both users and administrators (or funders). (Author/DAG)

Describes the experience of being a researcher in mathematics classrooms. Offers background-research information and describes the research context. Presents a series of episodes to stimulate reflections. Contains 12 references. (ASK)

Explores the nature, origins, and purposes of collaborative research in early childhood, and identifies the challenges that arise in conducting such research. Discusses how other articles in this issue illustrate diverse approaches to collaboration and provide examples of how challenges are dealt with in practice. Notes that equality between…

Using a personal anecdotal style, this paper describes ethical conflicts that occurred during a study conducted in a kindergarten classroom in which the researcher was a passive observer. The paper is framed around an incident observed by the researcher in which a kindergarten student was stigmatized as an outsider and mistreated by his peer…

This analysis defines the current crisis as not unique but developing over the past 3 or 4 decades. The individual elements of the crisis, its sources, potential magnitude and consequences, are integrated into a comprehensive view of the future of higher education research sectors. (Author/PG)

Suggests that societal change occurs more rapidly than dependable developmental research findings emerge. The research establishment in developmental psychology is examined to determine aspects which affect the ability of the system to produce better results faster. (BRT)

This paper describes an incident between an academic researcher and a community member. The encounter, in which a researcher asked questions about farming practices, shows how cultural misunderstanding and failure to communicate the gains of research to the community has the potential to generate distorted information. The academic researcher has…

Discusses methodological problems involving use of MMPI by reviewing past literature. MMPI is so easily used that it is sometimes misapplied or data obtained from it are incorrectly analyzed by researchers unfamiliar with its limitations or peculiarities. Suggestions for improving research design are made. (Author/BEF)

As a result of rejection by personnel psychologists of the erroneous law of small numbers and of the adoption of correct inferential procedures, the future of criterion-related validity promises to be bright. Probable future developments include widespread appreciation of the low statistical power characteristic of small samples. (Author)

This article describes some of the problems in the areas of ethics, rapport and understanding which confront researchers when they assume the role of a friend in observing and interacting with children. (EB)

Argues that "successful" social science requires development of a social ethic or sense of research responsibility, and suggests that an individualistic orientation is ineffective in coping with the unintended consequences of social research. Available from: Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Box 211, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, single copies…