A framework for understanding methodological practices from the perspectives of internal validity, external validity, statistical control validity, and construct validity is presented. One hundred doctoral dissertations completed between 1980 and 1988 at a single urban public university were analyzed for various methodological practices and types…

The present study aimed at investigating learners' beliefs about different learning activities and the degree of discrepancy between learners' preferences and instructors' awareness of those preferences in foreign language learning. The study involved 603 EFL students majoring in different fields who responded to a questionnaire on their preferred…

A comprehensive description--at the national level--of those who applied for admission to the 1976-77 freshmen class of U.S. medical schools is given in this report. In order to relate this 1976-77 applicant cohort (and those accepted from it) to certain social trends in medical education and to continue monitoring changes in the size of applicant…

Dramatic accounts of adolescent turmoil may confuse psychopathology with normal development if derived from the study of clinical populations. To compare the development of normal adolescents, 108 students aged 17-22 from the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Western Samoa were studied. Results of three different personality measures…

Through a series of four successfully field-tested activities, secondary students examine the changing age structure of the U.S. population and consider some of the implications for the future as the proportion of elders increases and the proportion of youth declines. In the first activity "Age/Sex Pyramids," students use population…

Educational planners are concerned with the inflow of pupils in order to plan for adequate facilities and sufficient teachers. Statistics on repeaters, however, enable the determination of the flow of pupils through and from the educational system. Since repeaters cost educational systems double in the form of expenses for teachers and equipment,…

A reporting and study format for the investigation of university student retention is presented. Student progression and loss is shown graphically and in tabular form to enable ready comprehension and encourage data exploration. Data obtained at Virginia Commonwealth University for 1977-80 are used as illustration. Two ways of viewing student…

This first year report of a life span analysis of rural Kansas children's mental and social development focuses on the children's cognitive development and the effect of family attitudes and child caring patterns on the children's development. The subjects, 62 rural children aged 3, 6, and 9 years, are to be interviewed annually. Initial analysis…

Enrollment projections for use in long-range planning for Texas higher education have been updated through the use of alternative methodologies to realistically reflect changing patterns of college enrollment among various age groups and geographic areas of the state. The new forecast predicts an overall gain of l6.9 percent in the state's…

This study examined selected characteristics of 1,682 students who withdrew from Los Angeles City College during the spring semesters of 1973, 1974, 1975, and 1976, and compared them to the characteristics of the spring 1976 total day student population. About 68% of the withdrawees were of non-Caucasian background, compared with a non-Caucasian…

A state-wide study of transfer students moving from two-year to four-year colleges in 1974 was conducted in order to describe the extent to which the New Jersey County Colleges were serving as the entry point for students seeking a baccalaureate degree, to enhance the understanding of the impact of two-year college transfer students on the…

Reports on a longitudinal study conducted by the Ohio Sea Grant Education Program. Indicates that over the four-year period, an increase of over 10 percent was noted in knowledge scores whereas attitudes did not commensurately change. States that information considered critical to responsible decision making may still be lacking. (RT)

Research on intergenerational learning includes a range of studies that focus on the transmission of beliefs and practices and modeling of behaviors from generation to generation. This critical review focuses on the broader issues in intergenerational learning and the multiple, though small, streams of work that examine the impact of fathers'…

Graduates of Boston University's accelerated Six-Year College of Liberal Arts-Medical Education Combined Degree Program are compared with their eight-year classmates. The results indicate that the six-year group achieved higher scores on standardized tests but that both groups were remarkably similar in other aspects, and that the liberal arts…

There has been a growing emphasis within educational literature on the need to encourage all learners to think critically about whatever they are studying. There were concerns that this aim was not being achieved in a degree program for VET tutors. One purpose of the study was to quantify the extent of critical thinking in one cohort of VET…