A research study comparing vocational success of proprietary schools and public community college graduates, serves to demonstrate the distortion of research findings when those findings are contrary to the expectations of special interest groups and its effect on public policy. (KE)

This report on attracting and retaining teachers presents highlights of two major categories of research studies on the topic. The first are the findings of Schlechy, Vance, and Weaver on the characteristics of the teacher workforce. The research findings are abstracted and policy recommendations are included. The second group is comprised of…

John Dewey's vision of communication posits an important ideal that educational researchers are hard pressed to meet, for the language that facilitates exchanges between scholars often encumbers their attempts to convey their work and findings to a wider, lay audience. The canons of inquiry (of foremost concern to researchers) rarely coincide with…

This paper describes the use of educational research and development resources by practitioners within the National Education Association's Mastery in Learning Project (MIL), a 5-year national second wave reform effort. Four research questions were addressed: (1) What are practitioners' information needs over time in the context of research-based…

The potential overlap of teaching and scholarship (research) in mathematics education is described. It is suggested that educational or content research results can play an important role in an undergraduate methods course for elementary mathematics. The typical student is a prospective elementary school teacher, usually with a minimal background…

This digest highlights features of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), explains how to use the system most effectively, and offers suggestions on how teacher education faculty can present and use the ERIC system to supplement classroom instruction. Following a description of how resources in ERIC can be helpful to teachers and…

This document contains six papers from the ninth World Conference of Therapeutic Communities that highlight research on therapeutic communities (TC) and discuss how to apply research findings in practical ways. Papers include: (1) "TC Research: Overview & Implications" (George De Leon); (2) "Emerging Cross-Cultural TC…

For many practitioners, reading about or doing research is not seen as a viable means by which to learn about human behavior. In reaction to the non-utility view of research, a number of writers have questioned the validity of the scientist-practitioner model, or reinterpreted the model, or asked psychologists to reconsider the philosophy of…

Three factors are considered that contribute to the perception that the higher education research effort has done a poor job in dealing with problems confronting academe. The first factor is the magnitude of the higher education enterprise and the number of problems and issues inherent in it. The second factor is the level of support for research,…

The development of an effective educational system in Poland in the postwar years was based solidly on educational research. This study identifies the major research agencies operating in Poland and spells out their basic missions, then explains how educational research is organized systematically through government planning. The impact of this…

Four specific purposes were addressed in this study: (1) to identify models of classroom management and instructional management used by effective and less effective teachers; (2) to compare and contrast these models; (3) to compare and contrast a normative model of classroom management used in management training workshops with the models…

To investigate whether researchers are developing empirically-based public relations research efforts, and whether such efforts could be considered useful to public relations practitioners, a study conducted a content analysis of all articles published in "Public Relations Review" from 1977 through 1987. Articles (196 were coded in all)…

The adequate way to discuss problems of vocational education more generally is that taken by Resnick (1987). She feels that the relationship between general and vocational education, and their respective and common aims, problems, and restrictions, must be outlined primarily substantially and not only organizationally. Resnick tries to combine the…

Literature on evaluating the communication skills of teachers is briefly reviewed in this paper. Topics under consideration include how different states evaluate communication, how communication should be evaluated, whether or not state assessments reflect current research on teacher assessment, and how useful is the attempt to assess…

A study examined the situation-specific program development strategies used in 47 different settings in the southwestern United States from January 1987 to January 1988. Specialized and elite interviews were administered to program developers to identify the approaches that are being used and to determine how they relate to the approaches…