Issues concerning the collection and uses of data about college student retention are considered. Some of the documented findings about student retention in U.S. colleges is summarized, with attention to both national data and data for colleges belonging to the United Negro College Fund. Difficulties in obtaining useful retention data are…

A study conducted in 1987 focused on the extent to which a graduate introductory educational research course was helpful to the students who had taken it. Responses from 340 former students indicated that they had been able to utilize in their jobs basic skills developed in the course. The purpose of the present study, which focuses on those 340…

Innovation includes not only the production of new technology but also its use. From the user's perspective several stages are indicated including acquiring initial awareness of the new technology, deciding about its merit, adopting, implementing and deploying, and eventually establishing routine use. This process is longitudinal, involving units…

Prior to 1961, the cost and inflexibility of colorcasting commercials and the limited number of color television sets in the United States had deterred advertisers from switching to color commercials. From 1961 to 1967, however, color's popularity grew significantly. It was hypothesized that, because research on television color effectiveness…

The report reviews results of a project to examine pilot approaches to documenting the contributions of research in improving educational practice. The project abstracted 110 currently funded research projects in progress (to facilitate dissemination to the field), processed final reports of field-initiated and student-initiated research funded by…

This issue of FEEDBACK, a newsletter produced by the the Austin Independent School District Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE), illustrates the accuracy, validity, and fairness of ORE reports. The independence of the reports is explained. Internal and external quality controls are used to ensure reliability and accuracy of the reports.…

The Lindeman Center for Community Empowerment at Northern Illinois University is seeking to relate its resources to the "invisible poor." The Center works with minority and other poor communities and groups in Chicago to strengthen and support them in their self-help efforts. One of the tools for empowerment that the Center is using is…

The papers in this monograph are grouped by the five session topics of the Using Research Group meetings. Perspectives on Using Research was first, with papers on research and the teaching job (Romberg), utility (Wheeler), review and dissemination (Dessart), preparing materials (Jurdak), and the teacher's view (Williams). The second session was on…

The principal focus of this brief report is on findings and observations from relatively recent research on the learning of mathematics. The distinction between learning and the concepts of curriculum and instruction is first reviewed. Then Piaget's theory of intellectual development is discussed, with the conclusion that it does not provide a…

To examine programs currently in place, an evaluation model was designed to insure inclusion of all those who have a stake in program performance. The evaluation design includes: (1) a set of researchable questions which are to be answered by the evaluation, each question referenced to one or more appropriate audiences; (2) for each question, the…

A five-page questionnaire was mailed to 709 persons on the subscriber list of the "Newspaper Research Journal" to determine if a problem existed between academic journalism researchers and practitioner consumers of the research. The questionnaire was constructed to measure the usefulness of various sources of information to the…

On the premise that legal research in mass communication should be scientific and grounded in theory based upon available knowledge about how the world works, it is argued in this paper that the research paradigm used by most communication-law scholars is inadequate. In the first section of the paper the current, "institution-centered"…

Emerging educational needs in the interdependent world of the Information Age are explored. The current global human predicament in the historical context of the evolution of human systems is examined. A description is given of a systems view of the current evolutionary stage and the new educational needs of the Information Age that can be derived…

Papers from the eighth annual meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group are presented, beginning with a lecture by Alan Bishop on "The Social Construction of Meaning--A Significant Development for Mathematics Education." Also included are reports of four working groups: "LOGO and the Mathematics Curriculum"…

A critique of research objectives and funding patterns of the National Institute of Education, as well as recommendations for change, with special reference to the needs of minority groups and the Puerto Rican community. (EH)