William Asher

Perceptions of Document Quality and Use by Educational Decision Makers and Researchers

One hundred and two documents containing empirical research were selected from the 1971 entries in the Research in Education (RIE) dissemination service of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC). These reports were presented to a group of Educational Research Specialists and to a group of Educational Decision Makers for an assessment of their quality. The Decision Makers perceived the reports to be of significantly higher quality than did the Research Specialists. The two groups gave divergent reasons for acceptance or rejection of a report.

The role of statistics in research.

AbstractAt present, too many research results in education are blatantly described as significant, when they are in fact trivially small and unimportant. There are several things researchers can do to minimize the importance of statistical significance testing and get articles published without using these tests. First, they can insert statistically in front of significant in research reports. Second, results can be interpreted before p values are reported. Third, effect sizes can be reported along with measures of sampling error. Fourth, replication can be built into the design. The touting of insignificant results as significant because they are statistically significant is not likely to change until researchers break the stranglehold that statistical significance testing has on journal editors.

Conducting Research with Meta-Analysis: A New Direction for Gifted Education:

Developing and validating new theories in gifted education is often limited by two factors: imprecise measurement and small numbers of subjects. The author asserts that the meta-analysis procedure offers gifted educators and researchers an opportunity to overcome these obstacles. He reviews the technique, responds to critiques of meta-analysis, and presents current research employing this procedure.

COMMENT ON 'THREE ASPECTS OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

In Exp. 2 of Sieglers 1976 study a faulty quasi-experimental design was used. The stated results, that older and younger children with apparently equal initial performance derived different benefits from identical experience, can also be explained by a confounding with regression toward the mean. These effects are a result of a selective matching of subjects from two age groups on a fallible variable correlated with age.

Meta-analysis and Gifted Education

This article discusses meta-analysis in the context of research in gifted education. It provides the rationale for encouraging meta-analytic reviews, rather than narrative reviews, to synthesize the research in a given area. The article summarizes the results of reported meta-analyses retrieved from electronic databases and provides guidelines for conducting a meta-analysis and suggested resources for additional information.

Methodological Weaknesses in an Evaluation of Open Education.

An evaluation of open education was shown to produce misleading results due to probable regression phenomena. This was a result of selective matching of unequal groups operating to bias results against open education. The degrees of freedom for matched data were also reported incorrectly. The questionable results are now spread wide in the literature of education, sociology, and psychology. Researchers are advised to review, not merely summarize, prior articles. Also, there were problems encountered in the computer literature searches in this area of open education.

Project TALENT Revisited: Cross-Validating Self-Report Measures of Leadership.

This study investigated 13 predictors of self-reported high school leadership. The study utilized the Project TALENT national sample of high school students. Two leadership criteria were studied. The internal consistency of the criteria ranged from .48 to .67. Multiple correlations between the observed and predicted leadership scores for regression analyses ranged from .45 to .63. Cross validities ranged from .32 to .58. The leadership characteristics of males and females were found to be similar. Results of this study characterize the high school leader as mature, interested in business management, self-confident, socially sensitive, vigorous, and having high socioeconomic status. Cognitive variables were not found to be significant predictors of either leadership criterion.

Critiques and Critical Comments in Educational Research Journals

W hile prepublication refereeing is the traditional route by which the scientific community formally screens and criticizes its primary archival reports, formal postpublication feedback is also an established scientific practice. The present study was undertaken to examine the availability and use of formal postpublication critique channels in journals reporting original research in education. Method A systematic random sample was taken of every tenth reference cited in the 1969 Encyclopedia of Educational Research. The 15 journals most frequently cited were taken as a good representation of high quality journals concerned with research in education. A letter was written to the editor of each of these journals asking for more detailed information on the journals policy with regard to letters, critical comments, critiques, and rejoinders. Each editor was asked to respond to a checklist questionnaire and to add additional comments as necessary to clarify the journals policy. All 15 of the editors responded after no more than one follow-up letter. In addition, a content analysis of the journals was performed independently of the information from the editors. All issues of the journals from 1968 and 1969 and the two most recent 1970 issues were examined for evidence of letters to the editor, critical comments, critiques, and rejoinders.

ERRORS IN INTERPRETING REGRESSION TOWARD THE MEAN: REPLY TO LYTTON, CROXEN, AND PYSH

A summary of regression toward the mean errors is made both with reference to the Croxen and Lytton (1973) research on reading and in a more general context. Readers of research articles are alerted to this common error.

Information Sources in Educational Research Literature

In this paper, we focus on the manner in which research information is disseminated to other researchers and to practitioners. We show a continuing reli ance on journals and a continuing tendency to rely on more recent literature (espe cially journals) in research reports. In addition, we list the 15 journals most fre quently cited in the sixth edition of the Encyclopedia of Educational Research. A comparison of this list with previous studies revealed considerable shifts in the prom inence of journals related to educational research since the third, fourth, and fifth editions of the Encyclopedia. In addition to indicating trends in educational research literature, these results suggest potential areas of interest and emphasis both for the individual reader and researcher and for the compiler of general and research library collections in education. The results also suggest sources for disseminating informa tion most rapidly to the widest possible audiences. IN THIS ARTICLE we explore the manner in which researchers disseminate information to other researchers and to practitioners. An understanding of how research is disseminated can help users of research identify sources in which they are likely to find current information on educational topics. In addition, a knowl edge of dissemination patterns will help researchers identify channels for publish ing the results of their research. What forms of research do experts in educational research most often cite? How recent are these citations? What specific sources are cited most frequently? How have citation patterns changed in recent years? To answer these questions, we examined a systematic random sample of every fifth reference from the lists of references in the sixth edition of the Encyclopedia of Educational Research (Alkin, 1992). We then categorized these references by date of publication and nature of the source. As indicated in Table 1, most of the citations referred to journals (35.6%) and to single-author books (34.4%). Of all the citations, 31.2% referred to sources