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Following up two previous studies which identified the course content, and essential skills and knowledge outcomes for graduate introductory educational research courses, further study was conducted to determine the following: which of the skills identified for graduate introductory research courses were quantitatively or qualitatively oriented; what demographic differences exist among professors who teach graduate introductory educational research courses; and specifically what differences exist between veteran professors (those who had taught the course for 15 years and more) and novice professors (those who had taught the course for less than 5 years). Questionnaires which sought demographic data were distributed to 139 Professors of Educational Research. A quantitative subscale which omitted some additional researcher judgements including validity, was constructed from among the 59 skills identified by classifying items as quantitative or qualitative. Twenty-two items comprised the quantitative subscale with a subscale score computed for each respondent. Analyses of Variance were conducted between the quantitative subscale scores and the various demographic variables. Study findings include the following: (1) 70% of the sample viewed the course as quantitatively oriented; (2) veteran professors displayed a higher quantitative subscale score. Among other observations, the study noted that a shift in methodological paradigms to include qualitative methodology is occurring in introductory educational research courses. Appended is the Research Skills and Knowledge Areas Questionnaire. Includes seven references. (LPT)

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether parents were more likely to purchase home computers for sons than for daughters, and whether elementary and secondary students reflect sex differences in their attitudes toward computer use. The survey instrument was constructed to provide face validity in order to investigate whether computer use practices among school age children, as reported in the literature, could be observed among local students. Four groups were surveyed--two fifth grade classes, one seventh grade class, and high school computer programming students--and frequency data were analyzed using chi square and converted to percentages. It was found that: (1) there was no observed statistically significant relationship between sex and ownership of home computers at any of the grade levels; and (2) there were no observed sex differences in computer use attitudes among fifth or seventh graders, although a statistically significant relationship was observed between sex and computer use attitudes among high school students, which is consistent with results reported in the literature. It was also found that parents were as likely to provide home computers for daughters as they were to provide them for sons, a divergence from the findings of prior research. However, because of the small sample size and nonrandom sampling, generalization beyond the present sample is limited and further research is indicated. Fourteen references are listed and two figures are appended. (MES)

This study investigated the propositions that (1) the expressed preference for formal-deductive style of thinking and mathematics anxiety are negatively correlated; (2) the preferred cognitive style is positively correlated with the respondent's self-assessment of mathematical ability; and (3) those expressing a preference for the analyst style of thinking would perform better on a test of statistical concepts than those expressing a disregard for the analyst style of thinking. The sample included 70 male and female graduate students. Results indicated that the propositions were supported by the data. Implications from this research are discussed. (CW)