Once again the Editorial Panel is pleased to be able to present for readers the abstracts of presentations from the 1996 QIER Annual Research Forum held at the Italo-Australian Club in September. The evening was a great success with researchers, both student and 'experienced', taking the opportunity to share their research experience and findings with colleagues in a professional as well as a social atmosphere.

This was the first year of formal acknowledgment by the Institute of outstanding research effort through the awarding of the inaugural QIER Research Awards. The Award to the "experienced" researcher(s) went to James Watters and Ian Ginns from the Queensland University of Technology for their research on innovative professional development approaches for teachers of science in primary schools. The "student" research Award went to the students from Morayfield State High School and their student action research for university access (SARUA) project. The students have been supported by a number of academics, in particular Bill Atweh from the Queensland University of Technology. Congratulations to the award winners in particular, as well as those presenting on the evening - the quality of presentations was outstanding.

The Forum was formally addressed by Professor Allan Luke, Dean of Education of the University of Queensland. Unfortunately, at the time of printing Professor Luke's paper was not available. We hope it will be printed in our journal in the near future.

Also included with this issue of Queensland Researcher are papers by John Watts and Janet Taylor and Michael Morgan. The Watts paper which reports research into student ratings of lecture-related characteristics most conducive to establishing and maintaining an ideal learning environment in higher education. The case studies are concerned with students from both business and education contexts. Taylor and Morgan report on hidden barriers to studying engineering by distance education.

Please cite as: QIER (1997). Editorial 12(2). Queensland Researcher, 12(2), v. http://education.curtin.edu.au/iier/qjer/qr12/editorial12-2.html