Program managers frequently put staff training near the top of their lists of ongoing challenges. The mix of diverse, complex training needs in many programs means managers may be responsible for orienting new staff, implementing new administrative procedures, or facilitating steps toward long-term program improvement. The greatest underlying…

This article presents a partnership effort among managers, trainers, and employees to spring to life performance improvement using the performance templates (P-T) approach. P-T represents a process model as well as a method of training leading to performance improvement. Not only does it add to our repertoire of training and performance management…

With teacher preparation in the United States under serious scrutiny, there is a growing movement to improve the way teachers are prepared for practice. A key element of that improvement is shifting from instructing candidates about teaching to teaching them how to teach, emphasizing the key activities teachers actually carry out in classrooms and…

This paper describes in detail a successful training program developed for sessional (part-time or nonpermanent) laboratory demonstrators employed in the Electrical Engineering Department of an Australian university. Such demonstrators play an important role in teaching practical concepts and skills in engineering. The success of the program…

Discusses the potential for improving training and coaching program effectiveness by using fluency-development methods. Describes the revision of a new-hire training program in a customer call center that applied a fluency-based approach to reduce training time by one-third, accelerate productivity readiness, and surpass benchmark productivity…

A well-designed professional development program can help first- and second-year faculty thrive in their new academic environment. Faculty developers must consider the length and frequency of such programs and their focus; requirements for participation; the role of mentors; ways to establish collegiality; and opportunities for developing the…

Discusses whether corporate training and education needs are better served by one large training department or by many small training staffs directly controlled by the departments. (JOW)

This article describes a novel effort in New York City, the Learning Partners Program, which matches veteran principals with two or more newer ones. In 2014-15, the first full year of the effort, the city's Department of Education put 73 of the city's more than 1,800 schools into 23 groups of threes and one group of four. Every group comprised one…

Describes how Coca-Cola's training department identified problems in the use of a video training package and made improvements that expanded the potential of the corporation-wide training network. (SK)

Examines the use of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) methods for the design, development, and delivery of courses and programs through distance education. Topics discussed include problems in implementing QFD; implementation of QFD in training design; and QFD's contribution to service quality improvement in distance education. (Contains 28…

Presents four ways to improve broadcasts of company satellite conferences, including creative site selection (using facilities at educational institutions rather than hotel rooms); creative programming (using graphics and other interruptions to break up lectures or speeches); creative crew selection; and creative downlink site activities (to…

Every district wants its schools to shine, and more are recognizing that, in order to raise performance, they need well-trained principals who can shake up the status quo and create an environment where all students flourish. Indeed, in a six-year study analyzing data from 180 schools in nine states, researchers from the Universities of Minnesota…

Teacher education and professional development prepare teachers with up-to-date knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for effective teaching. To sustain this, however, hinges on continued professional learning within schools. Research shows that establishing long-term conditions that allow teachers to learn continuously from one another…

Discusses the systematic approach to training, how this approach increases training impact, and how it evolved and identifies the four components of this approach, describing three components in detail--pretraining briefing sessions, review of individual training objectives, and group followup. (MBR)

This article reports on productivity programs being undertaken by private sector organizations. One private sector case described here was based on identifying productivity problems and linking information/measurement systems with participative management efforts and could be adapted and applied to public sector organizations. (CT)