Research suggests that preservice teachers enter teacher education with predominantly negative dispositions towards mathematics. We present a case study of an approach to supporting the development of positive mathematics teaching identities among students in a middle-level math methods course. Our findings suggest that engaging in narrative…

Community change approaches have increasingly involved participatory practices in which community members directly impacted by an issue participate in implementing change efforts. However, community participation as a practice and approach does not always include youth participation. Within the field of youth organizing, young people are…

From its start in Japan after World War II, the Quality Control Circle (Q.C.) approach to management and organizational operation evolved into what it is today: people doing similar work meeting regularly to identify, objectively analyze, and develop solutions to problems. The Q.C. approach meets Maslow's theory of motivation by inviting…

Schools need effective systems for supporting teachers in meeting students' individual needs and responding to school-wide problems. The Teacher Assistance Team (TAT) model is a school-based problem-solving group that supports teachers by analyzing student, classroom, or school problems and creating alternative strategies for resolving those…

One of the most valuable skills in group decision making is the ability to make trustworthy judgments about group performance. It follows from the "inferential model" of social cognition (Pavitt, 1989; Pavitt & Hight, 1986), that there are three types of judgments relevant to the group context: (1) behavioral (what the group did);…

Extension educators can benefit from using a variety of styles when participating in learning and problem-solving coalitions. The first section of this paper describes nine stages of the coalition-building process, which can be grouped into three phases. In the emergence phase, issues and concerns have heated up and risen to the surface, and…

This presentation introduces the methods of negotiation and mediation in transdisciplinary decision-making, and applies the methods specifically to the educational needs and placements of students with disabilities. Four stages of mediation are described: problem identification, generation of problem-solving options, evaluation of options, and…

Mounds View, a K-12 district serving 11,400 students in the St. Paul and Minneapolis (Minnesota) suburbs, used to experience prolonged, hostile negotiations between administrators and the teachers' association. After a particularly bitter round of bargaining in 1984, the district began searching for less adversarial approaches. The district hired…

Four paradigms of labor-management relations are found in American small schools: paternalism, collective bargaining, collegial problem solving, and community problem solving. Examination of the conditions under which each is likely to exist and their unique characteristics, reveals the circumstance which will enhance the effectiveness of each.…

School based decision making (SBDM) has become one of the of hottest issues in education today. In SBDM the local governing body consists of parents, teachers, community members, and school administrators responsible for the legislative duties of running their school. Since most decision-making programs are geared for use in business settings…

Findings of a study that examined the collaborative problem-solving processes used by superintendents are presented in this paper. Based on information processing theory, the study utilizes a model composed of the following components: interpretation; goals; principles and values; constraints; solution processes; and mood. Data were derived from…

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of problem-solving groups, a study developed a model of group problem-solving behavior, and applied the resulting conceptual framework to 16 actual evaluations of quality circle programs (defined as a group of 3-15 persons from the same work area who meet for problem-solving). The model divides each of the…

The Staff Development Team of the Columbus City Schools (Nebraska), composed of three teachers and three administrators, emphasizes the need for long-range planning in its design of an inservice model for the school district. Emphasis was placed on identifying and addressing the unique needs of teachers within the school district. The model also…

A systematic way to create collaborative school improvement is provided. The currently expanding role of administrators as staff developers is explored; 10 strategies are listed for the principal to use as a key player in staff development. Two specific organization development problem-solving strategies, Situation-Target-Plan (S-T-P) and Force…

Implementation processes and outcomes at a junior high school of the Mastery in Learning Project, an NEA-sponsored national school transformation effort, are described in this paper. Based on the principle that a school's decisions should be made by its faculty, the project seeks to develop teachers' ability to creatively and cooperatively use…