Millions of adults in the United States lack the necessary literacy skills for most living wage jobs. For students from adult learning classes, we used a lexical decision task to measure their knowledge of words and we used a decision-making model (Ratcliff's, 1978, diffusion model) to abstract the mechanisms underlying their performance from…

H. S. Bhola's models for planned change can help those offering technical assistance to developing countries by: (1) helping structure the realities of the world they seek to change; (2) uncovering linkages; (3) anticipating problems; and (4) putting program actions into perspective. Activities of the German Foundation for International…

Processes that integrate the logical and participative dimensions of group decision making and problem solving are increasingly important to those responsible for the organizational development of educational systems. This paper describes a model (The Optimal Combination of Processes for Creative Problem Solving) that was designed to deal with a…

The final report describes the generally successful development and use of two new instructional models for adult basic education (ABE): a peer instruction model and an instructional system for consumer decision making. Section 1 examines the two year application of the peer instruction model, first developed for the military, in various adult…

Organizational development (OD) is a systematic approach to (1) identifying the needs, problems, and objectives of an organization; (2) providing feedback needed for decisions regarding design and implementation of change strategies; (3) implementing and monitoring actions; and (4) evaluating their effects. Decisions in all phases of OD are…

Formative, in-process evaluation results can be used to refine or "fine tune" Even Start programs. The assumption is that the programs have obtained comprehensive and appropriate empirical data on the assessment of the program as a whole as well as its specific goals. This six-step model uses evaluation data to improve program delivery.…

This guide, part of a series of workplace-developed materials for retraining factory workers, provides teaching materials for a workplace course in problem-solving techniques. The course is a review of basic problem-solving techniques focused on helping participants to be comfortable solving problems on the job. Topics covered include the…

This paper provides a critical review of economic models of employers' decisions to train workers: what training is undertaken, where it is undertaken, and who finances it. The focus of the review is on the provision of job training to workers with no unusual training problems. The first two sections consider the nature of on-the-job training more…

This report discusses a 3-year project to examine and develop agency structures to implement a more person-centered design in Minnesota agencies assisting individuals with disabilities. Five of the eight participating agencies offered residential services; two offered vocational, employment, and day programs; and one offered both residential and…

The purpose of the project was to perfect a career decision-making model that could be used by an adult basic education teacher to help the disadvantaged adult upgrade himself educationally and make a realistic career decision based upon his and his family's personal value system; his goal decided upon, the model could be used to help him…

The following are among 50 papers included: "The Politics of Planning Culturally Relevant AIDS Education for African-American Women" (Archie-Booker); "Developing White Consciousness through a Transformative Learning Process" (Barlas); "Executive Businesswomen's Learning in the Context of Organizational Culture"…