Colleges provide professional development opportunities to faculty to promote knowledge growth and improvement of skills. At the college, Scheduled Development (SD) time for faculty is based on the educational practice and recognition of the need for continuous professional development of faculty members. The paper presents a user-centered…

Differentiating state services to support district and school improvement makes sense for two reasons: (1) support is most effective when targeted to the specific needs of the district or school, based on both performance data and diagnostic data about prevailing operational and professional practice; and (2) state resources of time and money are…

The performance improvement field has evolved from the work of professionals seeking to improve performance in the workplace. Each time the field has evolved, it has done so by consistently expanding its scope and incorporating a broader performance context in line with its systems-theory roots. But just how much has performance improvement…

90-Day Cycles are a disciplined and structured form of inquiry designed to produce and test knowledge syntheses, prototyped processes, or products in support of improvement work. With any type of activity, organizations inevitably encounter roadblocks to improving performance and outcomes. These barriers might include intractable problems at…

A return to normal after a crisis is a good thing. Who doesn't want back what once seemed lost? The problem is it usually isn't a simple task figuring out how to patch together a scaled-back training program. When the recession hit in fall 2008, trainers were asked to scale down programming and make do with fewer resources. With a recovery in full…

As the solo school librarian in a modestly sized private school, the author is responsible not only for managing the school library, but also for many other things that come his way throughout the school year. Among the many balls the author has to keep in the air are budgeting, collection development, weeding, lesson planning, fundraising, and…

In 2011, "EDUCAUSE" appointed a research panel of IT leaders from nineteen representative member institutions to both identify and prioritize the top IT issues facing their institutions. In two focus group sessions in September and October 2011, the panel members were asked the question: "What is the single-biggest IT-related issue currently…

Working with clients to deliver solutions provides ample opportunity for success as well as failure. This article focuses on how to address three shortcomings that often contribute to performance solutions missing the mark. These shortcomings include (a) the "framework" used to view, discuss, and analyze performance is too narrow; (b) performance…

This article discusses an effort to improve training performance in a large corporate conglomerate in South Korea. In particular, focus is placed on a new instructional design (ID) model named the Cogwheel ID model. The cogwheel metaphor is used to illustrate the integrated processes within complex training organizations, including organizational,…

According to Reeves (2006), "the demands of leadership almost invariably exceed the capacity of a single person to meet the needs at hand" (p. 32). This research study intended to identify challenges that school administrators face in their profession and how school district leaders can offer supportive strategies to alleviate these…

The learning curve is high for novice special education teachers. They must assume full teaching responsibilities, while at the same time become familiar with district and school policies, curriculum, and assessment policies and procedures. They are expected to build relationships with administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, families, and…

During a career of more than 40 years that links the interrelated fields of educational and human performance technology, Roger Kaufman has created numerous new innovative approaches to enhance strategic planning, change management, needs assessment, assessment, evaluation, and organizational improvement. Through numerous publications, including…

This exploratory study examined the elements of a coaching model based on the best practices that first focus on providing managers with the ability to develop workers and increase productivity, before using existing models that only support the process of managing workers, when it becomes apparent that the worker is not meeting expected…

This paper places the competencies to be measured by the OECD's Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) in the context of the technological developments which are reshaping the nature of the workplace and work in the 21st century. The largest technological force currently shaping work is the computer. Computers are…

Purpose: This paper aims to review the relevant literature on training needs assessment (TNA) with an objective to provide users/beneficiaries of TNA with the understanding of its growing concept, multiple uses (outcomes), and valuing these uses (antecedents). Design/methodology/approach: To conduct the literature review on uses of TNA, the…