Restorative justice (RJ) is an alternative approach to school discipline that has been gaining recognition in the public and academic spheres as a way to engage students who misbehave in school. RJ has promise to address racial/ethnic, gender, and disability disproportionality in school discipline. One aspect of school-based RJ that has received…

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) are frameworks used to assess individual needs of students and the supports needed to meet those needs. An MTSS is complex with components which impact core instruction, curriculum, formative assessment, interventions, summative assessment, and problem solving. All of these components are a part of a school's…

Helping people solve the practical problems of everyday life while maintaining contemporary relevance describes the mission of Cooperative Extension. To achieve that mission, Extension professionals have increasingly relied on information gathered from stakeholders to identify relevant problems and potential educational solutions. The methods,…

This article describes two methods for use in program development and refinement. Problem mapping and forcefield analysis are explained with a real-world example about parenting education. Both methods are visual and consider multiple causes and effects of a problem. The methods are effective for clearly thinking through a problem, identifying…

Despite the national proliferation of technical assistance as a driver for school reform and as a model for embedded and sustained professional development, very little is known about the organizational structures and processes needed to support technical assistance. The purpose of this paper is to describe a structured needs assessment process…

This proceedings volume of InCoTEPD 2018 covers many ideas for handling a wide variety of challenging issues in the field of education. The outstanding ideas dealing with these issues result in innovation of the system. There are many innovation strategies resulting from recent research that are discussed in this book. These strategies will become…

This discussion of different approaches to clarifying problems in the instructional development process defines what a problem is and the types of problems typically faced by instructional developers; presents a rationale for suggesting the use of evaluation models for finding development problems; and suggests ways in which the use of a…

Community education (CE) is discussed as a process and program for community improvement. A three-dimensional dynamic program design called "The Cube," which serves as a model for CE evaluation, is presented. (Author/JOW)

A way to assess and improve organizational effectiveness is discussed, with a focus on factors that inhibit successful organizational performance. The basic assumption is that it is easier, more accurate, and more beneficial for individuals and organizations to identify criteria of ineffectiveness (faults and weaknesses) than to identify criteria…

Elements of a program development model are discussed, including change requirements, maintenance requirements, and development of a problem-solving management plan (identify problems based on needs, determine solution requirements and identify solution alternatives, select solution strategies from among alternatives, implement solution…

The author describes the Training Technology System, a model for separating training from nontraining problems and a means of systematically solving training problems in industry and business. He lists the system phases: (1) analyze, (2) design, (3) develop, (4) implement, and (5) control, and he critiques the system. (CH)

Identifies six needs assessment procedures applied in educational and other organizations, provides examples of how each is used, and discusses the relationship of needs assessment to problem solving. Kaufman's Outcomes Model is described and the Organizational Elements Model is presented as a pragmatic approach to contemporary decision making and…

The purpose of this exploratory case study was to determine current in-service needs of agricultural faculties at Razi University in Kermanshah province in Iran. A descriptive research methodology design was used to conduct the study. The target population of the study consisted of all agricultural faculties in College of Agriculture at Razi…

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…

Discusses needs assessment as a problem-focusing strategy and examines several definitions of need. Considers five purposes for assessing needs, and presents six guiding principles for the work of a needs assessment team. (RC)