As external forces demand change in the delivery of postsecondary education and institutions seek to take advantage of new opportunities, the potential for achieving higher levels of student and institutional success is vast. New technologies, communication tools, data use, and organizational constructs present key factors in improving the…

Merrill proposes First Principles of Instruction, including a problem- or task-centered strategy for designing instruction. However, when the tasks or problems are ill-defined or complex, task-centered instruction can be difficult to design. We describe an online task-centered training at a land-grant university designed to train employees to use…

Transforming an entire district from one that is satisfied with being academically good enough into one keenly focused on improved student performance requires overhaul that reaches from end to end, from building to building, from bottom to top. Leaders in Birdville Independent School District in Fort Worth, Texas, learned that applying five…

Meeting the challenges of delivering a 21st-century curriculum and a world-class quality education ultimately depends on the willingness of the staff on the ground to give 100% effort to their jobs. Although many people in schools work very hard, some staff members are way down on the scale with regard to performance. All too often, a significant…

Purpose: Institutionalized veterans in Taiwan are a high-risk group for completing suicide due to their institutionalization and social minority status. The purpose of this study was to understand the suicide experiences, especially the triggers of suicide in this group. Design and Methods Data: about suicide experiences were collected from 19…

Background: Research in the US and UK has demonstrated the effectiveness of person-centred planning (PCP) for people with intellectual disabilities. However, it is important to acknowledge problems that arise when implementing PCP. This paper considers barriers to PCP reported during a longitudinal study of the impact of PCP. Methods:…

This article examines the views of 88 learning mentors about their understanding of the management of school attendance. The data were obtained from a questionnaire that was completed in 2004 by the learning school mentors attending a conference on improving school attendance. Respondents attended from Excellence in Cites (EiC) and Education…

Traumatized youngsters are frequently admitted to psychiatric hospitals and residential treatment facilities (RFTs; Lawson, 1998). Institutionalization can be a traumatic event that involves an assault on personal autonomy and self-direction (Mohr, Mahon, & Noone, 1998). According to Visalli, McNasser, Johnstone, and Lazzaro, (1997) external…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the empirical body of knowledge regarding the role of universities today. In addition, it aims to investigate the topic of personal development planning (PDP) programs, under a different perspective borrowed from marketing theory, namely, the "self-brand orientation" approach.…

Science teachers in the England have always relied on the support of largely self-taught technicians when preparing classroom practicals. The technicians have acquired some of their expertise through ad hoc mentoring by senior colleagues, but very few have had any extended training. This research set out to explore the changing attitudes of 40…

Background/Context: A group of educators have demonstrated success not only with White middle-class and affluent students but also with students from varied racial, socioeconomic, linguistic, ability, and cultural backgrounds. A reoccurring theme from these schools and from the literature on school change is that exemplary leadership helps create…

When the modern U.S. environmental movement began in the 1970s, it relied largely on regulation to reduce negative environmental impacts. Companies responded by creating centers of environmental expertise within their organizations. The major focus of a second wave of corporate environmentalism, which began during the late 1980s, was on…

This integrative literature review synthesizes the concepts and process of organizational knowledge creation with theories of individual learning. The knowledge conversion concept (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka, Toyama, & Byosiere, 2001) is used as the basis of the organizational knowledge creation process, while major learning theories relevant…

This qualitative study used five focus groups of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth attending public high schools to examine their experiences with school violence. Core themes focused on lack of community and empowerment leading to youth being without a sense of human agency in school. Negative attention themes were indicative…

An Innovation Configuration (IC) map identifies and describes the major components of a new practice such as NSDC's standards and details how it would look in practice. NSDC's ICs are detailed by contexts and professional roles. This CD-ROM focuses on the role of school-based staff developers.