Given the importance of colleges and universities as social institutions, it is surprising that there are few theoretical ideas about how colleges operate or theories of how to implement change. The range of theoretical systems available to measure the college environment varies with the level of analysis, with the person whose environment is…

This paper describes a systematic approach to composition instruction and provides evidence of that system's successful implementation. The approach is based on Benjamin S. Bloom's Taxonomy and has five stages: presenting the student with reasons for learning the material, listing immediate and long-range instructional objectives, preassessing…

In adult education, program planning and administrative management are important areas within which economic analysis may contribute to effective and efficient decision making. The adult education administrator is faced with a dual economic task: (1) to prove beforehand that his programs will pay for the operating budget he is demanding; and (2)…

This paper outlines an approach designed to provide an accurate and efficient cost accounting system for use in schools and other social service organizations. In his discussion, the author presents a detailed step-by-step description of how to establish, plan, and operate the system. The basic element of the system is the Daily Event Record…

Adjunct (part-time) faculty comprise 35 to 45 percent of the teachers in two-year colleges, yet receive virtually no systematic assistance in professional development. In 1972, Hagerstown Junior College (Maryland) initiated a program of staff development for adjunct faculty to remedy this deficiency. The program is designed to familiarize adjunct…

In the last few decades there has been a move in philosophy of education toward a concept of pragmatic rationality. This paper examines whether the move away from systematicity, fixed guiding principles or logical systems, makes this notion of pragmatic rationality so broad that it can encompass any procedure of selection which involves rules, no…

The Florida Assessment and Diffusion System (FADS) represents a systematic approach to organizational change, emphasizing the interpersonal communication dimension of the change process. FADS encourages a systems approach to change, but is flexible enough to allow for procedural changes in response to specific user needs. The model assumes a…

This publication is a programmed workbook designed for use by students in a course on a systems approach to educational staff development. The workbook is one element in an educational program developed by the Georgia Department of Education that combines use of the workbooks with televised programs broadcast on the statewide educational…

PPBS is a process by which priorities among the kinds of services a college may provide are weighed, objectives are stated in operational terms, alternative means to accomplish the given objectives are analyzed, and a choice among competing means is made according to criteria for efficient utilization of resources. This manual attempts to…

The Office of Health Services Education and Research at Michigan State University has clarified the functions of planning, organization, coordination, monitoring, and assessing instructional development projects. Each management function can be applied to the process of instructional development in order for the manager to achieve several…

This paper contains eight components and is modular in the sense that it can be taken as a whole or in part. The first section is a pretest which attempts to analyze some measurable dimensions of a master's degree. The second section is a short presentation which shows how education must stress the affective and attitude dimensions of learning.…

The basic problem examined was whether it is essential that secondary students be required to attend daily classes while studying beginning biology using the SYSTEMS APPROACH TO BIOLOGY program as a method of instruction. The study did not identify the population used nor how it was selected. Students were administered a pretest and posttest,…

"Pure" academic research rules on data collection do not apply directly to operations research (OR). OR data collection should be viewed in terms of objective, cost, and effectiveness. For the model formulation objective, proper data strategies emphasize multiple views of the operating system to identify the "relatednesses" to be depicted. For the…

The first year of a project to develop, evaluate, and disseminate a system for occupational program planning in community colleges is discussed. The focus of the first year was the development of the system. This report of the first phase is divided into three parts. In part 1, materials and concepts important to the development of the system are…

The purpose of this paper is focused toward a systems understanding of the contemporary university, the American University being the data base. A general systems conceptualization called the open systems university is presented. Comprehensive and generic in character, it is hoped that the theory of the open university will be viable enough to…