Focusing on the analysis of communication networks within organizations with an eye toward implications for study of external communication, this paper (1) develops a systems theory/communication view of the nature of formal organizations, (2) illustrates the notion of holistic organizational communication networks in organizations which include…

The 10 author-contributed papers were given at a 1974 conference on the roles, problems, and skills of school psychologists and special education teachers who serve as consultants to facilitate the mainstreaming of handicapped children. The first section contains four case studies focusing on student behavior change (S. Deno), the Vermont…

Designed to focus attention on the design process in such computer science activities as information systems design, database design, and expert systems design, this paper examines three main phases of the design process: understanding the context of the problem, identifying the problem, and finding a solution. The processes that these phases…

The Teacher Improvement Model was begun as an Organizational Development Project using the parallel systems approach in a school for emotionally disturbed junior high school students. Teachers volunteered for committee work and requested observations and evaluations in an effort to define and establish a discipline model best suited to them. Such…

Educational organizations, this paper asserts, are best described using a neorationalist model, which analyzes organizations as social instruments, acknowledges structural conflict, and views individuals as active participants. The paper examines traditional and modern rationalist organization theories and contrasts these with systems theory; it…

This study explores the feasibility of a formal cooperative effort among the archives and institutional records management programs of small religious colleges in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. A systems approach is employed, in which the archives are linked to the process of creating, managing, and keeping an institution's records. The…

This paper presents a meta-theoretical perspective for looking at change and stability in close personal relationships. The theoretical conception of interpesonal relationships is summarized in an intial section, emphasizing interpersonal influence in specific interactive sequences. Next, a five-phase conception of relationship development is…

The evaluation process within special education, as in general education, most often becomes one of data collection consisting of formal and informal tests given by the school psychologist and the classroom instructor. Influences of the complex environment on the educational process are often ignored. Evaluation factors include mainstreaming,…

The use of systems theory as a conceptual framework is proposed as useful when considering computers as a machine component in teaching. Skinner's proposal that the label "computer" is inaccurate and counterproductive when used to refer to a machine being used for teaching is discussed. It is suggested that the alternative label…

The framework for public school social workers offered in this article is based on the systems approach. The ideas presented might also be useful to social workers in general, and to secondary school social workers in particular. The article deals with the idea of a boundary, which is a line forming a circle around selected variables.…

The purpose of this report is to define a systematic process for developing television and radio programs to support the education of farmers in developing nations and apply that process to the Iranian situation. The first part of the step by step process is the development of the set of courses for the broadcast media in conjunction with national…

The number and diversity of the parameters involved in the organization of modern education make it necessary to employ modern management methods and techniques to optimize decisions about the organization and improve the use of available material and financial resources. To accomplish these goals, a systems approach is advisable. A model of any…

Evaluation is as basic to professional development as it is to education. Unfortunately, systematic evaluations of professional development programs are rarely, if ever, undertaken. Professional development has become polluted by extraordinarily presumptuous rhetoric about the intrinsic value of "development." In the recent flurry of…

A longer version of this article was presented at the convention of the American Educational Research Association (Los Angeles, February 5-8, 1969).