To restructure and strengthen special education services, Montana has supported growth of its Comprehensive System of Personnel Development (CSPD) Council at the state level and has initiated councils in its five special-education regions. Montana's organizational structure for CSPD and the systems approach used for state and regional strategic…

Examines the power of performance assessment to influence learning and to effect change in the educational system. A vision of education in the near future is presented that addresses standards, the impact of constructivist psychology, administrative organization of education, student and program assessment, a community of learners model of…

The Community Transition Team Model guides the process of systematic program change in secondary special education and transition programs in Oregon. The model uses a management-by-objectives paradigm for implementing its principles, which include local control, a developmental perspective on change, a focus on program capacity, and networking…

The experience of Dartmouth College (New Hampshire) in developing a campuswide information system to enhance the computing culture is discussed, focusing on four elements: the philosophy of computing as a public utility; investment in physical network infrastructure; standardization of workstations; and development of content-neutral network…

Argues that there is a fundamental gap between the knowledge that the information systems development community values and that which cultural analysis yields. Suggests that developers, rather than trying to explain social behavior and knowledge with rules, should be concerned with the production of contesting rules and what the production tells…

Four articles respond to the Bader and Nyce position that it is unlikely cultural analysis will become a routine tool for information systems developers with these arguments: ethnographic work can aid software development; the problem lies with inappropriate application of social science methods; the problem is technique, not fundamentals; and…

A series of workshops focusing on improving science and social-studies instruction was designed by student teachers from Oakland University and classroom teachers from a Detroit-area school district. This article discusses how this professional-development design exemplifies research findings and contributed to participants' professional growth.…

In this chapter, the authors focus on teacher development as a collective and organizational issue. They begin with a brief review of conventional approaches to teacher workforce development and management, including current critiques of these efforts, their possible consequences, and an overview of the recent calls for more comprehensive,…

Behavior analyst teaching child development courses would do well to look into this book as the main text for the course. It represents the most comprehensive attempt to date to try and integrate the developmental literature with the study of basic mechanisms of learning. The book is written in a clear and concise manner that can be understood by…

Purpose: To distinguish sustainable development education from environmental education and stress the importance of problem-based interdisciplinary learning to sustainable development education. Design/methodology/approach: A range of published works relating to sustainable development education are critiqued, an introduction to complexity theory…

This article describes a 2-hour experiential simulation that helps students understand (a) the challenge of even simple organizational changes, (b) the importance of communication between change agents and organizational members, and (c) the source of resistance to organizational change efforts. Teams of students compete to process the most…

Positive behavioral supports (PBS) have been receiving increased visibility and use in schools nationally. In the state of Washington, schoolwide and individualized positive behavioral supports were recommended as a model for schools by the state agencies of education and human service in 1999. Since then, four demonstration schools have been…

Sense and nonsense is abound in human performance technology (HPT). There is no single cause of the abundance of nonsense. However, there is a reason that nonsense is more abundant than sense. The reason is that any principle has a specific domain of applicability. Within that domain it is sense. Outside that domain it is nonsense. Some…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how, from 2004-2006, a New Zealand research team experimented with the "change laboratory" learning process to create a new method of government policy development and implementation, referred to as "practice-making". The apple industry in Hawke's Bay was chosen because of the…

This document contains two essays--the first on public education, and the second on private education. The first essay, entitled, "Our Schools and Our Future," points out a paradox--public-opinion polls show widespread public receptivity to fundamental changes in the education system; however, this attitude is accompanied by widespread complacency…