Understanding the interrelations among students' cognitive, emotional, motivational, and volitional processes is an emergening focus in educational psychology. A dynamical, component systems theory of emotions is presented as a promising framework to further unravel these complex interrelations. This framework considers emotions to be a process…

External and internal forces are driving institutions not only to create departments and positions that specialize in planning, quality improvement, and institutional research but also to link them within a systems context.

This article introduces the intersystem model of psychotherapy and discusses its utility as a truly integrative and comprehensive approach. The foundation of this conceptually complex approach comes from dialectic metatheory; hence, its derivation requires an understanding of both foundational and integrational constructs. The article provides a…

Recent reforms in K-12 education have increasingly emphasized the educational system as the unit of change. The theory underlying systemic or systemwide educational reform is that powerful improvements in teaching and learning can come from developing coherence and alignment across the complex and different elements and components of an…

Reflection upon a field study of a corporate transformation provides insights into the application and integration of organizational learning theory and frameworks with local, corporate knowledge. In the corporate transformation studied this local knowledge came from consumer psychology, marketing campaigns and the use of media. When these ideas…

In this concluding paper the guest editors reflect on the contents of this special issue, and give some suggestions for future use of the CST framework. An interesting disclosure is that in chaos-and-complexity research the unit of measurement is not the individual human being, but the collective (i.e. dyad, team, or group), seen as a holon.…

Based on the position that cultural ideologies shape child development, many developmental analyses have focused on analyzing cultural conceptions of independence and interdependence. Less attention has been paid to charting the developmental sequences of children's independent and interdependent behavior that are ostensibly shaped by cultural…

Whole-system transformation is complex, yet possible. The potential for engaging in a successful transformation effort is greatly increased if a district's school public relations (PR) specialists play a strong supportive role in generating, framing, and delivering information to external and internal stakeholders about the need for change, the…

In this article, the authors describe and illustrate their approach to consultancy, development and training in residential child care. When working together the authors form the MOSAIC Consortium and provide training and consultancy to residential child care services. The article draws on systems theory, systems thinking and the politics of child…

Various surveys have documented widespread support among US parents, students, teachers and health professionals for school-based comprehensive sexuality education. In many school districts, however, the sexuality education provided is minimal, incomplete or fragmented, and essential topics are often omitted or inaccurately presented. To help…

Fitness testing is an important assessment tool used by physical educators for many purposes. Some states require fitness testing to monitor individual student progress throughout the school year. Some physical educators use it to monitor the effects of the physical education curriculum and to teach concepts such as goal setting and personal…

The Council on Occupational Education, Inc. (COE) is a not-for-profit corporation that was established in 1994 to serve as a national accreditor for all providers of postsecondary work force training and education who can meet its standards. The COE has developed a new system of quality assurance for occupational education that emphasizes the…

Marriage and Family Therapy is an increasingly popular treatment that was almost unknown 50 years ago. Family Therapy has been multidisciplinary from the beginning, drawing practitioners from social work, psychology, psychiatry, nursing, and pastoral and mental health counseling. It is often difficult to get a whole family to arrange schedules so…

This paper summarizes a new paradigm of instructional supervision, which shifts the focus on supervision from an examination of individual behavior to the improvement of work processes and social system components of the school district. The paradigm, called "Knowledge Work Supervision," helps teams of teachers and specially trained supervisors…

This paper summarizes a new paradigm of instructional supervision, which shifts the focus from individual behavior to the improvement of work processes and social system components of the school district. The proposed paradigm, the Knowledge Work Supervision model, is derived from sociotechnical systems design theory and linked to the premise that…