This article summarizes a junior college's early failures in attempting to develop a viable student orientation program, outlines the planning strategy that eventually led to success, describes the program that resulted, and presents descriptive data regarding the results. (Author)

The "system paradigm" is a basic conceptual external constraint upon sociologists which inhibits their analysis of the black-white conflict in America. To illustrate this point the central concepts of Robert E. Park and Gunnar Myrdal are examined. (EH)

During periods of organizational stress such as the implementation of major organizational change, the tendency for group formation may be increased and the effects of informal relations relatively more pronounced than in times of routine and regularity. (Author)

A training program was implemented to provide consultation services in a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed individuals. Prior to the program's implementation, clinicians were discouraged and frustrated because staff needs could not adequately be met. Psychological services to 36 severely disturbed females, ages 12 to 22, were…

There may be a link between the systems movement and the women's movement. The systems approach allows an observer to identify important relationships and behavior within a system. This approach recognizes that observers of a system will be taking differing and subjective views of the system, depending on their own perspectives. Among the various…

This chapter discusses the foundations of instructional development and analyzes the development of various models, paradigms, archetypes, and themata used to describe instructional development. Two key strands in the literature of instructional development--instructional efficiency ("doing the right things") and instructional…

This chapter considers the history of instructional development (ID) in the military, with particular emphasis on the U.S. Navy. The ID process used at the Navy's Instructional Program Development Centers is presented, including the process for simulator development. An in-depth analysis of the problems encountered with educational technology…

The paper considers the role of program planners in ensuring community adjustment of deinstitutionalized severely mentally handicapped persons, especially in light of the provisions of the Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, which provides a waiver authority to states to increase community programs for the deinstitutionalized population. The paper…

The study of literature can be a discipline only insofar as it is capable of the systemization typical of other human sciences. The possibility of system poses two directions of research: (1) exploring what conditions make system possible; and (2) discovering what follows from the fact of system's possibility. Northrop Frye followed the second…

Because of the increased recognition of the multi-dimensionality of problems facing older adults and the need for greater focus on individual problems, increased efforts are being made to assess the needs of individuals. One promising area in this effort is functional assessment, which moves away from the use of chronological age, which classifies…

The open-systems model of instructional development (ID) proposed for use in both educational and non-educational organizations is based on an extensive examination of ID, the systems and communication/consulting literature, and the results of a nationwide survey of 750 currently active ID professionals in both higher education and…

This paper uses a systems-based approach to identify problems associated with organizational learning in various subsystems in an organization. The functionalist model of the systems-based approach is first used to identify the relevant sub systems involved in organizational learning. This is followed by a consideration of key functional sub…

In this paper the present state of the art in authoring systems in surveyed and the other papers in this special issue are introduced. (Author)

A system for synthesizing speech from a phonetic input is described. (Author)