Identifies historical roots, public policy evolution, and legislative mandates relevant to schools meeting students' mental health needs and creating a school-family effort. To promote acceptance, the linkage between school systems and family systems theory is explained. Assessment and intervention strategies are described. (JBJ)

Explains Total Quality Management (TQM), a participative management style, and examines its relationship to Instructional Systems Development (ISD) as it is used for curriculum development. Application of TQM principles to the ISD processes of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation is suggested. (eight references) (LRW)

Hawkesbury Agricultural College (Australia) reformed their program with a student-centered curriculum and client-centered research and extension. The bases of the Systems Agriculture program are experiential learning and a systems approach. Staff and student learning projects meet the criteria of action research. (SK)

This contextual model for home economics filters aspects of daily life (food, clothing, shelter, finances, and relationships) through the contexts of family ecosystems, human development, values, and environmental issues (biosystems, technology, and social systems) as a basis for research, theory, and practice. (SK)

Using a political system theory approach, this case study examined the conflict that developed between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the State Department of Public Instruction between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s for control of a teacher education program. Conclusions highlight political and governance ramifications for teacher…

Describes a school reintegration program aimed at overcoming the numerous psychological, physical, environmental, and family-based deterrents to school reentry for chronically ill children. The program uses a systems approach to children's mental health with an emphasis on multiple aspects of the child's environment (i.e., family, medical…

Discusses limitations of "Comparing Distance Learning and Classroom Learning: Conceptual Considerations," Smith and Dillon's physical science view of educational technology. Suggests that a systems approach is necessary to describe distance education and define a set of principles and rules for its effective use, as well as a set of criteria to…

Discusses how computers mediate communication and how technology has a systemic rather than an instrumental relation with society. Argues that computers alter language structure, social relationships, space, time, and identities. Contains 23 references. (DDR)

This review of recent British legislation and government plans for providing speech and language therapy (SLT) for children with special educational needs focuses on such issues as collaboration among services using a systems framework, functional issues in coordinating health and educational services, especially SLT, and structural issues such as…

To improve achievement for struggling readers in particular, secondary schools must design programs and curricula to address students' lack of background knowledge, delayed English language development, and limited success in reading. In this article, the author presents a systems approach that offers intensive care for the most at-risk students…

The purpose of this article is to develop a preliminary comprehensive model of antisocial development based on dynamic systems principles. The model is built on the foundations of behavioral research on coercion theory. First, the authors focus on the principles of multistability, feedback, and nonlinear causality to reconceptualize real-time…

The American electric utility system has been massively transformed during the last three decades. Viewed previously as a staid, secure, and heavily regulated natural monopoly, the system has shed elements of government oversight and now appears to be increasingly susceptible to terrorist attacks and other disruptions. Overturning the conventional…

Central Queensland University (CQU) is a highly complex institution, combining campuses in Central Queensland and distance education programs for Australian domestic students with Australian metropolitan sites for international students and a number of overseas centres, also for international students. In common with many other universities, CQU…

Our editor-at-large puts questions to a political scientist--the former higher-education advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq--who replies with skepticism about prospects for our efforts to restore a university system in Iraq and reconstitute that troubled society in our image. Building an informed democracy, John Agresto…

This paper presents a case study in which systems theory is used as a framework for analyzing the experience of international consultants in assisting the education ministry of a developing country in formulating a national education 5-year plan. The study highlights the broader dilemma faced by international consultants who are frequently…