Suggests that cost-benefit analysis can be a helpful tool for assessing difficult and complex problems in child care facilities. Defines cost-benefit analysis as an approach to determine the most economical way to manage a program, describes how to analyze costs and benefits through hypothetical scenarios, and discusses some of the problems…

Group Support Systems (GSS) is a computer-based technology designed to improve group processes and outcomes that can be effective in teaching international business classes in such areas as strategic planning, negotiations, case studies, and course evaluation. When contemplating use of GSS, instructors must consider hardware, software, facilities,…

Describes a computer-assisted, interdisciplinary course in decision making developed to promote student participation and critical thinking. Students participate in 20 interactive exercises that utilize and illustrate psychological and economic concepts. Follow-up activities include receiving background information, group discussions, text…

Evaluates changes in social background, resource constraints, and labor market incentives as possible explanations for differences in the educational expectations between black, and white high school students during 1980-92. Maintains that a consideration of relative direct costs and improvement of social background is necessary to explain these…

The paper satirically describes three public school environments that promoted teacher collaboration. It examines the effect of teacher collaboration in the workplace and investigates the importance of two issues (time and authority) in shaping the extent to which collaboration can succeed. (SM)

Describes a partnership between the School District of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. The Taking Stock/Making Change collaborative action research project supported schools as they moved toward school-based management and shared decision making. Though participating schools had some problems,…

Defines inclusion and the importance of inclusive education. Suggests that reciprocity built on self-empowerment, mutual need, ethics, and rationality builds partnerships for inclusion. Illustrates creating reciprocal partnerships by describing one effort to build a developmentally appropriate classroom. Describes a seven-step exchange model for…

Examines collaborative decision making in middle schools and methods to facilitate this underused strategy. Examines research on collaboration in the areas of school environment, classroom instruction, student learning, and decision making in schools. Factors of successful environments are examined including principal commitment, trust, focus on…

Describes a model class for instructing general and special educators in best practices in inclusive education. The class emphasized cooperative learning and decision making, highly structured problem solving activities, and use of in vivo case studies involving children with disabilities in local schools. These components were designed to model…

Compared two group career decision-making courses with a comparison group on such factors as occupational certainty and satisfaction, appropriateness, and information-seeking behavior. Results were mixed, but generally the 20-session course was favored by study participants over the 10-session course. (Author/TE)

Described is how the computer was used in an environmental education module to develop students' decision-making skills and the concepts of probability. The computer was also used to analyze the presence of lead in the environment. (KR)

An analysis of the use of a survey on a state-level conservation tillage program was conducted to assess the effects of personal influences. Personal factors influenced timeliness, user's desire for and ownership of information, interaction among decision makers and the evaluator, methodological appropriateness and quality, and use planning. (TJH)

This study was initiated to determine whether factors pertinent to the choices of four-year students apply to, and are predictive of, the decisions of two-year students, or whether alternative models of choice are needed. Students completed a questionnaire which asked for information about their characteristics and college decisions. (MLW)

Responses of 310 teachers in Florida to a survey about use of teacher-made tests, nationally standardized tests, and state minimum competency tests were studied. Results show that all three test types were used to some extent in eight decision categories, but none of the tests were clearly dominant. (SLD)

Describes the policy of shared governance with universities, in which faculty and administration participate in institutional decision making, and discusses the need for librarian participation in this process. Strategies to encourage librarian participation are outlined, including delineation of appropriate service activities and the provision of…