Discusses transfer of training and explains the Transfer Design Model, which provides a comprehensive process for designing transfer techniques into training materials and organizational systems. Topics include initial performance measure, systemic design factors, instructional design factors, training, maintenance system, and transfer performance…

Uses of the agricultural knowledge systems concept of information flow are described in Holland, Bhutan, Switzerland, and India. Application of the model for gaining an overview of institutions must be combined with a functional approach for designing appropriate extension programs. (SK)

Compares differences in Noam's (PS 524 984) and Cicchetti's (PS 524 985) viewpoints to their shared idea that our understanding of human development has much to gain from the emerging field of psychopathology. Describes Noam's approach as intended to blur the boundaries between optimal and pathological development, and Cicchetti's approach as more…

Explores differences in Diderot's and Rousseau's pedagogical ideas: the former emphasizing technology as a systematic body of knowledge and the latter focusing on human development and the relationship of knowledge to context. Examines their influence on mechanical arts, systems, and technology education today. (SK)

Proposes a critical constructionist approach to family services as a useful framework for family social work. Presents the foundations and basic ideas of critical constructionism, and applies these ideas to social work with families. (JPS)

Analysis of the age and education composition of occupations in Current Population Survey Annual Demographic Files, 1972-82, supports an ecological model in which occupations compete for members in a shifting niche space defined by members' sociodemographic characteristics. In contrast, the movement of professions in the education dimension…

Discusses the current situation in educational systems based on a consideration of scientific concepts including chaos theory, complexity, and dynamical social systems. Highlights include systemic change in education; perturbation; self-organization; dissipation of rigid structures; sensitivity to initial conditions; entropy; bifurcations; and…

Argues that dynamic systems approaches may provide an explanatory framework based on general scientific principles for developmental psychology, using principles of self-organization to explain how novel forms emerge without predetermination and become increasingly complex with development. Contends that self-organization provides a single…

Six experts discuss four major criticisms of the instructional systems design model: (1) it is too slow and clumsy to meet today's training challenges, (2) it has no substance; (3) used as directed, it produces bad solutions, and (4) it clings to the wrong world view. (JOW)

Examines three views of performance improvement--scientific management, instructional design, and systems thinking--each providing a unique view of performance improvement and specific roles for evaluation. Provides an integrated definition of performance and a synthesis model that encompasses the three views. (AEF)

This article maintains that labyrinth-cases of multiple outlets, although difficult, but pleasant to construct, are probably the way to go to strengthen computer-aided learning. The objective of the article is to show, based on a particular labyrinth-case, how to construct labyrinth-cases and consolidate their contents based on associative…

This article examines how schools can avoid barriers to systems thinking in relation to improving student achievement. It then illustrates common errors associated with non-systems thinking and recommends solutions. Educators who understand that schools are complex interdependent social systems can move their organizations forward. Unfortunately,…

Six theoretical perspectives on work design are examined for their contributions to our understanding of how work is organized and designed in organizations: sociotechnical systems theory, process improvement, adaptive structuration theory, the job characteristics model, technostructural change models, and activity theory. A critique of these…

This paper is in memory of Esther Thelen, who passed away while President of the Society for Research in Child Development. A survey of Esther Thelen's career reveals a trajectory from early work on simple movements like stepping, to the study of goal-directed reaching, to work on the embodiment of cognition, and, ultimately, to a grand theory of…

This exploratory study examined the prevalence of intimate partner violence in a sample of gay men who are HIV positive. The concept of intergenerational transmission of violence, from family systems theory, provided the basis of this examination. It was hypothesized that men who had witnessed or experienced violence in their families of origin…