A strategy for increasing worker participation in an effort to remedy the problems of declining productivity and quality is the quality circles concept. The quality circles process involves small groups of employees who meet voluntarily on a regular basis to identify, analyze, and develop solutions to problems and to implement the solutions when…

In North Carolina, physical therapy services for handicapped students are integrated into school settings via a coordinated statewide effort. The model, headed by a physical therapy consultant, provides flexibility, supports an expanded role of therapists, emphasizes the team approach, and considers the physical therapist as a health professional.…

The Team-Assisted Individualization (TAI) mathematics program has been developed in an attempt to make individualized instruction workable in the classroom by adding components of cooperative learning. This paper presents the rationale for the development of TAI and describes results of three field experiments conducted to assess the effect of TAI…

The planning and development of interdisciplinary education for health associates at Johns Hopkins University are described by Malcolm L. Peterson. (Includes training of an interdisciplinary team of practitioners by an interdisciplinary team of teachers.) Walter O. Spitzer compares Canadian and U.S. experience in such interdisciplinary education…

A strategy for planning a new training center will help you find out what you want and why. (Author)

Citizen participation and community education are critical to encouraging attractive and sustainable growth. The Alliance for Quality Growth (AQG), housed at the University of Georgia, was formed to increase awareness and understanding of the wide variety of planning and growth management tools available, including the charrette, a proven…

For many engineers, writing skills have proven to be almost as important as technical background. Many prominent engineers have found that writing often consumes one-fourth of their time; they are expected to submit reports and proposals and give presentations. Many engineering schools now require either additional writing courses or integrate…

The benefits of a collaborative work setting--including such practices as mutual help, exchange of ideas, joint planning, and participative decision-making--have been consistently confirmed by studies of effective schools and successful businesses. However, teacher isolation remains the norm. Drawing on recent research and educators' firsthand…

Based on the premise that coordination of media resources with the curriculum involves the cooperation of teachers and library media specialists, this guide is designed to enhance both cooperative planning and communication. It contains: (1) six media and curriculum coordination case studies portraying typical scenarios faced by classroom teachers…

The practicum provided interdisciplinary team educational experiences for students of physical and occupational therapy. Activities included administering a questionnaire to physical therapy students to determine student understanding of pediatric physical and occupational therapy role delineation. Questionnaires were also administered to…

Critics of collaborative learning such as Greg Myers argue that educators might let their enthusiasm for collaborative learning lead them to accepting social construction of knowledge as a good thing in itself. It is important, however, to distinguish between the use of specific collaborative learning activities--such as peer response groups or…

The effect of quality circles at Iowa State University on absenteeism, performance evaluation, perceptions of the organization climate, job satisfaction, and perceived opportunities for professional and personal growth was measured in this study. The process of quality circles is designed to promote job fulfillment and organizational productivity…

The peer coaching program described in this paper was designed to promote a teacher self-directed system which established sharing with colleagues through team planning and classroom observation and feedback. While the ultimate goal of the program was to improve instruction and, thereby, to increase student learning, the program also facilitated…

A study was conducted at the Northern Arizona University to determine the necessary steps to improve the school's education programs. The basic conclusions of the study were: (1) Abolish the College of Education and replace it with the Center for Excellence in Education to facilitate interaction between the total university faculty, business and…

Managing the multiple and often conflicting roles and responsibilities of the resident hall assistant (RA) often leads to stress. Team-building is one approach which may be used to reduce stress by increasing group cohesiveness and in turn social support among resident assistant staff members. Usually team-building involves a neutral party…