Briefly describes how school boards and superintendents can work together as a team to improve the quality of education. References "Team Leadership for Student Achievement," a new book developed through the collaborative efforts of the American Association of School Administrators and the National School Boards Association. (PKP)

Case study of a Canadian aluminum smelter through 15 interviews, observation, and employee survey (n=214) revealed high commitment, acceptance of change, and worker independence from management. This pattern emerged from a traditionally strong union presence. Comparison with other cases underlines the centrality of collective organization to…

Health care workers at eight sites were trained to serve on interdisciplinary geriatric care teams. Challenges included differing levels of experience and geriatric knowledge, discipline specific-language and practice philosophies, and scheduling conflicts. Techniques to overcome them included case studies, standardized patients, cross-discipline…

In cooperative learning, students are typically assigned to heterogeneous teams. The Johns Hopkins University Elementary School Program uses four principal methods involving student team learning, including Student Teams-Achievement Divisions, Teams-Games-Tournament, Team Accelerated Instruction-Mathematics, and Cooperative Integrated Reading and…

Examines, from one participant's viewpoint, a summer workshop designed to enable three competing groups to work together to design a new general studies curriculum for the Community College of Philadelphia. Using hermeneutic methods, analyzes participants' progress as both vying interest groups and members of one dialogical community. (13…

Proposes an instructional design model for the production of courseware and combines this model with software engineering principles to specify project management responsibilities and procedures. Describes the roles of team members involved in the project and offers a project template to manage production activities to ensure that end products…

Points out the difference between "education," to increase intellectual awareness, and "training," to make someone proficient at a given task. Suggests that the formula for real training has four components: (1) define the measure of skillfulness required; (2) define the measurable outcome desired; (3) educate quickly and precisely; and (4) train…

Describes the Quality Improvement Program developed by Florida Power and Light's Nuclear Training organization that was awarded the Deming Application Prize for quality control. Training quality, team activities, training's role in business planning, customer involvement and evaluation, and continuous improvement of training are discussed. (LRW)

Argues that theater is the natural art form of democracy. Defines democracy in theater as a system of popular rule that values the individual's contribution to defining, legislating, and regulating the common good--during rehearsals, all troupe members have to agree. Concludes that democracy in theater is not perfect, but it has more successes…

Recommends team assignments as an effective technique for business courses. Addresses peer evaluation and dealing with students who evade responsibility through a formal method of disassociating them from the team. (SK)

Principals desiring to obtain their schools' share of available grant money must direct the grant-writing process. After mastering basic principles and vocabulary, principals should form a grant proposal team, tend to public relations, share important data with team members, identify matching funds and in-kind services, contact the funding…

A group process model for team building was tested using a management simulation game with 144 business students. Compared to controls, participants who experienced the team-building process reported significantly higher satisfaction, trust, openness, and social support. (SK)

Today's participatory work cultures are moving power down through organizations. Many of them empower self-directed work teams (SDTs) with the responsibility for managing themselves and their work. Key issues in building successful SDTs include selecting team players, training for success, and rewarding team performance. (JOW)

Describes a turnaround principal's efforts to hire new teachers, revamp the educational program, and increase parent involvement in an Oklahoma City elementary school that had been closed because of substandard achievement test performance. Donna H. Lueker's sidebar describes Project Phoenix, the program that vastly improved city schools the year…

Discusses problems that arise when employees are asked to cooperate with each other to improve the company but are rewarded for individual performance. Offers solutions such as rewarding behaviors and offering a combination of salary plans. (JOW)