Considers how peoples' creative problem-solving efforts are influenced by organizational characteristics. Examines the situations which call for creative problem solving at work and describes the kinds of processes people must apply to solve these problems. Reviews organizational variables that help or hinder these processes. (Author/CR)

Offers suggestions and strategies designed to enhance skills for planning, motivating, and implementing organizational change for librarians assuming the role of change agent. Highlights include the human side of change, including fear and anxiety; and a process model of change that includes three stages: endings, transitions, and new beginnings.…

Examines schooling of English children living in temporary accommodations. Notes research confirming poor progress in improving policy, practice, and services to meet their educational needs. Examines difficulties in providing access to schooling in light of changes in education and housing policies. Assesses possibility for improved provision,…

Introduces specific techniques to enhance client change by using vocational assessment tools. Techniques are discussed with respect to the stages of a developmental change model. Illustrates sample counseling techniques (i.e., validation and concrescence, revitalization, and meaning making), so that career counselors can help clients use…

Data from 22 business graduate students on a team-building course were used to identify themes important for teamwork: getting to know one another, egalitarianism, team spirit, task achievement, and unfinished business. Teams appeared to be dynamic and constantly adapting to circumstances; therefore, evaluation should not view them as a finished…

A study of five Coalition of Essential Schools member high schools, each with different demographics but all involved in reform for at least seven years, yielded clues about effective whole-school reform strategies. Schools are more likely to succeed if they use continuous revisioning, adopt interconnected initiatives, deal directly with…

Examines contextual variables that affect treatment integrity. Considers change agent contingencies and describes a matrix of social interaction patterns among target children, direct change agents, and indirect change agents. Proposes that strategies described in the literature are equally applicable to change agents that increase fidelity of…

Discusses performance measures for libraries that will indicate the goodness of the library and its services. Highlights include a general evaluation model that includes input, process, output, and outcome measures; balanced scorecard approach that includes financial perspectives; focusing on strategy; strategies for change; user criteria for…

Describes North Carolina's efforts to develop a school readiness definition and assessment plan, focusing on differentiating readiness from eligibility and giving equal weight to schools' capacity to educate all children. Presents selected findings from the statewide assessment. Describes dilemmas faced by the state and their resolutions.…

Presents an international perspective on Cochran-Smith and Fries' recent analysis of the ways that two competing ideologies (deregulation and professionalization) are being employed in the United States to support teacher education reform, noting important differences between the United States and England in how these ideologies have been advanced…

Responding to the gap between language and content that prevails in most foreign language departments, discusses the reconceptualization of third-year German in the curricular reform at Georgetown University. Comments on the concept of "task" that guided the reform and outlines the design of the new advanced course, discusses one course module in…

Discusses the elements of constructivist instruction/teaching. Constructivism is seen as ultimate decentralization, with student and teacher able to make decisions regarding what and how they learn. The few studies on leadership and constructivism note the power of constructivist leadership in decentralizing schools and even classes or teams, with…

Results are reported from an analysis of the research literature including children with disabilities (birth through age 5), their families, personnel who serve them, and policies and systems change strategies related to the provision of services. Analysis reveals trends in research methods and for studying particular topics and information about…

Describes the change strategies involved in moving a mediocre child care program onto the road to excellence. Highlights strategies focusing on changing staff perceptions of themselves and their practices with families, obtaining honest observations of staff, visiting other programs for inservice training, examining educational practices in terms…

Discusses a case study involving organizational change and its effect on employees. Presents three responses to the case study: "Paradox of Ordering Change: I Insist That We Work as a Team" (Paaige K. Turner); "Managing Change Is Managing Meaning" (Greg Hearn and Abraham Ninan); and "The Psychodynamics of an Organizational Change Initiative"…