This handbook is designed to aid school administrators, policy-makers, and teachers in bringing a "futures orientation" to their schools. The first part of the book describes a "futuring process" developed as a tool for examining alternative future probabilities. It consists of a series of diverging and converging techniques that alternately…

Fourteen economic development practitioners were asked to participate in a modified Delphi study that attempted to provide a level of agreement about future trends and issues that affect economic development at the county level in Ohio. Literature from several fields was reviewed to find potential trends and issues and, using a Likert-type scale,…

Discusses the design, methodology, advantages, and disadvantages of the Delphi technique and describes a case study to demonstrate its use. The case study explored the nature of future media services in higher education to obtain long-range planning information for educational technologists and academic administrators. Recommendations of the study…

This report on a project called Performance Assessment for Self-Sufficiency (PASS) covers activities conducted in the first stage of expert system development: the acquisition of knowledge to be used as the foundation for the expert system prototype. The project is developing an information system for anticipating the service needs of young…

A method for improving curriculum and schools through the local development of competency tests in basic skills--the Competency-Rossville Model (CRM)--is outlined. The method was originated in the school system of Rossville (Illinois) and has been tested in five other midwestern school systems. The approach leads the faculty of the school, with…

This study used a multimethod research technique to examine the acquisition of key executive skills and attitudes required for success in the international business arena. Following a review of the literature, the report presents the results of responses by a panel of 36 international business experts from Canada, Mexico, and the United States to…

This paper examines changing demographics in the American work force during the 1990s and implications for the economy, for America's ability to compete globally, and for industry and education. In response to these workplace and demographic changes, the National Association for Industry-Education Cooperation utilized the technique of networking…

Most organizational problems are communication problems. The administrator must employ strategies for listening to employees (personal listening), and must allow the employees to participate in the decision-making process (corporate listening). The Marietta City School System (Georgia) employed several strategies to deal with the passive…

In 1988, the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges (CCC) employed the Delphi Technique to gather opinions from individuals throughout the CCC system about the major issues confronting community colleges and about possible solutions to these issues. Undertaken to assist the Board of Governors in preparing its 1988-89 Basic…

The issue of how to react quickly to the educational needs arising from technological change has been deemed a central problem facing Technical and Further Education (TAFE) in Australia. Therefore, a national study examined various curriculum research methods that hold promise for speeding up the curriculum research and development process. The…

Any group has the potential for mistrust, suspicion, and rancor, and so effective leadership involves developing attitudes that guide groups to recognize and work through conflict in order to maximize the potential for collaboration. This book offers practical guidance to leaders encountering conflict in their organizations. Based on years of…

Using the Delphi technique, a nationwide panel of experts identified 33 competencies that volunteer administrators (VAs) will need during the next decade and categorized them into these five constructs: organizational leadership; systems leadership; organizational culture; personal skills; and management skills. Twelve barriers to acquiring the…

Areas of business education that need to be researched were identified through a two-round study. First, 2 groups of more than 40 Delta Pi Epsilon members generated ideas for research topics at regional and national conferences. The resulting list of topics was edited and rated by a Delphi panel consisting of 15 educators from postsecondary and…

One of a series of studies related to the Delphi research project: "Policy Instruments for Higher Education in the Western Europe of the Future", this paper presents interviews by a Dutch researcher with 15 authorities on U.S. higher education and the written contributions of two other experts: M. Peterson, E. Hines, M. Gade, G. Rhoades,…

Fiscal reductions as well as growing conservatism may have a profound impact on many university programs, including Chicano Studies programs, which are expanding into research, publications, and other areas. To frame the issues of greatest concern to Chicano Studies programs, a small research effort at the University of New Mexico involved the…