The complexity of the optimization algorithm for staff utilization in any medium to large organization can cause major problems in meeting schedules while still keeping all of the work force in full employment, working at a level appropriate to their experience, and also giving staff an opportunity to develop new skills and experiences that will…

A study of the holistic evaluation of writing compared holistic rating and the rating for "conformity to correct prose" technique, a technique based on error counting, of five essays representing five ability levels. The essays were produced in a college English-as-a-Second-Language program. The two scoring methods produced the same ranking of…

The Burlington County (New Jersey) Special Services School District provides comprehensive services and programs to 700 severely impaired students from the ages of 3 to 21. To provide these students with a high quality education, the district has built modern, state-of-the-art facilities designed with the needs of the handicapped specifically in…

Effective writing assessment involves judging how well a writer is encouraged by the classroom's social context to pull together ideas and to bring experience to bear on abstractions. Four main points can be made to justify this view. First, assessment by standardized test determines a teach-and-test model of instruction. But a curriculum that…

A holistic approach to planning the preretirement education of active duty noncommissioned officers was formulated on the basis of Sample and Kaufman's Organizational Elements Model. The approach stresses removing the responsibility for education and employment of veterans from the state and Federal level and placing it on the individual soldier.…

A study demonstrated how recordings of ongoing electroencephalographic (EEG) activity can be used to study global aspects of complex cognitive processes that take place during the reading and encoding of connected discourse. The methods utilized allowed the study of complex cognitive processes within an ecologically valid paradigm (natural…

The initial stimulus for measuring the composition skills of students in the Des Moines (IA) Independent Community School District came in 1980-81 when the school board adopted a goal for the year which stated: "The district should have school programs that improve pupils' competency in written expression." The intent of the original…

This paper describes an innovative approach to teaching a college course on self-management/self-control. Following a brief background statement on the history and applications of self-management, as well as the deficits of traditional self-management instruction, multimodal therapy (Lazarus, 1976, 1981) is discussed as the conceptual framework…

This paper describes two recent seminars for exemplary K-12 public school teachers from North Carolina held at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT). A discussion is presented on the program's rationale. The seminars are examined in the light of the framework of an article on four conceptions of excellence: (1)…

Based on the Carnegie Foundation study of baccalaureate programs, which found that many colleges are confused as to their mission and are fragmenting the disciplines into smaller and smaller pieces, a case is made for revising the higher education curriculum. Coursework is fragmented because of the growth of specialized fields within the…

In a holistic approach to education, the various parts are related to the whole in such a way that education is no longer fragmented and unrelated to the larger society. Because it is difficult to define what is meant by the term "holistic," educators have been hesitant to use such an approach even though a growing body of literature supports the…

This paper examines the area of teachers' practical arguments (arugments consisting in the search for a plan of action), considering questions such as: How does rationality manifest itself in practice, and in specific human practices like teaching? Is practical reasoning in teaching moral? Do values of theoretical reasoning, such as universality,…

This paper suggests that present-day curriculum, based on Newtonian thought, has been rendered obsolete by the holistic and interactive "post-modern" world view based on quantum physics, nonlinear mathematics, general systems theory, and Ilya Prigogine's nonequilibrium thermodynamics. The Newtonian world view, which is linear and…

The scientific approach with humans is usually subject to many human and environmental variables that are difficult to control. Reading behavior and reading disability are two of the most researched topics in education and psychology, yet reading research continues to abound with contradictions. Standardized tests, speed reading, and computer…

Semi-projective holistic methods in political science research can augment knowledge of political attitudes and political reasoning. Semi-projective methods refer to techniques which present focused or structured stimuli and allow an unrestricted range of responses. Visual stimuli include ink blots, standard drawings, political cartoons, or…