Infusing five processes into assignments can help students hone the skills they'll need to address complex problems. The world students will enter is full of complex, unpredictable problems--and students will need sophisticated thinking skills to cope. The authors unpack five thinking processes students need to internalize through opportunities in…

Parent educational involvement is an important avenue for enhancing student outcomes. Schools seek myriad ways to include families; however, the parent involvement practices used by schools lack coordination and are disconnected from existing school approaches. School wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a systematic and…

This teaching case discusses the analysis of an electronic voting system. The development of the case was motivated by research into information security and management, but as it includes procedural aspects, organizational structure and personnel, it is a suitable basis for all aspects of systems analysis, planning and design tasks. The material…

The authors developed this experiential exercise to aid students in learning how others perceive them as well as how they perceive others and, ultimately, to begin to help them identify the origins of such perceptions. The exercise's goal is to explore how participants may make inaccurate perceptions of others and how they might pierce through…

It is important for students to develop critical thinking and other higher-order thinking skills during their tertiary studies. Along with the ability to think critically comes the need to develop students' meta-cognitive skills. These abilities work together to enable students to control, monitor, and regulate their own cognitive processes and…

This introductory article defines and delimits expert systems. The discussion covers the concepts of artificial intelligence, the components of an expert system, and the significance of expert systems when compared to more traditional decision making tools. (CLB)

Reviews the development of artificial intelligence systems and the mechanisms used, including knowledge representation, programing languages, and problem processing systems. Eleven books and 6 journals are listed as sources of information on artificial intelligence. (23 references) (CLB)

The authors discuss ways to define a company's position on productivity, and explain productivity concepts. They describe a problem cause/solution set matrix with which to identify accurately the most probable cause of productivity problems. (SK)

A guide for organizational development specialists, this model for productivity improvement proceeds through six stages: awareness of needs, entry of specialist, data collection, problem identification, action planning, and implementation of solutions. Examples of specific activities for each stage are provided. (SK)

Describes a rationale, instrument, and methodology to improve the practice of organization needs analysis. The approach involves the author's "career of the organization" exercise for the trainer's use in identifying organization problems and in conceptualizing the nature of needs-analysis problem solving relating to both individual and…

Focusing on improvement is different than focusing on quality, quantity, customer satisfaction, and productivity. This paper discusses Open System Theory, and suggests ways to change large systems. Changing a system (meaning the way all the parts are connected) requires a considerable amount of data gathering and analysis. Choosing the proper…

The greater organizational complexity of libraries and information centers in recent years has given rise to more complex problems for managers. To facilitate solutions, operations research (OR) techniques have been developed that consider the quantitative dimensions of problems along with their political and organizational aspects. Eight standard…

The size, cost, and complexity of quantitative modeling in the social and physical sciences demand that modelers focus attention on premodeling phases of analysis, specifically on formulation and definition of problems. This is especially true in the areas of futures research and technology assessment. At the problem-defining stage of modeling, a…

This paper is an account of the theoretical and practical underpinnings of the Decision-Proposal Modification Coding System (DPM), which allows researchers to study more accurately the many aspects of group decision making in organizations. Following an introduction that reviews and supports arguments for process-oriented research on decision…

This article discusses tools developed to aid the systems analysis process (program evaluation and review technique, Gantt charts, organizational charts, decision tables, flowcharts, hierarchy plus input-process-output). Similarities and differences among techniques, library applications of analysis, structured systems analysis, and the data flow…