Customer service is a core component of user experience and an important element in making patrons feel welcomed and valued within our libraries. At the University of Maryland Libraries, we took on the challenging task of creating a customer service training curriculum for all staff working at public service points and offering a digital badge for…

This article offers some strategies for closing the linkage between initial needs assessment and the implementation of change. Examined are: prioritizing needs through criteria analysis, developing a cyclical implementation/staff inservice plan, and utilizing an analytical problem solving approach to curriculum and decision making. (Author/RAO)

To assist vocational educators with long-range planning, the authors discuss understanding needs assessment and defining needs, describe the levels and stages of needs assessment, and present sources and tools for conducting assessments. (SK)

Between 1975 and 1977 an instructional research team and a Teacher Corps Project at Hopkinsville Middle School in Kentucky began the development of an inservice teacher education program designed to combine the experience of inservice teachers with the knowledge of university faculty. This report contains samples of the results of this type of…

New Hampshire's successful inservice plan has three main characteristics: local control, direct link to recertification, and lack of state funding. The New Hampshire Staff Development Plan is based on locally controlled inservice education. Teachers must participate in the local plan in order to be recertified. Staff development is financed by the…

Staff development is rapidly becoming more visible and more expensive. School boards and the voting public are becoming aware of the increasing costs and are demanding to know how effectively the money is being spent. It will become increasingly difficult, even job-threatening, for superintendents who guide ineffective staff development programs.…

Designed for teachers and administrators in small rural school districts, this booklet examines ongoing curriculum improvement according to what a small rural school district needs to continuously improve instruction and what steps it can take to maximize improvement, given limited human and material resources. Practical alternatives are presented…

Analysis of 202 questionnaires completed by childcare center personnel found 90 percent of respondents agreed with the concept of integration of young children with special needs and 76 percent thought integration was beneficial for typically developing children. Curriculum adaptations, classroom integration, and identification of developmental…

A competency-based training course was designed to prepare Professional Development Center (PDC) instructors for the certification process. After an exhaustive review of the literature, it was determined that a relevant training course that would specifically reflect the needs of the PDC was not available. The decision was then made to design a…

Conducted to determine priority areas for program improvement activities in Alabama's vocational education system, the specific objectives of this study were to develop a list of areas that are in need of vocational education research and that should be addressed through exemplary programs; develop a list of needs for curriculum development…

The need for a multidimensional approach to teacher education is discussed in light of the educational trends of the last decade, and the rationale behind Murray State University's (Kentucky) inservice teacher education program is explained. A short history of the university's involvement with inservice teacher education is given, and an outline…

Discusses staff development for technology use whose goal is to help teachers use technology as a dynamic part of the curriculum. Highlights include creating a team to design a vision of technology integration; understanding adult learners; assessing teachers' needs; designing individual learning plans (ILPs); and evaluating staff development…

The Rural Development Distance Learning and Training Strategy targets locally recruited field staff of the World Bank Rural Sector. Field staff at the bank's mission offices worldwide are heterogeneous in terms of culture, ethnicity, race, gender, social class, and religion. However, they have the following in common: they follow the Bank's work…

A study of the need for inservice education and training among the staff of the Namibian extension service revealed that the service has approximately 100 field staff who have very different and often patchy preservice training but who have acquired considerable experience. Workshops with extension staff members were then held to identify their…

This study sought to determine whether there are national training needs among staff of conductive education programs in New Zealand. Conductive education is a unified system of education for children and adults with a motor disorder whose disability has been caused by damage to the central nervous system. The study, which focuses primarily on…