This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: (1) identifying problem formation behaviors within the process of organizational change; (2) using the communication audit to determine decision style, satisfaction, and communication…

The management strategy of calling attention to problems and labeling them as crises is discussed as a method of coping with prolonged periods of shrinking resources. Part I, "Entering the Realm of Crisis," discusses the importance of defining a crisis, the crisis as an organizational good, and when to declare a crisis. Two types of…

The document provides the revised curriculum guide for Project SOCRATES, a program designed for academically gifted students in grades 4 and 5. The guide is organized according to the project's four goal areas: development of creative thinking, for casting, reasoning, and planning and decision making. Under each goal are listed objectives and…

While many states are considering mandating Competency Based Teacher Education (CBTE), certain basic problems should be addressed before official action is taken. Some confusion exists over the exact definition of CBTE and how a state views teacher education will affect the thrust of CBTE programs. The selection of competencies and the…

This publication contains 58 case studies for classroom use in teaching various business and consumer education subjects at the high school level. A supplement to a previous Phi Chapter publication, "Office Education Case Studies" (1973), the case studies are intended to create class discussions and help students acquire the ability to analyze…

This booklet is a self-study course in decision-making. Designed for the high school student, its purpose is to help the student develop and apply decision-making skills. The booklet contains both information and exercises. It begins with a discussion of why thoughtful decision-making is important, then deals with self-evaluation, sources of…

The use of analytical models and quantitative methods for both short- and long-range problem solving offer library managers an excellent opportunity to improve and rationalize decision-making for strategic and organizational planning. The first step is to identify the problems confronting the library and understand its current capabilities.…

The TIPS (Teaching Information Processing System) Course Package was designed to be used with the Macro-Games Course Package (SO 011 930) in order to train college students to apply the tools of economic analysis to current problems. TIPS is used to provide feedback and individualized assignments to students, as well as information about the…

IN GENERAL, PROBLEM SOLUTIONS CAN BE FOUND ALONG A CONTINUUM OF ABSTRACTION FROM THE SPECIFIC TO THE GENERAL. THERE IS, AT ANY GIVEN POINT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOLUTION, A MOST EFFICIENT OR OPTIMUM STRATEGY. IN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION IS USUALLY OBTAINED, AT A MORE SPECIFIC RATHER THAN AT A MORE ABSTRACT LEVEL. THE…

Center for New Schools (CNS) worked with the Illinois Office of Education to develop this guide for informing educational professionals and citizens interested in educational improvement concerning ways to carry out local problem solving in their schools. The guide focuses especially on parent involvement in the process of problem solving. Several…

Program administrators for 64 Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) programs in New York City were asked to respond to a questionnaire rating scale concerning the helpfulness and quantity of information that had been provided to them by the program evaluators. The rating scale categorized areas of administrative decision making in five…

In an age when decision making is becoming more and more significant for us human beings as we face dilemmas about whether or not to clone, to engineer behavior on mass scale, to expand or to decrease nuclear power, we educators must assist students to increase their decision-making skills. Many of our students will soon be decision makers for…

Two pilot studies investigated the effects of using Instructional Math Play (IMP) Kits, pamphlets with which individuals may play the mathematical game EQUATIONS against a computer program. Twenty-nine junior high students in a high-ability mathematics class completed varying numbers of the kits in five 48-minute sessions during a two-week period;…

In this report from the National Education Association's "Developments in Classroom Instruction" series, the need to mandate immediate training of our young people in alternative problem solving for the future is examined. The emergence of multiple threats to human survival, rapid rate of social change, and complexity that has overtaken our…

The process of university leadership is examined in terms of (1) the development of more sophisticated models of the kind of organization a university is, and (2) the development of more precise delineations of the nature of the multiple leadership tasks that must be performed in a university setting. The university is viewed as an "organized…