With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the new English Language Development (ELD) standards, California has embarked on its third wave of major curriculum reform, continuing a process that began with the initial round of curriculum frameworks in the 1980s and that continued with the adoption of the California State…

This article presents information on current aspects in the use of technology to improve student outcomes and engagement, prepare learners for their future and support educators in adopting new pedagogies for teaching and learning. Based on the authors' research of exemplary school leaders and reviewing literature on the use of twenty-first…

For many districts, the improvement process can seem like trying to nail Jello to the wall. This fieldbook shows how to avoid a haphazard approach by focusing on all aspects of the system and specific issues that have most impact upon student achievement. This multidimensional process also entails increasing the competencies of everyone involved…

This action research study sought to examine the impact of applying the Human Performance Technology (HPT) principles to an intervention already in place in a suburban Missouri school district, and to review how those involved perceived the change of using the HPT approach. This action research study also examined what happened to the…

In this commentary on Ziegler and Phillipson's article, "Towards a Systemic Theory of Gifted Education" (this issue), the author commends their attempt to discuss gifted education from a systemic and contextual perspective, which she considers inspiring in terms of theoretical advancement and practical reconsideration. However, Cheng finds the…

Objective: The authors demonstrate the value of reflective team supervision as part of the informal curriculum in an emergency psychiatry setting after a potentially traumatizing adverse event. Method: The article gives a case presentation of a violent adolescent who eloped from his hospital Emergency Department and provides a description of team…

Social media practices are increasingly woven into the everyday lives of teens and adults, becoming a significant part of how they relate, know, and learn. In this article, I present findings from a design-based research study that explored how the dynamics of learning and teaching art shift through social media. Learning and teaching through…

The challenge faced by senior facility leaders is not how to execute a single project, but rather, how to successfully execute a large program consisting of hundreds of projects. Senior facilities officers at universities, school districts, hospitals, airports, and other organizations with extensive facility inventories, typically manage project…

This paper attempts to deal with the elusive nature of quality in quality management, using a case study to examine quality control measures implemented in an academic context and to show an emergent framework for quality enhancement. This paper introduces the concept of the ecology of quality assurance and examines efforts to maintain and advance…

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) presents a number of symptoms and adjustment issues for individuals, but it is also associated with a myriad of risks for the larger family system. A systemic perspective is crucial to comprehending the development of BPD. Promoting healthy relationships with one or more supportive adult enables the child to…

There is a discrepancy currently in public schools when comparing the identification and instruction of underachieving students with gifted and talented (GT) students. A three-tiered identification and instructional model was developed out of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) with emphasis coming from the No Child…

Facilitative leadership, in the context of whole school development for greater inclusive practices offers a positive contribution to the discourse of school leadership. This article presents an exploration of the development of greater inclusive practices across an early years service and an elementary school that are both adopting a whole school…

Research on teachers' beliefs has provided useful insights into understanding processes of teaching. However, no research has explored teachers' beliefs as a system nor have researchers investigated the substance of interactions between teachers' beliefs, practices and context. Therefore, the author adopts complexity theory to explore the features…

The purpose of this research was to ascertain the views of staff and managers within a youth offending team on their experiences of working with a speech and language therapist (SLT). The model of therapy provision was similar to the whole-systems approach used in schools. The impact of the service on language outcomes is reported elsewhere…

The paper examines how the use of hybrid models--that consist of the interacting continuous and discrete processes--may assist in teaching system thinking. We report an experiment in which undergraduate students were asked to choose between a hybrid and a continuous solution for a number of control problems. A correlation has been found between…