A study analyzed the policies of 20 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries pertaining to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Aims of the study were to assess the current role of SMEs as generators and users of innovations, to analyze the components of a favorable climate for innovation in SMEs, and to…

This book has a threefold purpose. First, it provides a problem-solving framework for comprehensively analyzing and attacking current weaknesses in both pre- and in-service teacher education. Next, it explains how this approach can be applied by providing concrete examples of procedures and products appropriate to each of three problem-solving…

This module is one in a series of seven focused on skills vocational teachers need to develop and manage programs that are performance-based and fully individualized. Designed to allow for individualization of a teacher education program, these modules supplement those prepared by the National Center for Research in Vocational Education for…

The notion of intervention strategies is introduced in this paper to explain why and when certain change efforts are successful. It is argued that the choice of control points and the selection of control linkages are determined by characteristics of the task in the implementing agency. Many implementation failures can be attributed to the…

This review of theories and research relating to attitude and behavior change is organized according to five different theoretical approaches to the understanding and changing of attitudes. Selected because they seemed to provide the basis for research on how attitudes and accompanying behaviors can be changed and empirical evidence on what works…

A study of 4,692 news stories from Egyptian, Algerian, and Tunisian electronic and print news media was conducted to see how state-controlled media reflected government policy changes following the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty and the subsequent diplomatic break between Egypt and Arab League nations. The study found that the three controlled…

The purpose of the document is to present ideas as guidelines for developing communication strategies to use in promoting change in rural Bangladesh villages. It gives hypothetical examples to show how communication material can be developed; offers a schematic design meant to show how communications personnel can function within the framework of…

Written for school districts with one high school, this report is designed to help communities plan for fewer students at the high school level. The report is divided into four parts. Part I discusses the nature of the problem, the difference between elementary and high school decline, and the special case of the single high school district. Part…

Linking agents, called "field agents," coordinated and provided educational improvement services to schools participating in the National Institute of Education's Research and Development Utilization (RDU) program. To assess the field agents' roles, attitudes, behaviors, and client relations, researchers surveyed and interviewed agents,…

A study of the ethnic attitudes of white fifth and sixth graders in elementary schools in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, revealed highly negative racial attitudes toward blacks and East Indians. It was concluded that traditional educational measures were ineffective in promoting positive racial attitudes. In response to these findings, 170 students…

This paper describes a method of research to examine the process of effecting educational change through adopting innovative ideas. Twenty-nine elementary teachers in the process of adopting a complex curricular innovation were studied. Because of the complex nature of this process, ordering theory was used as the method for analyzing the adoption…

In terms of federal precedent, Indian education can be said to represent the avant-garde. Federal involvement in Indian education began in 1890 with tuition payment on a per capita basis for Indians attending public schools and continued with provisions of the 1934 Johnson O'Malley Act and the 1972 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This…

The author argues that despite the conventional wisdom that schools cannot overcome the effects of socioeconomic status and race on academic achievement, there is a growing body of literature indicating that school climate and students' sense of control of their environment are strongly correlated with achievement. Five school-specific strategies…

This booklet suggests how rural pressure groups can be implemented. Listed among the variables of local structure which an organizer is to look for when assessing some particular rural area are: rural traditions, (exemplified by self-reliance and/or independent businesses), geographic and physical links, economic power conditions, social and…

This report is a summary of a study about minority participation in higher education. The first section of this summary presents a series of recommendations designed to assist in making institutions of higher education better able to meet the needs of racial, ethnic, and minority groups. Following chapters present descriptive data about various…