The middle grades are a time of change for adolescent learners. Middle schoolers are in the process of refining their social skills and their self-concept. They begin taking responsibility for their education and making decisions about their own learning. They start planning for college and careers, understanding for the first time how their…

The study presented in this article focuses on strategic planning in developing countries, drawing on the author's experiences in a dozen developing countries in Asia and Africa and focus groups in three of those countries: Afghanistan, Madagascar, and South Africa. It looks at the special challenges faced by planners in developing countries and…

Japan and Korea have highly developed information and communications technology infrastructures and have recently reformed their higher education systems and encouraged e-transformation. However, Japanese universities have not embraced e-learning as wholeheartedly as their Korean counterparts. The paper concludes that this is due to governmental…

Background: There has been much educational verbosity over the past decade related to building capacity for effective schools. However, there seems to be a scarcity of clarification about what is meant by school capacity building or how to accomplish and sustain this process. This article describes the preexisting conditions and ongoing processes…

This article attempts to verify some assumptions evident in the scenario planning literature through the application of quantitative measures. The Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire is used to measure participant perceptions of the learning organization characteristics pre- and post-scenario planning intervention. Results are…

Traditionally, new board members have taken up roles that were established and well-defined long ago. But globalization swiftly and utterly changed that mindset. Institutions now are directly affected by events occurring thousands of miles away, and it is no longer possible to rely solely on long-standing, accepted board practices to provide good…

American higher education has never been more in need of good governance than it is right now. Yet much of the structure many boards have inherited or created tends to stall or impede timely, well-informed, and broadly supported decision making. At many institutions (ours included), layers of governance have been added with each passing year,…

One of the original missions of the two-year college, the transfer mission was highly criticized in the latter part of the twentieth century. It is currently experiencing both challenges and opportunities due to changing enrollment demographics and governmental interest in transfer and articulation.

In this article, a number of future energy visions, especially those basing the energy systems on hydrogen, are discussed. Some often missing comparisons between alternatives, from a sustainability perspective, are identified and then performed for energy storage, energy transportation, and energy use in vehicles. It is shown that it is important…

By answering one fundamental question--"What will success look like?"--an educational institution has begun a process of defining its vision. It is undeniable that an institution will ever be greater than its dream; therefore, what is needed first and foremost is an articulated vision to propel an educational institution into a preferred future.…

Purpose: To challenge the deliberate strategy approach of the environmental management system (EMS) cycle, and offer a model based on both the practical reality experienced at Dalhousie University and emergent strategy theory. Also, to share some of the lessons learned in the 15 years of environmental management at Dalhousie University.…

Quality academic advising in higher education is the product of a multitude of elements not the least of which is institutional vision. By recognizing and embracing an institution's concept of its capabilities and the kinds of educated human beings it is attempting to cultivate, advisors gain an invaluable apparatus to guide the provision of…

The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) has more than 37,000 members and constitutes one of the largest single-theme scientific societies in the United States. Although many of its members are engaged in various activities that support their local science education programs, historically the society has not played a major role in shaping the national…

Handling upset parents, unexpected kid behavior, and touchy school politics are some of the toughest parts of a teacher's job. As such, it never hurts to have an emergency plan or two tucked away and a few tried-and-true strategies one can count on. In this article, the author presents several sticky situations and corresponding solutions for…

This study utilized Cameron's (1978) construct of organizational effectiveness to identify the relationship between the predictor variables of: (1) managerial strategy; (2) organizational culture; (3) change in the external environment; and (4) resource dependency, using causal modeling procedures. This construct is a theoretical framework that…