The prime purpose of this document on Alberta, Canada's project SEARCH (Selection of Educational Alternatives for Rural Change) was that of acquainting the interested reader with the project. The SEARCH program, which evolved through the felt need to improve rural education, had 2 major objectives: to select and field test promising innovations…

The authors seek to show the potentiality of research organizations for the achievement of basic university goals, and to isolate the conditions that impede or promote the success of these integrative agencies. In addition, they examine the role of the managerial scholars who are in the positions of leadership since they believe this role is vital…

The creation of cluster colleges was in response to the serious problems facing undergraduate education: the impersonality of large institutions, the limited resources of small schools, and the irrelevance of academic programs. There are two types of cluster college: (1) a federation of usually small schools, with each college maintaining its…

Three conferences on educational innovation raised basic questions concerning goals and values for junior college students. Speakers addressed each of the conferences on problems encountered in their respective areas of humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences. The addresses are presented, along with recommendations made by the…

This report presents an experiment in post-graduate training of mental health professionals through innovative education designed not only to inform but to produce changes in individual attitudes, roles, and skills, as well as in agency programs. The educational design was based on a human factors or sociocentric change model. Included in Part One…

The purpose of this paper is to examine and evaluate the form, function, and effectiveness of Illinois demonstration centers established as change agents for the improvement of district programs for gifted children. The evaluation involved an analysis of the centers' policies formulated over an extended time period, the quality of the…

In the belief that large numbers of college teachers would be eager to experiment with new teaching techniques and design new courses if they were given the opportunity and time to do so, the Union for Research and Experimentation in Higher Education established "Project Changeover." There was immense support for this summer workshop…

The problem with interdisciplinary policy research in the academic community is that it is often approached simultaneously but independently by each discipline involved. A solution to this problem could be the "metadisciplinary" approach. The "meta" coalition is based on the notion that a commonality of interests between individuals of differing…

The claim that the US has the most diversified system of education stems primarily from the system's organizational variety and not from variety at the level of basic values. Institutions of higher education are now being challenged to extend their narrow regard for diversity into complex social realities and individual actions, and to enrich this…

The starting point for innovation in higher education must include assessment, evaluation, and description of the present situation. A national study of what constitutes the core values of American academic life today should be undertaken. In the evaluation of innovation, it is important to broaden the unit being studied to include legislators and…

Behavioral differences between school superintendents who achieve their positions through promotion in the home district (place bound) and those who achieve their positions through movement from one school system to another (career bound) were analyzed by means of interviews with 61 superintendents in one county. The study examined the rate of…

In 1969 the University of South Dakota set up a program of T-Group Experiences for the leaders of practicum groups. Relationships between the leaders as well as between the leaders and their groups were noted. Some fall out from the T-Group to the practicum group was observed. Inter-personal communication increased within practicum groups and a…

This paper presented views on the role of the university, and particularly the University of Alberta, in the community in the 1970s. Such indicators as population growth, income growth, rising level of education, rising levels of taxation, the rapidity of technological advance, shifts in social pattern, all pointed to a rapidly growing demand on…

A number of Maryland institutes have inaugurated an associate professional continuum, or latticework in mental health. The programs are designedly generalist in character, aiming at the preparation of persons competent to work in a variety of clinical settings. Job assignments and degree of clinical responsibility reflect many factors, level of…

An overview is presented of the residential college concept based on the integration of the living unit into a closer relationship with the basic academic and intellectual life of the institution. The history of the association of student housing with the formal academic program is traced, and theoretical bases for its implementation discussed.…