Offers a definition of electronic performance support systems (EPSS) which is evolving to a systems approach. Highlights include strategic issues, including improved quality, retention of corporate knowledge, and responsiveness to business change; and cost factors, including increased productivity, reduced training costs, and development costs.…

Discusses teachers' use of systematic instructional design practices; describes fundamental components of instructional design; explains a teacher planning inventory; and reports on a study of junior and senior high school teachers that examined their use of instructional design practices in their planning routines. (Contains 21 references.) (LRW)

Presents a model of cognition and emotion that suggests that feedback between cognition and emotion generates, maintains, and reconfigures interpretations of emotion-eliciting events at micro- and macrodevelopmental time scales and that personality and behavior self-organize in response to fluctuations in perception or cognition and trace…

Argues that, because the resources of most contemporary nuclear families for monitoring and providing alternative incentives are not sufficient to compete with the positive contingencies associated with substance use, communities must support parent's efforts by supplementing them. (LKS)

The most visible large-scale university initiatives in the schools are those in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and Pueblo, Colorado. Thanks to special state legislation, Boston University has been running the Chelsea school system since 1989. The Pueblo system, which more closely resembles a corporate merger, represents a formal agreement to transform…

Whether viewed through Deming's 14 points, Juran's Trilogy, or Kaoru Ishikawa's Thought Revolution, Total Quality Management embodies 4 fundamental tenets: primary focus on customers and suppliers, universal commitment to continuous improvement, a systems approach, and top management responsibility. Educational organizations are recreating their…

Seeds of public education's current failures are found in its past successes (transmitting culture and providing custodial care). Education is experiencing paradigm paralysis because of piecemeal reform approaches, failure to integrate solution ideas, and reductionist, boundary-limiting orientation. The old system is no longer adequate. Total…

Ways to fit in total quality management training include (1) avoiding premature or unnecessary training; (2) restructuring for efficiency; (3) offering incentives for after-hours training; (4) integrating quality philosophy into strategic planning and performance management; (5) providing a context for using the skills learned; and (6) securing…

Synthesizes a conceptual framework (or linguistic-conceptual systems) for thinking about conceptual frameworks, discusses their potential for helping users develop competence in applying them to unstructured problem solving, and outlines instructional implications. The theory-practice gap arises partly from failure to conceptualize the nature of…

Educational and political issues involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of a social/behavioral component are discussed, and a model for instructional design using a systems approach is outlined. The system model is applied specifically to the pharmacy school structure, resources, and curriculum. (MSE)

Organizational change should be approached first by identifying organizational goals, what people should produce to meet them, what kind of people are needed, and how performance can be elicited. The role of performance technology is to assist people in accomplishing the tasks necessary to achieve the goals. (SK)

There are three critical attributes of genuine outcome-based learning systems: coherence, congruence, and commitment to student success. Preliminary results from three pioneering school districts show improved student performance on standardized and criterion-referenced tests. Educators will be challenged to develop a shared vision of the…

Describes a strengths assessment process for families with emotionally disabled members. Using a systems framework, this assessment approach does not focus on problems, but rather provides a reliable means for recognizing family strengths that can be used as resources to meet the family's needs, goals, and objectives. (TJQ)

Uses the example of the Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Basin Watershed to explore the conflict between current political jurisdictions and the ecosystem approach. (Contains 14 references.) (MDH)

The effect of computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) on working conditions depends on the way in which the technologies are designed to fit operator requirements, work organization, and organizational objectives. Recent attempts to promote skill-based human-centered approaches to CIM design are aimed at introducing humane working conditions…