This paper is concerned with the following problem: Given a tentative educational system, constructed to reach certain predetermined objectives and satisfying a set of well-formulated constraints, how can mechanisms be installed and operated such that rational, iterative improvement of the system can be made?" (Author)

Article describes findings of a survey of systems engineering programs made in 1968 by the Systems Science and Cybernetics Education Committee. (IR)

System design can be improved through the participation of the people who will eventually use the system, if they can be provided with the necessary skills. A framework for such an approach to system design is described.

Discusses the potential sources of knowledge for customizing transportable natural language query systems, including sophisticated dictionaries, database content, and human database experts. A rough quantification of the importance of each source is provided. (17 references) (Author/CLB)

This article responds to the reply by Cooper and Shallice to Botvinick and Plaut's previous comment . In the authors' view, the reply by Cooper and Shallice left their original responses more or less intact. The present exchange has strongly highlighted the degree to which any account of the habit system will interact with how the goal-directed…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show that changes in social systems do not occur randomly. They are consistent with what has gone on before, with the history and identity of the system. As long as the organizing principles of a dominant culture remain unchallenged, behavior of all the social-units originating from this culture will remain…

Here is a short presentation of the main statistical indicators for higher education. The analysis was structured on national and regional level and also taking in account the differences between private and state universities. We have focused on some indicators regarding students and teachers flows. Romanian case is a special one, that had no…

Understanding complex systems is fundamental to understanding science. The complexity of such systems makes them very difficult to understand because they are composed of multiple interrelated levels that interact in dynamic ways. The goal of this study was to understand how experts and novices differed in their understanding of two complex…

Postwar librarians have sacrificed the humanistic basis of librarianship and regard the use of science in librarianship as a settled issue. American librarianship is currently dominated by the physical thinking of scientific systems theory, which includes Bertalanffy's general system theory, Wiener's cybernetics, and the Hartley-Shannon theory of…

A change in focus of much of the work of the Society for General Systems Research for greater impact, relevance, and productivity is suggested. Tentative unit concepts for 23 areas of study or disciplines are explored. A unit concept is defined as the central, pivotal concept around which virtually all other basic concepts in a field revolve. The…