By: Michael F. Lewis and Walter S. Polka
This article is a retrospective analysis of successful planning processes implemented in an urban school district in the Northeast United States to improve student behavior by incorporating positive behavior activities and strategies as well as infusing more specific character education into the curriculum. The results after three years of planning, implementing, and evaluating the program funded via a federal grant have been impressive. The planning and implementation approaches employed by the district for this program are consistent with those key “high-touch” approaches advocated by contemporary educational researchers and categorized in the planning literature as “managing in the effective change zone”. Thus, this paper provides a case study of managing change in the “effective change zone” to promote meaningful and sustaining results.
Organizational Change Process: A Study in Turkish Primary Public Schools
By: Derya Yilmaz and Gökhan Kiliçoğlu
The paper aims to identify views of school principals and teachers about organizational change process at primary public schools in Turkey as regards content, context, process and outcomes dimensions. The paper employs a qualitative study internalizing phenomenological approach. Criterion sampling strategy is used to get an in-depth understanding of organizational change process at schools. With a purposive sample of five school principals and five teachers experiencing principal change are participated the study. Participants of the study are interviewed through utilization of semi-structured interviews. As a result of in-depth analysis of data, five categories of data emerged under the factors of content, context, process and outcomes of change. Themes emerged from the study are “exposure for change” as regards localized change initiatives at schools and change initiatives of Ministry of National Education for content dimension; “internal environment” in terms of school principal leadership, demands of students for context dimension; “external environment” regarding competitive pressures, government regulations, changing knowledge and technological changes, standardized schools and demands of parents for context dimension; “process of change” in terms of initiation, implementation, post-implementation for process dimension; “affective and behavioral reactions” as regards resistance and trust for change, openness to change, encourage change, satisfaction for outcomes dimension.
Time Phased Manpower Model For Education Planning in Afghanistan
By: Benjamin Marlin and Han-Suk Sohn
This work provides the education planner with an introduction into the use of a time phased linear programming manpower model as it pertains to teacher demands at the provincial and national level. We first explain model fundamentals and then propose the use of such a model to provide keen insights into potential futures regarding a state’s education system. Then, we provide a case study that delves into the Afghanistan education system providing insights into teacher training capacity issues as well as potential disparities across genders and provinces. A modification of the model to provide sensitivity analysis regarding policy, assumptions, and uncertainty is also presented, which demonstrates the power of linear programming as a decision tool within the realm of complex policy analysis.
University Planning: A Conceptual Challenge
By: Ronald A. Lindahl
Most authorities on educational planning and change recognize that each situation is somewhat unique and that in complex organizations, like universities, a blend of approaches is necessary. Following the premise of the need for universities to approach planning from multiple perspectives, the purpose of this paper is to briefly explore the unique nature of universities and how this helps to define the considerations that must be taken into account when deciding which planning approaches should be used.
To accomplish this purpose, two primary frameworks are blended: Birnbaum’s classic text on the characteristics of universities and Bolman and Deal’s four frames for analyzing organizations (structural, human resource, political, and cultural). Against this backdrop, various approaches to educational planning are examined, e.g., incremental, bounded rational, comprehensive rational, mixed scanning, and developmental, to discern the situations and conditions under which they are appropriate for university planning. The overall conclusion is that due to the complexity of university characteristics and the need to examine the university’s needs and conditions through each of the four frames, university planners must be well versed in all approaches in order to select the one(s) most appropriate for a particular planning endeavor.
Detrimental Effects of White Valued Walls in Classrooms
By: Kathryn J. Grube
Contrarily to color research, white values of paint are the most commonly applied finish selection on classroom walls today. White walls have been used in American schoolhouse settings since the first discovered paint, also white, was invented and made available some two hundred years ago. Originally, white paint was seen as hygienic and structured in demeanor, and was used as an agent to enhance visual capabilities in closed settings due to dark-hued building materials and an absence of electricity. Since then, using white paint for classroom wall finishes has remained as a perpetual design tradition that is causing a disservice to our academic and educating potentials. White walls are proven to cause detrimental psychological effects, such as anxiety, disruptive behaviors, lack of focus, and depressive moods to students and educators that spend time within the space. These types of effects dull-down learning capabilities and discourage morale. Color research has proven these negative facts for over a century now, but white walls remain constant in our educational facility design from a fallacy of misperception largely due to tradition, misinformation, and ease of maintenance. The question is why.