One of the most visible and widespread of the current educational reforms is the attempt to decentralize authority to schools and to involve teachers and others in shared decision making. Often occurring together as site-based shared decision making (SBDM), this reform is turning out to be more difficult to implement than once thought. Few noted…

Knowledge sharing has been identified as critical to the management of knowledge in organizations. However, in practice, problems with knowledge sharing have proved to be a major barrier to the effective management of knowledge. This paper reports on research that identified four motivators and five inhibitors of knowledge sharing within one…

Creating an integrated curriculum requires a collaboration that balances the personal, professional, and production aspects of a project. This paper describes interaction within a team of teachers whose focus for developing an integrated curriculum emerged from a community-arts organization. Topics examined include: the tension between team…

This paper provides data from students in an educational administration class on use of teaming and collaboration to research educational problems. The instructor taught group dynamics and modeled the process of facilitating and developing collaboration in teams. Classes were offered in 3-1/2 hour sessions for 5 weeks. Various team-building…

A case study questioned essentialist feminist assumptions about the marginalization of females in technical writing courses. A student team composed of a female (Jane, the team leader) and three males enrolled in an advanced writing course required of juniors and seniors majoring in the applied sciences to investigate solutions to the student…

These materials present information on implementing a collaborative team model in the delivery of transition services to students with disabilities. The materials provide charts and forms outlining strategies to be used by a local interagency transition team to assess its existing level of collaboration, to conceptualize its jointly endorsed…

This paper outlines a model of interprofessional assistance and mentoring used to orient new staff members in a special education program. The mentoring model calls for three basic dispositions: opening ourselves, leading incrementally, and expressing care and concern. All mentors attempt to manifest the three dispositions as they relate to the…

An approach to teaching particularly well-suited to communication courses seeks to involve students in the learning process more directly by incorporating team teaching in communication courses--not by professors but by students. Groups of students in each class form into teams with the purpose of setting goals and planning projects for furthering…

This paper describes co-teaching as a collaborative, equal relationship between a regular classroom teacher and a special educator which allows for meeting the needs of a greater number of students with disabilities within a single regular classroom program. The co-teaching relationship is thought to develop through a series of three stages: (1)…

Rural and urban elementary schools implemented collaborative consultation to serve special education students. In the rural school, the special education teacher spends 4 days per week in the classrooms. She spends Wednesdays and 1 week out of 5 testing, writing IEPs, planning, and completing paperwork. The principal, instructional assistant, TAG…

In North Carolina, physical therapy services for handicapped students are integrated into school settings via a coordinated statewide effort. The model, headed by a physical therapy consultant, provides flexibility, supports an expanded role of therapists, emphasizes the team approach, and considers the physical therapist as a health professional.…

For many engineers, writing skills have proven to be almost as important as technical background. Many prominent engineers have found that writing often consumes one-fourth of their time; they are expected to submit reports and proposals and give presentations. Many engineering schools now require either additional writing courses or integrate…

Critics of collaborative learning such as Greg Myers argue that educators might let their enthusiasm for collaborative learning lead them to accepting social construction of knowledge as a good thing in itself. It is important, however, to distinguish between the use of specific collaborative learning activities--such as peer response groups or…

The effect of quality circles at Iowa State University on absenteeism, performance evaluation, perceptions of the organization climate, job satisfaction, and perceived opportunities for professional and personal growth was measured in this study. The process of quality circles is designed to promote job fulfillment and organizational productivity…

A study was conducted at the Northern Arizona University to determine the necessary steps to improve the school's education programs. The basic conclusions of the study were: (1) Abolish the College of Education and replace it with the Center for Excellence in Education to facilitate interaction between the total university faculty, business and…