Challenges and a Changing Role

Eight participants at the annual NCSE conference held at Bristol in April took part in a taped discussion about the changing role of teachers in special education. an edited version of their discussion appears below
What are the new challenges you now face in special education and what problems arise in meeting these demands?     

A Selected Review of the Underpinnings of Ethics for Human Performance Technology Professionals -Part Two: Professional Resources

Professionals serving as internal and external consultants, whether as performance technologists, human resource development facilitators, training specialists, organizational development change agents, or quality improvement engineers, are uniquely positioned to influence ethical awareness in the workplace. Yet it is unlikely that they will be able to exert much influence without knowledge of the factors that influence ethical behavior in organizations and knowledge of ethical decision making. Although the literature on ethics is proliferating, little of it is directly related to performance improvement professionals. Those who want to educate themselves in ethics have been left to their own devices. Part One in this series of two articles presents a review of key ethical theories and research. Part Two is a list of references available for those who are ready to examine the ethical responsibilities of HPT professionals, who have encountered ethical issues, who want to include an ethics audit in their needs assessment tool box, or who need to suggest ethics-related solutions to performance problems.     

Challenges for Career Interventions in Changing Contexts

Current social and economic changes have created a challenging context for career counsellors. Within this context counsellors are being asked to view their role from different perspectives. There is recognition of the importance of lifelong guidance and also the need to view guidance from a broader social context with greater emphasis on social responsibility and ethics. New forms of delivery are also emerging. These include an emphasis on client centred and holistic counselling, an affirmation of narrative methods, and a more dynamic counselling approach. Lastly, there is the development of a number of new methods of service delivery. Some examples include one stop counselling centres, virtual counselling services, mentoring, career coaching, and the inclusion of social enterprises as part of the counselling process. The implementation of these changes has implications for training, specialization and for accreditation.     

Education for Changing Sex Roles for the Year 2000

In this article, the authors describe a case in which school district officials used state regulations for new teacher mentoring programs as justification to cut funding and incrementally dismantle a model program.     

Supporting Human Performance Across Disciplines: A Converging of Roles and Tools

Performance support is close to the center of a host of related fields and specialties, including human performance technology, electronic performance support systems, technical communications, and instructional design. Because of their common interest in performance support, and common external influences such as cognitive psychology and digital technologies, roles and tools within these fields are beginning to converge, resulting in unprecedented overlap. In times of rapid change, related fields have an opportunity to learn from one another, borrowing useful elements and incorporating them into their own practices. The purpose of this paper is to explore the similarities, differences, and emerging trends among some of these fields and to gain insights into how their evolution affects performance support. Across these fields, we find a continuing tension between designed messages and tools allowing users more flexibility and control. The best performance-support systems include both of these components as well as a strong human support component. We also observe a trend toward greater reliance on users and user communities in defining and controlling support systems.     

A Framework for New Scholarship in Human Performance Technology

This article introduces a strategic argument and examples, in subsequent articles in this special issue, about sociocultural research opportunities for HPT practitioners and scholars. The authors take the view that recent criticisms of Instructional Systems Design have merit when considered from an organizational performance point of view. We see the problem as historic overuse of one theoretical perspective at a microlevel of theory and application. We argue that adding recent sociocultural perspectives and expanding the levels of theory to include groups and complex organizational structures will offer an opportunity for more rigorous and diverse research agenda and create new insights for problem solving in practice.     

实施创新教育必须实现教师角色的转变

通过对如何创新教育及更新教师的理念进行分析和研究,指出了学校创新教育主要是培养学生的创造性思维,其表现在提出探索性的新颖问题的能力,脱离习惯性解决问题的能力,设计探索性实验的能力以及创造出已掌握知识的思维新成果的能力。     

Specifying a Human Performance Technology Knowledgebase

The mission of human performance technologists, to assure high levels of human performance in organizations, is well established, and usually accomplished through design and implementation of two major products: performance systems and instructional systems. The speed of change in the environments in which HPT is practiced, however, requires frequent analysis of what knowledge and skills are required of HP technologists in pursuit of this goal. This article works backward from results and the products that obtained them, to identify the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that form the critical human performance technology knowledgebase. The author uses an example from our “universal” neighborhood to illustrate seven basic categories of variables influencing organizational performance, and provides examples and non examples of five essential principles of psychology that can help guide HPT practitioners' efforts to design and implement effective systems.     

Situating Learning of Human Performance Technology

The Organizational Communication, Learning, and Design Department at Ithaca College is experimenting with educational methods that situate learning in authentic contexts, for example, in real cases with actual clients. We hope that these methods will better prepare our students for skilled practice in the complex situations and environments where they will work. One of our efforts has focused on an upper-level undergraduate course titled Performance Technology, for which we have developed a variety of what we believe are innovative strategies and activities. Results have been encouraging and have suggested more direct and powerful links between preparation and practice.     

角色转换模式创新——玉林市福绵区新桥二中课程改革点滴

新桥二中作为广西基础教育课程改革试验学校，经过半年来的课程改革实践，学校在管理模式、教学模式和学习方式的改革方面进行了认真的探讨。一、校长角色的转换，管理模式的变革新课程不仅要求校长的观念要更新，而且要求校长的角色要转换。校长要跳出过去仅仅作为学校管理者这一角色，成为新课程的开发者、组织者和推进者，参与课程改革的实践，成为课改实验最有力的支撑者，这是最富于时代性的校长的角色特征。实践证明，没有校长的角色转换，就没有课程改革实验的成功。校长角色的转换，引出了学校管理模式的变革。新桥二中成立和制定了…     

美国绩效技术:定位、现状与人才培养——访美国绩效技术领域七学者

绩效技术诞生于20世纪60-70年代美国的教育技术领域,由于其提高组织绩效的独特视角与成效,近年来备受关注。在我国,绩效技术一直是教育技术领域的研究热点。我们引入了一些相关理论,也开始在实践中探索理论的应用,以期将有关理论与方法本土化,从而适合我国实际。为此,深刻理解绩效技术,追踪其在美国的发展现状与趋势对在我国发展绩效技术有着重要的意义。就美国绩效技术领域的现状、发展以及人才培养的有关问题,我们陆续对大洋彼岸的美国绩效技术领域的学者与实践人员,包括托马斯.M.树文、罗杰.考夫曼等七位学者进行了访谈,以期从不同专家的观点中获得对绩效技术更为全面的认识。     

Examining the Practice of Human Performance Technology

Despite the fact that Human Performance Technology (HPT) has proved itself as a systemic, systematic process for increasing performance and profitability in organizations, it has not yet been widely adopted. There are several reasons for this. The conditions that must exist for organizations to benefit from all HPT can offer them are lacking. First, few individuals have the knowledge and skill necessary to implement the methods, measures, and models of HPT, and second, those who do seldom have the opportunity and authority to apply HPT where it will most benefit the organization. This article takes a look at such barriers to successful HPT practice, and how they can be overcome. It reports the findings of a survey of academics, internal practitioners, and external consultants who are members of NSPI who were asked to report on what opportunities exist for learning about HPT, where it is practiced in organizations and by whom, and what role management plays in implementing HPT within organizations. The article also suggests ways of addressing the barriers identified.     

Youth Practitioner Professional Narratives: Changing Identities in Changing Times

This paper examines youth practitioner professionality responses to neo-liberal policy changes in youth work and the youth support sector in the UK, from New Labour to Conservative-led administrations. Using a narrative inquiry approach, six early career practitioners explore and recount their experiences of moving into the field during changing political times. The narratives reveal differentiated responses to a climate of increasing managerialism and performativity but point to the value of narrative capital as a personalised resource.     

绩效技术的应用分析与建议

所有绩效技术专业人员都面临着如何在组织中有效实施绩效技术的问题，绩效技术领域三十多年的研究和实践表明，其在组织中的应用是一个缓慢、艰难而又充满困惑的过程，同时又是一个具有挑战和创造性的过程。本分析和探讨了绩效技术在组织中的应用问题，并在些基础上提出了八条策略和建议。     

Signs in the Workplaces Semiotics and Human Performance Technology

Semiotics, or the study of signs, has much to offer the field of performance technology. In this paper, we examine the process of analysis and illustrate how semiotic theory can inform the way a performance problem is approached, analyzed, and understood. We argue that a semiotic approach to analysis can reveal meanings that would otherwise remain hidden and which can provide valuable information for the design of appropriate interventions. Semiotics is not so much a new theory of performance technology as much as it provides “value added” to current Human Performance Technology processes.