changeable parts worth so many points, and teach ers and students are expected to deliver so many hours of physical presence accompanied by a spe cific set of mechanical operations. (Stecchini, 1962, p. 25). This criticism may be severe, but is perhaps not too far from the mark. A typical graduate program in professional education (or psychology or so ciology) includes a number of courses which de vote time to teaching the concepts of mean, stand ard deviation, and correlation coefficient. These topics, treated in elementary statistics, are typically included in introductory (and sometimes advanced) courses in measurement, research methods, re search design, test construction, computer pro graming, and in courses in counseling, educational psychology, etc. In fact, any course which requires of its students interpretation of research findings will typically devote time to statisti cal concepts. The same point could be made with respect to other topics such as reliability and validity, measurement scales, distinctions between descriptive and experimental research, sampling techniques, etc. While such duplication in and of itself may not be undesirable, it may be sympto matic of inefficient learning, which is undesirable. Duplication appears to represent either inefficiency in teaching or failure to determine what knowledge is necessary to manage the in a particular course, or both. A system is some set of components to per form 'wanted' operation on an object (Wil son, 1965, p. x). By operation is meant the bringing about of an effect. In its most general (and often obscure) form, a system can be though of as one or more inputs, one or more operations, and one or more outputs. But no system is isolated as that picture might imply. Its inputs, outputs, and operations are subject to everything outside that either affects the opera tion of the system or is affected by it (Wilson, 1965, p. 3). One system's outputs may serve as inputs for another system. An environment can be viewed as a combination of outputs from other systems, or as a part of the operations constituting a larger system. A subsystem is a component which performs certain clearly defined functions for a more inclusive system of which it is a part. We can differentiate among types of system ac cording to the functions they perform. In indus trial settings where inputs and outputs are ma terial things, it makes sense to speak of material flow systems. The communications industry is more concerned with information-flow systems, those designed to handle information as inputs and outputs, hopefully merely chaneling, rather than modifying the information. A third type of system accepts information as input but the data are changed in predetermined way. This type is perhaps best termed an information-processing system. An instructor can be viewed as an information processing system. So can each student. A class can be viewed as a system containing several sub systems: the instructor, each of the students, and perhaps groups of students in various combinations. Each of these systems accepts information as input and modifies that information before output. The instructor as an information processing system actually performs two rather distinct func tions, though they are not typically thought of as separate. The first involves planning instruction, the second, implementing the instruction once planned (Stolurow, 1961, p. 5). Typically, both functions are performed by the same person, working at home, in school, and in the classroom. While this may be typical, it does not seem necessary. For these func tions are neither inseparable, nor do both need to be performed by an instructor. Furthermore, it is my contention that systems concepts can be of help in executing both functions, however they are per formed.