Performing Like a Human ;)

• Chapter 14 discusses the concept and evolution of human performance improvement. Several sections of chapter 14 present a variety of non-instructional solutions to performance problems. Identify a performance problem in your area of work and identify non-instructional solutions that may help solve the problem.

When I was teaching in a High School, one of the biggest problems we had that hurt the students’ performance were tardiness. The school had a “Tardy System” in place, but it was not well enforced (by administration), so many students were not really concerned with being on time. As all teachers know, this can seriously disrupt the learning environment! I am going to be creative and say that I believe a “compensation/reward” system would work! I’ll explain: To tie this in with my lesson, we could do a bell-ringer each day discussing money from a specific time/culture. I could have print outs of this money that I hand out to everyone who is on time. While doing the bell-ringer (which will be graded) those who received the money will write the culture/era description on the back. Anyone, at the end of the grading period (ie: 6 wks/9 wks etc), who has collected all the money AND has the description on the back can “buy” rewards.. These options would be: a dropped homework grade pass, a pass to drop 20% of the questions off any multiple choice test/quiz (they choose which questions), Pizza Pass (At the end of each semester each student with one pass gets to enjoy Pizza on me)…etc. Not only does this promote punctuality, but also responsibility because the students have to keep up with these passes and money. I would possibly have smaller prizes for those who had ¾ of the daily money print outs. This way one tardy does not 100% ruin the reward. J

 

 

• Chapter 15 presents Electronic performance support systems. Define performance support systems and explain how a performance support system might (or might not) help solve the problem you identified above.

The administration has just started trying to take the reins on this matter, and has bought an electronic ID card reader for the tardy offices. The school I worked at has appx 3000 students, so monitoring tardies was not a priority. The electronic card reader automatically prints out a tardy pass (take a ton less time than hand-writing passes for all students), and alerts the student how many tardies they have. If they receive 3 tardies in one grading period, they get a 30m detention.. As their tardy count increases so do their consequences. This really does not help, because the kids know how many times they can be tardy- and monitor it at the tardy stations. This just tends to make the student a little cocky as they walk in- knowing they received NO punishment the first 3 times. I, personally, think this type of electronic performance support system was a waste of money. Besides, teachers still had to monitor the stations during part of their conference period (which was legal because my school was block scheduled giving each teacher a 1.5 hr conference/planning period).

 

• Chapter 16 explains knowledge management: the way we manage information, share that information, and use it to solve organization problems. Organizations, such as schools, accumulate a great deal information/data, which must be organized in a way that we can make sense of it in order to use for making decisions. What knowledge would help solve the problem you identified above and how would that knowledge need to be collected and managed to help facilitate problem solving?

I have found that knowing a lot about truancy helped me explain the importance of being in class, on time, to the kids. In my school, if students miss 20m of class, they are counted absent. I adhere to that STRICTLY. So much that I set a timer for 20m, and anyone who comes in after it goes off is counted absent. A production is not made, but the extreme tardy is documented. I have a law enforcement officer come speak to the kids within the first couple of weeks and explain what truancy is and how it can hurt you with future goals/graduation. If I were to implement the bell-ringers and currency for the students on time, I would need to organize lesson plans and print/cut/laminate the money to hand out.

• Chapter 17 describes types of informal learning. What informal learning experiences have you participated in at your organization? Could those informal learning experiences be shared with others? Could the knowledge gained in those settings be codified and managed? And should it be managed or should the informal experiences be replicated or broadened to include others?

Informal Learning happens EVERYWHERE. I love to take something away from every interaction I have. As long as you talk to people, co-workers or learners or a guy at the bus stop, you will learn something. I have spoken with people in a checkout line at the grocery store about their children (convo starts with how cute they are- and leads to the parent saying “if you only knew”). Even these conversations reveal something I either didn’t know period, or forgot I knew. When you learn something the only “right” or “natural” thing to do should be to share the info. I think too many educators have gotten tied up trying to “one-up” each other, that the concept of sharing has been forgotten! I am always offering advice or info, whether someone asks or not. Some people might say this is rude, but I’ve never gotten a complaint!

Evaluation and Implementation: Different Strokes For Different Folks

Why evaluate? Why should we, educators, test? WHY?? Well, the reason is largely being forgotten- We evaluate students so we and they can learn and continue to be motivated to learn. LEARN, MOTIVATION??? Yes, that is the sole reason for education... to obtain knowledge... not to memorize facts! To have the desire and drive to obtain and hold fast to the precious information we call knowledge. So, how can we evaluate effectively? There are many models besides the well-known CIPP and Kirkpatrick models. Here are two:

1. The Brinkerhoff Success Case Method is a more flexible, effective HRD evaluation model, and requires the evaluation to focus on all levels of learning. Brinkerhoff feels that evaluation should not only happen at the end of a lesson or study.

 

There are six stages when evaluation needs to take place:

Stage 1: Evaluation of Needs/Goal Setting – What are the needs, and are they real?

Stage 2: Evaluation of Program Design – What is required to meet these needs, and will the program design do so?

Stage 3: Program Implementation and Operation – How do we evaluate the program being used?

Stage 4: Evaluation of Learning– Did the participants learn, and if so what?

Stage 5: Evaluation of Usage of Learning – Are the participants implementing their learning?

Stage 6: Evaluation of Payoff/Worth – Did it make a worthwhile difference to the participants’organizations and their personal development? WAS IT WORTH IT?

2. Eisner’s Connoisseurship Model relies 100% on the teacher's judgment to assess the quality of their program/lesson.

The two ideas behind this model are educational connoisseurship (appreciating the program being taught) and educational criticism (the ability to explain the program to those who do not understand/appreciate it). He called his model "non-scientific" and "humanistic." The primary purpose is to improve education, not just make students accountable, and to do this through evaluating the students' synthesis of the program. The "connoisseur"/teacher guides students towards knowledge and is the catalyst for evaluation of synthesis to begin. It is suggested that faculty involve students in developing the criteria for evaluating their work. The student motivation is higher when they are involved in the learning/evaluating process. Synthesis is hard to assess so this method recommends that as many faculty members as possible be allowed to evaluate students' work.

One main question that most evaluation models do not ask is... Was the evaluation enjoyable to the student? I feel that when the student is empowered to choose how an evaluation might be enjoyable, they might be more successful. I, one semester, allowed my students to choose one of three different assessments over the same topic. I kept it basic- 50 questions T/F, or Multiple Choice; 2 essays; or a short project assessment (this particular time they had to place events on a timeline, match key figures with the events, and add a short description/outcome of the event). The students loved having an option, but it was very painful to grade :).

 

Since this is a time of economic decline, and many schools do not have the money budgeted to afford different technologies, we the faculty need to be creative on ways to keep technology in the classroom. First, in a professional, or staff, development meetings the librarians need to speak to the staff about what electronics they have to loan out to classes. Many teachers are not aware of the large amount of hardware libraries have on hand for faculty members to use. Second, all "teams" or subject areas should be required to apply for a grant by the end of the 1st semester. Teachers from the campus need to have representatives who go to seminars (local and free) and learn about grant writing. This information needs to then be taught to others. Third, and lastly, all teachers need to be aware of Web 2.0 applications. An easy link to access them is:  http://www.go2web20.net/

All educators, whether your district is in a economic decline, or not, should play around on many of these applications. I have used an elementary math application (game) to teach a GED prep student basic addition and subtraction. This particular student was so far behind the rest of the class, that I had them play around with this for homework. He was so excited the next class to tell me he was hooked playing for 4 days, and had graduated from a 1st grade level to a third grade level in one week. This young man was about to give up on getting his GED before he tried this program. Web 2.0's are free online applications. Some are free trials, and ask for $$ to get the "full version" or after a trial period. But there are thousands of applications! I will end with a quote that I live by, especially when times are tough... "Attitudes are contagious, is yours worth catching?"   

 

Theories and Models of Learning

Epistemology is the study of how we know about, or understand, knowledge. Philosophical researchers are always searching for the depth of human knowledge. How much can any single person know? When does knowledge stop? Are there any limits? Instructional methods, instructional theories, and models of learning are all included in the psychology behind teaching. These concepts/ideas are all dedicated on how to get the learner to LEARN information. Epistemology is focused on knowledge specifically, and not how to "get it into" the learner. There are two MAIN focuses of epistemology, and both focus more on understanding knowledge itself. The positivism perspective believes that knowledge exists regardless of the learner. The relativism perspective believes that the learner constructs the knowledge that exists. All of these theories and designs should be inextricably linked, although they rarely are.

 

Contextual epistemology should fall between positivism and relativism so that knowledge is still separate from the learner, but that it can be independent or created. Contextualists will favor the social constructivist, and their contexts determine whether the knowledge output becomes a truth. A radical constructivist (favoring a Relativist) believes that ALL pieces of knowledge ARE truths, regardless of reality. Positivists lean towards behaviorists who believe learning comes from external stimuli. Positivists believe knowledge (what is being learned) IS external, and separate from the learner.

 

Behaviorists would continue to try and solve a problem until they got it correct (reinforcement). After the problem was solved, the instructor would most likely give feedback, or require peer feedback for constructive criticism. Their learners would be motivated by positive and negative reinforcement. I personally feel this motivation works *briefly* on learners. Too much positive reinforcement becomes a norm, and too much negative reinforcement can have the opposite psychological effects than was desired. Very few educators can employ these reinforcement strategies correctly.

A constructivist might solve problems in a group setting and they would work well with others. Their groups would be question driven and analyze the problem closely. The instructors would verbally support the groups, and have them set goals to be met. After the project is completed the groups would reflect on what and how they are learning. This is (what I feel to be) the best approach for students. Learners need to be hands- on and involved in the learning environment. In groups, students can feed off of one another and are usually motivated by the teacher and their peers for successful completion. Knowledge is gained from the context around them, and they can also create knowledge.


 

ADDIE: "It's elementary, my dear."

Educational technology is a term that can be defined many different ways to each person. I look at it as more of an evolving process. Since education and technology are ever-changing, the definition cannot be concrete. My current definition is that educational technology is more of a learner centered process that develops with the aid of technology. This process can be student (individually driven trial/error) led or educator led (guided by someone with prior knowledge of the material). Whenever students of any age are learning any new material, finding technologies associated with the subject matter is imperative. Too much of our present day, and future is controlled by the progression of technology. Everything from daily interaction to the workforce requires (or is benefited by) a knowledge of technology. The progression of definitions in our text supports my idea of there not being a set specific definition for the term/idea. As technology advances, so does our use of it in education. When I started teaching 5 1/2 years ago, there were not too many applications I could use in the classroom. This all changed when schools began to relax their network firewalls and with the rise of smart phones. Not many people had an iPhone, and the districts were scared of the trouble students could get in when accessing internet.

Now, many districts are incredibly relaxed on their cell phone policies and many teachers allow use of cell phones when working on projects. I taught a mixed level high school class 3 years ago and gave the students many option/ideas on presenting their final project. For comfort reasons, I allowed them to use PowerPoint, but reminded them it would have to "knock my socks off" in order to receive an A- an average power point was going to receive an 80 on our grading rubric. A different option I gave my students was to make a video on their cell phones and email it to my school account after it was edited. The kids were thrilled that I was allowing them to pull their phones out and film during class times. I reminded the kids to be creative and find newer, free apps to edit the video. The project outline they tuned in also had to include which application they used to edit and the process/time it took. Finally they reviewed the application and their own final video. After all the projects were turned in (90% chose the video route), I showed my principal and he was so impressed that he put his favorite 2 in our next staff development meeting and allowed me to explain what we did. I, along with my students, was thrilled about the success of this project.
 **This lesson was 100% learner centered and goal oriented. It also focused on a meaningful performance and was very self-correcting. Even though this was a team effort, I feel the outcome could have been measured differently for the groups. The project had a rubric, but some of the grading scale was participation and I allowed them to grade each other. Usually, and in my previous experience, this approach allows the students to be anonymously honest.... but I found that for this project, they must have enjoyed themselves so much that most teams gave each other a 100% participation grade. I am choosing to believe I just had an AMAZING group who really did all equally share the responsibilities :).**

Dr. Robert A. Reiser has chosen to follow the viewpoint [along with others] that teachers, chalkboards and textbooks are not considered instructional media. I disagree with his choice. I feel teachers, or facilitators, will always be instructional media. We instruct our students how to use different technologies, or at least facilitate the search for them. The literal, and dated, terms "textbook" and "chalkboard" have been replaced with eBooks and dry erase whiteboards. The eBooks is still a text, and the whiteboard allows classes to use an integrated system to link the whiteboard and the projector. I believe the purpose of instructional design is not to incorporate media into instruction, but instead to use it to increase learning by doing. By adding media into the classroom lesson, the students are more responsible for their own learning. This gives even the youngest a sense of empowerment.