Evaluation and Implementation

Describe how you would use them to evaluate your instruction. Reflect on what other questions that instructional design evaluation should address besides whether the instructional design leads to comparable amounts of learning and learner satisfaction as traditional methods.

Rossi’s Five Domain Evaluation - this is a model where the focus of the evaluation should be personalized to fit the need of the school.  A key component of this model is the evaluative questions.  They are the essence by which the evaluation derives its validity.  There are five primary domains for evaluation and they are:  needs assessment, theory assessment, implementation assessment, impact assessment and efficiency assessment.   With my classroom being a special needs unit an important part of this model would be the needs assessment.  I often look at my students and think that they will do better than they usually do so I tend to plan higher than they are capable and have to re-plan my lessons.  I also overlook evaluation questioning because regardless of my questions my students simply do not have the ability to recall much of their background knowledge efficiently.  I pre-teach often in order to build background knowledge in hopes that it can be recalled; however, it doesn't always stick.  I do tend to evaluate my lessons as I am teaching in hopes of improving the lesson and to see if it is too rigorous and in need of adjusting for my class.  I typically assess heavily in the beginning and throughout the lesson, but do not assess at the end of a lesson as many of my lessons are directly influenced by behaviors that are not easy to manage for either the students or myself.  I feel that needs assessment is something that I do well in my classroom albeit in a modified form from a general classroom.  I focus on using technology integration within a lesson and not as the primary method of delivery.  By making the needs assessment a priority in this theory supports this goal.  The next part focuses on the design of the instruction.  Is the instruction that I am given cognitively appropriate for my students?  My students have specially designed curriculum that meets their specific needs, but at times it does not so my job is to make sure the instruction is modified to meet the needs of my group while also being engaging.  I feel that I do well in this area because I have to evaluate the lesson for each child that I am teaching and by constantly evaluating the design of the instruction I learn what hurdles I need to overcome in order to be the best teacher I can be for my students.   The remaining three parts are definite areas that I can improve upon.  Implementation assessment is something I can improve upon because I tend to veer off my scheduled plan.  I need to focus more on what I need to accomplish and a reasonably time allotment for this to happen.  The implementation portion will help me to evaluate my instruction by letting me know if I was successful with my instruction.  I live in world that is constantly collecting data and no matter how much I collect I feel that I could improve this by being more efficient and streamlined with my data collection to judge my effectiveness or the impact assessment.        

TPACK is a framework that teachers can use to help them identify knowledge they might need to focus on to be able to teach effectively while using technology.  It is comprised of three areas, Technological Knowledge, Pedagogical Knowledge and Content Knowledge.  When these areas are intertwined with each other a teacher is getting the most meaningful instruction that a teacher can give and is maximizing their effectiveness.  The components are: Technological Knowledge, which is the knowledge and mastery of technology.  This will allow an educator to plan the use of technology effectively in their classroom at all times.  Pedagogical Knowledge is the teacher’s knowledge of their classroom environment such as planning and assessment of students, classroom management and knowledge of content to be taught.  Content Knowledge is the knowledge of the content and framework as well as the practices with teaching or how to lead students to learning.  When one framework combines with another a teacher is zeroing in and the students learning is broader and when the three areas are present the frameworks combine and a teacher is in the zone which will lead to student learning at a powerful level.

You have been assigned to develop a series of professional development sessions focusing on technology use in the classroom for teachers during a time of economic decline. How will you use Situational Leadership to facilitate this project and manage scarce resources?    

  

In the beginning of the professional development as a facilitator you are upfront with your staff by letting them know that we are on a limited budget.  As the facilitator you would be out front and showing them how to be effective with the resources that are available.  This would be the first phase of leadership in the Situational Leadership model and depending on the group will depend on the style of leadership that would be needed.  The second and thirds phase would be to build a committee out of my creative and resourceful teacher in regards to technology, and have them to collaborate with the staff or send them to a seminar to be trained so that they can in turn train the remaining staff.  The last phase is where I would step back as the facilitator and become the cheerleader and encourage them to work to their fullest potential.