Evaluating, Implementing and Managing Instructional Programs and Projects

Response 3 - Evaluating, Implementing and Managing Instructional Programs and Projects

Instructional Design Models

I decided to present a Formative and Summative model for evaluation since both are important aspects of the typical evaluations used in education. 

Formative Model:

Flagg, Barbara N. 1990.  Formative evaluation for educational technologies, Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawerence Eribaum Associates, Publisher.  Retrieved February 11, 2011 from http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/evaluation.htm

In Flagg’s model she includes four steps to evaluation.  Her first step is needs assessment and is used to obtain the reason for the instructional program.  Data is gathered that reviews existing studies, tests, curricula, and the target audience.  The second phase is the Pre-production formative evaluation.  This is the planning phase where the target audience and teachers are used in the process of making design decisions about content, objectives, and formats.  The third stage is the production formative evaluation.  In this stage, the instructional program is revised after considering the feedback from tryouts of the instruction with the target group.  Subject matter specialists, designers, and other experts work together to improve versions of the instruction program when needed here.  The final stage of Flagg’s process is the implementation formative evaluation.  This stage is concerned with how well the instructional program operates with the target learners in the environment for which it was designed.  During this stage, field-testing is conducted and feed-back from these tests are used to assist in developing any support materials that might be needed. 

This type of process would be well used at the beginning of an instructional period to find out what would be the best materials to be used to teach certain objectives to a specific audience.  Evaluation is on-going during this design so that changes can be made to ensure the success of the students.  Most teachers do this as part of their instructional process especially when beginning a new unit. 

Summative Model:

Smith, P. and Ragan, T (1999).  Instructional design  (2^nd ed.).  New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.  Retrieved February 11, 2011 from http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbbagh/Resources?IDKB/eval_techniques_summ.htm

The first step of Smith and Ragan’s model is to determine the goals of the evaluation.  An important part of this stage is determining questions that should be answered as a result of the evaluation.  The second step is to select indicators of success that will determine where to look for evidence of the impact of the instructional program.  The third step is to select the type of orientation for answering the questions that have been identified as what a learner would know after instruction.  The fourth step is to select the design of the evaluation.  This would include what type of data is being collected, when it will be collected, and under what conditions it is to be collected.  The issues that need to be considered here are internal validity, external validity, and control.  The fifth step is to design or select evaluation measures.  Multiple measures can be used to judge the effectiveness of the instructional program.  The sixth step is to collect the data after the evaluator selects or develops an appropriate measurement instrument.  The seventh step is to analyze the data to measure the success of the instructional program.  The final step is to report the results by giving a summary, background, description of evaluation, results, discussion, and conclusions and recommendations. 

Although this is a fairly detailed and time-consuming process, the steps involved are useful in traditional education models.  Again, as teachers we are usually going through this process in one way or another but having a guideline to work by would be beneficial to insure the success of the students through the learning process. 

Technical Innovation:

In my recent position, there has not been any new innovations, however, there were several at my last position so I will address those.  The school decided to provide every teacher with an interactive whiteboard in their classroom.  I was elated to say the least, but there were many who did not share my feelings.  I thought it would be a great advantage to have the capabilities in my classroom that this new feature would bring.  Not only would I have the ability to have students interact with the lesson directly, I could also walk around the room and observe from a different perspective because of the controls on the board.  I had not realized how complex many of the other teachers felt this new addition would be to their classrooms.  Most were simply afraid to experiment with it to use it to its full potential and instead used it mostly as a screen.  The whiteboards came, and although several teachers tried them, most of them remained as a simple screen hanging on the wall and used on an irregular basis.  Quite possibly, if the teachers had been involved in some training prior to the adoption of the boards, it would have eased their tension and allowed them to explore the concept of this technology in their classrooms.  For those teachers that did embrace this new system, well, we pretty much went crazy with it.  The students loved it, the teachers loved it, and of course we had some fun and interesting lessons using it.  I don’t believe I even reached the full potential of the board because of the regular duties of teaching and the time it takes to fully engage the board and new material in the classroom.  I have recently found out that there may be some interactive boards coming to my current school and I was very excited at the possibility of working with this technology again.     

Situational Leadership

The question posed to us is how would we use Situational Leadership to develop a series of professional development sessions that focused on technology use in the classroom for teachers. 

One of the first things that would need to be done would be to improve the communication between the teachers and those involved in the instruction to become a more credible leader.  The leader has to have energy, self-reliance, and drive in order to be successful at implementing professional development that will have meaning to the teachers.  There must be a collaborative work environment in order to achieve sustainable results and the leader must be effective in setting goals, providing clear direction, listening, observing, monitoring and giving feedback.  The leader must also employ the most talented individuals within the system to help with instruction during the sessions. 

A leader must be flexible and adaptable in order to manage diversity within the audience.  They must also understand that there are many learning styles and that no particular one of them is better than the other.  The leader must be able to make a commitment to the project, be able to build motivation, confidence and productivity within the system.  The leader must be able to diagnoses what type of instruction will be needed and how to best deliver it.  They must be flexible enough to alter the instruction when it is needed and find experts within the field of instruction to help facilitate learning.  By using others within the community of the school, others will understand that the goals for the instruction are obtainable and used within the system with success. 

The leader must understand how much guidance to give and when and how it is needed.  This means that the leader and other’s who may be instructors need to understand the subject matter being taught.

Since the leader probably will not know everything about the technology that will be presented within the professional development, they need to find people who are experts in that field to make presentations and training available that will achieve the greatest success for learning within the community. 

The leader also needs to understand what technology is available to the campus, who is or is not using it, and if it is available to everyone or just a few.  They also need to understand what the campus budget is in regards to what professional development needs to be explored.  It would not make any sense to have professional development on student responders if they were not available to the classroom.  If certain technology is only available on certain campuses, then planning must be initiated that will involve different instruction on different campuses. 

The task of heading professional development for educators is certainly not a small one.  Knowing that there is a system available to help guide the production of professional development was interesting to learn. 

On a side note, I really have been doing this all my life except not in the venue of technology.  As a dog trainer, I have had to figure out who my audience was, what their level of understanding of training was, what was the best way to get them to understand the objectives, and how to put everything into play to make the learning successful.  I also had to know who was “getting it” so that I could enlist them into helping those who hadn’t quite mastered the performance so that those learners could see that it was possible for someone other than the instructor to be successful.  Personality certainly plays an important part in how easy or difficult it is for new learners to be successful.  Different personalities of the instructor have to come into play at different times of the instruction so that learners can benefit the most from it.  For instance, being funny can sometimes relieve the stress of learning something totally foreign to someone.  If the teacher is not focused or an expert in their field, then they will not convey confidence in their instruction and the learner will not feel that the instructor is credible.  It takes many years to be a successful leader and instructor and although we can read all we want about it, the only way to really know how to do it, is to do it.  Through information, guidelines, and an understanding of what needs to be learned, the instructor will learn themselves what it takes to make their learners successful within that venue.