Instructional Design Analysis free essay sample

I have recently noticed an instructional problem in the elementary school that I work at. Several of the teachers seem to have problems aligning their instruction with the curriculum they teach. I have witnessed numerous times, teachers incorporating activities into lessons that don’t even relate to the curriculum concepts being taught. The activities being incorporated into the lessons do not align with the objectives specified in the lessons. Therefore, the students are not learning what the objective claims that are. For example, I once observed a kindergarten teacher using a color by number activity to help her teach number order. I believe this was an ineffective way to instill the desired knowledge into her students. Color by number activities are fun and do require students to have number recognition skills, but they do not require the students to put the numbers in number order. Current vs. Desired Conditions Currently, several teachers in an elementary school are ineffectively teaching curriculum concepts they are required to teach. In return, students are confused, frustrated, and falling behind. When students are confused by what their teacher is trying to teach them, they become frustrated. When they become frustrated, they give up and end up not learning what the teacher wanted them to learn. This in turn causes them to make bad grades and fall behind grade level expectations. Desirable, if the teachers described above were incorporating activities into their lessons that actually related to the lesson objectives/curriculum concepts, a lot less students would be considered below grade level. When lesson activities relate to the lesson objectives/curriculum concepts, the students will gain a deeper understanding of the content being taught and will be able to use that content effectively. This will make for a less confused/frustrated classroom of learners. The students will become more confident in their abilities and will use that newly gained knowledge appropriately. Then there would be a lot less students making poor grades. This means that fewer students would be considered below grade level. Data Collection Classroom observations and teacher interviews were good ways to collect data in relation to the identified instructional problem. Tally sheet and antidotal notes were beneficial during the classroom observations. For teacher interviews, questionnaire sheets were a good way to collect data. (See Attached Examples) During the classroom observations, the tally sheet allowed me to identify the number of teachers I observed and allowed me to keep track of how many of the teachers I observed were/weren’t aligning their curriculum based lesson objectives and activities. Each classroom observation is equivalent to one lesson observed being taught. Each teacher observed was only observed one time. Therefore, each teacher was only observed teaching one lesson. There were a total of fifteen teachers observed and fifteen classroom observations total. The antidotal notes allowed me to take notes and make comments in relation to what I observed. I could use this to refer back to my observations as needed without getting my information mixed up between what I witnessed during each of the observations. I took note of what the curriculum standard was the teacher was teaching a lesson for. I took note of what the lesson objective(s) were. I took note of what the activity task was that was incorporated into the lessons. My results from the tally sheet and the antidotal notes showed me that nine of the teachers taught lessons that did not have appropriate alignment of activities and curriculum based objectives. Six of the teachers taught lessons that did have appropriate alignment of activities and curriculum based objectives. During the teacher interviews, I found using a questionnaire sheet to be an effective way to collect data. It allowed me to ask each teacher the same set of specific questions in relation to the lessons I observed them teach. This made it possible to get the teacher’s thoughts on their own teaching/lessons and it made it possible to address the major points on the lessons being taught. It even helped make the teachers reflect on themselves and their own lessons. Results from the teacher interviews indicated that seven of the nine teachers who did not align their lessons appropriately did not realize that they had made this mistake. When they were made to think about in the teacher interviews, they were able to reflect back. Their reflections made them realize their mistakes. The other two teachers from the nine who did not align their lessons appropriately did not think they had made a mistake. They honestly seemed to believe that their lessons did align. I tried to describe the nonalignment to them, but they just did not seem to understand what I was trying to tell them. This shows me that trainings or workshops about lesson alignments would be appropriate. As already stated, when teachers don’t align their lesson objectives and activities to the curriculum appropriately, student end up not making good grades become below grade level. Once lessons were taught, I kept a copy of the finished work performed by several students. This could have been activity results, or assessment copies. I could use these to see how students comprehended the lessons and were able to apply the knowledge gained. These are the items the students were graded on for completing. I could use those scores as examples of student curriculum concept understandings. These scores are used to give students grades. These grades are what determine if the students are at or below grade level. Quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection were used to conduct this instructional design analysis. In this situation, tally sheets and activity/assessment scores were quantitative. Antidotal notes and questionnaires were qualitative. Data Analysis I used the constant comparison/Grounded Theory technique of data analysis in this instructional design analysis. â€Å"The constant comparative method is a method for analyzing data in order to develop a grounded theory. The goal of the Grounded Theory approach is to generate theories that explain how some aspect of the social world works. The goal is to develop a theory that emerges from and is therefore connected to the reality the theory is developed to explain. (Glaser Strauss, 1967)† Mainly, after I identified an instructional design problem, I compared occurrences of the problem. I compared instances of teacher lessons aligned lessons vs. teacher lessons that were not aligned. I compared student’s scores on assigned tasks related to lessons that did and did not align appropriately. Teacher Aligned Objectives/Activities/Curriculum Average Student Task Scores NOT ALIGNED lllllllll = 9 72% ALLIGNED llllll = 6 81% 1 tally mark (1) = 1 classroom observation Student scores on assigned tasks were gathered by each classroom observation. A total of the student scores from the activities that did not align with the lessons taught were averaged together. A total of student scores from the activities that did align with the lessons taught were averaged together. The two different averages were then compared to show a difference in student achievement. Needs Analysis The data analysis determines that teachers that do not align their lesson objectives, activities, and curriculum concepts, have students that perform at lower levels. Teachers that align their lesson objectives, activities, and curriculum concepts, have students that perform on higher levels. It also shows that there are more teachers that actually don’t align the curriculum with the objectives and activities that they teach. The results of this instructional design analysis show a great need for workshops, classes, trainings, etc. that will increase teacher’s abilities and knowledge of how to align their instruction appropriately. Then, teachers will be more likely to teach appropriately designed lessons that will actually impact the knowledge of their students. Student performance scores will go up and less students be performing below grade level. Goal Statement After be provided with detailed instruction on how to align curriculum with lesson objectives and activities, classroom teachers will be able to write appropriate aligned lesson plans and teach those lessons to students who will then be at least 60% closer to grade level expectancy levels then they were pre teacher instruction.