Chapter 18
Reading chapter 18, I couldn’t help to think that teachers perform many roles (wear many hats). We carry out, ultimately striving for student performance success. In the business sector, however, there are specific, clearly defined roles for different individuals to meet the ultimate goal of success in performance through training. I definitely think that additional assistance to teachers in planning, developing, implementing, analyzing and designing curriculum would benefit the educational system, as it has the business sector in training.
In the business sector, they build or design training in teams rather than as individuals. Each person has a clearly defined role in the process of instructional design. Some schools have adopted a collaborative planning approach, where teachers critique and discuss each other’s lessons and evaluation results in a safe environment, but this is different from what businesses do. Working in teams to build lessons may be helpful in building more standard and leveled learning across the board of individual classes and subject areas. On the other hand, some may argue that this approach could take away from each individual teacher’s freedom, creativity and flexibility.
Table 18.1 on page 176 outlines that there are several people involved in the design process for training rather than one person. Perhaps if we could find a way to narrow our focuses and work together collaboratively with a few others in lesson designing, one way of helping students to perform successfully would be reached. I am not saying that there should be 10 people involved in every single lesson that needs to be developed, but having at least one additional person or more people (at least for more complex projects/units, or areas that students particularly struggle in mostly) and individual expertise involved in unit planning could, in my mind, lead to great success as multiple people put their minds, resources and expertise together to specifically focus on a certain area within lesson/unit development. The authors state that “design and performance improvement project teams are often staffed by a variety of specialists working together” (Foxon, Richey, Roberts, & Spannaus, 2003). This would help in designing and implementing lessons that are researched, that are drawn from a wealth of knowledge and experience, and that are results driven.
Technology based training, education, or lesson delivery is another idea that I feel would be beneficial in the school setting. It would be nice to have a balance between lesson delivery through the teacher and through technology that the teacher oversees or guides. I think this would allow for more accurate evaluation, instruction time and timely feedback. The author states that internet based training can “involve online interaction in terms of practice, feedback, discussion, and assessment” (p. 180). I don’t think that every lesson should be taught via the internet, but again, to have a decent balance between the two methods would be ideal and most likely, effective. This would add variety and engagement in learning. With the assistance of technology, the classroom and lesson delivery are apt to run more productively.
Reiser, R. & Dempsey, J. (2007). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall.
Your evaluation and overall plan is just what we are all looking for. A blance between teaching/learning/technology is what we all hope for and strive to achieve. I think this is the only way education can go and still survive all the budjet cuts, staff cuts, and class sizes. This class is giving us a good taste of what is available and how we might use it, I also think we all can share the belief that we will also need some support whether we can have district technical support or if we have to unite as teachers and share our expertise with each other.
ReplyDeleteMargie
You make a great point. In the business sector, the ID has to identify many performance needs in the company. Just like in business, teachers have to identify our students performance needs.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree that teachers need to use eachother as resources. We've proven in this class that you don't have to teach the same grade or subject area to share ideas. We do wear many hats and it can be overwhelming, especially if we are trying to incorporate new things like technology. I would love to see teachers finding people they can respect & trust with their ideas & lessons. It will make us stronger teachers and co-workers. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYou are right on about everything you said. I am not sure what the business sector is really like because I have never been a part of it, but it does seem like there is some things that we could learn from them. Collaboration is a great place to start. My wife's schools does late starts so once a month the teachers can get together in their department and collaborate with each other about what is working and what isn't. Seems like a simple concept but not enough teachers do it, mostly because of the time crunch that all teachers face.
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