The common themes that I am seeing throughout the text in business, P-12 and Higher Ed are evaluation, design and implementation.
In Chapter 18 about business, Reiser & Dempsey (2007) state on page 117: “One problem designers face when starting a new project is identifying the client.” The first step in making changes in anything is to evaluate what changes need to be made and if the planned changes will actually accomplish the goal that is set. Chapter 21, about P-12 educations talks about programs such as Sputnik and No Child left behind that we created to fix perceived problems Reiser & Dempsey (2007), but many would argue they made things worse. The chapter about higher education, chapter 22, is written differently than the others, but I know from my own experiences that figuring out what you want your students to learn and what skill you want them to end your class with is the place to start.
Once this step has been completed, first then can you being to look at HOW they will reach these goals. Chapter 18 states that one quarter of the $62.5 billion spent in corporate training went to outside sources and that the trend continues to grow. It must be decided how the training will be most effectively implanted, in person? On site? Online? The chapter also mentions Kirkpaticks Model (1994) that helps guide the planning (design) of the changes to be implemented. In chapter 21 more models are discussed for how to best implement the changes such as the GSTE (Jenlink et al., 1996, 1998). Almost all of the authors from chapter 22 Reiser & Dempsey (2007) state that one of their biggest challenges in designing the changes is getting the faculty to participate, citing that many are too proud to admit they need improvement on their instruction.
Implementation is the culmination of the change process. This involves bringing everything together to make the change happen and also includes more evaluation and making sure your stock holders are all still on the same page.
I would like to learn more about practicing the theory that we are learning about in these chapters. I understand the concepts, but once I am in the classroom it is hard to reflect on putting the theory into practice and teach at the same time. In my personal work it is hard for me to do a great job of evaluating because I feel like I am spending so much time on evaluating the processes that it is taking for every to get anything done. I do think I have benefitted from understanding some of this theory though.
Jenlink, P.M., Reigeluth, C.M., Carr, A.A., & Nelson, L.M. (1996). An expedition for change, Tech Trends, 15(30) 21-30.
Jenlink, P.M., Reigeluth, C.M., Carr, A.A., & Nelson, L.M. (1998). Guidelines for facilitating systemic change in school districts. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 15(3), 217-233.
Kirkpatrick, D. L. (1994). Evaluating training programs – The four levels. San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler
Reiser, R. & Dempsey, J. (2007). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall.
Monday, June 9, 2008
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6 comments:
Katherine,
You make a very astute observation. Theory is one thing, implementation is another. I have said many times throughout my industrial career, when I would get frustrated with an engineer, “everything works on paper”. I think the same can be said about this subject matter. Designing may be the simple part because some senior employees can be “a tough nut to crack”.
Jeff Tyler
I am right there with you about the first step is figuring out what you wan your students to know and what skills do you want them to come away with. Its important to have a purpose for everything we do in the classroom. Once we figure out the purpose the lessons are seem easier to design and implement. I also like that you mentioned one of the hardest parts of change is getting everyone on board. I imagine we have all been apart of groups were not everyone is excited about the change. I myself have been apart of groups were I might not like an idea. I think at the very least we should try to have an open mind and make sure we give thigs a fair chance.
Tony Vitto
There is no doubt that these steps are difficult to achieve. That is one thing about education and how it differs somewhat from busniness. Education is constantly changing! Sometimes our content changes so rapidly we don't have time to even evaluate the lesson you have taught. Sometimes, one can go through all the steps, but by the time they are all completed, you are told you are not teaching that anymore.
I like LBallards comment, another classmates comment was the oragnization of everything. In education things are changing so rapidly that it makes it difficult to become organzied especially in the first few years of teaching. I also liked your point about taking what is learned in class and applying it to the classroom. I have found it difficult to do thus far in the masters program, but I have just begun this journey, so hopefully I will start to understand how to implement these great tools we have learned about.
Our dream and the reason we got into teaching was to help kids learn. So the idea of have very specific training to get specific outcomes is appealling. But the evaluation needs to be there and just the right instructional design. I guess it is finding a balance in reality. It is a different ballgame from corporations.
Katie,
I feel that you have helped me to understand these chapters a great deal better. There seemed to be so much going on that I began to lose focus of what the authors were trying to say.
In a school setting, it can sometimes be hard to determine what the goals are because there seem to be so many. The school and state have their goals and you as an individual teacher have yours. So determining which goals are most important and in which order can be tough.
Once you decide, what the goals are, deciding the bests way to reach those can be tough as well. We have talked a lot about different technological tools to help us teach our students but with so much out there and so little time to research everything, it is good to have a network of people (like those in the class) to give us ideas about different programs etc. that they have found useful.
Implementation can be especially difficult if those involved, whether it be colleagues or students, don't want to try it. I think the key is easing into it and starting simple. And I think that continuous exposure to new things helps because then the attitude becomes, if I'm going to do it, I may as well find the things that I like and may use again.
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