5.1: Needs Assessment
Candidates conduct needs assessments to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weaknesses to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs. (PSC 5.1/ISTE 4a)
Artifact: ITEC 7460 Needs Assessment for Individual Teacher
Reflection
This artifact was created to determine one member of faculty strengths and weaknesses to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning in a subject area in Atlanta International School (AIS). This artifact was created during the first summer semester of the Instructional Technology Masters programme with a teacher with whom I worked closely in my department. We also happen to live in the same area. This was helpful as there was the impediment of the summer vacation during this assignment and there were some instances that this did hinder some of our conversations, but, fortunately, we managed busy summer schedules and used communications technology to create the needs assessment that would help this teacher at the beginning of the new academic year.
This artifact demonstrates that I have gained the ability to conduct a needs assessment to determine the needs of faculty. I did this by creating a Google Survey that I sent to the teacher to complete. This survey was designed using ideas from a professional learning community online with other students in this ITEC course and ideas extracted from Knight (2007) Instructional Technology Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction. The teacher completed this survey and the ongoing coaching and needs assessment and ongoing recommendations for teacher professional development for technology integration in her subject area were based on this information aligned with current research and ideas. Given the baseline data from the responses to the survey and combining conversations aligning to the teach professional development goals that she aspired to set for the incoming academic year, this artifact reflects a roadmap for the teacher, demonstrating my ability to use a needs assessment to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs.
The first learning curve from completing this artifact was that working with teachers during summer vacation is difficult in terms of both time and engagement. Most of the teachers with whom I work in the international setting travel to their home countries for most of the summer. Therefore, the timing of this particular exercise was difficult. However, the teacher with whom I was working with had spent the year before car-pooling with me and conversations about professional development and technology had been regular organic topics during our commute. Therefore, I learned that there is a relationship building part to working with faculty in the context of coaching. This goes beyond the four walls of the building – beyond the classroom and often the most engaging coaching opportunities come from conversations that are not part of a formal meeting or planned agenda. I also learned a great deal about using baseline data. Collecting the information from the survey really helped me to think about what this teacher wanted to do and achieve in the next school year and to be able to research from my own professional learning network and research reading to best suggest avenues for her creative professional development to enhance technology use in her teaching for student learning. It was helpful that I did have some experience in the new professional development SMART goals that the school had just introduced to our faculty the year before.
It is very likely, given my current role as a Technology Integrationist, that I will have to do needs assessments again, not only on an individual level, but on a whole faculty basis. One aspect to change will be most definitely timing – it is critical to get holistic responses to the survey for the baseline data to assess the “state of the union” so to speak. It is from that point that the needs assessment help to inform the content and delivery of the schools’ technology-based professional development program ongoing in a way that is really meaningful for the faculty engaging in the process. This really cannot be done during the summer vacation.
This needs assessment was really useful for the member of faculty ongoing. She used this as a way to inform her professional development SMART goals at the beginning of the 2013 – 2014 school year and we continued to work together in creating some of the recommendations like using Google Sites. This has impacted the further integration of the use of the laptops into teaching and learning for this teacher and is assessed during goal reviews with group leadership. During those reviews, technology was discussed and any further needs were discussed with me and professional development recommendations or training suggested. This points to continuing use of needs assessment to sustain the use of technology for teaching and learning in the school.
This artifact was created to determine one member of faculty strengths and weaknesses to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning in a subject area in Atlanta International School (AIS). This artifact was created during the first summer semester of the Instructional Technology Masters programme with a teacher with whom I worked closely in my department. We also happen to live in the same area. This was helpful as there was the impediment of the summer vacation during this assignment and there were some instances that this did hinder some of our conversations, but, fortunately, we managed busy summer schedules and used communications technology to create the needs assessment that would help this teacher at the beginning of the new academic year.
This artifact demonstrates that I have gained the ability to conduct a needs assessment to determine the needs of faculty. I did this by creating a Google Survey that I sent to the teacher to complete. This survey was designed using ideas from a professional learning community online with other students in this ITEC course and ideas extracted from Knight (2007) Instructional Technology Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction. The teacher completed this survey and the ongoing coaching and needs assessment and ongoing recommendations for teacher professional development for technology integration in her subject area were based on this information aligned with current research and ideas. Given the baseline data from the responses to the survey and combining conversations aligning to the teach professional development goals that she aspired to set for the incoming academic year, this artifact reflects a roadmap for the teacher, demonstrating my ability to use a needs assessment to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs.
The first learning curve from completing this artifact was that working with teachers during summer vacation is difficult in terms of both time and engagement. Most of the teachers with whom I work in the international setting travel to their home countries for most of the summer. Therefore, the timing of this particular exercise was difficult. However, the teacher with whom I was working with had spent the year before car-pooling with me and conversations about professional development and technology had been regular organic topics during our commute. Therefore, I learned that there is a relationship building part to working with faculty in the context of coaching. This goes beyond the four walls of the building – beyond the classroom and often the most engaging coaching opportunities come from conversations that are not part of a formal meeting or planned agenda. I also learned a great deal about using baseline data. Collecting the information from the survey really helped me to think about what this teacher wanted to do and achieve in the next school year and to be able to research from my own professional learning network and research reading to best suggest avenues for her creative professional development to enhance technology use in her teaching for student learning. It was helpful that I did have some experience in the new professional development SMART goals that the school had just introduced to our faculty the year before.
It is very likely, given my current role as a Technology Integrationist, that I will have to do needs assessments again, not only on an individual level, but on a whole faculty basis. One aspect to change will be most definitely timing – it is critical to get holistic responses to the survey for the baseline data to assess the “state of the union” so to speak. It is from that point that the needs assessment help to inform the content and delivery of the schools’ technology-based professional development program ongoing in a way that is really meaningful for the faculty engaging in the process. This really cannot be done during the summer vacation.
This needs assessment was really useful for the member of faculty ongoing. She used this as a way to inform her professional development SMART goals at the beginning of the 2013 – 2014 school year and we continued to work together in creating some of the recommendations like using Google Sites. This has impacted the further integration of the use of the laptops into teaching and learning for this teacher and is assessed during goal reviews with group leadership. During those reviews, technology was discussed and any further needs were discussed with me and professional development recommendations or training suggested. This points to continuing use of needs assessment to sustain the use of technology for teaching and learning in the school.