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: Individual Teacher Technology Assessment
Reflection:
During the fall of 2015, as part of the ITEC 7460- Professional Learning and Technology Innovation course, I created this Individual Teacher Technology Assessment in preparation for a series of coaching sessions with this teacher. For the artifact I worked with a professional learning community (PLC) in my ITEC 7460 course to create two surveys that the teacher completed to assess her knowledge and familiarity with the Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi) and her comfortableness with adopting change. Each member of the PLC contributed questions and then as a group we compiled them into surveys consisting of ten questions each. The artifact also includes my plan for working with the teacher based on the results of her surveys. My individual contribution was helping to create the surveys with my PLC, administering the surveys to the teacher I had identified needing assistance, analyzing the results or the survey, and then creating a coaching plan that would best fit her needs.
This artifact demonstrates my ability to create and conduct needs assessments in the form of appropriate surveys to determine strengths and weaknesses within the school. While the surveys were only administered to one particular teacher in this artifact, they were created with the entire school in mind and could be given on a broader scale to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level, or subject area strengths and weaknesses. The questions were developed with the audience in mind and I used Google Forms to create the actual survey so that the results would come back in an organized spreadsheet that could easily be used to sort the data. I took the results of the teacher who completed the needs assessments and used them to inform the content and delivery for my coaching sessions regarding technology in her classroom. For example, I learned from the needs assessment that the teacher was willing to use technology with her students, but was unsure where to begin or how to get it started. I was able to take that information and model for her specific strategies that she could use in her classroom as part of our coaching sessions together. Using this same process, the results of the needs assessments given to the entire school faculty could be analyzed to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs.
In the completion of this artifact I learned specific strategies for creating needs assessments that can be administered to a large group or just one individual. The phrasing of the questions was important to set a positive tone and address the content or concept being asked. I learned that each question needed to have several answer choices and the option of proving an answer not given was beneficial if there were multiple possibilities. If I were to improve this artifact in the future I would give the needs assessments to a larger group of teachers to plan a professional learning session that included more than just one individual.
This artifact impacted school improvement and faculty development as specific work was done to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a teachers in terms of technology usage and willingness to change. The administration of these assessments to other teachers will also lead to similar results for the school as a whole. By identifying these needs, individualized professional learning can be developed to fit the specific needs of the school. This impact can be assessed through the development of professional learning in the future and how it is tailored to meet the needs of those in attendance instead of just general professional learning that all teachers are required to attend regardless of their needs.
During the fall of 2015, as part of the ITEC 7460- Professional Learning and Technology Innovation course, I created this Individual Teacher Technology Assessment in preparation for a series of coaching sessions with this teacher. For the artifact I worked with a professional learning community (PLC) in my ITEC 7460 course to create two surveys that the teacher completed to assess her knowledge and familiarity with the Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi) and her comfortableness with adopting change. Each member of the PLC contributed questions and then as a group we compiled them into surveys consisting of ten questions each. The artifact also includes my plan for working with the teacher based on the results of her surveys. My individual contribution was helping to create the surveys with my PLC, administering the surveys to the teacher I had identified needing assistance, analyzing the results or the survey, and then creating a coaching plan that would best fit her needs.
This artifact demonstrates my ability to create and conduct needs assessments in the form of appropriate surveys to determine strengths and weaknesses within the school. While the surveys were only administered to one particular teacher in this artifact, they were created with the entire school in mind and could be given on a broader scale to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level, or subject area strengths and weaknesses. The questions were developed with the audience in mind and I used Google Forms to create the actual survey so that the results would come back in an organized spreadsheet that could easily be used to sort the data. I took the results of the teacher who completed the needs assessments and used them to inform the content and delivery for my coaching sessions regarding technology in her classroom. For example, I learned from the needs assessment that the teacher was willing to use technology with her students, but was unsure where to begin or how to get it started. I was able to take that information and model for her specific strategies that she could use in her classroom as part of our coaching sessions together. Using this same process, the results of the needs assessments given to the entire school faculty could be analyzed to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs.
In the completion of this artifact I learned specific strategies for creating needs assessments that can be administered to a large group or just one individual. The phrasing of the questions was important to set a positive tone and address the content or concept being asked. I learned that each question needed to have several answer choices and the option of proving an answer not given was beneficial if there were multiple possibilities. If I were to improve this artifact in the future I would give the needs assessments to a larger group of teachers to plan a professional learning session that included more than just one individual.
This artifact impacted school improvement and faculty development as specific work was done to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a teachers in terms of technology usage and willingness to change. The administration of these assessments to other teachers will also lead to similar results for the school as a whole. By identifying these needs, individualized professional learning can be developed to fit the specific needs of the school. This impact can be assessed through the development of professional learning in the future and how it is tailored to meet the needs of those in attendance instead of just general professional learning that all teachers are required to attend regardless of their needs.