SLO 3: APPLY SYSTEMIC APPROACHES TO CLOSE IDENTIFIED GAPS
All too frequently, perceived gaps in performance are addressed haphazardly without even collecting data on whether or not the deficit even exists! Poorly-suited interventions may be patchworked together without any real insight into what would be effective fixes. Educators must have the skills to logically identify deficits -- what they are, to what extent are people affected, etc., and only then apply research-based interventions to address the issue.
Image credit: Google
Artifact 1
MEDT 8465: Human Performance Improvement
Human Performance Improvement Project
The HPI project identifies a performance problem (completion rates of IEP annual review paperwork) and proposes a data collection plan. The paper begins with an in-depth look at the organization, population, and perceived problem.
MEDT 8465: Human Performance Improvement
Human Performance Improvement Project
The HPI project identifies a performance problem (completion rates of IEP annual review paperwork) and proposes a data collection plan. The paper begins with an in-depth look at the organization, population, and perceived problem.
Image credit: Google
Artifact 2
MEDT 7464: Designing Technology Enhanced Instruction
Instructional Design Project
This project includes an analysis of student needs in terms of executive functioning deficits and a proposed method to remediate these deficits. The information was later used to design an online class to help with project planning.
MEDT 7464: Designing Technology Enhanced Instruction
Instructional Design Project
This project includes an analysis of student needs in terms of executive functioning deficits and a proposed method to remediate these deficits. The information was later used to design an online class to help with project planning.
Challenges
Both of these projects were group projects, but the groups could have been more different. I had no challenges with the Human Performance Improvement project, because all group members were eager to contribute and we worked very well together. With the Instructional Design project, I completed close to 90% of the work myself. I am quite comfortable with taking the lead and delegating, but to be blunt, many of the tasks/items I delegated were not completed in a professional manner, so I had to re-do them.
Rationale for Artifacts
With SLO 3, I had to be able to identify performance gaps and systematically attempt to close those gaps. My artifact one project identified a performance gap in adults, namely special education teachers’ compliance with completing annual review paperwork and described the type of data I would collect so I could better suggest interventions to close that gap. My artifact two looks at performance gaps in executive functioning skills in students and outlines a project to remediate that gap.
Reflection
As of this writing, the Human Performance Improvement project is still ongoing, but from the experience I’ve had so far I feel like this is the largest project I’ve ever completed that did not directly affect students. In other projects, integration plans, assessments, etc., even if the goals and activities focused on teacher behaviors, the activities were still very much driven by student need. With this HPI project, it is all centered on adult needs and behaviors, which gives it a slightly different perspective. On the opposite end of the spectrum, my instructional design project is 100% student based, with all goals directly related to student achievement. With the ID project I feel like I was very systematic in my gathering of baseline data by extracting information from current psychological testing. In my grand scheme, this would be only the first step in a whole class of different study skills so even more issues with executive function could be addressed. This project was important to me because so many of my students lack these sorts of soft skills -- knowing how to learn -- and these skills aren’t normally embedded in the high school curriculum because it’s assumed that students already learned them when they were younger. The skill of being able to plan a long term project was a bit of a tongue in cheek choice, but I genuinely used the same steps outlined to plan this project.
