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)
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)
Reflection
When we began our PLC choice sessions program this year at Harbins Elementary, we decided to ask teachers about their interests and needs for professional learning. I developed this survey with the collaboration of our Support Team to help us determine the best offerings for our first set of choice sessions. I analyzed the results and reported back to the team at the next meeting.
The development of this survey shows that I value faculty feedback when planning meaningful technology-based learning programs. I asked them about topics, strengths, weaknesses, and suggestions to facilitate an effective program that met their needs. Additionally, our support team reviewed grade-level district assessment data in conjunction with the teacher survey results to determine the best course of action for both the PLC sessions and our more traditional professional learning program. This shows my ability to use needs assessments to determine strengths and weaknesses of our staff for the purpose of informing professional learning decisions.
In analyzing the results of this survey, I noticed that several teachers chose a lot of topics (20 or more), while others chose very few (less than 5). To get more reliable results in the future, I would find a way to ensure that there were a minimum and a maximum number of choices. Also, ranking the choices in order would provide a way to weight the choices and mathematically determine topics that were of greatest interest to teachers. These two methods would provide more actionable survey data and lead to better decisions for professional learning.
During the professional learning session where this session was presented, I explicitly modeled how to use an interest survey with students to help guide teaching. Using this survey helped teachers to see what an interest survey was like from the student’s point of view. After the session, a few teachers reported that they used a simplified interest survey with students to help guide their decisions for instructional methods, grouping, and/or reading materials for the class. I could measure the impact of this method by surveying teachers to see how many have used an interest survey.
The development of this survey shows that I value faculty feedback when planning meaningful technology-based learning programs. I asked them about topics, strengths, weaknesses, and suggestions to facilitate an effective program that met their needs. Additionally, our support team reviewed grade-level district assessment data in conjunction with the teacher survey results to determine the best course of action for both the PLC sessions and our more traditional professional learning program. This shows my ability to use needs assessments to determine strengths and weaknesses of our staff for the purpose of informing professional learning decisions.
In analyzing the results of this survey, I noticed that several teachers chose a lot of topics (20 or more), while others chose very few (less than 5). To get more reliable results in the future, I would find a way to ensure that there were a minimum and a maximum number of choices. Also, ranking the choices in order would provide a way to weight the choices and mathematically determine topics that were of greatest interest to teachers. These two methods would provide more actionable survey data and lead to better decisions for professional learning.
During the professional learning session where this session was presented, I explicitly modeled how to use an interest survey with students to help guide teaching. Using this survey helped teachers to see what an interest survey was like from the student’s point of view. After the session, a few teachers reported that they used a simplified interest survey with students to help guide their decisions for instructional methods, grouping, and/or reading materials for the class. I could measure the impact of this method by surveying teachers to see how many have used an interest survey.