Brian Deyo's Professional Portfolio
Reflection for Standard 1
Data-Based Decision Making
1. Data based decision making - Value the use of data as the starting point for professional work.
Reflection on Data-Based Decision Making Work Product
At the time of this project, I was a fourth grade bilingual elementary school teacher struggling to motivate my students to return their daily homework. I was also in my first semester of the EDTEC master’s program and taking EDTEC 540 with Dr. Rossett. The homework assignments in my class were not being completed or turned in as consistently as I wanted. None of the students were complaining that the homework was too hard. The parents hadn’t written or called me with complaints about the homework being too hard. I kept trying to figure out how the students’ performance could be improved? I felt that I needed to supply the parents with something that could help them support their children in sucessfully completing the homework. After the initial analysis, I concluded that some sort of job aid could be included in a larger solution system.
The EDTEC standard I am demonstrating with this project involves data-based decision making and how I value the use of data as the starting point for my professional work. I had recorded the performance of the 29 students in a six-week classroom homework log. After analyzing the data from this log, I noticed several trends in the students’ performance:
- Daily Successful Class Performance
- Average Daily Success Rate: 71%
- Monday: 65% success – worst day
- Thursday: 79% success – best day
- Only two days with over 90% success during the six weeks.
- Individual student performance during the six weeks
- 14 students – at least 80% success
- 6 students – less than 45% success
Starting with data analysis and interviews helped me seek out appropriate solutions for this particular situation. The data I collected drove my analysis and also drove my proposed solutions. My solutions were honed into this particular situation because my data pointed me to these solutions. I did not try to apply random solutions that would not have fit the analysis.
After producing the first version of the job aid, I gave a copy to the parents of the 6 students whose performance was less than 45% successful. They commented that the arrows dominated the paper and that the scattering of instruction made it confusing. My professor asked me how I could design the poster to prevent it from being discarded or forgotten. Another professor suggested more of a block design in the presentation of the information on the poster. Two colleagues reviewed the job aid and reaffirmed both the parents’ and professors’ concerns.
I learned that the best solutions fail with bad execution. Looking back on the experience of the first version of the job aid, I can see how I was not applying principles such as contiguity and coherence in the design of the job aid. I wasn’t placing the words near the graphics and the arrows became distracting rather than helpful. I corrected these mistakes by incorporating the feedback recommendations into the second version of the job aid.
I feel that this work demonstrated my ability to propose appropriate solution systems to problems. The skills I gained by doing this project transferred to other projects as I went through the EDTEC program. The discipline to start with analysis and the facts that data can present helped anchor my approach to the various projects I faced in my later classes. I learned that performances can be improved through the use of comprehensive solution systems. Job aids can fill specific roles in these systems. Performances can be documented to help evaluate whether or not these systems do what they intend to do. As illustrated in this work product, the ADDIE model can even help a child with his or her homework.
This project was my first experience with the ADDIE model. I can now see how the seeds of the ADDIE model that were planted back when I did this project have now blossomed into a method to approach any challenge in the field of educational technology. The ADDIE model has been internalized as part of my problem-solving toolbox. I have seen the model become more organic and the parts more interwoven as I progressed through the EDTEC program. Yet, I can recognize when, as in this case, the more linear version of the ADDIE model can be applied successfully without reservation. It still has its place within the smorgasbord of solution sets that is educational technology.