Analysis
Instructional Need
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The instructional need is for a teacher training to enable diversity & inclusion education in middle school. The audience of this course are homeroom teachers. This class will be a one-day in-person instructional event to get them started on their curriculum development. The teacher instruction will include fundamentals of multicultural studies as well as initiate ideas on teaching methods that will keep students engaged on the topic. As part of the course, teachers will have access to a mediated forum so that they will be able to exchange teaching ideas, communicate with peers on obstacles and success stories. There will also be a monthly 1-hour workshop as a follow up instructional event to evaluate the success of the teaching program and make pertinent updates based on teacher feedback. This will be a collaborative opportunity for teachers to keep improving their own curriculum development.
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Instructional Tasks
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The Jonassen model (1998) is selected for this learning task analysis because it is a “process of analyzing and articulating the kind of learning that you expect the learners to know how to perform” (p.70).
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Task inventory:
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Develop an individual identity circle for each teacher
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Discuss each individual identity circle to create awareness for everyone’s unique traits and similarities
Task description:
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Group participation on observations of individual identities
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Pair teachers to discuss and introduce each other’s identity circle to learn about each other.
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Task selection:
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Discuss as a group how effective this activity would be with middle school students
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Class components and sequencing:
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Each teacher completes an individual identity assessment of self
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Teachers learn from each other’s individual identities
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As a group, discuss best practices for adapting activities to a middle school environment
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Task analysis and content level:
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Ability for teachers to motivate middle school students to form their own decisions based on cognitive bias
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Ability for teachers to influence middle school students to take action based on their unbiased thought pattern
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Learner Analysis
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Surveying the Teachers
In determining the training needs of the program, it will be important to understand how familiar the learning audience, the middle school teachers, are with the topics surrounding diversity and inclusion. Equally important will be their knowledge about issues surrounding bullying and middle school psychology. By surveying the teachers, we will be able to define their expertise level for topics surrounding diversity and inclusion. The results will have an impact on audience analysis as activities are created according to the audience’s needs.
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Methodology
A Likert scale will be used for the quantitative survey. The one-minute survey will be sent to middle school teachers. The teachers will be given the context of the survey and five business days to respond. The context will explain the purpose of the survey, state that the collected data will be anonymous and offer them the option to opt out of participating by not responding to the survey by the deadline. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the least expert and 5 being the most expert, teachers will asked to rate their expertise level with the following topics:
Results
The survey will be translated into a learner ability chart with results in the 1 and 2 categories to signify low or limited experience, 3 as average experience, 4 and 5 as experienced learners. Criteria with a large count of learners with “low” or “limited experience” (1 and 2 on the scale) will have highest priorities in the task planning. Criteria with large numbers of learners with “average experience” (3 on the scale) will have the second highest priorities in the task planning. Criteria with large numbers of “experienced learners” (4 and 5 on the scale) will become topics that can be touched on without spending a significant amount of time in developing understanding.
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The learner analysis will validate that in tackling the train the teachers program for diversity and inclusion education in middle school, setting the context in the introduction is a critical part of the instructional event. Once the teachers understand the relationship between diversity and inclusion vis-à-vis anti-bullying strategies, their participation will become more relevant to them. The body of the instructional event will support hands-on activities, experiential learning and interactions in groups and teams. A universal design for learning (UDL) will also needed to accommodate for the various styles of learning, the vast age groups in the teaching positions and the experience they have, notably potential gaps in technology skills. The assessment, on the other hand, will involve peer feedback for real-world actionable intelligence.
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Learner persona (referred to as a “fictitious profile”)
Who: Middle school teachers
Gender: Male and female
Education level: Master’s degree in the discipline being taught (math, English, French, science, etc.)
Age group: 25-65 years old
Common traits: they have experience teaching middle school students, they are experts in the specific subject they teach, they use a technology platform in their classroom (such as Google classroom or Microsoft 365)
Trait differences: they teach different subjects, they come from different cultural backgrounds, they may or may not have previously participated in anti-bullying programs
Motivations: making a difference in middle school students’ lives, monetary compensation, continuing education credits, extra certification to further advance in their career
Special needs: It will depend on audience participation, this will need to be determined per group.
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