Needs Assessment

Kathleen Merten

Objective: design a needs assessment that will help you to determine what kind of teacher development workshop is necessary. The first step will be to design a needs assessment plan that will get you the information that you need to design this workshop. In order to complete the workshop, you need to create a Word document that describes your answers to the following questions:

Using Wikispaces to Enhance Instruction

Who is your target audience? Who will your learners be?

The target audience for this workshop will be fourth and fifth grade teachers at the John F. Kennedy School in Franklin, Massachusetts.

Describe the people for who you are designing the workshop (job, age, skill level, background, any piece of information that will help to define them.

At the John F. Kennedy School in Franklin, MA, there are three teachers teaching fourth grade, and four teaching fifth grade. I have listed the people below-including what I feel is vital information:

Fourth Grade Teachers
NAME / AGE / YEARS TEACHING / Observed skill level with Technology (Low, Medium, High)
AM / 46 / 22 / High
AW / 40 / 19 / Medium
HS / 24 / 3 / High
Fifth Grade Teachers
DK / 50 / 10 / High
LV / 42 / 15 / Low
DL / 36 / 14 / Low
MD / 40 / 15 / High

What you need to know? What information are you seeking (actuals, optimals, causes, feelings, solutions)?

In order for this program to be successful, I will need to know the following information:

ACTUALS

For this program, the first information I will need is what experience, if any, each teacher has using wikis.

OPTIMALS

Here I’ll need to know what the teachers feel is necessary in order to be successful in using wikis in the classroom.

FEELINGS

I will need to know each teacher’s comfort level with using new technology. These feeling will be important, because often people have anxiety about trying new things- especially things involving technology.

I will need to know the interest level in learning about new technology.

Why you need to know it?

  • In order to design a successful workshop, it is important to know where the participants are in their knowledge. (Actuals) In order for a workshop to be successful, the instructors must know their audience. This is very true when teaching something involving technology, because the instructor wouldn’t want to begin instruction too basically, or worse, start where people are lost right away.
  • In order for a workshop to be successful, it is important to know what the participants are looking to get out of the workshop, and how they would plan to use the knowledge gained (optimals). This will give the instructor a goal understanding the actuals and optimals is essential to creating an appropriate curriculum.
  • Finally, the feelings are very important in this situation. Using technology can cause feelings of anxiety from people who have a low comfort level. This will be important to know, so that the instructor can be aware of who may need some reassurance. It will also be important to understand the participants’ desire to learn about the topic. If the participants are not interested in using wikis in the classroom, then the workshop would not be useful.

What are your hypotheses about the learning situation? How will that information help you to design a workshop?

Based on my knowledge of the participants of this workshop, my hypotheses about the learning are:

  • If teachers receive thorough training in how to use wikis, and how using wikis can enhance instruction, they will use wikis in their classroom.
  • Teachers may have some anxiety about using any new technology in the classroom, however, with training and follow up support, they will be willing to try using them.

Who knows that (who has that information)?

  • The participants in the training are those who have the information needed.

Here you need to identify the best source of that information and why you believe that that particular source knows the most about your questions.

I believe that the best information for this needs assessment will come from the participants of the proposed workshop. The information will be gathered as follows:

How will you get that information?

In order to gather this information, I will conduct personal interviews, and I will use a survey. The details of this are as follows:

Technique: Personal Interview

I chose a personal interview for this needs assessment because it is a personal way to gather information that will relate to all of the participants. Actuals, optimals, feelings, and background will be easily gathered in this manner. Since I am working with a small group (7 individuals), the interview can be conducted with all of the participants individually, providing complete diversity of thought, as I will have opinions of all of the participants. I will also be able to determine the cause of the amount of use/lack of use of technology.

The low cost of the personal interview and the high response rate make this an excellent choice for a needs assessment. Additionally, although the interview is not anonymous, the personal connection made in an interview could increase the participants’ willingness to “buy-in” to this type of instruction.

Interview Questions

  1. How often do you use technology in your classroom?
  2. Why do you feel that you use the technology as frequently (infrequently) as you do? (cause)
  3. How comfortable are you with using technology in your classroom? Why do you think you have that particular comfort level?
  4. What is your experience with technology use and training?
  5. If you were to receive technology training about specific programs, would you consider trying them in your classroom?
  6. How much follow- up training/support would you deem adequate for using technology?
  7. Have you ever heard of wikis? What do you know about them and their uses?
  8. Do you have any questions/comments?

Technique: Survey/Questionnaire

I chose a Survey/Questionnaire for this needs assessment because this method allows me to gather information regarding actuals, optimals, and feelings in an anonymous way. I can use this information to compare it to the survey results and develop place to start with the workshop.

Additionally, due to the small number of teachers who will be attending this workshop, it will be completely manageable to survey all of the participants in an easy way. I will be using a free survey website (surveymonkey.com) which will allow me to complete this survey with low cost for administration and scoring.

Although the typical response rate for a survey is moderate, I am hopeful that, by encouraging participants to complete the survey during the personal interview, I will get a higher than typical number of responses.

Although there are many disadvantages to using a survey (low response rates, misinterpretations), I believe that using a survey together with a personal interview will allow me to gather the most accurate information possible.

Survey Questions

  1. How often do you use technology in your classroom?
  2. Every day
  3. 1-2 times a week
  4. 1-4 times a month
  5. Less than once a month
  6. How do you currently use technology in your classroom? (Choose all that apply)
  7. Students play games
  8. Research using the Internet
  9. Word processing
  10. Students create Power Point Presentations
  11. Teacher created PPT presentations for instruction
  12. Wikis
  13. Googledocs
  14. How comfortable are you with using technology in your classroom?
  15. Very comfortable, I use it regularly
  16. Comfortable, I use technology but may benefit from some training
  17. Somewhat comfortable – I would like some training
  18. Uncomfortable- I’d be willing to attend training
  19. Uncomfortable- I am not interested in training
  20. If you were to receive technology training about specific programs, would you consider trying them in your classroom?
  21. Definitely YES
  22. Probably, but it depends on the programs
  23. Maybe
  24. Probably not
  25. How much follow- up training/support would you deem adequate for using technology?
  26. Once a month
  27. 4-6 times during the school year
  28. 1-3 times during the school year
  29. No follow up training needed
  30. Would you be willing to attend the follow up training sessions after school (on your own time)?
  31. Yes
  32. No
  33. What factors lead you to use technology (or not use it) in your classroom?
  34. Availability (or lack of) training
  35. Your comfort level
  36. The students in your class
  37. Support/lack of support

How will you use that information? Describe how you will use the information that you collect to help design your workshop.

Once the data is collected, I will have a “jumping off” point for my instruction.

This will allow me to know what the participants’ knowledge base is. I will be able to use that information to assure that I am not starting off too easy, or two difficult with my instruction. I would be able to group participants if necessary using their background knowledge to help me to group effectively (either homogeneously or heterogeneously). I have information, which will allow me to be sensitive to the needs to the participants and their feelings regarding the technology.