5-Question Test
As illustrated in the previous assignment, the objectives were classified into three objectives: cognitive, behavioral, and effectiveness. According to the cognitive objective, the project aims to ensure intellectually challenged students adapt to the new teaching documents; the behavioral objective is concerned with ensuring intellectually challenged students' behaviors are taken into account to provide the best environment and structure for their educational development. On effectiveness, the project demands that teachers and students' reactions should be observed when producing new documents to ensure efficiency in special education. That being so, the following questions, derived from Bloom's taxonomy, will be instrumental in assessing the project's effectiveness:
How will the new program show student’s ability to memorize, recall, describe, and apply terms, concepts, and ideas?
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
What evidence does the new learning material have to enable intellectually challenged students to break materials into parts, describe the patterns, and the relationship among parts?
How would the new curriculum test students' ability to create something new by using a combination of ideas from different sources?
To what extent does the new document reflect the reactions of students and teachers in special education?
How well are intellectually challenged students adjusting to the newly established special education?
Type of Evaluation
The type of evaluation suitable for the project is the summative evaluation. As Kalman et al. (2019) suggest, the purpose of the approach is to measure the degree to which major outcomes of a program are attained at the end of a course. It means that evaluation comes at the end of learning where students are assessed on what they know, can do, and can articulate at any given point. According to Kalman et al. (2019), summative evaluation measures a wide range of program elements, including its effectiveness, the efficiency of learning, cost of program development, ongoing expenses, reactions to the program, and its benefits in the long run.
Besides its uses, as mentioned above, the evaluation type is linked with multiple advantages contributing to its selection for the project. The first advantage is the degree of its reliability and validity. According to Dixon and Cusack (201 6), summative evaluation is the most reliable and valid evaluation tool, especially when evidence is collected from multiple sources. Because of this, this evaluation instrument helps achieve quality improvement in learning programs. The instrument offers qualitative data useful in impacting cognitive, behavioral, and developmental outcomes of intellectually challenged students.
Another reason for the selection of the evaluation method is its cost-effectiveness. Unlike confirmative and formative evaluation techniques, summative evaluation consumes minimal resources because of the approaches employed. Because of this, coupled with the idea that it is conducted during the process of implementing a project, it ensures the goals and objectives planned for a project are attained cost-effectively. Also, since the nature of evaluation is continuous, it would help compare the impact of the project against its goals, thereby leading to a better understanding of the changes and allocations needed to make the project a success. The above reasons make it the most ideal for the proposed project.
Learning Theory
A learning theory consistent with the instructional design of the project is cognitive theory. Cognitive theory is used in explaining the mental processes and how they are impacted by both internal and external factors to produce learning. Cognitive theorists are concerned with what goes on in a learner's mind in terms of how they think, process information, remember, and other functions of the mind (Kalman et al., 2019). According to the proponents of the theory, such as Lauren Resnick (2017), a learner's ability to take in knowledge, interpret, store, and retrieve it is subject to a diverse range of stimuli.
The relevance of the learning model to the instructional design in the proposed project lies in the instructional strategies and learning delivery. As included in the previous assignment, the approach to learning focuses on cognitive learning as far as special education is concerned. For instance, the two strategies include integration and recall. Integration involves transmitting useful information into forms that are easy to understand and remember. The technique appeals to the processing and storage capabilities of learners’ minds. Recall, which involves helping learners recall facts and details, is also a technique of the mind. Thus, these instructional strategies incorporate elements such as attention, perception, organizing, memory, interpreting, and forming generalizations, all of which conform to the guidelines of the cognitive theory of learning.
Although the cognitive model is a critical component of the planned instructional design, to some degree, it also reflects the fundamental principles of behavioral learning. Behaviorism in learning is a theory that explains how a learner interacts with their environment to learn. The model suggests that teachers can influence student behaviors in the classroom. Behaviorism applies to the delivery of instructional objectives. Here, the idea of helping teachers develop healthy relationships with students to impact good behavior is one of the central ideas of behaviorism. Since students need to gain knowledge during learning, behaviorist theory ensures they display good behavior in class and beyond.
Learning Theory Principles
There are various learning theory principles applicable to the project as derived from cognitive and behavioral theories. The first principle is that the more deeply information is processed, the greater the probability of it being transferred to the long-term memory, enabling learners to retrieve it in the future (Kalman et al., 2019). It is a principle of the cognitive learning theory that applies to various aspects of a learning program. For instance, the principle is useful in the development of a program addressing a particular concept. An example includes a mathematical formula, such as the addition of numbers. Here, using the principle above, an educator emphasizes processing addition problems to enable learners to store the concept in their long-term memory.
Another principle that is directly correlated to one of the instructional strategies of learning in the project suggests that which points towards schema. According to the principle, a learner connects new information with prior knowledge in the memory to create chances for meaningful learning (Kalman et al., 2019). Here, instead of focusing on students' ability to memorize information, an educator establishes a framework where learners can integrate new concepts, ideas, and facts with already existing ones in their memory. An example of the application of such a principle is where a teacher, having realized that students have little knowledge of religion in America, offers a brief introduction that compares different religious groups in the country.
The last principle is derived from behavioral theory suggesting that the teachers can increase the performance of less desirable tasks by making them more desirable. Kalman and his colleagues (2019) refer to the principle as the Grandma or Premack Principle, and it involves creating a desirable activity after a less desirable activity. The principle can be applied in the learning project by developing a fun classroom game after students have completed their classwork and assignments. Here, completing assignments serves as a less desirable activity with fun classroom games being a more desirable activity. Classwork performance is improved since students are more motivated to complete their classwork to participate in the game.
Information Gaps
Gap analysis involves studying a project in terms of its present progression and where it is intended to go in the future. Essentially, it compares actual performance to the potential performance of a project. By doing so, the gap can be bridged to ensure the successful implementation of the proposed project. The first information gap is the lack of risk analysis. Every project is susceptible to a diverse range of risks and uncertainties that hinder the successful implementation. The purpose of risk analysis information is to identify possible and actual risks that may affect the implementation of the proposed project and manage these risks to increase the chances of success.
Another critical information gap is resource availability. Every project requires resources (financial and non-financial) for various project deliverables. So far, the project covers objectives, instructional design, instructional strategies, delivery of objectives, and message for the content for special education. The process of executing the project is also mentioned. However, there is a lack of knowledge of the key resources needed to make it a success. Examples include human resources, financial resources, technological needs, and time. Such information must be provided in making sure everything the project needs is available.
Information on the key stakeholders involved in the planning, development, and implementation of the project is also missing. A stakeholder is an independent party interested in a project and is also affected by its actions and decisions. Stakeholders have a critical role in setting the direction and the pace of the implementation of a project. In special education, stakeholders may include intellectually challenged learners, students, administrators, parents/caregivers, policymakers, donors, etc. The importance of having a plan highlighting critical players of a project helps identify who performs what tasks and how. The project is lacking this critical component.
Steps to Deliver the Delivery of the Instruction
The first step is to analyze the requirements for learning instruction. The analysis of the instructional process is not restricted to special education needs but also extends to the content, audience, technology, and expectations. That being so, the first requirement is the business and training aspect of special education needs. Here, an evaluator looks at the holistic needs of learning in terms of resources, materials, technologies, environment, and the likes. Another critical aspect to consider is the analysis of the profile of learners. Here, the roles, responsibilities, experiences, qualifications, age, ethnicities, skillsets, and geographical regions are analyzed to customize instruction delivery to learners’ profile.
The next step is to gather the necessary resources and materials for learning. Special learning requires materials for learning that are unique from the usual materials used in conventional learning. These materials, including the necessary technological capabilities, should be gathered to aid learning. Kalman et al. (2019) classify these resources into conceptual, influence, material, personnel, and institutional. Conceptual resources are those that offer technical skills and support in delivering projects such as technology. Influence resources may include goodwill, incentives, and brand names. Personnel resources refer to the right people required to make a project a success.
The educator should also identify an ideal location with a conducive environment that supports the delivery of instructions. In this case, the environment is the physical, social, and intellectual forces operating within a configuration (Kalman et al., 2019). It can occur in a normal classroom, but the class should be designed in a way that meets the needs of intellectually challenged students, objectives of learning, and instructional design.
References
Dixon, B. E., & Cusack, C. M. (2016). Measuring the value of health information exchange. In Health Information Exchange (pp. 231-248). Academic Press.
Kalman, G.R.M.S.J.R.J.R.M.H., K. (2019). Designing Effective Instruction . [Strayer University Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://strayer.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781119465980/
Resnick, L. B. (2017). Toward a cognitive theory of instruction. In learning and motivation in the classroom (pp. 5-38). Routledge.
