discussion 8

WEEK 7: NEEDS ASSESSMENT, PART I 1

WEEK 7: NEEDS ASSESSMENT, PART I 7

Week #7 Needs Assessment

Laura Lledo Rodriguez Albizu University EEXX 507 Instructional Design and Assessment Floralba Arbelo June 21, 2020

Part 1: A Reflection of the Assessment

Factor that Informed Choice for Needs-Assessment Instrument

In the case of the questionnaire, while deciding on what instrument of needs assessment to use, I considered the ease of administration of the instruments on the population that I was assessing. Questionnaires are easy to fill by the respondents, especially with the young audience who are not used to technical and abstract content. First, I took into account that children below eight years are not accustomed to complicated tasks/questions in questionnaires (Hall et al., 2016). Secondly, I used open-ended questions combined with closed questions, emojis, and Yes/NO boxes to simplify getting information from the targeted population. Thirdly, I studied the nature of the population being assessed and I wanted to facilitate the understanding instructions. Additionally, I considered the ability to analyze the responses given by the targeted population. The level of understanding and the style of learning was also a key factor in my decision to use the questionnaire.

Another instrument I implemented was the Question About Behavior Function (QABF) which is a widely used indirect assessment tool designed to assist mental health practitioners in assessing the function of maladaptive behaviors in individuals diagnosed with a developmental disability. Since one of the main parts of my research project focuses on behavior, I employed the QABF to stablish the functions of the maladaptive behavior displayed by the population. This assessment also allowed me to acquire a more precise and reliable information from the caregivers.

Finally, I used an Antecedent- Behavior -Consequence chart, also known as ABC recording model for my periods of direct observation with the students. An ABC Chart is used to organize information over several observation sessions by recording the types of behaviors observed and the events that precede and follow the behavior. Observing and recording ABC data assisted me in forming a hypothesis statement and gathering evidence that the function maintaining a problem behavior has been identified.

My Prediction on Findings

After COVID-19 most of the students that normally assists to regular classes have been changed to distance learning modality. Due to this massive environmental change, an increase on maladaptive behaviors in students with ADHD has been observed during distance learning. There are multiple factors that can be the cause of that increase such as change in the setting (school to home); aspects related with the instructional control which is different in teachers and parents; the presence of more distractors at the home setting; changes in the regular schedule; and an increase in the amount of lessons contents. There is a great love and hate towards distance learning by young learners below the age of eight years. They like screen time, but normally it is not associated with academic tasks. This is based on the fact that young children mostly associate all academic learning with the physical presence of a teacher. I therefore predict an increase of maladaptive behaviors with scape and attention functions, in that specific order of priority.

The Process that Led to the Needs Assessment Instrument.

In the last three months, I have realized an increase of maladaptive behaviors on my population, specifically during times they spend on academic activities with distance learning. Task refusal, of task, crying/whining, and/or bolting are some example of them, most of the time to scape from the activities required by online school program. I created a Needs Assessment in which they can provide me with accurate and simple answers, and at the same time they don’t have to implement much time answering it. Although children below eight years do not have the ability to process complex information, they are honest and give accurate feedback when prompted with eased questions and tasks. I therefore developed a simple questionnaire with a few emojis and YES/NO boxes to make the assessment palatable to the minds of the young leaners. The use of emoji is exciting to children and they can easily make connections between what they feel, and the emoticons presented to them (Massey, 2019).

References

Hall, L., Hume, C., & Tazzyman, S. (2016, June). Five degrees of happiness: Effective smiley face likert scales for evaluating with children. In Proceedings of the The 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (pp. 311-321). Retrieved from; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305726958_Five_Degrees_of_Happiness_Effective_Smiley_Face_Likert_Scales_for_Evaluating_with_Children

Massey, S. (2019). Using Emojis and Interactive Methods to Measure Children’s Attitudes to Mathematics. Retrieved from; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332345342_Using_Emojis_and_Interactive_Methods_to_Measure_Children%27s_Attitudes_to_Mathematics

Mills, G.E. (2018). Action Research. A Guide for the Teacher Researcher. Pearson.