ETEC 561 Section 4: Human Performance Technology

Not all problems in learning and/or performance require an instructional solution. Many times a non-instructional approach is a more appropriate solution. This week's reading and reflection focuses on human performance, performance support systems, knowledge management systems, and the concept of informal learning.

Chapter 14 discusses the concept and evolution of human performance improvement. Several sections of chapter 14 present a variety of non-instructional solutions to performance problems. Identify a performance problem in your area of work and identify non-instructional solutions that may help solve the problem. 

Motivation towards the TAKS/STAAR Test and the rankings coming from the success or lack of success has been an issue in my area of work. The last few years TAKS and now STAAR were tuff on my district. We were slapped with an unacceptable rating the final year of the TAKS test and this put our school into a funk and things seemed bleak. However, since then we have worked hard to correct this. We were led by our principal who put together a vision for success. To do this he had the department heads look into the areas of deficiencies within their own departments. He also motivated staff through vision and feedback in meetings with the departments and the staff as a whole. As a former coach he is a natural at motivating through words. He also started sending key members of the staff to trainings,^th grade writing.  We were ultimately successful because we wanted to get that monkey (STAAR) off our backs.
so they could gain knowledge to be used in the classroom. I am happy to report that our campus met standards this year and even earned an academic distinction for 7

Chapter 15 presents performance support systems. Define performance support systems and explain how a performance support system might (or might not) help solve the problem you identified above.

We had a performance support system implemented in the hopes that it would lead to better performance when it came to STAAR scores. We had several supports put into place. We started using Eduphoria to track student performance on tests. I also gave the ability to look at a student over time. We also analyzed previous TAKS/STAAR scores and how our students performed towards specific TEKS. Another way we were helped was that our district hired aides to help in lesson preparation when it came to preparing for our unit tests and ultimately the STAAR test. We also got new technologies in the classroom like Promethean Boards and other resources like support texts. The last key support was additional training that would increase student performance by increasing our knowledge of designing lessons towards our student’s success.

Chapter 16 explains knowledge management: the way we manage information, share that information, and use it to solve organization problems. Organizations, such as schools, accumulate a great deal information/data, which must be organized in a way that we can make sense of it in order to use for making decisions. What knowledge would help solve the problem you identified above and how would that knowledge need to be collected and managed to help facilitate problem solving? 

I explained towards this some before, but the things we looked at in becoming more successful on the STARR test were many. We looked at students previous scores on other tests. We also tracked their performance through the year when it came to Unit Tests. We also looked at released STAAR questions and previous TAKS test questions. In doing this we looked for areas that the students as a whole needed extra support. This allowed us to be able to come up with focused instruction to help improve the understanding of difficult areas.                                                         Our department became very focused on improving student success.

Chapter 17 describes types of informal learning. What informal learning experiences have you participated in at your organization? Could those informal learning experiences be shared with others? Could the knowledge gained in those settings be codified and managed? And should it be managed or should the informal experiences be replicated or broadened for others?

The thing, I think, that improved our specific departments STAAR scores more than anything were our department meetings. Now in saying this, what comes to mind might be a very formal meeting between members of our department, but what these meetings became was an opportunity for us to share with each other our knowledge, success, and failures. These were very informal meetings and what was truly nice is that we for the most part were able to just be left to ourselves to come up with our plan to conquer the STAAR Test. These meetings could have been managed by a principal or some other person from central office, but I think if it had been the outcome would not have been as good as it was. We needed to be informal and left to ourselves so that we had creative freedom.