A Quantitative Study of Student Success With Reflection in Critiques, Essay Example

Modern standards require teachers to have well-honed skills that are diverse so they can accommodate the dynamic cultural backgrounds of their students. A wide range of factors directly and indirectly affect the measurable success of student achievement in United States public schools. Elevated public awareness about the perceptions of underperforming educational institutions overwhelmed Americans in 1983 with the release of A Nation at Risk, depicting a failing school system that was graduating youth that did not have the minimum skills necessary to survive in the real world (Sadker & Zittleman, 2009).

Factors such as the increasing levels of student diversity, the mutating roles of the teacher, and the integration of technology have facilitated the pursuit of better instructional methods into the instructional designs. One reason for lack of educational progress is the fact that progress cannot merely be externally imposed on schools. American policymakers and educational stakeholders clearly understand the complex nature, structure, and functions of instructional designs (Brewer, 2008). The learning process is multi-dimensional and is influenced by a number of factors. Acquisition of knowledge depends on capacity to achieve learning objectives.  An effective instructional design should provide the opportunity for the learner to gain experience in employing, elaborating, and constructing knowledge, skills, and strategies (Boettcher, 2013).

The highly technological standards common to 21st century education requires educators to not only be knowledgeable, but to also hold all students to high standards, differentiate instruction, and teachers are held responsible for the success of their students.  In today’s society, a huge amount of accountability is placed on educators to have the capability to teach a wide variety of students from diverse cultures, family backgrounds, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

There are many challenges that educators face while working to meet the individual and personal needs of all of their students on a daily basis. Added challenges to the teaching profession include state standards and testing requirements. Students today are very different than those who were in high school even just ten years ago. Technology has been one of the major factors precipitating global change over this last decade and, given this, the educational profession needs to continually transform to meet the changing needs of their students. For teachers to be able to offer their students the highest quality of instruction, they must be given technology and training to use and implement within the classroom.

Staff development is a part of every educator’s professional practice and two or three days are built into the school calendar each year and many educators go above and beyond to take classes and workshops on their own time. Financial resources must be allocated by the school district to conduct professional staff development. At the high school level in the Norwalk Public School system, staff development topics are many times created with a general topic to address the entire staff. It is difficult to know if this approach to staff development is a success when the main goal of staff development is to reach students and to encourage their achievement. The teachers who are most successful with their students are ones who know their subjects and how to teach it (Haycock & Robinson, 2001).

Given this information it is important to understand what teachers’ perceptions of the support they are provided with and whether these factors have an impact on teaching and student learning. When teachers are given the tools and training to support them in the classroom, students will gain the benefit with academic advances. We need to determine not only if teachers are being provided enough technology to support teaching in the 21^st century, but also if they are being given enough training to support the use of this new technology.

Research Concept

Some studies suggest that schools are enhancing student success by emphasizing the use of high-quality instruction, data analysis, and integrated general and special education systemic procedures to increase student success (Sansosti & Noltemeyer, 2008).  Some of the dynamic changes occurring in educational methodologies implemented in modern schools include the exclusion of vital music and artistic instruction, which are considered ancillary to other subjects like math, science, and history (Kettle, 2011).  The focus of this research is to measure how students critique their art, reflect on their work, and use the creative process to strengthen their overall academic abilities, which can help strengthen arguments regarding the necessity for the inclusion of artistic instruction in scholastic programs.  This can aid in convincing the federal government to mandate school district leaders implement academic interventions to close the achievement gap and increase student success (Reeves, Bishop, & Filce, 2010).

Statement of the Problem

The role of federal government in public education shifted in 2002 when the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act went into effect. NCLB has created additional challenges for public school educators, especially given that each school has no control over the diversity of their population. Student’s backgrounds, ability, parent involvement are just a few factors that play into a schools culture. Additionally, Dusseau, Hurst, & Bitter (2003) state that teachers must, “plan and implement interventions to address the needs, evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions, institutionalize those interventions that improve student performance”(p.3).

Most schools employ thematic instruction in fine arts programs because of advantages including enhancement of the extension and expansion of the curriculum (Holdren, 2009). Thematic instruction emphasizes individuals’ multiple intelligences in creative and supportive learning environments. Sims and Jones (2003) claimed this approach focuses on the process, rather than the product. Therefore, the focus is misplaced, as outcomes of instruction are as valuable as the processes involved during teaching. According to Tomei (2003), roles of the new media and technology-based instruction in teaching fine arts have not been harnessed fully. Many areas of a K-12 students’ life are technology focused, except when it comes to their educational experiences (NCTI, 2010; Prensky, 2008).

Integrating technology does not mean the same thing to all teachers. Additionally, the content that is taught and each teacher’s pedagogical style, the students, technology available, are all factors that must be taken into consideration when making decisions (Chai, Koh, & Tsai, 2010; Cox & Graham, 2009; DePlatchett, 2008; Graham et al., 2009; Harris, 2008; Kelly, 2008; Koehler & Mishra, 2008; Mishra & Koehler, 2006; Nelson, Christopher, & Mims, 2009; Neiss, 2008; Schmidt et al., 2009). This study will be conducted in the state of Connecticut and will survey art educators teaching at the secondary level.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this proposed qualitative study is to examine the use of technology in a fine arts program in the Norwalk Public School system in Norwalk, Connecticut within the three high schools that are located here. Norwalk is a city located in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The 2010 census puts the population at 85,603, giving Norwalk the 6^th highest population in Connecticut. The city is considered part of the New York Metropolitan area and due to this fact, gives the city diversity both demographically and socioeconomically. Given that Norwalk is composed of such a heterogeneous population, it is of interest to investigate the various factors that could affect the art teacher’s ability to provide quality education. It is of high priority to gain an understanding of whether or not these educators are being given adequate professional development opportunities with regard to using technology into the classroom. The qualitative research method works best for this type of study because it will use interviews and open-ended surveys to gain a depth of understanding into the art educator’s personal experiences with regard to the professional development opportunities they are provided with and how informative those opportunities are to their practice. This study will include five art instructors from three high schools in Norwalk Connecticut. There are ten art teachers who teach at the high school level in this district and teachers will be selected from each school. It is crucial to find out whether or not art teachers being provided with enough technology to support the art curriculum and 21^st century learning skills, are art teachers being provided with enough professional development, and is the professional development meaningful to their teaching practice. The researcher will first need to establish the types of technology teachers have access to as well as what the professional development opportunities are for these art educators. Once this is learned, the randomly selected teachers will be surveyed to gain and understanding of their perceptions of whether or not they are provided with enough technology in the classroom and professional development to support the implementation of technology. Teachers will also be surveyed to determine if teachers perceive they are being provided enough professional development to make an impact on students.

Research Questions

The continuous assessment of relevance and validity of instructional methods have strengthened the integration of a variety of tools and systems in effort to ensure effective delivery of classroom content. Despite the past and current gains, gaps still exist in literatures, especially on how to develop effective instructional designs that take cognizance of learning experiences and learning environments. Based on the above limitations in the application and knowledge of factors that contribute to better instructional methods by combining a wide range of factors pointed above, the current research seeks to examine key characteristics of an effective and comprehensive instructional design for fine arts program.

An analysis of instructional designs for fine arts programs reveals several grey areas that call for further research. It remains uncertain, which are the best instructional designs for use in fine arts instruction and why they are the best. The role of technology and new media in fine arts are also unclear because there is ambiguous information about them with regard to their functionalities, advantages and disadvantages. Art is believed to assist children create social scripts since arts cognition and emotion has strong bearings on children. This being said, the research questions that will guide this study are:

• What are teachers’ perceptions of the amount of technology that they are provided within three high schools in Norwalk Connecticut?
• What are teachers’ perceptions regarding whether or not, or the degree to which, current staff development programs provide support for the implementation of technology?
• What are teachers’ perceptions with regard to whether or not the school system is providing adequate staff development that supports teachers and positively impact students?

Definition of Key Terms

Discussion of the subject of education requires the use of specific terminologies relative to the profession.  Professional jargon will be used in this research to help answer the research question, and the definition of these terms, as used in this paper, are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Definition of Terms

Summary

Theoretical Framework

The purpose of this research is to determine what teachers’ perceptions are of professional development and technology support in three Norwalk, Connecticut Public High Schools. The major variables that affect this study are to determine what technology is provided to teachers, what training and professional development is provided to teachers, and how students’ learning is affected by each factor. Dependent variables for this study include; self-efficacy, socio- economic class, ethnicity, race, teaching philosophies, teaching techniques, and age. Independent variables include being part of the same school system.

In order to meet these challenges, organizations may combine conventional human resource practices with effective online academic programs, which is believed to enhance the involvement and performance of employees (Parsons, 2009).   Additional researchers note that organizations that use such a combination enhance employee motivation, competencies and performances (Datta, Guthrie, & Wright, 2005).  Consequently, the employees record lower turnover rates, higher productivity, and better overall performance within the organization.   Online education is a major beneficiary of high performance work systems as shown by corporate growth (Kim & Bonk, 2005).

The Impact of Teacher Evaluations on Student Outcomes

Teacher evaluation methods can consist of informal classroom observations, lesson plan evaluation, faculty interactions, student performance ratings, administrator interactions self-reflection exercises, and other formal and informal observations (Marshall, 2009).  Most states and districts across the country have implemented various evaluation procedures and evaluations, carried out in both public and private schools.

The purpose of the teacher evaluation process is to ensure that teachers meet the set standards of education and bring about high performance and achievement amongst students.  Additionally, the teacher evaluation process is meant to improve teacher professional learning and growth (Peterson, 2000).  However empirical investigations assessing the efficacy of evaluation on student outcomes reveal mixed results.

The teacher evaluation process has been associated with a general improvement in some schools’ performance (Parsons, 2009).  Although some researchers demonstrate that teacher evaluation is associated with minimal improvement, other researchers indicate that evaluation does not result in significant improvement (Peterson, 2000).  There has been disagreement within the field, and some researchers are calling for the improvement of the existing teacher evaluation systems (Peterson, 2000).

Additional research presents the assertion that there is need for high quality and useful teacher evaluations to support and improve the quality of teaching; however, the existing evaluation protocol is often failing to meet the expected standards (Tucker & Stronge, 2005).  In professional contexts, too frequently, the process of teacher evaluation has been viewed as a formality rather than a vehicle for professional growth and development (Stronge & Tucker, 2003). Furthermore, “principals and other evaluators approach the evaluation process as a mechanical exercise in which teachers view it as an exercise that must be endured” (Stronge & Tucker, 2003, p. 6).

Some researchers maintain that the mixed efficacy results of teacher evaluation systems, and the different evaluation systems used across different schools indicate a need for evaluation reform (Peterson, 2000). As an alternative to reform, Danielson and McGreal (2000) maintain that there is no need for teacher evaluation, since the current systems in use are outdated and limited, and do not contribute to professional learning and growth.  Still other researchers maintain that there is no relationship between evaluation and outcome and indicate that most teachers who are evaluated as “excellent” have students who exhibit low performance levels (Marshall, 2009).  Due to the debate within the field concerning the efficacy and importance of evaluation, and the status of current evaluation protocol, further research on this topic is warranted.

Negative impact of evaluations on student outcomes

The initial purpose of implementing teacher evaluations was to facilitate the professional growth of teachers, and positively impact student achievement (O’Sullivan, 2004). Peine (2007) maintains however, that the teacher evaluation processes have not resulted in an increase in professional growth and as a result, student achievement has declined.

As a consequence of declining student achievement, recent research has been conducted to determine factors contributing to the decline in student achievement in spite of continued teacher evaluations (Marshall, 2009; Peterson, 2000). Some researchers have attributed the problem to the systems of evaluations (Danielson & McGreal, 200; Peterson, 2000), whereas others have blamed the evaluators (Marshall, 2009). Still, others maintain that the evaluation system does not provide room to enhance professional growth and learning.

When teacher evaluation in many schools did not realize the goal of improving student achievement, through teacher professional growth, this resulted in the implementation of a different professional growth plan instead. Furthermore, the teacher evaluation process did not result in the appropriate compensation of competent teachers.  Some maintain that teacher evaluations, which are designed to foster professional growth and the eventual improved achievement of students, have instead contributed to academic failure.

According to this body of research, these cases of academic failure occurred because of the application of inappropriate processes of teacher evaluation which in turn impacted professional learning negatively. The application of incorrect teacher evaluation tools and strategies towards the professional learning process therefore made the process not only ineffective but inefficient as well. Teacher evaluation and professional learning can only succeed when the correct mechanisms, tools and strategies have been applied (Sartain, Stoelinga & Krone, 2010; Toch, 2008).

Additional inconsistencies have been identified demonstrating declining performance of students in many schools where teachers have been rated as excellent. Such cases serve as examples of the failure of the teacher evaluation processes in addressing the challenges facing the education sector in fostering professional learning. Instead of continuing to use inappropriate evaluation methods, stakeholders should investigate why teachers who have been rated to be excellent continued to yield poor academic results (Kressler, 2003; Sartain, Stoelinga & Krone, 2010).  Further research needs to be conducted to reconcile these discrepancies and to better understand teacher evaluation process better.

Peterson (2000) maintains that evaluation plays as much a role in recognizing existing values and qualities of teachers as it does in providing information to them to improve teaching outcomes. As a consequence, it is important to incorporate the perception of teachers in the analysis and evaluation of their work performance. Peterson (2000) argues that instead of relying on evaluation tools from areas other than the learning fields, teacher-related evaluation instruments may be more effective. Indeed, Peterson has suggested that past studies on teacher evaluation, utilizing inappropriate instruments, have no foundation or basis for policy or practice at the school, district, state, or national levels.

The appropriate utilization of the teacher evaluation processes to foster professional growth and student achievement outcomes is of utmost importance and additional research on this topic needs to be conducted.  Donaldson (2009) maintains that, “a fine-designed and executed assessment scheme may be the most efficient means to raise student achievement” (Donaldson, 2009).  Research on teacher perceptions of the evaluation process and their perceived understanding of evaluation will assist the evaluation reform process.

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