Instructional Designers in Action

Who Am I And What Do I Do? I am presently a secondary school teacher at the largest secondary school on the island of St Lucia. I teach Food and Nutrition to students of grades 10-12 and I serve as Head of Department for Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) at the school. My current duties as a specialist teacher are directly related to my Bachelor of Education Degree in Home Economics. I am based in the Food and Nutrition room which serves as both lab and classroom. With grade 10 students, their food and Nutrition experiences are only for half of the academic year to fulfill one of the school’s objectives, which is, to expose students at this level to all the TVET subjects so they could make meaningful subject choices based on their experiences. A regular school day for me starts at 8:15 and ends at 3:00. However the magnitude of work that ensue the school-based assessments for my subject demands that I bring workload home very often. The grade 11 students select the subject to pursue as a two year course through grade 12, and are expected to undertake assessments for practical sessions along with the theory aspect of the course. Apart from teaching the modules I have the responsibility of creating task assignments for food preparation and service assessments which are based on the syllabus. In an effort to standardize these assignments for St Lucian students across the entire country, a team of four persons headed by me is charged with designing the assignments with mark schemes to be used by to all Food and Nutrition teachers at grade 11 and 12. As head of department I have to supervise nine teachers to ensure effective curriculum delivery and assist the principal with appraisal at the end of each year. On a term basis I coordinate through collaboration, the planning and implementation of professional day activities for the department. At the commencement of every school each department is expected to prepare and submit an annual strategic development plan to administration. My role as a senior teacher has taken me beyond the classroom walls to perform several other duties. Some of these are listed below. 1. External supervisor for minimum standard Tests at Grade 10 level 2. Moderator for Caribbean Secondary Examination for practical assignments in Food and Nutrition. 3. Assessor for National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) - involves competency-based practical skills in compliance with occupational standards. 4. Book review team member for Food and Nutrition Text Books – national and regional. 5. Conduct workshops for new and inexperienced Food and Nutrition teachers, to familiarize them with strategies to deliver the grades 11 and 12 syllabus to improve performance in the most effective and efficient manner. 6. Facilitator for induction programs –new teachers at my school. The knowledge and skills which I have attained from the above experiences can allow me to make meaningful contributions to most of the areas in the education system, except tasks which require proficiency with different technologies. However, of the five domains within the ADDIE model, “design” seems to suit my experience with duties of head of department, as collaborating through planning strategies with teachers, and for students, have been common successful endeavors throughout my career. One of the issues which often arise during these exercises is failure of teachers to use objectives in their lesson plans which test in -depth learning and critical thinking skills. Therefore I can consider myself adept at selecting course format and ensuring that objectives test the content they are meant for. As a facilitator for helping teachers to develop strategic classroom management skills, I have been able to find creative ideas and ways to deliver instructions to keep students motivated, a skill which puts me in a position to write the instructional design document. I look forward to making a meaningful contribution (if necessary to more than the design stage) to the group’s project with Brookfield’s (1995, cited in Palloff &Pratt, 2005) position on the significance of collaboration in social construction. He contends that, “collaborative processes promote initiative, creativity, critical thinking skills and dialogue on the part of the learners” (p. 2). We learned from a previous course that online learning occurs in a true social learning environment and I anticipate success with my first constructive group experience in this regard. Thank You Reference: Palloff, R.M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating Online: Learning Together in Community. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Date Modified: 2 Mar 11    8:02 PM MST