Clicking your way to student success!

Bostwick, Dianna ; Foster, John ; Bloomfield, Amie 等

From manual arts to vocational education to career and technical education (CTE), our field has been in a constant state of change and evolution. In a recent effort to increase academic and occupational achievement and success for all CTE students through targeted improvement plans, the state of Pennsylvania implemented a support system called the "Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (TAP)." This article discusses the journey taken by the School District of Philadelphia and focuses on one tool they used to increase their students' engagement in learning technical skills and ultimately meeting the goal of the TAP program.

The TAP Program in Philadelphia

In 2009, three CTE schools in the School District of Philadelphia (the largest urban school district in the state) were selected to participate in the TAP program. Throughout the school year, instructors took full advantage of the mentoring and professional-development opportunities offered through the TAP program. The professional development helps instructors better prepare to explore methods to incorporate multiple points of measurement into their instructional strategies. Changes in instructional delivery provided immediate benefits to the teachers, leaving them with a desire to seek out additional ways to incorporate strategic measurement points while simultaneously motivating and engaging students.

Over the next two years, five more CTE schools were added. All CTE schools within the district are now taking full advantage of the benefits offered through TAP.

One goal of the TAP program is to provide professional development focused on engaging technical teachers in using data-driven instructional improvement to ultimately increase a student's technical competence. The TAP program encourages the use of various tools like pre- and post-assessments and study guides offered through the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI). Results derived from the pre-test, the study guide questions and the post-test provide teachers with information to be used for the development of data-driven instructional improvement plans.

Each school within the School District of Philadelphia participating in the TAP program has created a plan to delve deeper into the school's technical assessment data acquired from the NOCTI assessments, as well as create plans for improved student achievement and technical competence. Capitalizing on technical assistance visits from a team of experienced CTE colleagues and also using the 10 Key Practices from the High Schools That Work (HSTW) model, each school is learning to reflect on specific ways to improve student performance and achievement. For the CTE assessments, NOCTI assessment data were used as one indicator of success. To get the most out of the data, administrators and teachers were focused on finding methods to better engage their students.

During the 2010 Integrated Learning Conference, one of the largest conferences in Pennsylvania, teachers from a number of high schools within the School District of Philadelphia participated in a session focused on a classroom response system (CRS). Upon returning to the classroom, teachers from one of those schools began to explore ways a CRS could be incorporated to enhance the student's learning experience. One teacher decided to use the CRS to prepare students for their end-of-program assessments (NOCTI is the mandated end-of-program assessment in Pennsylvania). A collaborative team of administrators and teachers reviewed the data from the spring 2011 testing season, and the team realized significantly improved results. The improvements were attributed to both the implementation of the TAP program, as well as the usage of the CRS to boost student engagement. The TAP program offered teachers a methodological approach, and the CRS provided the teacher with immediate feedback that allowed for modification of instruction to meet individual student needs.

Technology in the Classroom

Though instructional terminology has changed over the decades, several things remain constant for effective learning to occur. If the instructional methods are unique, students have a higher likelihood of remembering the information. If a teacher has access to a constant flow of data from all students, as opposed to just getting feedback one student at a time, the teacher will be able to target instruction. The way a teacher "arranges" the classroom environment so students can learn and interact is another important factor.

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Effectively incorporating technology into the classroom is not without challenges. Managing the technology is a common fear; therefore, ease of use and the ability for teachers to relate to the technology is essential. Teachers must be confident with and competent in their instructional methods so they can easily incorporate technology into their lesson planning. Technology is a tool to enhance teaching strategies, but it by no means replaces effective teaching.

Classroom Response Systems

Classroom response systems are increasingly being integrated into the instructional process by helping to create an environment for supporting active and cooperative learning. The power of a CRS is the ability to engage students, capture real-time information and bring classroom discussions and learning to a higher level. A CRS includes a software and hardware system in which students submit responses via a transmitter that is similar in size to a television remote control.

An interesting study by the University of Melbourne about CRSs, (1) which was based on responses from teacher interviews, provided encouraging results regarding the ability to manage the technology in the classroom. Teachers expressed concern that incorporating a CRS would result in a reduction in the amount of material they could cover in a typical classroom session. Upon project completion, teachers found they were covering the same amount of material with the CRS and also were able to present lessons more effectively. By asking simple questions at key points of instruction, teachers can easily determine if students--all students--understand the content and are ready to move on by reviewing the real-time student responses collected through the CRS.

After reviewing several options, the Philadelphia Office of Career and Technical Education purchased a CRS called KlickerZ[R], developed by Training Masters. This system builds on the powerful features within PowerPoint to present information in an engaging format for students. With great enthusiasm from both teachers and students, Dianna Bostwick, career integration specialist in the School District of Philadelphia, began to look for opportunities to integrate the use of the KlickerZ program within the classroom.

Teachers started integration by converting classroom review materials for their required end-of-program assessments into the CRS, beginning with the NOCTI study guides. The response to the new method for delivering the NOCTI study guide content created an exciting and engaging learning environment and was an overwhelming success. One student noted, "The KlickerZs were very helpful. They allow us to answer without being criticized. They introduced a new method of learning which turned out to be fun." Another student stated the following: "I like to use the KlickerZ because it was more enjoyable. It was more interesting. I had more interest for the subject."

Bostwick agrees with the enthusiasm expressed by the students, stating, "On more than one occasion of doing a KlickerZ demonstration lesson in a CTE class, I was surprised to find a student I thought was not involved in the lesson turn out to be the student who achieved the highest score on the quiz. The CRS technology delivers instant information to the teacher about every student's understanding of the class material." She goes on to state that the teachers have discovered many benefits of using a CRS during instruction--two of the biggest being "the ease with which the system can be used to enhance instruction and the portability of use and not having to be reliant on anything except a computer, a projector and a white wall."

Responding to Philadelphia's Needs

In Pennsylvania, one factor in defining student technical competence is performance on the NOCTI technical assessment. Students meeting a pre-determined benchmark, established by Pennsylvania industry experts, can earn a student certification from the governor. It follows then that as program implementation in various Philadelphia CTE classrooms expanded, it was suggested that Training Masters and NOCTI collaborate to offer a NOCTI/KlickerZ study guide package. The collaboration began with the development of study guide packages for 10 assessment titles and was tested during the 2011-12 school year in Philadelphia.

As a second and third stage of the training support process, the Philadelphia Office of Career and Technical Education used templates supplied by Training Masters to create chapter reviews for its culinary curriculum that resulted in the development of PowerPoint presentations to be used throughout the 2012-13 school year. "We encourage teachers to use the KlickerZ as a class opener or at the end to see how many students understood the lesson." According to Bostwick, "In one class, when we announced we were going to do a test review, there were groans, but by the end of the activity, students were disappointed the class was over!"

The success of the Philadelphia project resulted in NOCTI and Training Masters exploring an expanded version of the study guide package for the culinary program. This expanded version was created to support a more formative teaching approach with teachers delivering a concept, students practicing the concept and then testing the content using the KlickerZ/NOCTI study guide package.

The plan for the 2012-13 school year is to provide all culinary instructors in the School District of Philadelphia with their own CRS kit, chapter review programs, a formative NOCTI review program and a KlickerZ/NOCTI study guide program. By employing technology in the classroom, teachers can engage students, measure learning in real time, incorporate helpful formative assessments and review the content using the KlickerZ/NOCTI study guide program before the post-tests are administered. The goal of this approach is to help ensure there are no surprises related to student comprehension of competencies at the end of the year. NOCTI president and CEO John Foster is excited about any collaboration that helps students achieve technical competence, and he notes that this is a great marriage of learning theory, technology, technical standards and assessment.

Regardless of the method of instruction, the ultimate goal is for students to obtain technical competence. Technology is a fundamental part of students' lives and has naturally made its way into the classroom. It has changed the way students learn, as well as how they are taught. By focusing on ways to incorporate technology into daily learning experiences, students are more likely to participate, and it helps to make learning fun.

In case you couldn't make it to CareerTech VISION 2012, presentation materials are available at www.acteonline.org/vision_sessions.

Endnotes

(1.) Gauci, S.A., Dantas, A.M., Williams, D.A., & Kemm, R.E. "Promoting Student-Centered Active Learning in Lectures with a Personal Response System." University of Melbourne, Department of Physiology, 5 January 2009.

Dianna Bostwick is the career integration specialist for the School District of Philadelphia and can be reached at dbostwick@philasd.org.

John Foster is president/CEO of NOCTI and can be reached at john.foster@nocti.org.

Amie Bloomfield is customer care and outreach manager for NOCTI and can be reached at amie.bloomfield@nocti.org.

Paul Rutledge is vice president of business development for Training Masters and can be reached at prutledge@trainingmasters.com.