Addressing an Area of Instructional Need

Attainment of the Achievement Goal

I currently teach Business-related courses at Downingtown HS East Campus, which has experienced an overall high performance of students over the last few years. The Business-related courses that I teach are designed students prepare to compete in competitions like mock trial, DECA, and other business topic competitions. While most of my students have demonstrated significant interest in pursuing a career in the field of business, they have challenges in reading. Due to reading challenges, the biggest problem in my class is that most of the students who take these courses are lower level or average students and struggle with higher level thinking and development of their idea. The desired change in this area is for students to demonstrate higher level creative thinking and be able to develop their own ideas. This paper discusses strategies that I could use in my classroom to help in the attainment of this student achievement goal. The strategies are identified through conducting an extensive research on some of the most strategies used by high-performing schools to realize this objective.
Research-based Strategies for Attainment of this Achievement Goal
The identified area of instructional need in my current Business class is the struggle with higher level thinking and development of personal ideas among my lower level or average students due to difficulties in reading. High performing schools in Pennsylvania and other regions utilize various strategies to enhance higher level thinking and development of own ideas among lower level or average students in the classroom. Through conducting a comprehensive research, some of the research-based strategies I could use to eliminate the barrier preventing the attainment of this student achievement goal are as follows:
Use of Graphic Organizers
One of the research-based strategies employed by high-performing schools to promote higher level thinking and development of personal ideas among lower level or average students in the classroom is the use of graphic organizers in teaching. This is considered as an important teaching strategy that involves the provision of readable, higher interest texts that motivates students to develop critical thinking skills and their own ideas during learning (Thoughtful Classroom, n.d.). According to Cox (2017), graphic organizers provide students with an effective way to shape their thoughts in an organized manner. The use of graphic organizers entails giving students the opportunity to draw diagrams or mind maps relating to the various concepts they are learning in class. As students engage in these activities, they enhance their capabilities to better connect concepts learned in class and see their relationships. The process will not only help students create habits of connecting concepts but also provide a means for them to engage in higher level thinking and develop their own ideas.
According to Professional Learning Board (n.d.), graphic organizers are effective teaching and learning tools towards enhancing critical thinking skills. As teaching tools, graphic organizers enable teachers to introduce a topic, activate previous knowledge and connect it with new information, arrange content in a visual manner, and evaluate student comprehension to identify areas of need. These tools have also proven effective in attainment of the desired student achievement goal since they increase student participation in learning, promote cognitive processes like brainstorming and generation of ideas, and enhance comprehension of concepts (Professional Learning Board, n.d.).
Encourage Questioning
The second research-based strategy utilized to enhance higher level thinking and development of own ideas among lower level or average students in the classroom is encouraging questioning. Teachers should create a learning environment where students feel free to ask questions (Cox, 2017). Tofade, Elsner & Haines (2013) contend that questions have been traditionally used as a teaching tool by instructors to promote comprehension and stimulate critical thinking. Questioning stimulates higher level thinking and development of own ideas by students through generating discussions that are geared towards stimulating comprehensive exploration of concepts and issues relating to the subject matter. Additionally, well-developed questions help in generating new insights through which students’ comprehension and critical thinking skills. Teachers also utilize divergent questions that stimulate deep thinking in the classroom, which becomes a premise for students to develop their own ideas as they analyze and evaluate concepts and learning materials.
On one hand, this research-based strategy involves encouraging students to ask questions relating to the concepts they learn in class. This provides a premise through which students become active participants in their learning process. Additionally, it enables them to enhance their reading skills and mastery of the learning material and concepts. On the other hand, this strategy involves development of well-crafted questions by teachers. In this case, teachers develop higher-level cognitive questions that they ask students during classroom-based instruction (Tofade, Elsner & Haines, 2013).
The effectiveness of this strategy in promoting the attainment of this student achievement goal is dependent on creating a safe and interactive classroom environment in which students feel free to ask questions. Secondly, for this strategy to be effective, teachers need to develop and utilize higher-level questions during classroom-based instruction. Existing studies demonstrate that questioning could be ineffective as a teaching and learning tool if teachers develop and utilize lower-level questions. Therefore, teachers are required to develop higher-level questions since such questions stimulate deep thinking and development of personal ideas by students, which in turn improves students’ reading skills.
Implementation of these Two Strategies
As evident in the above analysis, these two strategies have been proven essential and effective in promoting higher-level thinking and development of own ideas among lower level or average students. However, the effectiveness of these strategies is dependent on the implementation process. The implementation process of these strategies is relatively complex and associated with several requirements with regards to time, money and energy. These requirements would help in making necessary adjustments in the classroom environment.
The implementation of the first strategy i.e. the use of graphic organizers in classroom-based instruction requires changes in curriculum and teaching methods. In this case, the curriculum should be designed in a manner that provides a framework for using visuals in teaching. Changes in the curriculum is a relatively costly process that also requires time and energy since the visuals and graphics should be tailored to promote mastery of learning concepts and critical thinking skills. The implementation of this strategy would in turn enhance the abilities of the lower level or average students to develop their own ideas and develop critical thinking skills, which will in turn enhance their mastery of the course (California Department of Education Publication, n.d.). Through this process, the strategy will also contribute towards enhanced abilities of these students to participate in business-related competitions. However, teachers in this school have relatively minimal control in the implementation and success of this strategy since making curriculum changes is a relatively complex and multi-faceted process.
The implementation of the second strategy i.e. using questioning in classroom-based instruction would require changing teaching methods. While this strategy has relatively minimal to no cost implications, teachers will need to spend more time in preparing lessons in a manner that encourages students to ask questions during classroom-based instruction. Moreover, teachers will need to spend more time in developing higher-level questions that are utilized to stimulate deeper thinking among students during classroom-based instruction. In this regard, the cost implications of this process are minimal in comparison to the use of graphic organizers in the classroom. This implementation of this strategy will not only help in development of own ideas and critical thinking skills among students, but will also play a crucial role in creating an interactive/collaborative classroom. Teachers in the school have significant control over changing teaching strategies and methods in relation to the implementation and success of this research-based strategy.
Action Plan
The first step towards implementation of these two strategies involves conducting a meeting with teachers in which curriculum changes and teaching methods are discussed. Once the meeting is conducted, teachers should develop a plan through which curriculum changes will be made with respect to incorporate visuals and graphics in the respective content areas. The plan should then be reviewed by the management who will provide essential feedback for the improvement of the plan. The plan will then be revised and integrated into teaching strategies that focus on use of graphic organizers and encouraging questioning during classroom-based instruction and teaching process.
In conclusion, the current area of instructional need in my classroom is the difficulties in development of own ideas and higher level thinking among the lower level or average students. The attainment of this area of student achievement can be realized through the use or research-based strategies or methods utilized by high-performing schools. Based on comprehensive research, research-based strategies that will help in attainment of this achievement goal include use of graphic organizers and encouraging questioning. These two strategies are teaching techniques that would help to effectively address this area of instructional need in my classroom. They will contribute towards enhanced capabilities of students to develop their own ideas, enhance development of higher level thinking, and contribute towards the creation of a collaborative classroom environment. As a result, they will help enhance the reading skills of my students and improve the overall student achievement.



References
California Department of Education Publication. (n.d.). Interventions in English Language Arts. Retrieved from California Department of Education website: https://pubs.cde.ca.gov/tcsii/ch2/intrvnelarts.aspx
Cox, J. (2017). Teaching Strategies that Enhance Higher-Order Thinking. Retrieved December 6, 2017, from http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-enhance-higher-order-thinking
Professional Learning Board. (n.d.). Why Use Graphic Organizers in the Classroom? Retrieved December 6, 2017, from https://k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tlb/why-use-graphic-organizers-in-the-classroom/
Tofade, T., Elsner, J. & Haines, S.T. (2013, September 12). Best Practice Strategies for Effective Use of Questions as a Teaching Tool. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 77(7). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3776909/
Thoughtful Classroom. (n.d.). Styles and Strategies for Helping Struggling Learners Overcome Common Learning Difficulties. Retrieved November 24, 2017, from https://www.thoughtfulclassroom.com/PDFs/lsis-help-for-struggling-students.pdf