Discussion questions for academic study

¶ … institution uses a combination of both the functionalist and empowerment perspective to conduct needs' assessments. Despite this, the empowerment perspective is relied upon to a greater extent than the functionalist perspective. My institution is a community organization, so its goal is to "reduce the power and influence that various systems have on [the students'] lives" (Pearce 252). Thus, the goal is to encourage students to ask their own questions and take control of their own lives instead of allowing institutions to control them. Teachers encourage students to become involved in the process of needs assessment as a learning opportunity, and needs assessments are often based on social issues and social change such as the ethnic, linguistic, racial, and ability makeup of the students. Despite this focus, certain aspects of the functionalist perspective are also included in the institution's needs assessment. For instance, programs are implemented based on expressed, felt, and other needs that can be scientifically assessed and measured. An example of this is deciding whether or not to eliminate or extend a certain class or program. The decision is based on a functionalist perspective, which measures the number of students attending the program, the motivation of the students attending the program, and the success of the students attending this program. Thus, social constructs certainly define what is considered a need and what is not, but more measurable beliefs, such as a proper use of funding and successfulness, are also implicit sources of needs. Combining the functionalist and empowerment approaches certainly has many strengths. Some of these include the ability to view the institution both from the perspective of society as well as through a quantitative lens. A weakness, however, can be seen in the fact that the two approaches are often in contradiction, which may make decision-making different for the administrators from time to time.

B.

The tools used to uncover needs in my institution are often based on intimate conversations between the administrators and the teachers. In addition, the teachers are encouraged to ask students about the needs they feel must be met. The teachers, then, report this information to the administration. This reflects the institution's place in the community, as well as its empowerment approach to needs assessment. Other than these empowerment tools, the institution tends to use surveys to collect data from instructors and students regarding the level of satisfaction with the course and specific aspects of the course. While these tools are certainly sufficient for uncovering needs, my institution calls for further tools to be used in order to conduct effective assessments. For instance, the program would greatly benefit from an analysis of documents used in the courses. Furthermore, observation could be paired with this document analysis to imply whether students responded to the particular methods used by the teacher. In addition, teachers could keep records of which homework assignments resulted in the largest amount of work and which homework assignments were ignored by the students. By studying this information, teachers could come to a better understanding regarding the types of work that the students are most comfortable completing. In addition, further observation techniques as related to instruction and classroom management could be used to determine whether or not certain students were being engaged. By incorporating these other tools, my institution could benefit, as more needs would be uncovered.