Students Achievement Force Field Analysis

Force Field Analysis
The school’s State Report Card has provided significant insights regarding student achievement in my school. Following an analysis of data presented in the school’s State Report Card, reading is an area of instructional need in my classroom. 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. This paper focuses on examining factors driving the need for improvement in this area of instructional need as well as those preventing such improvement and those within my control. The desired change in this area is for students to demonstrate higher level creative thinking and be able to develop their own ideas.
Force Field Analysis Chart
As previously mentioned, the desired change in this area of instructional need in my classroom is for students to demonstrate higher-level critical thinking and be able to develop their own ideas. This desired change is critical towards improving student achievement and outcomes in my classroom because it will enable them to become active participants in their learning through taking personal initiative. However, there are several factors driving and preventing the desired change in the classroom as shown in the Force Field Analysis chart in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Force Field Analysis ChartAvailability of learning resources
Driving Forces
Students to Develop Higher Learning Creative Thinking and their Own Ideas
Poor Reading Skills
Ineffective teaching styles
Lower-level or average students in the classroom
Lack of collaboration between teachers
Need to Improve Student Achievement
Students’ Interest in Business Careers
Changes in teaching styles
Support by the administration
Restraining Forces
Disruption
As shown in the Force Field Analysis chart, there are various kinds of driving and restraining forces towards the achievement of the desired state in my classroom. These forces are related to people and processes within the classroom environment and the entire institution. The achievement of this desired state requires capitalizing on the desired forces and addressing the restraining forces. Such efforts would help in creating a suitable learning environment and framework for the achievement of the desired state in my classroom.
The Force Field Analysis chart demonstrates that people factors that act as the driving forces for change in my classroom include students’ interest in business careers, changes in teaching styles, and support by the top management. As previously indicated, most of the students in my classroom have demonstrated significant interest in pursuing a business-related career in the future. The significant interest is demonstrated in various ways, particularly their participation in group discussions and other learning activities. This acts as a significant driving force towards achievement of the desired state in this class. The school’s administration has also provided necessary support to teachers and students to help in achieving this desired state. Additionally, the changes in teaching styles have played a crucial role through increased adoption of student-centered approach in which teaching/learning is customized to fit the individual needs and strengths of the student (Miller, 2013). On the other hand, processes that act as crucial factors for change are availability of learning resources and the need for the school to improve student achievement across all content areas.
However, the people factors that act as restraining forces towards realization of this desired state include the fact that most students are lower-level or average students. This inhibits their ability to develop higher level thinking and their own ideas in relation to their learning processes and activities. The other factors include the lack of collaboration between teachers and poor reading skills among students. These factors make it difficult to create a suitable learning environment that promotes the achievement of the desired state. In contrast, the process factors that act as restraining forces include disruptions during learning and use of ineffective teaching styles within the classroom.
Barriers or Restraining Forces within My Control
While the barriers or restraining forces are attributable to people and process factors, they can further be divided into two i.e. those within my control and those I cannot control. One of the forces within my control in this classroom is ineffective teaching styles, which is affecting the achievement of the desired state. This force is within my control since as a teacher, one of my responsibilities it to utilize appropriate teaching styles and techniques that help in enhancing student achievement and performance in the classroom. Teaching styles play a critical role in student achievement since they influence how a teacher responds to the individual needs of students in the classroom. For instance, according to Esposito, Davis & Swain (2012), urban educators changed mandated reform models based on the interests of the culturally and linguistically diverse students. Therefore, teaching styles utilized in the classroom are within the control of the teachers.
The second restraining force within my control in this classroom is poor reading skills, which is affecting the ability of the students to develop higher level thinking and their own ideas with respect to the Business courses. While there are individual factors that contributing to poor reading skills, I feel that this is within my control since I can utilize appropriate measures to identify and deal with these factors. Moreover, the use of effective teaching styles and techniques would help in meeting the individual needs of the students and improving their reading skills. The other restraining force is disruptions during class sessions, which has become a major problem in my classroom. Since most of the students are lower level or average learners, they tend to engage in activities that sometimes disrupt learning. Additionally, the disruption is attributable to their poor reading skills and the use of ineffective teaching/learning styles to enhance students’ mastery of these essential skills.
Barrier or Restraining Force to Eliminate
In light of the role these barriers play in preventing the achievement of the desired state, it’s important to eliminate them in order to enhance chances of students to master this area of instructional need. However, the elimination of these barriers can be a relatively complex and challenging process that requires time and even money. Following a consideration of the restraining force I have most control over and what I can do with the least amount of money, time and energy, the restraining force I want to eliminate is ineffective teaching styles. This is primarily because the current teaching styles I utilize do not enable students to master this area of instructional need. Since this restraining force is intertwined with the others, addressing it would help solve more than half of the problems students are experiencing in the classroom environment with respect to this area of instructional need. Changing teaching style is a relatively easy process as compared to what may be required to deal with the other restraining forces or barriers. In most cases, teachers utilize test data to change and inform their instructional practice through altering their teaching styles (Anonymous, 2011). Therefore, changing the teaching style and instructional practice is the restraining force I have more control over and can be easily eliminated.
Conclusion
Ineffective teaching styles is a barrier that is restraining achievement or mastery of this area of instructional need through affecting instructional practice. In this case, this force prevents mastery of this area through creating a learning environment where the individual needs of students are not addressed in the learning process. Once the individual needs of students are not identified and address, they find it difficult to develop higher level learning and develop their own ideas in relation to the course. Moreover, the failure to meet the individual needs of the students through appropriate teaching techniques sometimes causes students to engage in disruption and other activities that do not enhance their learning. Therefore, student achievement and mastery of this area of instructional need can be effectively addresses through changes in the teaching styles to meet the individual needs of each student in the classroom. Some of the initial ideas I will utilize to overcome this barrier include is providing readable, high-interest texts (Thoughtful Classroom, n.d.). This will help address the problem since enhancing access to such texts motivates struggling readers to read more and develop critical thinking skills (California Department of Education Publication, n.d.). Secondly, I will provide continued instruction in reading through increasing the amount of instruction on this area and providing more support to my students including enhancing small group and one-on-one instruction for these students. Third, I will evaluate the individual needs of each students and develop teaching techniques based on these needs.



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
Ed Source. (2011, January/February). When Data Drives School Culture. Leadership, 40(3), 34-35.
Esposito, J., Davis, C.L. & Swain, A.N. (2012, May). Urban Educators’ Perceptions of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and School Reform Mandates. Journal of Educational Change, 13(2), 235-258.
Miller, J.J. (2013). A Better Grading System: Standards-Based, Student-Centered Assessment. English Journal, 103(1), 111-118. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/1031-sep2013/EJ1031Better.pdf
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