Section 4: Human Performance Technology (HPT)

In my school, we have been using PLC’s (professional learning communities) as a way for teachers to get together from different departments to address problems of practice (POP).  Each week, the PLC leaders meet to address concerns presented by the faculty and to discuss or develop a problem of practice, which is usually a school-wide issue that needs to be addressed.  Recently, we were presented with the problem of student motivation in the classroom and alternatives to traditional lecture models.  I think this meets the criteria we were tasked with.  It is practical in that it is an actual problem that requires a solution, it is feasible in that there are research-based alternative to teaching methods that not only improve academic performance, but also motivation, and it is important because learning absolutely cannot take place in an environment where the students are not motivated to learn. 

Performance support systems are systems that provide support and information to users/employees/faculty/parents/etc. with information and tools as needed.  It’s different from training and professional development because training can’t happen at the exact instant that a problem arises.  A performance support system allows someone to troubleshoot an issue the moment it arises.  Right now, we don’t have anything in place that would address our motivation issue directly, but you could create a shareable database that allows you to select different teaching strategies and report data collected on the success of those strategies.  We do, however, have an underutilized database that teachers can access and add to on specific students in which we can list specific problems or behaviors of individual students and describe strategies that have worked with that student in the past.  It is a little unwieldy for use for whole-class reporting, but it is a start. 

In order to address the problem of motivation and the effectiveness of different teaching strategies, I think we would need an information repository system for reporting strategies used and the results of using that strategy (like Google Forms) with someone on the back-end compiling the information into a searchable database that we can use to select the best strategy for a given activity.  A file sharing system would also be beneficial for disseminating strategy information and lesson templates that can be easily adapted to different subject areas.  We already have internal communities in the PLCs and internal email communication for sharing information.

I am not doing too well coming up with informal learning experiences that I have participated in, but I try to create those experiences for my students as much as possible.  Many of these are the “teachable moments” that we hear so much about; moments that pop up seemingly unplanned and are used to drive a point home or raise a new question.  Much of the work I have my students do involves them exploring and researching answers to questions that I pose or ones that come up on their own.  Turning the student’s questions back on them forces them to think about what they are working on and process the information in front of them.  Most of the time, they answer their own question and are better for it.  Sometimes, like today, I have an activity that, by all appearances, is a total and catastrophic failure but I can still salvage value from the it and the kids still learn a thing or two.  I think that some of that can be codified and managed.  Some of it is the “art” of teaching that no one seems to have been able to teach yet.  I feel comfortable now with these moments because I have finally been teaching long enough that I know my content well and I have experiences from when things went sideways to draw from.  I don’t know that you can teach that.