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FINAL REPORT

Albert P. Joseph

ID No. 20052880

A Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfilment

Of the Requirements of

[EDID 6502] [Analysing Human Performance]

Trimester 3, [2014]

Email: albert.joseph@open.uwi.edu

University: University of the West Indies Open Campus

Course Coordinator Dr. Leroy Hill

Date of Submission November 13, 2014

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Executive Summary

The social studies department at the Levron High School consists of four teachers and a

department head who is responsible for the department. As a school, the administration has set

aside Wednesdays for planning to ensure that students are receiving quality instruction.

However, after conducting a performance analysis several gaps were identified.

Several of those gaps included a lack of planning on the part of teacher, assessment and

scoring guides and rubrics not being taken into consideration and recording of students’ grade

being almost non-existent. These are caused by a number of factors from inefficient resources

and tools to a lack of monitoring and motivation, as well as roles not being clearly specified.

To address the problems interventions were identified which will include performance

support, human resource development and organizational communication and organizational

design and development. Key strategies under these interventions to be implemented include:

strategic planning and management, documentation and standards, information systems and

training. It is hoped that with these interventions the department can begin to see more positive

outcomes.
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Table of Contents

Title Page………………………………………………………………………… 1

Executive Summary……………………………………………………………… 2

Background to the Organisation…………………………………………………… 4

Purpose of the Project……………………………………………………………… 6

Identifying Performance/Training Gaps…………………………………………….7

Performance Analysis………………………………………………………………11

Causal Analysis and Intervention Selection……………………………………….. 15

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..21

Reflection…………………………………………………………………………...22

References…………………………………………………………………………..24
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Background to the Organization

The Levron High School was built over twenty two years ago in an effort to provide more

secondary school places for students on the island. Ever since the school was built it has had to

endure many challenges, primarily the label of being a “bad school” and a host of indiscipline

problems which some persons indicate are due to the school being built on a site which was used

as a cemetery many decades ago.

The secondary school caters to over six hundred students who come into the school with

averages ranging from ten percent to forty percent and in rare cases sixty percent, if a child’s

parents chooses to send him/her to the school. Many of the students who come to the school are

students who struggle with literacy and numeracy and added to that come from homes with many

social problems. There are a total of five forms, with four classes at each level.

Students are offered a number of subjects which include the core areas of mathematics,

English, social studies and science and technical subjects such as technical drawing and

woodwork. Food and nutrition, foreign languages and physical education are also some of the

offerings of the school. Even with more technical and hands-on subjects students find it difficult

to cope due to literacy concerns and as a result the school has over the years experienced a very

high dropout rate.

The school has a very large teacher population, forty-two teachers to be exact. Almost

ninety percent of the teachers have been trained and teacher qualifications range from A-levels to

master’s degrees. The school is known to be one with the most highly qualified teachers and

teacher to student ratio on the island due to the needs of students who gain entry into the school.

The school is headed by the principal and vice-principal and two counsellors also provide

support to students. While the school has had many challenges, it has had its share of successes
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as well. The school is considered to have one of the best visual arts programmes and has had

students who have gone on to excel in a number of areas including aviation, medicine, law and

even the entertainment industry.

Human Performance

Teachers at the George Charles Secondary School operate within subject departments to

ensure that there is collaboration among teachers so that students at the various class levels are

on par with each other and to see to it that schemes and lessons are planned effectively. Each

department is headed by a head of department and Wednesdays have been set aside for

departments to meet and plan. Teachers are expected to keep scheme and record books where

they write in their weekly schemes, daily plans and records of what transpired during the course

of the cycle.

The problem that exists is that often times members of the departments do not meet and

teachers do not see the need to plan daily lesson plans once they have set their weekly schemes.

Teachers feel frustrated knowing that often when they teach, the concepts taught do not remain

with the students. As a result of students skipping classes, teachers also find it hard to administer

assessments and keep records for certain students. The high level of disrespect encountered by

teachers also increases the frustration level and makes it difficult to manage the classroom

effectively.

Global Issue

A lesson plan is a teacher’s detailed guide to instruction. While many teachers believe

that they are able to navigate their way through the lessons without a formal plan, there is need to

ensure that teachers are prepared to adequately address student needs. Boikhutsio (2010)

indicates that lesson planning and preparation have been seen as an integral part of teacher

preparation worldwide to improve teaching competences. A lack of planning on the part of

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teachers can lead to a waste of time and effort, teacher and student frustration and reduced

students’ learning (Henrichsen, Smith & Baker, 1997).

The issue of assessment is seen as an integral part of instruction because it determines

whether or not the goals of instruction are being met (Edutopia, 2018) and can determine

whether there is complete mastering of concepts covered. These assessments are necessary since

they provide students with feedback about their learning (Mavis, 2010).

Purpose of the Project

Statement of Purpose

Time has been set aside by the administration of the school to ensure that there is

thorough planning within departments. During this time there is usually brief discussion as to

where teachers are at and then teachers prepare a scheme of work for the week. The problem

faced with this method is that daily plans are not discussed or planned together which usually

results in different content being brought across to students of the various classes of the same

year.

Secondly, very little attention is paid to assessments as it relates to methods, rubrics and

scoring guides. Assessments are supposed to serve as a key communicator as to how students

are performing. As a result of this project, it is hoped that teachers will thoroughly take time to

prepare a blueprint for the term which will consist of units to be covered, assessments to be

assigned and the rubrics and guides that will go with them. It is also hoped that greater

collaboration among teachers will be done to put together lesson plans for the various topics and

assessment results will be recorded in a database for future use.

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Researcher’s Motives

Participation in this project is primarily out of concern for the students of the school.

Due to the nature of our school, where students are coming in at the common entrance level with

scores as low as 10% to 40% there is need to ensure that students gain something meaningful at

the end of their five years. It is imperative that we plan effective lessons that will keep students

motivated, help increase their academic standing so that they can experience success. Teachers

must be held accountable for preparing lessons that meet student needs and set high expectations

and to set assessments that help improve instructional delivery and student performance.

Identifying Performance/Training Gaps

The Participant Selection Process

The social studies department consists of an HOD and four other teachers who teach the

various levels. For the purpose of this research the teachers will all be selected because of the

small size of the population. The principal will also be selected since he is the one who sets

policy at the school. To select the participants, a purposive sampling method will be used.

According to Creswell (2007) this method allows the researcher to select individuals and also the

site.

Learning about the problem

In order to gather data for this research the main methods that will be used are the

interview and questionnaire. The principal will be interviewed, while the teachers from the

department will be issued questionnaires. Extant data analysis will be used to help determine
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teacher expectations as it relates to planning and instruction. This will include a review of

teachers’ roles as outlined in the Education Act.

Questionnaire to teachers

The following questionnaire has been designed to gather information for an assignment on
Human Performance. I would be grateful if you assist in completing this questionnaire to
determine gaps in performance. All information gathered will be used solely for the purpose of
this research.

1. Are you a qualified teacher?

Yes no
2. How many years of experience have you had in the profession?

1-10 11-20 21- 30 31+

LESSON
PLANNING

3. How often does your department meet for planning?

Once a week twice a week three times a fortnightly

week
4. What activities take place during the planning sessions?

Weekly schemes lesson planning preparation of Discussion on other

assessment student
strengths and
weaknesses
5. What is your job description as it relates to planning and instruction?

6. How efficiently do you perform your duties?

Not efficiently somewhat not sure efficiently highly efficient

efficiently
7. Has your job description been communicated to you by the principal?

Yes no
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8. How often does administration meet with your department?

Never seldom often very often always

9. How important do you think it is to prepare daily lesson plans?

Not important somewhat unsure important very important?

important

10. How often do you prepare daily lesson plans?

Never seldom often very often always

11. What factors hinder you from completing daily lesson plans?

12. What suggestions would you make for greater efficiency in preparing daily lesson plans?

13. Do you use the scheme book for lesson planning?

Yes no
14. What reasons are there for not planning in the scheme books?

Not effective somewhat not sure effective very effective

effective

15. In your view how effective is the scheme book for planning?

16. How often are scheme books or other lesson planning materials checked by
administration?

Never seldom often very often always

ASSESSMENT

17. Do you always take into consideration assessments when you plan?

Never seldom often very often always

18. How often are student assessments administered?
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After every After every unit once a term other

lesson

19. What assessment methods are used for assessing students?

Tests essays Portfolios Performance other

tasks
self-assessment observations
20. Do you keep records of students’ grades?

Yes no
21. How do you use student results in the classroom?

Diagnosis grading instruction other

22. Are rubrics and scoring guides used for each assessment task that you administer?

23. How motivated are you to do your job?

24. Are teachers rewarded for excellent efforts?

Making sense of the Data

Once the data has been gathered, there is need to determine what patterns and trends can

be found within it. The data gathered may be qualitative or quantitative. Based on the data

gathered various methods will be applied. Where qualitative data is gathered the information

will be summarized and organized into categories. Attention will be paid to key similarities in

respondents’ answers.
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Analysis Summary Worksheet

The analysis summary worksheet would be used to clearly state the need of the organization,

gaps that may be prevalent and to highlight causes as well as proposed interventions.

Performance Analysis

Gap Analysis

Data gathered revealed that there was a gap in the completion of teachers’ schemes.

Teachers were not taking into account assessments during the planning stage and as a result did

not prepare rubric.

In terms of the desired performance it was determined based on feedback from the principal that:

1. Teachers are to prepare daily lesson plans and weekly records in their scheme books since this

is what has been prescribed by the Ministry of Education.

2. There must be evidence of students’ performance in the various subject areas. This would

require teachers to assess students in the various units that are taught and keep records of

students’ marks on file.

3. Heads of Department and teachers are required to meet every Wednesday to plan lessons and

discuss issues pertaining to student success.

4. As the instructional leader he is required to monitor what goes on at the school.

All teachers who filled out the questionnaire were qualified teachers with over ten years

of experience which meant that they had the knowledge of what was expected of them as

teachers in the school and classroom environment. Teachers of the department indicated that

while they were given the time on a Wednesday, either two persons would meet and very little to
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no planning was done. Often teachers would simply copy the objectives from the syllabus into

their scheme book for the various levels.

Teachers were aware of their job description despite the fact that they indicated that the

principal had not been the one to communicate it to them.

To determine what was currently happening at the school within the department, I found

it necessary to develop a questionnaire for teachers that would look at two sets of questions. One

was based on lesson planning and the other relating to assessments. The four teachers within the

department were asked to fill out the questionnaire as truthfully as possible. Extant data analysis

was also performed by taking a look at the education act and identifying what teachers’ roles

were as it relates to instruction.

The following gaps were therefore identified:

 Lack of supervision by administrators and HODs

 Inefficient planning of daily lessons by teachers. There was little use of the scheme books

prescribed by the Ministry of Education (MOE)

 Failure to take into account assessments, rubrics and scoring guides.

 Failure to keep records of students’ performance

Organization Analysis

After a review of school documents the following information on the school’s vision,

mission, motto and values was gathered.

a. Vision: To transform this school into a comprehensive institution thereby equipping our

students with the necessary acumen which will cater for all aspects of their total

development.
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b. Mission: every child upon graduation will be functionally literate, numerate, technically

oriented, socially, morally and emotionally adjusted so as to contribute meaningfully to

personal and societal development.

c. Motto: Students, Parents, Teachers Striving for excellence

d. Values: Honesty, caring/sharing, sanctity to life, cleanliness, trust, collaborative

approach.

The organization has outlined its vision, mission, aims and objectives; however the strategies

to be used to achieve these have not been clearly stated and communicated to the entire

organization.

Environmental Analysis

a. Organizational Environment- As a school, the main stakeholders outside the

organization are the parents and the Ministry of Education. The Ministry’s influence on the

school is such that the ministry determines the standards that need to be achieved by the students

as it relates to the curriculum. However, there is no direct contact between teachers and ministry

officials. The school has often been in last place or near the bottom after being ranked by the

ministry after students write the Caribbean Examinations Council CSEC exams.

The students’ parents are also expected to play a major role in supporting the school as

stated in the motto but very few parents make the effort to get involved in their children’s

academic life or to liaise with the students’ teachers.

b. Work Environment- All teachers within the department are qualified teachers who

hold a bachelor’s degree in education and have had many years of experience as teachers.

However, there are two new teachers to the social studies department. The basic resources that

teachers need to perform their roles are provided but there are times that teachers have to
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purchase materials if they need to enhance lessons. Teachers are expected to use the scheme

book for preparing weekly plans, daily plans and at the end of the week to record what was done.

Teachers feel that the design of the book is not catering to their needs and thus use other books

for planning.

In terms of feedback from anyone as to whether lessons are planned thoroughly and

making suggestions for improvement, this is virtually non-existent. There are no consequences

for not preparing a lesson plan or preparing assessments for the students. Assessments are

usually summative in nature, meaning that students are usually assessed at the end of the term to

ensure that a mark can be entered in the report books.

c. Work- At the department level the HOD is responsible. This is an unpaid position and

the HOD is still required to perform in this role in addition to their teaching periods. The role of

the HOD is not clearly defined but it is assumed that she is supposed to supervise the department

and offer assistance to teachers who need support. It is not certain as to whether she is supposed

to review teachers’ scheme of work and sign on the principal’s behalf.

Teachers’ responsibilities include preparing lesson plans, and ensuring that assessments are

administered. These assessments should be used to determine the progress that students are

making in social studies. Records of students’ progress are to be kept in the scheme book.

d. Worker- Teachers are very knowledgeable about their jobs as all teachers have

attended the teachers training college. However, not all teachers put into practice what they

know. The teachers also possess a range of skills which are also necessary for teaching the

social studies programme. The teachers also require further assistance in the area of assessment

to ensure that varied forms of assessment are used and that results of such assessments may be

used to diagnose student problems and to improve instruction. Data gathered has revealed that
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there are no incentives offered to teachers for exemplary performance. Many teachers within the

department also indicated that they were demotivated to come to work because they were not

seeing results from students. In their view students continue to show a lack of interest.

Cause Analysis and Intervention Selection

Cause Analysis

There may be several reasons why certain gaps exist in an organization. Thomas Gilbert

cited in Van Tiem, Moseley, & Conway-Dessinger (2012), identified several behaviours that

would lead to understanding the causes of such gaps. These are information, resources,

incentives, motives, capacity and knowledge and skills.

Information Within the department there is clear indication that heads of department do

not have sufficient information on what their roles are as heads. Teachers within the department

do not receive any form of feedback on lessons that they might prepare to determine whether

they are covering all the essentials in lesson planning. Teachers are also not clear as to who

should be signing their scheme books.

Resources Teachers have most of the resources that are needed to perform their jobs.

They complain though that the scheme and record book is not adequately meeting their needs

and it needs to be reviewed.

Incentives There are no incentives given to teachers for their exemplary work. Teachers

also believe that the one form of reward that would have them work harder, which are students’

results are not forthcoming and thus they do not apply as much effort to their work as they

should. Teachers indicated that they are not very much motivated in the workplace.
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Knowledge and Skills Teachers do have the necessary knowledge and skills to perform

the job for planning of lessons. The concern is that all teachers have not received specialized

training in the area of assessment.

Interventions

Based on the gaps identified and causes, the following interventions are suggested:

Need 1: All daily lesson plans will be prepared by teacher of the department

Performance Currently teachers do not prepare daily lesson plans on a continuous basis. The
Gap 1:
goal is to have the teachers see the importance of lesson planning and thus plan

their lessons thoroughly.

Cause: Tools/ Teachers do not feel that the prescribed scheme book is ideal for lesson
Resources 1
planning at the secondary school level. They indicate that with a cycle method

and the teaching of various forms the design of the book is not what is required.

Motive

They also feel that there is no need for lesson planning as they are well aware

of what they will be teaching.

Intervention 1 Performance Support

Training-Teachers will be trained in new methods that can be used for the
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planning of lessons. Teachers will be introduced to a new technology called

Planboard which allows teachers to schedule all their classes online and then

put in the necessary content such as videos, graphs, tables, text and pictures that

will be used during a lesson. Lessons can be easily modified, moved to another

day or shared with colleagues and administration.

Documentation and Standards- There must be a clear outline of the role of the

Head of department. That role should include the need to monitor teachers’

planning and to provide clinical support to teachers who require assistance with

various aspects of their teaching. Teachers also need to be reminded of their

role as teachers which include thorough lesson planning and effective delivery

of lessons.

Human Resource Development-

Motivation (Incentives and Rewards) - Teachers can be provided with rewards

for having been consistent in preparing lesson plans. That would also require

the appraisal of teachers on an ongoing basis to determine how well they are

doing.

Job Analysis

Work Methods- The determination must be made as to what is required of

teachers during a planning session. This needs to be clearly laid out by the

administration. Some of these areas should include weekly and daily planning,

reviewing strengths and weaknesses of students and planning assessments.

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Need 2: Teachers will effectively prepare assessments for the various lessons and will

also prepare the rubrics and scoring guides that need to go along with those

assessments.

Performance Assessments are done “en passant” or seen as an afterthought and there is no
Gap 2:
thorough planning of the methods to be used. Scoring guides are not prepared

but marks are randomly assigned to students which are not based on set

criteria. The goal is to ensure that assessments are planned strategically so

that they can inform instructional practices and give teachers sufficient and

accurate feedback on student performance.

Cause of gap 2 Knowledge and Skills

There is a lack of knowledge on the part of teachers as it relates to the

planning of assessments and preparation of rubrics.

Intervention 2: Performance Support

Learning Organization- Learning organizations are always improving and

facilitating the education of its members. Teachers can facilitate learning on

how to prepare rubrics and assessments by conducting mini workshops within

the department.

Active Learning- is also very important as an intervention. A review of

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assessments that teachers have administered can be reviewed by a peer who

will give guidance on how to improve. Teachers while in the classroom can

also be assessed or supervised by other teachers to determine areas of strength

and weakness.

Need 3: There is a need to ensure that teachers keep records of students’ grades

Performance Teachers have reported that they do not keep records of students’ grades.
Gap 3:
These grades are essential to providing feedback to teachers on whether

students are making progress and these marks are also necessary for external

examination purposes.

Cause of gap 3: Since many teachers are not taking the task of planning assessments seriously

there is the gap in keeping records, because very often there are no records to

be kept.

Tools: Record keeping for future use serves as a major concern. While there

is a section of the scheme book for keeping students grades, these records are

often lost due to staff turnover and due to scheme books not being collected or

stored in a central location for future reference

.
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Intervention 3: Organizational Design and Development

Strategic planning and management

As a department, there is need to clearly outline what the expectations will be

for each level for the year. There is need to decide on the targets to be met at

all levels by the end of a term and the year. Once this is done as a department

there can be persons assigned to review content for various objectives,

persons for assessments and rubrics and a system must be put in place to

ensure that all students’ grades are entered into a database which can be

accessed by all teachers. Organizational communication in terms of

information systems and networking and collaboration would also be

important as an intervention.

Team Building- According to Van Tiem, Moseley & Conway-Dessinger, and

(2012) teambuilding focuses in trust, collaboration and openness. It calls for

others to support each other, particularly as a department in creating

assessments and sharing ideas for teaching.

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Conclusion

Having identified the gaps within the department at the school the challenge was now to

identify the causes and select interventions that would best eliminate those gaps. The first gap

identified indicated that lesson plans were not being prepared by teachers on a daily basis.

Causes included issues with resources and ineffective tools. A decision was taken to train

teachers in new tools that would make it easier to plan lessons.

Secondly, teachers’ ineffective preparation of assessments and scoring guides made it

difficult to determine how students were performing. Teachers did not appear to have adequate

knowledge on how to prepare rubrics for assessment and were not using varied assessments. As

a result the problems will be addressed using performance support from teachers of the

department. This will take the form of action learning and learning organizations.

Finally, in addressing the gap of not keeping records or misplacing records of pupils’

performance the intervention will be organizational design and development. This will take the

form of strategic planning and management and team building strategies. A database will be set

up where all can access the information and also increase communication among members of

staff. Greater communication and team building will ensure that the department functions as a

cohesive unit.
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Reflection

For me, this course started on a very rough road. I still am not sure whether I have gotten

myself organized for this course even as we approach the end. A sore point for me was not

getting the hard copy of the textbook which would no doubt better prepare me for each step of

the assignment. With this being said, I am extremely pleased that I got the opportunity to do this

programme and this course in Analysing Human Performance.

In every facet of life, be it at home or in the workplace, we come into contact with human

beings whom we have to work with. Some may be very industrious while others may have a

non-caring attitude. As a result tasks that are assigned may be left undone and gaps may exist.

This course helped in critically analysing why certain gaps exist in an environment. Surely, I can

see that the skills learnt in this course can be applied to any area of my life. I have so far been

able to offer advice to my principal, head of department and even the coordinator of our youth

organization. There is no doubt that the skills learnt in this course are essential since there are

always conflicts and issues that need to be addressed.

In this course, I believe that what went well was the way in which the course page was

laid out. This gave me easy access to the readings and other content that was prepared for us.

The use of videos to cement our learning was also commendable. While we sometimes frowned

upon the numerous postings that had to be done, I was pleased to have my peers critique what I

had done and give me positive feedback.

I believe that more guidance is needed from the course coordinators. Sometimes I felt

that I was isolated on an online desert. It was a little unclear as to what was expected of us in the

group forum for the initial stages. I think there is also a need to give clearer instructions in that

regard.
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Overall, I have seen the relevance of this course to teaching. Often times we learn things

that are very irrelevant to our needs, but not in this case. I intend to use the knowledge that I

have learnt to bring about improvements in my workplace and to bring greater satisfaction to the

people whom I interact with. Thanks Dr. Hill for making this possible. You have been

supportive during this programme. I would certainly recommend anyone to do this course.
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References

Boikhutso, K. (2010). The theory into practice dilemma: Lesson planning challenges

facing Botswana student-teachers. Improving Schools, 13(3), 205-220. doi:

10.1177/1365480210385668. Retrieved November 5, 2014 from

http://www.academia.edu/4078905/The_theory_into_practice_dilemma_Lesson_planning

_challenges_facing_Botswana_student-teachers

Creswell, J.W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches

(2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications

Edutopia (2008). Why is assessment important? Retrieved, November 6, 2014 from

http://www.edutopia.org/assessment-guide-importance

Henrichsen, L., Smith, M.T. & Baker, D.S. (1997). Planning effective lessons for language

teaching and learning. Retrieved November 5, 2014 from

http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/henrichsenl/lessonplanning/

Mavis, B. (2010). Assessing student performance. In W.B. Jefferies &K.N. Nuggett (Eds.). An

introduction to medical teaching (2nd ed.) (pp.143-178). New York: Springer

Van Tiem, D. M., Moseley, J. L., & Conway-Dessinger, J. (2012). Fundamentals of

Performance Improvement (3rd Ed). John Wiley & Sons.