TOPIC: GED (General Educational Diploma) Program Evaluation
Use the Dick and Carey Curriculum Design to Design an instructional program to teach GED learners how to earn their GED
The Dick and Carey Systems Approach Model for Designing Instruction
Dick , W., & Carey, L. (1996). The systematic design of instruction (4th ed.). New York: Longman.
In their classic book, The Systematic Design of Instruction (1996), Walter Dick and Lou Carey provide a systematic process for designing instruction. In this process, every component (i.e., teacher, students, materials, and learning environment) is crucial to successful learning. Referred to as the systems point of view, advocates of this view use the systems approach to design instruction. A system, according to Dick and Carey, is a set of interrelated parts, all of which work together toward a defined goal. In a system, all parts depend on each other for input and output, and the entire system uses feedback to determine if its desired goal has been reached (p. 3).
Dick and Carey state that the purpose of their book is to describe a systems approach model for the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of instruction (p. 4). When the instructional designer follows the prescribed series of steps, then all of the components work together to provide effective instruction.
Why Use the Systems Approach?
1. The focus at the outset is on what the learner is to know or be able to do when the instruction is concluded.
2. There is careful linkage between each component, especially the relationship between the instructional strategy and the desired learning outcomes. Instruction is specifically targeted on the skills and knowledge to be taught. Put another way, instruction does not consist of a range of activities only some of which may be related to what is to be learned.
3. The systems approach is an empirical and replicable process. Because it is “reusable,” it is worth the time and effort to evaluate and revise it.
The systems approach is valuable to instructors who are interested in successfully teaching basic and higher level competencies to learners. The systems approach places a premium on both efficiency of instruction and quality of student performance.
Components of the Systems Approach Model
1. Determine the Instructional Goal—Course Documents: Goals and Objectives
Step one—determine what it is that you want learners to be able to do when they have completed your instruction.
See example of goals and objectives at the end of this document.
2. Analyze the Instructional Goal-Course Documents—Goals and Objectives
Determine step-by-step what people are doing when they perform that goal.
Final step in the instructional analysis process: Determine what skills and knowledge, known as entry behaviors, are required of learners to be able to begin the instruction.
3. Analyze Learners and Learning Contexts
Analyze the learners: the context in which they will learn the skills, and the context in which they will use them. Learners’ present skills, preferences, and attitudes are determined along with the characteristics of the instructional setting and the setting in which the skills will eventually be used. This crucial information shapes a number of the succeeding steps in the model, especially the instructional model. Analyze and describe the following:
Learner Analysis
Learners Who is your target population?
Age of target population?
Topic being studied?
Job experience or job position?
Entry Behaviors What do your learners need to know and have mastered prior to your
instruction?
Prior Knowledge What do your learners already know about the topic being taught?
Educational Level(s) Will all learners have the same amount of education, or will the group be mixed? (Less than a high school education, high school, college?)
Group Characteristics What are the learning characteristics of your target group?
(Research the learning characteristics of your target population and provide one or two references for this part of your curriculum design.
Learning Context
Describe the physical setting where the skills will be learned. (It could be a computer lab, a classroom, a conference room, etc.). What is the social context of the site? (Do all learners work together, belong to a common group, etc.).
Performance Context
This context could be the same as the learning context, or it could be different.
Example: You implemented a staff development curriculum to teach teachers how to recognize gifted characteristics of middle school students. The performance context will be the teachers’ classrooms.
4. Write Performance Objectives
Write specific statements of what it is the learners will be able to do when they complete the instruction (based on the instructional analysis and the statement of entry behaviors). These statements, which are derived from the skills identified in the instructional analysis, will identify the skills to be learned, the conditions under which the skills must be performed, and the criteria for successful performance.
See article entitled Goals and Objectives under Course Documents and the example at the end of this document.
5. Develop Assessment Instruments
Develop assessments that are parallel to and measure the learners’ ability to perform what you described in the objectives. How will you assess your learners? Major emphasis is placed on relating the kind of behavior described in the objectives to what the items require. For #5 you simply explain what kind of assessment instrument you chose and why.
Paper and pencil test
Performance rubric
Instructor check list
Self-check
Include your assessment instrument as part of #7—instructional design.
6. Develop Instructional Strategy
Identify the strategy that you will use in your instruction to achieve the terminal objective using the information from the five preceding steps.
Strategy includes:
a. preinstructional activities—How will you prepare the learners for the instruction?
b. presentation of information—How will you present the information? Assign a text reading?
c. practice and feedback-Guided practice? Time for questions?
d. testing—Paper and pencil test? Demonstrate a competency? Teacher checklist or rubric? Teacher observation?Self-check?
e. follow-through activities—Reteaching those who experience difficulty? Accelerated work for those who master quickly? Follow up survey x number of weeks after instruction?
7. Develop and Select Instruction (Instructional Design)
Use your instructional strategy to produce the instruction.
Instruction can include: learners’ manual, instructional materials, test or assessment, and an instructor’s guide.
8. Design and Conduct the Formative Evaluation of Instruction
Complete the draft of the instruction.
Evaluate instruction to collect data that are used to identify how to improve the instruction. There are three types of formative evaluation: one-to-one evaluation (have friend or colleague read lesson design and make suggestions for clarity), small-group evaluation (teach lesson to representative sample of real-life learners), and field evaluation (teach lesson in setting and to learners the lesson is actually designed for). Each type provides the designer with a different type of information that can be used to improve the instruction. The purpose of formative evaluation is to collect data, identify problems, and revise instructional materials. You only have to do one of the types of formative evaluation. Explain which type of formative evaluation you chose.
9. Revise Instruction
Using data from the formative evaluation (#8), identify difficulties experienced by learners in achieving the objectives. Relate these difficulties to specific deficiencies in the instruction.
Then, review the instructional strategy to determine if you need to revise the instruction to make it a more effective instructional tool.
10. Conduct Summative Evaluation
Although summative evaluation is the culminating evaluation of the effectiveness of instruction, it generally is not a part of the design process. It is conducted to determine if it produces the desired results for the decision-maker. (You will not actually conduct summative evaluation). It is, however, important that you understand what summative evaluation involves. For #10 simply put N/A on your curriculum design.
Dear Class:
As you prepare your curriculum design assignment, you will determine the instructional goal for your lesson. You will then write specific objectives of what the learners will be able to do when they complete the instruction. I am giving you an example of a goal (which is somewhat broad) and 4 performance objectives (which are specific). Hope this example helps. Your goal is where you are going with your curriculum. Your objectives tell how you plan to reach your goal.
Dr. Lawton
Instructional Goal
Provide senior adults with the opportunity to develop basic computer skills that will enable them to function in an increasingly technological society.
Performance Objectives
1. The learner will demonstrate effective application of basic computer skills by
1.1 booting the computer
1.2 manipulating the mouse
1.3 changing mouse properties
1.4 using the mouse to move icons
1.5 using the mouse to play a game
1.6 using command keys
2. The learner will demonstrate effective use of a word processor by
2.1 formatting text
2.2 formatting pages
2.3 creating a document
2.4 editing a document
2.5 printing a document
2.6 saving a document
2.7 creating a bulleted list
2.8 creating a table
3. The learner will demonstrate ability to send and receive e-mail by
3.1 setting up a Hotmail account
3.2 sending e-mail to a workshop participant
3.3 reading e-mail from a workshop participant
3.4 printing e-mail
3.5 sending e-mail with an attachment to a workshop participant
3.6 reading e-mail with an attachment from a workshop participant
3.7 printing e-mail
4. The learner will demonstrate effective use of basic Internet skills by
4.1 entering a Web site address
4.2 accessing a Web site
4.3 following hyperlinks to related pages
4.4 printing information
4.5 using a search engine to locate information on specific topics