Needs Assessment
Topic: Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is a topic with an extensive scope of standards and benchmarks in learning. Therefore, I am modeling my project after the Dick and Carey Instructional Model. Doing this will ensure that I will develop instructional materials, and strategies, that align with state standards. I will evaluate student performance data to assess students' current level of performance. I will then make adequate adjustments to instructional materials, strategies, and delivery methods where needed and revisit the areas of discrepancy.
The desired outcome is that 90% of all students will master the following learning goals and objectives: Upon completion of this module, students will define entrepreneurship, recognize the role entrepreneurs play in the economy, and determine why businesses succeed or fail with risks and rewards. Students will then take the knowledge they have learned about entrepreneurs and evaluate the essential question, "Should I become an entrepreneur?" This goal aligns with state standard 21.09 "Define the entrepreneurial way of thinking (e.g., opportunity, recognition, risk, and reward) and discuss its importance to the American economy."
The group setting will be a business lab at a public high school. I am a business teacher with students from freshman to senior years. The business lab will be equipped with technology such as computers, printers, and smartboards to enhance student learning with technology. In the first module of the class, students will examine the topic of entrepreneurship. Students will discover and explore what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur. Students will be able to compare and contrast the potential risk and rewards they will endure as an entrepreneur. To conclude, students will evaluate and answer the essential question, "Should I become an entrepreneur?"
Students will use strategies to highlight evidence-based text from the curriculum while reading for the first fifteen minutes of class. I will then evaluate students' knowledge acquisition of the learning targets by a formative assessment in the form of a class discussion on entrepreneurship. I will ask probing questions to guide students' conversations, ensuring students will use evidence from the text and personal experience to identify successful characteristics entrepreneurs possess. Students will be able to recognize and address potential risks and rewards associated with entrepreneurship while addressing the difficulties they will face. I will ensure that all students will participate in the group discussion actively. If I feel students have not grasped the concept or are not actively engaging, I will expand upon the idea further or ask more probing questions until students have met the desired outcome.
I will have students take a summative assessment using a true/false multiple-choice quiz. I will then analyze the data and revisit the areas of low performance, having students cite text-based evidence while giving examples to show an understanding of the concepts. Finally, to conclude the lesson and show they have mastered the learning goals, they will write a short essay using sound reasoning based on their acquired knowledge to answer the essential question, "Should I become an entrepreneur?"
Now, I will analyze the data to identify students' knowledge levels based on their formative and summative assessment performance. The summative assessment showed areas of strength in that 90% or more of the students could successfully define entrepreneurship, identify the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur, and identify potential risks and rewards they might face. However, a discrepancy was found in the essay responses. Only 75% of the students cited evidence-based facts from the text and drew thoughtful conclusions while answering the essential question, "Should I become an entrepreneur?" While evaluating students' responses to the written essay, a trend started to emerge. The students who expressed in their writings that they were not interested in becoming an entrepreneur were less likely to cite factual evidence from the text or draw a conscious conclusion when answering the essential question. The lack of motivation on the student's part led to a lack of evidence on why they should or should not become entrepreneurs.
The next area I will be addressing is the Needs Assessment. According to our textbook, "the logic of needs assessment can be summarized as a simple equation: Desired status – Actual status = Need.[i]" This is where I will evaluate what I thought the students should be able to do, compared to what they have proven they can do, and address the areas of discrepancy.
The desired status is for 90% of all students to provide examples of a successful entrepreneur's characteristics, identify the risk and rewards of being an entrepreneur, and apply those concepts while answering the question, "Should I become an entrepreneur? I can identify the gap in student learning from my student's performance analysis data. Based on the quiz and short answer essay, about 90% of students could successfully categorize the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur and identify the risk and rewards of being an entrepreneur. The discrepancy falls in the essay response. Only 75% of students could reflect on the essential question and hypothesize why they should become entrepreneurs. Those students could identify successful characteristics of entrepreneurs and apply them to the question. The discrepancy is found in the students' data who could not support the idea of becoming an entrepreneur. 25% of students showed little to no evidence of why they should become entrepreneurs. Those students could not apply conceptual knowledge on why they should or should not become entrepreneurs. Most of the responses from those students were identified as having little to no motivation on the topic. Students who did not identify or could not see themselves as entrepreneurs did not gather evidence on why they should become entrepreneurs. Now the question becomes how do I, as their teacher, motivate students to learn about a topic they are not interested in? For students to reach the desired status, I must ensure that my instruction, class material, assignments, and assessments are presented in a way that will engage student activity.
Our next topic, clarifying the instruction goals, is essential to achieving the desired effect. When the learning goal is ambiguous, students may need clarification on what they are supposed to do. Students must understand what you are asking of them. For example, for my students to answer the essential question, "Should I become an entrepreneur?" they must first have been introduced to and explored specific learning goals. An example of a learning goal for the business students in the entrepreneurship class would be: Students in Mrs. Brown's Entrepreneurship Class will define entrepreneurship, recognize the role entrepreneurs play in the economy, and determine why businesses succeed or fail. Students will then take the knowledge they have learned about entrepreneurs and evaluate the essential question, "Should I become an entrepreneur?"
The next area that needs to be addressed is the Learner, Context, and Tools section. In this section, I get to know who my learners are. They are from a rural community, attend a public high school, and their age ranges between 14-19. This context and tools of the classroom are that it is a business lab equipped with computers, monitors, smartboards, and printers. The classroom has fiber internet with cloud computing capabilities, runs on Windows 10, and has the specific software needed for the students to perform at their highest ability. Students will access their class readings, assignments, and assessments with our learning management system, Canvas. Everything will be provided for the student while they are in class. In addition, students may access the course via Canvas anytime outside the school day if internet access is available. This will allow them to complete any work not completed in class.
The last area on the list is Criteria for Establishing Instructional Goals. Keeping the state standards aligned with the curriculum content while keeping the desired outcome in mind when developing instructional goals is crucial. For my entrepreneurship class, the instructional goal is: "Students in Mrs. Brown's Entrepreneurship Class will define entrepreneurship, recognize the role entrepreneurs play in the economy, and determine why businesses succeed or fail with risks and rewards. Students will then take the knowledge they have learned about entrepreneurs and evaluate the essential question, "Should I become an entrepreneur?" This goal aligns with state standard 21.09 "Define the entrepreneurial way of thinking (e.g., opportunity, recognition, risk, and reward) and discuss its importance to the American economy. Now that I have created the instructional goal, it is time to evaluate the process and make any necessary revisions to my goals. I will use my contacts and network to reach out to those around me with expertise in this content for guidance. Many teachers work in team settings or have a counterpart who teaches the same curriculum, allowing the opportunity to ask for advice or suggestions to achieve the desired effect of their goals. Once you have finished this step, you will repeat the process with the revised instructional goal.
[i] Dick, Walter, et al. The Systematic Design of Instruction. Pearson, 2022