Author

Sue W. Bird

Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Date of Award

1-1-1998

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Instructional Technology

First Advisor

Albert Stahl, Jr., Ed.D.

Abstract

A number of institutions, including community organizations, scouting programs, churches, and even businesses, rely on volunteer teachers to staff educational programs. The volunteer teachers are provided curriculum materials to use, but often do not receive training to sufficiently equip them for the task of teaching. A job aid might provide performance support for one aspect of their teaching responsibilities, the task of planning for teaching. The prupose of this study is to chronicle the development process for the creation of a job aid for planning for teaching (based on a simplified version of Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction) and to evaluate whether the job aid will facilitate a volunteer teacher’s ability to plan for teaching. A developmental methodology is used to chronicle the development process. An experimental design methodology is applied to evaluate the effectiveness of the job aid on a volunteer teacher’s ability to plan for teaching. The sample population is selected from ten churches within southeast Michigan that use volunteers to staff religious education programs and includes 43 participants teaching during the first three months of 1998. An analysis is conducted to determine differences in lesson plans created by the control group and the treatment group using the planning job aid. Additional information is gathered from the treatment group on opinions about the use of the job aid. The job aid, used in conjunction with published curriculum materials, appears to be sufficient to guide volunteer teachers through a planning process, producing better quality lesson plans than the control group did without the intervention treatment. Formal training, years of experience, age group taught, use of denominational or nondenominational curriculum materials seem to have no effect on the results of the use of the job aid. The data suggest that the job aid is sufficient as a stand-alone intervention. Additional instruction does not appear to be necessary to prepare volunteer teachers to use the job aid. Findings suggest that the job aid enhances the teaching experience, helping the majority of the volunteer teachers in the treatment group to feel more confident.

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