Embedded Files
All information comes from our interviews and communications with Hannah Jaris, unless specified.
The following questions are from Brown & Green.
What are the problems?
Teachers have limited time to learn additional information on top of their regular workload and unpredictable interactions with students, colleagues, and parents.
They are also overwhelmed by the amount of new information they need to learn for running the hydroponics labs as well as having to teach the students how to run it.
Not enough NYSW support members to provide immediate service to teachers.
Image from NY Sun Works @nysunworks
Image from NY Sun Works @nysunworks
What does NY Sun Works want?
Establish a solid foundation for the 10 educator lessons.
Provide on-demand resources for teachers to troubleshoot
Extend the program to reach more schools.
Provide a way for teachers to connect and share their pedagogy
Who is requesting this change?
NY Sun Works Director of Education, Hannah Jaris and Executive Director, Manuela Zamora. See the Context and Stakeholders page for more info.
“...need to figure out a way to deliver [online] content to many teachers, who need to have their lab systems functioning in classrooms on the first day of school.”
Hannah Jarvis, Director of Education Programs
Hannah Jarvis, Director of Education Programs
Image from NY Sun Works @nysunworks
Where will this change need to take place?
In the initial 10 meetings, the teacher meets with a NYSW Educator and Greenhouse support team member.
Before COVID, these meetings were held in person in the teacher's science classroom. During COVID-19, these meetings have been taking place through Zoom.
In considering the teacher's time and learning environment at home, we would like to propose moving these trainings to an online platform.
Image from NY Sun Works @nysunworks
Is instruction the most appropriate means for bringing about the change?
The current in-person training sessions may not be required for all teachers. We are leaning towards designing full online instruction and materials, and recommending that the in-person trainings are supplementary.
Our instincts tell us that there is a communication gap may be caused by the amount of materials, as well as the delivery methods of this information (i.e., handouts, lecture format).
Research Plan
Reflection
The 10 session, 10-hour training might be too long. These long training sessions may cause exhaustion and unnecessary stress. We want to consider if these lessons can be segmented or shortened (Bransford, 1999, p. 64).
We need to be aware of the teachers mental load and reduce extraneous effort on the working memory (Moreno, 2010, p. 11).
The provided teacher documents are confusing to read and include many distracting features, such as tables on different pages, extraneous information, misaligned headers and paragraphs. We believe that the way this content has been organized may be contributing to cognitive overload, which the teachers might be avoiding reading these materials to answer their questions
Thinking about ways we can better facilitate the transfer of knowledge:
Consider adding concrete examples for better transfer (Bransford, 1999)
NYSW has already been teaching how to use the systems within the environment, which we should continue to do so to complete transfer
Applying "What if?" scenarios can help teachers to think about multiple outcomes and to become more flexible in their approaches (Bransford, 1999)
Including real problem-solution case studies. The worked-example effect will help reduce the cognitive load by focusing their attention (Moreno, 2010, p. 13)
Removing Split-attention formatting in the materials (Morena, 2010, p. 13)
Without access to interview teachers, we will have to take Hannah's word, but we will compare her notes with published academic surveys. See the learner analysis for more information.
References
Bransford, J., & Schwartz, D. (1999). Rethinking Transfer: A Simple Proposal with Multiple Implications. Review of Research in Education, 24, 61- 100. Retrieved March 10, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1167267.
Brown, A. H., & Green, T. D. (2005). Chapter 3: Needs Analysis. In The Essentials of Instructional Design: Connecting Fundamental Principles with Process and Practice. New York, NY: Routledge.
Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (Eds.). (2016). Engagement in e‐learning. In E‐Learning and the Science of Instruction (219–235). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Jaris, H. (2021 March 5). Initial Conversation about NY Sunworks [Zoom], Brooklyn, New York.
Jaris, H., & Bouwmeester, M. (2021). Interviewing NY Sunworks [Zoom], Brooklyn, New York.
Jaris, H. “Updates on our NYU-NYSunworks ‘Challenge project’." Email. March 5, 2021, 3:36pm.
Jaris, H. "Updates on our NYU-NYSunworks ‘Challenge project’." Email. March 11, 2021, 3:26pm.
Mayer, R. E. (1979). Can Advance Organizers Influence Meaningful Learning? Review of Educational Research, 49(2), 371–383. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543049002371
Moreno, R., & Park, B. (2010). Cognitive Load Theory: Historical Development and Relation to Other Theories. In J. Plass, R. Moreno, & R. Brünken (Eds.), Cognitive Load Theory (pp. 9-28). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511844744.003
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