Learner Analysis

"The goal of every type of learner analysis is the same: to understand and interpret learner characteristics in a way that helps in the design of effective instruction" (Brown, p.74)

A learner analysis works to uncover the characteristics, needs, and preferences of learners as it relates to helping them meet their specific needs and instructional goals, by providing designers with information regarding the learner’s prior knowledge and background related to the content. 

Actions such as identifying the key target audience, assessing their prior knowledge base, and establishing clear learning goals and objectives all serve to provide the instructional designer with pertinent information that will guide and define the design process.  

Target Audience: High School Gen-Ed Teachers

Brown & Green (2015) state that defining the learner is a crucial step in conducting a learner analysis. The team has identified the target audience and primary learner group as high school gen-ed teachers who currently lack support or knowledge about supporting their ELL students. Since the onset of the pandemic, teacher vacancies have substantially increased, leading to decreased resources and support for ELL students, and gen-ed teachers have to bear the brunt of this burden. 

Problem: Current Gen-Ed Teachers Lack ELL Teaching Supports

In particular, gen-ed teachers lack the skills needed to adequately support ELL learners, especially as it relates to tailoring and differentiating their instructional material to meet ELL needs. A lack of staffing resources and proper training currently prevents teachers from offering ELL students the support they need to succeed. Additionally, through our survey and interview research, we learned that gen-ed teachers need to be "pointed in the right direction" when it comes to knowing what resources, tools, and techniques are most effective in teaching ELL students foundational English skills while simultaneously enriching them on topic-specific content. 

Questions of Motivation

Our learners can be considered "willing volunteers" in that their motivation to better their ELL teaching skills will be driven by a desire to better support their students, and in turn become better teachers (Dirksen, 2016). By knowing how to better support their students, gen-ed teachers can increase student academic performance, foster more meaningful teacher-student relationships, and alleviate work-related stress as they are able to manage student needs more effectively. Additionally, we believe that our learner pool will be both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated to complete the learning because motivation will be derived from a desire to refine current teaching practices, offer support to students in need, and meet the academic goals outlined by the institution they work at.  

Designing for Diversity: Demographics

Demographically, our learner pool is fairly diverse, in that it varies widely across age range, personal learning preferences, and experience supporting ELL learners. Despite this fact,  one similarity we identified in our survey research stated that teachers prefer to feel supported in their ELL learning during work hours, meaning they would rather take training at work rather than have to do it in their free time at home. Furthermore, one difference highlighted key disparities in ENL teaching skillsets and the ability to masterfully execute lessons that are able to be consumed by all students in the classroom, irregardless of English proficiency. 

We devised our primary persona, the General Education (Gen-Ed) teacher, after the careful analysis and inventory of qualitative data from user interviews, long-form survey responses, and a literature review. The persona works to illuminate the most high level needs and pain-points of our user, as well as guide us in our instructional design decisions. 

The goal of our affinity map was to uncover common themes in our qualitative data, in order to better understand the pain points and needs of our primary user group: gen-ed teachers. Through our affinity map, we learned what current strategies ELL are being implemented, what digital and physical tools as used to facilitate learning (if any), as well as common pain points. The affinity map illustrated a rich landscape of personal teaching experiences, and will be used to define and refine our learning solution. 

Data Tools and Analysis

In order to synthesize and make sense of our data, we used Google Sheets to identify patterns within the research. Additionally, we conducted an affinity mapping exercise of the qualitative data we gathered from interviews and surveys that utilized open-text field forms. After we had completed collecting our data, we began to look for common themes within the information that had been gathered by grouping key-words, like sentiments, and similar mentions of tools and teaching practices. 

Top Five Learner Themes Uncovered

1. There is a great need for simple and effective ENL strategies that gen-ed teachers can easily apply

Most general education teachers feel lost in their ability to support ELL learners. This is due to a lack of training in the ENL space, an inability to directly communicate with the students without the assistance of a language translation app, and mounting pressures to meet the learning needs of the entire student body (whilst simultaneously working to translate and make learning meaningful for ELL students). 

2. A desire for greater technology integration within the classroom that works to support language instruction

While some gen-ed teachers have a few "go to" applications they refer to in order to support their ELL students, most lack knowledge regarding what digital (and physical) tools can be of benefit to their learners. As the use of AI becomes more commonplace within the classroom, teachers have a desire to leverage new technology, but do not know where to start, or how to integrate these tools into their lessons. 

3. A need for Gen Ed teachers to better understand second language acquisition, culturally responsive teaching practices, differentiated instruction techniques, and strategies for language development across content areas

In order to make learning meaningful and relevant for ELL students, gen-ed teachers must be well versed in their ability to understand the fundamentals of second language acquisition, know how to make meaningful cultural connections in their teaching practices to support deep learning outcomes, and have a mastery of differentiated instruction techniques in order to be able to meet the needs of all the students in the classroom. 

4. There is a strong desire from teachers to increase levels of meaningful classroom interaction among their ELL learners

Because ELL learners lack the language skills needed to meaningfully participate in classroom discussions, their interactions are often relegated to the realm of the superficial. Most students do not feel empowered to participate when they can not communicate their thoughts in the spoken language. In order to increase ELL student participation, it is pivotal that novel and differentiated techniques are employed in order to ensure that ELL voices and opinions are heard. 

5.  The need for greater collaboration among gen-ed and ENL teachers

Very few ENL teachers are able to service a given high-school at one time, making one-on-one time between them and students, as well as co-teacher training opportunities, extremely rare. Since ENL teachers are the SMEs of language acquisition skills and techniques, it is critical that gen-ed and ENL teachers are able to develop a supportive, and symbiotic relationship. In short, gen-ed teachers have a desire to feel more supported by their ENL colleagues.  

• Brown, A. H., & Green, T. D. (2015). The essentials of instructional design : Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice, third edition. Routledge.

• Dirksen, J. (2016). Design for how people learn (2nd ed.). New Riders.

• Kellogg, Melody. Meeting the Needs of High School ELLs: What Works and how School and District Leaders Align Resources and Best Practices to Meet Student Needs, Sage Graduate School, United States -- New York, 2017. ProQuest. 

• Teng, Yanjiang. Teacher's Management of Classroom Interactions with English Language Learners: A Case Study of a Mainstream Teacher's Practices and Beliefs, Michigan State University, United States -- Michigan, 2018. ProQuest.