From Special Needs Teacher to Instructional Designer
My first job out of college was as a special needs teacher. I worked for a large high school teaching students who had mild intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, and autism. As much as I enjoyed my time in the classroom it was a balancing act. I spent hours creating curriculum, collaborating with specialty providers, taking data, providing training to assistants, creating schedules, and on top of all of that, teaching. What I loved most was creating the curriculum and taking data to prove that what I implemented was effective.
When I decided I wanted to leave the classroom, all my research lead me to instructional design (ID). I was intimidated at first. It seemed like giant beast of a profession and I wasn’t sure how I would fit in. I looked up ID influencers such as Cara North and Devlin Peck. I browsed /r/InstructionalDesign frequently. After about 6 months of deep diving on the internet, I committed to going back to school to learn the finer details of the profession.
Instructional Designers are eerily similar to classroom teachers. At their core instructional designers are consultants (internal or external) who help their clients create training and performance interventions. The goal of these deliverables is to turn employees into exemplary performers. Often IDs work with a whole host of professionals. From project managers to graphic designers. IDs must foster and grow many relationships to be successful (OPWL 537 Course Instructors, 2020).
Parents and students serve as clients for teachers. My goal as a special needs teacher was to help my students reach their highest academic potential. To reach this goal, I consulted and worked with various professionals. From speech language pathologists, to school psychologists. I used a wide variety of tools to ensure every student thrived.
Sound familiar?
Image from Calvert Learning
While the professions are very similar, I have found they call similar theories by different names. I relied heavily on project-based learning (PBL) as a classroom teacher. PBL allows students to create something as they learn. Students feel accomplished while using critical thinking skills to solve a challenge. Students continue to use these skills in other areas of their academics.
As an instructional designer I build performance-based training (PBT). Using guided observations and practice that lead into mastery demonstration, employees can become exemplary performers quickly. PBT cuts down on the nice-to-know information and focuses on specific job tasks (OPWL 537 Course Instructors, 2020).
This image shows some important components of PBL, several of which are used in PBT.
Many of the theories used by both professions are the same: Bloom’s Taxonomy, Gagne’s Nine Events, and the universal design for learning (UDL) are just a few. At moment I feel as though I am halfway in the ID world and halfway in the K12 education world. I draw on both sets of experiences to continue to learn and grow.
References:
OPWL 537 Course Instructors. (2020). Instructional Design Course Handbook. Boise, ID: Boise State Department of Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning.