Blog Reflection 6 – Problem Solving

 Blog Reflection 6 – Problem Solving

This blog post focuses on three problems. For each problem, my aim is to explain why each of them is a problem, what a solution might look like to those most impacted by the problem, develop a “needs statement,” and show how the success of an implemented solution might be determined.

Problem 1 – Low Literacy Levels of High School Graduates

Why is it a Problem?

The problem presented in this assignment claims that there are students matriculating high school with reading skills below that of children at least six to seven years younger than them. Why is this a problem? For the graduating students on the cusp of adulthood, the ability to read at high levels is critical for successfully launching into independence. Advancing to higher levels of education, acquiring employment that pays a living wage, and simply gaining a better understanding of the world around oneself rely heavily on the ability to read at or above a 12^th grade level. And so, the stated problem is a problem because it presents formidable obstacles to the growth and flourishing of these graduates, and their ability to positively contribute to society.

Needs Statement

            Students are graduating high school with reading skills far below that of their grade level. Students in this predicament have no compulsory education after high school and need their reading levels improved to help them as they move into adulthood. A program to improve these students’ reading skills is needed, and a project using technology with audio and visual aids for reading comprehension might have a chance to solve this problem.

Potential Solution

            With the advance of COVID-19, institutions of learning have shifted to greater employment of technology than ever before. One solution that could help with improving the reading levels of high school students at graduation is introducing more technological options for learning reading. Most students are fluent in the language the have trouble reading in. Learning modules that employ videos with subtitles where the spoken word is married with the written word, might have a chance at improving reading levels. The combination of the spoken word along with its corresponding written word on the screen might help students improve their ability to read. Aligning this technology with voice recognition technology might give students an opportunity to improve their reading levels.

Measuring Success

            The solution used to present audio and visual content to a student could also be used to measure improvement. Apps for learning new languages have been on the market for several years now, and providing an app on a smart device allowing students to learn while tracking their improvement could measure the effectiveness of the solution. Data could be collected in aggregate and on an individual basis to analyze and report on improvement.

Problem 2 – The Five-Year Tenured Teacher Resignation

Why is it a Problem?

Building experience in any task typically makes a person more effective. Pilots log time in the air in order to obtain a license, and this stems from the understanding that practice at anything enhances one’s ability to do that thing with competency. In short, practice makes perfect. This is no different in the field of educating students. Teachers who have more hours logged, experiencing time working with students, have a better chance of teaching well and helping their students learn and improve. Teachers who leave their posts within the first five years forfeit the ability to positively impact future students with the experience they might have gained by staying in the profession. And so, if more and more schools have students instructed by teachers with five years of experience or less, this might limit the education those students might receive, and also deny the enrichment a teacher could gain for themselves in helping young minds grow.

Needs Statement

            Students and teachers need each other. Students need teachers to teach them, help them expand their worlds, and stretch their capacity as humans. Teachers need students to help them share what they have learned from the world, from their studies, and from their experiences. A project to encourage teachers to stay in their profession for 5 years and beyond for the sake of themselves and their students could help produce and enrich a healthy society.

Potential Solution

            A program that focuses equally on the development of students, and the satisfaction of teachers could help reduce the number of educators leaving the field so early. Some reasons teachers leave the field are burn out, lack of support or respect, difficult working conditions, insufficient funding and compensation, and extremely difficult goals. Programs designed to address these issues could go a long way in helping teachers stay in their positions. One way to do this would be to grant teachers more leeway in their lesson plans, giving them the ability to construct the materials they present to their class and the way it is presented. This would allow them to gear their lessons around expected test score and other student performance evaluations. Another is to reduce any sign of expectations that teachers stay beyond normal working hours or come in early. A program that provides support from administration in encouraging teachers to come to them when there are problems the teachers can’t handle and were never really trained to handle, and not be made to feel that they have done something wrong by asking for help. And finally additional funding if ever available should be directed at the teachers whenever possible. If funding through the institution is not available, then soliciting teacher appreciation offerings from local communities that are advertised to go directly to the teachers might help.

Measuring Success

            Evaluations of teacher satisfaction should be formally conducted early and often. The evaluations should weigh the lesson plans implemented by the teachers, how they felt about them when putting the plans together, and how they felt about the end result. These satisfaction scores should also be weighed against the student performance evaluations allowing for measurements that would show whether or not the program achieved desired results.

Problem 3 – Out with the Old Operating System, In with the New Problem

Why is it a Problem?

The shift from an old operating system to a newer one on the surface appears to be a wise decision. Likely the new system has features that make work done on computers using the system more efficient, and possibly the newer system boasts less system downtime. However, the problem in this case is that the new, improved, operating system is causing unforeseen inefficiencies. It needs to be updated on a frequent basis, which is an inconvenience all by itself, but paired with the fact that the updates are difficult to implement and require technical support to carry out places stress on an understaffed department. There are too many requests from users to perform updates for the technical support team staff to keep up with and resolve.

Needs Statement

            The need is for users to not need as much help combined with a technical support team sufficiently staffed to assist with demand. This would help both the users and the tech support members in carrying out their daily functions with less stress. A project designed to address both these parties needs will change the day to day environment from one of frustration to calm.

Potential Solution

            A threefold solution could be implemented to address the problem. First, determine the steps required to perform the most common system updates. Second, develop and administer training to users on how to perform the updates themselves. Third, increase the staff of technical support representatives to help with cases where trained users still have difficulty making regular system updates.

Measuring Success

The success of this program can be measured by comparing data from before training implementation to data following it. Data points that should compared include number of requests made by users to technical support, average time to resolution, and number of self-updates by users (with no request tech support for help).