Assessing Student Interests

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The last few posts you may have seen something like this: 

 

*This was written in response to a question on the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence 2018 application. 

 

In fact, most of my recent posts have been inspired by the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence grant project. I've made a few changes here and there to better reflect the intended audiences. Overall, the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence has really helped me think about what I do and why I do it. 

 

Not only did I receive that reflective benefit, but I also placed second in the national competition, which awarded our program $35,000 and a personal check for $15,000. (I'll expand on winning at a later time.)

 

Early in my career I was hit by an idea that thankfully the Harbor Freight Prize for Teaching Excellence has helped to resurface. 

 

I remember my father taking my sister to a professional 'career profile-er' when she was in her adolescent years. The 'career profile-er' surveyed her interests and wrote up a report on her strengths and interests and which careers align with those.

 

We have all seen a variation of this once before, whether it be an elaborate pre-employment screening by an employer or a casual Facebook or Buzzfeed quiz, or some other variation an 8th grade teacher had you take.  Obviously, the concept is applied across a broad range of quality.

 

The concept, however, has fascinated me as an educator passionate about offering individualized instruction. As I've written in the past, I'm really not concerned about making Sam, Harry, and Jill all welders. I'm interested in making Sam more Sam, Harry more Harry, and Jill more Jill. I always thought if I had a 'career profile-er' tool at my disposal, I may be able to better individualize my instruction. I dreamed of a dashboard showing me pertinent information about each students' strengths, personality traits, and weaknesses. The dashboard would be used to help me make decisions about helping Sam be Sam, Harry be Harry, and Jill be Jill. 

 

I went as far as to have my Dad send me the contact information of the guy he hired and my sister's results during my second year of teaching. I knew I wouldn't bring the idea to fruition immediately, but remained open to the possibility. 

 

Then I was revisited by the idea during my application for the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence application. The application highlighted the findings of the founder of Sokanu.com pertaining to the stigma gap. (View Module 1 Video here: https://harborfreighttoolsforschools.org/what-we-do/prize-for-teaching-excellence/2018-prize/#modules )

 

"Sokanu is a career matching platform that helps people find their ideal career. ... The second is through Sokanu's 750 career profiles, containing thousands of pieces of unique content aimed at helping people understand and enter careers. Sokanu was founded in 2012 and is based in Vancouver, BC." -sokanu.com

 

The stigma gap is the notion that most people rate manufacturing as an unfavorable profession, whereas most people within the profession of manufacturing rate it as highly favorable. 

 

Sokanu.com was the tool I was looking for. I tried it out. My girlfriend tried it out. And now (especially thanks to this prize money) I will be having myself and students try out the paid version. 

In my application I had wrote the following about the idea:

 

"Our program assesses students' interests in the skilled trades in a similar, but much more informal way than Sokanu. Students respond to a Google survey at the end of the program and are asked which specific skilled trades, carpentry, furniture-building, welding, masonry, etc., interest them the most.

 

The feedback is used to see how instruction may have influenced their responses and is used to decide on next year's curriculum. Knowing which trades interest students the most has helped offer instruction that appeases our school's audience and gives the students a sense of ownership in the program. "

 

I am excited to give this tool a try and am blessed that I am in a position that allows me flexibility to adapt my content based on my audience. Stay tuned for future posts about individualized instruction.

 

Harbor Freight Tools for Schools 2018 Learning Modules: https://harborfreighttoolsforschools.org/what-we-do/prize-for-teaching-excellence/2018-prize/#modules

 

An example of one of my post course evaluations (with results):

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vS-3oz_oLxB662fM63w-k1n9g6yVKQRnbcub-2gFTNw/edit#responses

 

 

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