Lu Chen IDE 632 ID Model

Instructional Design Model

TA Training Program in elementary English education in China

Needs Assessment

Foreign
Teacher
Tool: observation;
T interview;
C
A questionnaires

Head
Studen
Teach
ts
er

Specification of
objectives
Feed Back Design
Strategy Implementation
Teaching resources
Group of learning
Space
Time Pilot

Evaluation of
the
performance

Context
This model is used for teaching assistants (TA) training program for Foreign English
teacher class which is a very popular course that teaches English as second language
in elementary school in China. Teaching and learning English as second language is
highly encouraged in elementary education. And on average, elementary schools in
Beijing China start the Foreign English teacher class from the 3rd grade. There is a
phenomenon that Foreign English teacher class opening through every grade has
become a trend that an increasing number of schools open this class to 1st and 2nd
grade students. Then TA is needed for facilitating foreign English teacher’s teaching
and students’ learning, due to the students’ low English competency. TA in this
Foreign English teacher class plays a significant role which is like a communication
bridge between the foreign teacher and the students. Since almost all of the TAs are
student volunteers from colleges in Beijing who are lack of knowledge and experience
about teaching and pedagogy, problems appeared up that influence the
 Lu Chen IDE 632 ID Model

communication between teacher and students, also weaken the efficiency of teaching
and learning. Therefore, an instructional design model is created for designing a well
structured and arranged training program.

Model introduction
This model comprises mainly five portions that are Needs assessment, Specification
of objectives, Design, Pilot and Evaluation. The first step needs assessment is to
understand the communication between TA and other major relevant people (foreign
teacher, head teacher and students). The purpose of this part is to figure out the
problems in class and the gap between the TA’s current performance and their desired
performance using the approach interview, observation and questionnaires.

After understanding the problems well, the designer will be able to figure out what the
objective should be for this training program, which means that what outcome and
performance the TA need to have.

Having clear objectives, designers need to consider about the instructional strategies,
teaching resources, allocation of time and space, and how to group the learners. These
five factors can be considered simultaneously and don’t necessarily in an ordered
sequence. And it appears to be a systemic approach that when one of them is changed,
the other factors in the group will also be affected.

The forth step is creating a pilot that means to adopt this design in a small group to
see whether the prior five factors are well organized. If there’s need for any change
and improvement, the designer should go back to the last step to make some
implementation. If it is appropriate enough, the designer can go forward to do the
evaluation.

The last step is the evaluation of the learners’ performance. It is a significant process
to gather feedback from the learners and relevant stakeholders like the school
manager, parents, and the English teaching office. And also, test whether the learners
successfully achieved the objectives and instructional goals. The arrow running along
the bottom of the model from the last box towards the first box represents a formative
revision.