Ann Nevin	Jacque Thousand	Toni Hood

1. What is data-based instruction?    2. Why is it important?

Now that you have decided to consider a new role for yourself in teaching students with special needs, you may want to understand a way of thinking about teaching that allows you to make decisions based on the actual performance of students. In other words, you will be making dat- based decisions about how to change your instruction. To make data-based decisions a teacher must have the following elements:

1. the intended learning objective for a student;

2. a reliable measure for the student's performance related to the objective;

3. an instructional procedure to use to enable the student to acquire the necessary skills related to the objective;

4. a willingness to redesign instructional procedures if the measures show that the student is not achieving the learning objective. 

1. The Intended Learning Objective

Most teachers are aware of the importance of various levels of cognitive development represented by Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Bloom's hierarchy includes six levels of cognitive performance: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Instructional procedures can be designed to enable students to demonstrate multiple levels of cognitive performance at the same time. (If you would like more details about Bloom's taxonomy, please check out the information from Dr. Joan Bissell's class-- Learning Theory and Classroom Practices (Lesson Planning) --University of California, Irvine)

Adapting Learning Objectives for Students with Specific Special Needs*

The K-8 scope and sequence for Science Objectives for a large urban school district in a southwestern metropolitan area includes eight goals (Attitudes/Habits of Mind, Nature of Science and Technology, Science Content, History of Science, Thinking/Reasoning Skills of Science, Personal Use of Science and Technology, Societal Impact of Science and Technology, and Laboratory Investigations/Hands-on Learning).

To illustrate adaptations and accommodations for each of these prototypical learners, we've selected the first of six objectives for sixth grade: Goal 3: Science Content:

3.1 To acquire and apply appropriate scientific knowledge to interpret the natural world, the student will define and delineate the parts of natural systems [and will]:

3.1.1 identify organization levels of technologies such as communication, agriculture, biotechnology, transportation, space, and computer technology;

3.1.2 apply the concept of system to different objects, events and organisms (i.e., weather systems, solar systems, star systems, hydrologic cycle, simple machines, aquarium);

3.1.3 describe the characteristics of different natural and technological systems (i.e., boundaries, components, feedback, resources).

3.1.1 Judy will differentiate between different forms of communication such as telephones, letters, electronic mail, verbal, etc. by using each form in  communicating with family members and friends.

3.1.2 Judy will apply the concept of the agriculture system and nutrition. This adaptation focuses on teaching Judy about the relationship between agriculture and nutrition  toassist her in achieving a functional life skill related to appropriate personal diet decisions, budget and planning for meals.

3.1.2 Randy will increase visual tracking of objects  and symbols related to weather systems and will use his choice board to indicate  appropriate outerwear for recess (e.g., given a symbol for rain, he will choose a raincoat or an umbrella).

3.1.1 The student will define and delineate the parts of an ecosystem and will construct an ecosystem that applies scientific concepts (i.e., cells, tissues, organs, systems, organisms.

Note: Given Jose's identified talent in the area of writing, a further adaptation might be focused on how specifically Jose might be reinforced for learning the new science information--perhaps through an invitation to write a science-fiction story that accurately illustrates the relationships amongst cells, tissues, organs, systems, and so on. Adaptations of consequences of instruction are further described in Topic 5 (the ABCs of DBI).

Given Jake's identified special challenges in the area of personal self-control, further adaptations may be necessary for Jake--perhaps through a series of lessons on anger management, setting up a specified peer-tutoring relationship, and a contingency contract for appropriate classroom behavior. Adaptations of the antecedents of instruction are further described in Topic 5 (the ABCs of DBI).

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*Special thanks to the creative ingenuity of Ramona, Cindy, Cathy, Christine, Mike, Steve, Anthony, Amy, Jennifer, and Michelle for developing reasonable accommodations by adapting the instructional objectives for students who are difficult to teach during the Spring 1997 Wednesday night class at ASU West!

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