Explanation for writing a problem or needs statement for educational research or instructional design students

1. Summarized by Dr. Kay Lehmann
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2.  Reader will understand why the project,
course, training, or learning is needed
 Helps you get organized for the research
process
 Has 4 parts:
 The Ideal
 Reality
 Consequences
 The Solution
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3.  In order for the reader to understand the
problem or need, they first need to know
what the ideal situation would look like.
 Think for a moment, if your problem or need
did NOT exist, what would the situation be
like
 Describe this for the reader
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4.  In an ideal setting, a student's grade in a course
should be a judgment of the student's knowledge in
that subject area.
 In order for students to make healthy dietary choices,
parents, the primary educators and providers of food
items, need to have knowledge of the importance of
quality nutritional food and healthy food choices.
 The mission of the organization is to promote the
appropriate use of technology to assist all students
and staff so that they can become more independent,
self-confident, and productive learners.
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5.  Obviously the current situation is not ideal.
Now that you have defined the ideal for the
reader, you can let them know what the
problem or need is.
 Describe the current situation. Remember as
a researcher you are dispassionate and non-
judgmental. Stick to the facts about the
current situation.
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6.  Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Many teachers use
grading systems that do not reflect the student's knowledge of the
topic at the end of the course. A student is often offered a single
assessment event to show their mastery of a concept.
 American children are more overweight and the incidence of
chronic illness is higher than at any time in our nation’s history.
While, parents have abundant information at their fingertips,
students’ lack of knowledge of quality, nutritional food choices is
at an all time low.
 The computer applications class and technology class are the only
classrooms with their own computer technology. All other classes
are required to share one computer lab of thirty computers and
sixty mobile laptop computers for a student population of over
1,100.
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7.  Your reader now knows what the ideal
situation would be, and how the current
situation is different from the ideal.
 Explain the consequences of not correcting
this situation. If you did not undertake this
research and the situation remained
uncorrected, what would be the negative
results?
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8.  If the student has not mastered the material in the
allotted time, they will receive a negative grade for
that unit of information.This is not an accurate view
of the student’s knowledge, because they may learn
more about a topic throughout the rest of the course.
 When parents, and in turn students, continue to make
unhealthy food choices because of their lack of
knowledge an “undue burden of poor health”
continues to be placed on the next generation
(Weston Price Foundation, 2007, ¶ 6).
 The current situation, of limited technological
resources, causes a roadblock to classroom projects
and student learning opportunities.
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9.  The reader now understands what the ideal
would be, why the current situation is not
ideal, and the consequences of not correcting
the current situation.
 All that is left is to explain the solution you
propose to test and how it will help correct
the current situation.
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10.  Retesting is a method where a student is allowed to test on a topic more
than one time. As the course progresses, the student may learn the
material. Retesting allows this student to show mastery of the material if
they learn it after the original test. By incorporating a retest policy, the
ideal situation should occur.The grade awarded to the student at the end
of the semester would be an accurate assessment of the student’s
knowledge of the topic.
 In order to determine the nutritional knowledge/lack of nutritional
knowledge of parents and students enrolled in BlahBlahVirtual
Academy, a ‘pre-test’ survey will be administered to both parents and
students. Upon completion of a series of monthly ‘nutrition workshops’
via ClassConnect (a virtual classroom) a ‘post-test’ will be administered to
those that participated in the workshop.
 One solution would be to supply students with their own laptop
computers for use in the classroom.This would allow flexibility of
instruction and curriculum, allowing for an eLearning environment.
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11.  You have four statements to make in this
problem statement but they should NOT be
labeled statement 1, statement 2; or Ideal
Situation, Current Situation.
 The problem statement should be in
paragraph form with the ideas flowing from
one phase to the next seamlessly.
 Examples used on previous slides are shown
as full problem statements in the slides which
follow.
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12. In an ideal setting, a student's grade in a course should be a judgment of the
student's knowledge in that subject area. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.
Many teachers use grading systems that do not reflect the student's knowledge of the
topic at the end of the course.A student is often offered a single assessment event to
show their mastery of a concept. If the student has not mastered the material in the
allotted time, they will receive a negative grade for that unit of information.This is not
an accurate view of the student’s knowledge, because they may learn more about a
topic throughout the rest of the course. Retesting is a method where a student is
allowed to test on a topic more than one time. As the course progresses, the student
may learn the material. Retesting allows this student to show mastery of the material
if they learn it after the original test. By incorporating a retest policy, the ideal
situation should occur.The grade awarded to the student at the end of the semester
would be an accurate assessment of the student’s knowledge of the topic.
Click to move to the next slide or use the scroll bar to move through the show.

13. In order for students to make healthy dietary choices, parents, the primary
educators and providers of food items, need to have knowledge of the importance of
quality nutritional food and healthy food choices.American children are more
overweight and the incidence of chronic illness is higher than at any time in our
nation’s history.While, parents have abundant information at their fingertips,
students’ lack of knowledge of quality, nutritional food choices is at an all time low.
When parents, and in turn students, continue to make unhealthy food choices
because of their lack of knowledge an “undue burden of poor health” continues to be
placed on the next generation (Weston Price Foundation, 2007, ¶ 6). In order to
determine the nutritional knowledge/lack of nutritional knowledge of parents and
students enrolled in BlahBlahVirtual Academy, a ‘pre-test’ survey will be administered
to both parents and students. Upon completion of a series of monthly ‘nutrition
workshops’ via ClassConnect (a virtual classroom) a ‘post-test’ will be administered to
those that participated in the workshop.
Click to move to the next slide or use the scroll bar to move through the show.

14. The mission of the organization is to promote the appropriate use
of technology to assist all students and staff so that they can become
more independent, self-confident, and productive learners.The
computer applications class and technology class are the only
classrooms with their own computer technology. All other classes are
required to share one computer lab of thirty computers and sixty
mobile laptop computers for a student population of over 1,100.The
current situation, of limited technological resources, causes a
roadblock to classroom projects and student learning opportunities.
One solution would be to supply students with their own laptop
computers for use in the classroom.This would allow flexibility of
instruction and curriculum, allowing for an eLearning environment.
Click to move to the next slide or use the scroll bar to move through the show.

15.  All examples are used with the permission of
former students. Names and locations have
been removed.
 The following reference is listed in one of the
examples.
Weston A Price Foundation (2007), Children's
Health. RetrievedOctober 17, 2007 from
http://westonaprice.org/children/index.html
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