Assessing Needs

 

Introduction

Education is defined by Tyler (1971) as "a process of changing the behavior patterns of people." Referring to behavior in the broad sense, he includes thinking and feeling as well as action. If we view education in this way, objectives that represent change in behavior are what educators and educational institutions should seek in developing effective educational programs. The assessment of needs represents a primary tool for inferences into these objectives.

Needs Assessment

Experts in program development have stressed the importance of assessing needs in the development and implementation of new and existing educational programs. Boone (1985, p. 113) stated that the collaborative effort of needs assessment is "one of the primary tasks in planning to meet educational needs." Berger (1991, p. 2) also stressed the importance of assessing the needs of target audiences of educational programs and suggested it as the "logical first step" in program planning. Berger defined the educational program as an "integrated curriculum response to the educational needs of a group of students." Rossett (1993) stated four reasons for assessing needs:

  • It's what we do before we do or recommend anything to anybody.
  • It'is a method for reaching out, understanding and serving the customers, organizations and missions.
  • It'is a form of consultation where we both provide services and develop customers.
  • It's the method that education organizations and professionals use to ensure involvement and gather information.

Assessing Behaviors

Boone (1995, p. 113) defined needs assessment as a process where "the adult educator, the identified target public leaders, and their followers become intensively involved in collaborative identification, assessment and analysis of the educational needs of those publics." Specifically, needs assessment is the process of defining the learner's current behavior, a desired behavior, and any factors influencing the learner's motivation and ability to traverse the gap between these two levels or types of behavior. Primarily, educators focus on assessing current and desired behaviors. Tyler (1971), Rossett (1993), and Sort, etal (1989) stressed establishing actual and desired behaviors for planning programs. Some educators have also stressed the need to identify other factors impacting a learner's ability to achieve the desired behavior.

Making Distinctions

Tyler (1971) defined needs specifically as the gap between the desired and actual behavior. In discussing learner's needs, Tennant (1991, p. 204) suggested that distinctions could be "made between different categories, types and level of need." Tyler also stressed that needs can be categorized and addressed as either a "concept, skill or value."

Concepts

Tyler described concept as an individual's conceptualization of the situation. Senge (1990) also referred to concepts as "mental models" which may or may not contest new insights and initiatives of educators. Concepts relate directly to the learner's thinking and understanding of the behavior.They impact whether the learner moves beyond the level of skill received in an educational setting. Concepts are those tools that enable the learner to modify and progress when encountering new knowledge and experiences. For example, learners may be able to move from word processing to data base management with greater ease because they were taught the concept of file management in the word processing user manual.

Skills

Skills can be classified as either general or specific skills. Tyler defined specific skills as behavior that enables the learner to complete a specific task. While important, specific skills can often limit the learner because of changes in society. With the development of automated milking machines, a specific skill such as milking cows becomes almost worthless to a worker on a dairy farm. Tyler stressed that general skills that are transferable in contemporary society are the more significant skills. He mentioned "problem solving" as an example of a general skill. Educators should examine both specific skills and general skills in performing needs assessment.

Values

The learner's values represent Tyler's final category of needs. While attempting to close the gaps between concepts and skills is important in educational programs, the learner's motivation, drive or purpose to change can have direct impact on the success of the educational program. It is through the examination of the learner's values that the educator can gain insight into some factors impacting the learner's desire and motivation for reaching the desired behavior.

Optimals

Rossett (1993) suggested beginning the needs assessment process by determining what she refers to as "optimals." Rossett defined optimals as the desired skills, knowledge and perspectives of individuals, managers and the organization. Others such as Tyler (1971, p. 6) and Tennant (1991) suggested that the desired behavior be defined as some conception of acceptable norms. Assessing optimals can be difficult. Sort, etal (1989, p.237) stressed that "there are no equivalent set of concrete tools that can be used to construct a description of the desired condition."

One tool for determining optimals is the use of experts or expert reports. Tyler (1971) stated that educators are able to infer objectives from the reports of subject matter specialists by examining the "major functions that specialists think the subject can make" and "might make." Other sources of optimals include numerous organizational and societal documents. Rossett (1993) cited documents containing mission statements, job descriptions, strategic planning goals, competency statements, methodology statements as excellent sources for assessing optimals. Optimals also can be determined by looking at society. Boone (1985, p. 115) focused on community education programs and suggested optimals can be determined from social norms, research findings and value judgements by adult educators and leaders of target publics.

Optimals and Obstacles

Rossett (1993), in looking at staff development efforts, categorized three possible situations that may cause problems related to optimals. Situations may exist where no optimal can be found or determined, such as a complex situation in which unknown factors impact a behavior. For example, it may be difficult to estimate an optimal skill level when a new, yet unbuilt computer system is being adopted. Another situation creating problems could be when optimals conflict with each other. An example of this is the time conflict between learning to produce and producing. Employees in an automobile plant are asked to increase production of automobiles while learning new procedures and tools for empowerment. Time may make achieving one of these optimals difficult requiring an examination of priorities. The third situation cited by Rossett is when optimals are not be defined with enough specificity. Sort, etal (1989, p. 237), stated "once needs are specified, they should be presented in a format that makes both the present and the more desirable condition as explicit as possible." Broad optimals such as all extension educators should adopt new technology may be vague and create confusion. Specific optimals such as the all extension educators should adopt electronic mail create a more accurate picture of the desired behavior.

Actuals

Rossett (1993) suggested continuing the needs assessment process by determining what she refers to as the "actuals," what people know and do as it relates to skill and knowledge. "Determining the present condition is usually based on data acquired through observations, questionnaires, tests, performance analyses, self-assessment instruments, record reviews, and other means of documenting current levels of capability, performance, proficiency...." (Sort, etal, 1989, p. 237) Rossett (1993) advocated looking at performance and products when determining actuals in staff development programs. Rossett further suggested using surveys and observations as tools for verifying actuals. Surveys are excellent tools for ensuring accuracy in what we already know, but offer little reliability when used alone. Tyler (1971, p.13) suggested that the survey is only useful "for getting information which the student has no hesitation in providing." (Tyler, 1971, p.13)

Methods

Boone (1985), in looking at community education efforts, suggested five approaches to diagnosing needs:

    1. Interface with community leaders.
    2. Target public leaders and potential learners and practice active listening.
    3. Perform surveys of target audiences.
    4. Perform public studies focusing on the population, social and economic structures, values, and ecology of the local community.
    5. Collect data from census and other survey reports.

Barriers

Once actuals and optimals are determined, the literature suggests looking at other factors affecting the learner's ability to achieve the optimal behavior. Rossett (1993) stressed the need to define anything that is or might get in the way of performance. These barriers can be categorized as one of four types related to people or organizations. A common barrier to performance results when individuals lack skill, ability or knowledge to perform at the optimal level. A second barrier cited by Rossett is when individuals lack motivation to perform at the optimal level.

Organizational barriers also may exist and complicate efforts to plan educational programs. The organizational or societal environment may create problems if individuals don't have the right tools, time, policies or processes to perform at the optimal level. Organizational barriers also can relate directly to a lack of incentive to perform the task at the optimal level. Determining the type of barrier provides critical insight into the possible makeup of educational programs, what Rossett called the "solution system."

Teachability

Tyler (1971, p. 10) argued that an investigation of the learner's interests is necessary to form a primary basis for educational objectives. He suggested that by presenting matters of interest to the learners, we also encourage them to participate in the learning process. In accounting for learning styles, Tennant (1991, p. 206) also focused on the learner's need to learn and suggested that educators should go further to "consider the cognitive needs and capacities of learners." Havighurst (1952) defined three forces of life that influence an individual's desire or need for education: physical maturation, cultural pressure from society, and the individualt's personal values and aspirations. During stages in life, these forces can cause an urgency to learn creating what Havighurst called the "teachable moment."

Prioirities

Criticizing current methods for performing needs assessment citing lack of resources and time as barriers to successful needs assessment, Sort, etal, (1989, p. 237-238) stated:

"Practitioners argue that they rarely have time to conduct needs assessment. More often than not they justify offering programs based on potential demand or based on the availability of the resources required to offer the programs. Needs assessment usually produces more needs than can be addressed with existing resources. When this happens, there must be some technique used to determine priorities.... the purpose of priority setting is to provide a rational resource allocation basis that will be acceptable to those whom the planner is accountable."

Further study and effort should be pursued in investigating more timely and effective needs assessment methods. Efforts in evaluating cost to benefits should provide current practitioners with needed data for setting priorities for needs assessment activities.

Owen, Mitchell, (1993) Needs Assessment, Unpublished. Internal Document. North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.
Reviewed by David Mustian, Agriculture and Education Department Extension Leader and Extension Program Evaluation Leader and Everett Davis, Robeson County Director
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