Evaluation of Teaching Proposal Plan

This document evaluates the experience of teaching encountered while educating adults aged 18 and beyond, residing in Orange County, Florida, on the topic of Disasters and Bioterrorism. It discusses the summary of the teaching plan, the epidemiological rationale for the topic, the evaluation of the teaching experience, the community response to teaching, and the areas of strength and improvement.

Running head: EVALUATION OF TEACHING PROPOSAL PLAN
EVALUATION OF TEACHING PROPOSAL PLAN
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1EVALUATION OF TEACHING PROPOSAL PLAN
Introduction
As postulated by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the term ‘Bioterrorism’,
implies the usage of biological agents such as pathogenic and microbial agents in the form of
weapons for the purpose of furthering agendas associated with political or national harm
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019). The following paper hence, evaluates the
experience of teaching encountered while educating adults aged 18 and beyond, residing in
Orange County, Florida, on the topic of Disasters and Bioterrorism.
Further, as noted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA), the various types of disasters encompass natural, traumatic and man-made disasters.
Hurricanes are a key example of harmful natural disaster with disruptive social, economic and
emotional repercussions (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2019).
The Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT), denotes the state of Florida as a state
with high susceptibility to hurricanes due to its tropical location and westerly winds from the
African Coast (Florida Center for Instructional Technology, 2019).
Zika infection is a vector-borne infection transmitted by the Zika virus with Aedes
aegypti mosquitoes as the carriers and is accompanied by moderate or negligible symptoms of
fever similar to dengue (Peteson et al, 2016). The infection is also transmitted sexually. The
following report focuses extensively on mitigating the lack of knowledge pertaining to Zika virus
among adults in the age group of 19 and above.
The following paragraphs of the report aims to shed light on the salient experiences
encountered while administer the proposed teaching plan among subjects in Orange County,
Florida, the epidemiological rationale for the topic, a summary of the proposed teaching plan, the

2EVALUATION OF TEACHING PROPOSAL PLAN
response received from the community and the essential areas of the plan which had the scope
for improvement or were key strengths.
Discussion
Summary of Teaching Plan
The proposed teaching plan was administered in the community of Orange County of
Florida, among adults belonging to the community of Orange County, Florida. A lack of
awareness and knowledge prevalent among community members on the transmission, awareness,
prevention and management concerning Zika and the reduction of the terrors associated with
natural disasters like hurricane through discussion of key safety strategies are the primary
rationales underlying the dissemination of the proposed teaching plan. The local community area
chosen for teaching execution was Winter Park in Orange County, in Good Shepherd Catholic
Church. The teaching session lasted approximately for 1 hour, 30 minutes with extra time
allotted for a question and answer session. Demonstrative and discussion methods were adopted
for teaching which included projectors, stationers for writing, computers and emergency sample
kit for practical purposes. Refreshments and water were provided to the subjects during intervals.
The key areas of learning which were identified and posed as the rationale for teaching by the
teacher, included, a state of inadequate knowledge and fear, a lack of preparedness for natural
disaster management and feelings of guilt among victim’s family members associated with the
occurrence of hurricanes and the management of Zika virus. The teaching plan was disseminated
using the ‘Learning Style Theory’, and the Healthy People 2020 objectives with the purpose of
enhancement of community participants’ level of engagement and performance of disaster
management preparedness activities in the face of hurricanes.

3EVALUATION OF TEACHING PROPOSAL PLAN
Epidemiological Rationale for the Topic
Despite the negligible rates of prevalence and incidence of Zika virus cases in the United
States, the CDC notes that travelers who are visiting countries, especially areas reported to pose
high susceptibility to the infection, must enlighten themselves on modes of prevention and
management in order to prevent possible emergence of epidemics in the country. Zika virus
infections have been noted to cause a number of outbreaks in countries such as those residing in
the African and Latin American subcontinent (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
2019). Further, as per news articles during 2018, the state of Florida has reported incidences of
Zika virus infections, which have been estimated to amount to a total of 72 cases distributed
across districts of Orange County, Palm Beach, Collier County, Miami-Dade, Walton, Hernando,
Broward, Palm Beach, Osceoloa, Lee, Pinellas and Hernando (Orlando Sentinel, 2019).
Additionally, high susceptibility to hurricane association coupled with the detrimental effects of
hurricane Irma and Michael on the state, as encourage the Florida Department of Health to
publish essential information on enhancing community levels of hurricane preparedness as per
their ‘Prepare Yourself’ guidelines (Florida Department of Health, 2019). Additionally, the local
government of Orange County has also postulated key preparedness guideline and emergency
mitigation resources for the management of hurricanes (Orange County Government, 2019).
Evaluation of the Teaching Experience
Overall the teaching experience addressing the issues of knowledge deficit and lack of
preparedness concerning Zika virus and hurricanes among adults in Orange County, Florida was
fulfilling and enlightening and provided the teacher with key insights on the learning abilities of
the subject as well as the scope for future improvements. Overall the teaching plan successfully
administered a holistic outlook by ensuring that the subjects were provided with the scope to

4EVALUATION OF TEACHING PROPOSAL PLAN
administer their creativity via enquiry and questioning, along provision of educational materials
which were easily comprehensible due to the simplicity of their content and the execution of
demonstrative, collaborative approach to learning. Further, the teaching experience for the
teacher was a transactional one in which in addition to the students, the teacher gained key
insights as well on the strategies outlining Zika virus disease prevention and management and
practical approaches on the improvement of preparedness levels during natural disasters such as
hurricanes. Additionally, the teaching experience also inculcated feelings of harmony and unity
among the teacher, the subjects and also the overall community due to the administration of a
collaborative, team based approach to learning. Overall, the teaching experience was highly
insightful since it allowed the teacher gain awareness on the key areas of knowledge deficits as
well as demographic characteristics of the subjects which proved to be barriers or limitations in
the execution of the teaching plan.
Community Response to Teaching
The administration of the teaching plan overall resulted in a positive response from the
subjects. The subjects were observed to display active interest in the learning and teaching
process which further encouraged and motivated the teacher to proceed with the learning
activities. This was due to the usage of a relevant, comprehendible and recent topic considering
the high global and national rates of Zika virus transmission and hurricane incidences (Jang,
Reeve & Halusic, 2016). However, it was observed that with the succession of teaching the
learning materials, subjects seemed to feel monotonous and disinterested. This was however,
quickly managed by the teacher through the administration of practical and demonstrative tools
such as emergency kits for learning, which resulted in the subjects regaining their eagerness and
enthusiasm towards learning. This is due to the fact that demonstrative teaching materials have

5EVALUATION OF TEACHING PROPOSAL PLAN
been documented to yield higher rates of engagement among students due to the incorporation of
practical based approaches and activity performance (Saga, Qamar & Trali, 2015). However,
deficits in learning and eagerness were observed among subjects who belonged to indigenous
communities and hence, were not very fluent with the English language. This could be due to the
diverse cultural backgrounds in which the indigenous of unique ethnic groups belong to,
resulting in their difficulty to associate themselves with the languages and perception possessed
by the mainstream society (Cheung et al., 2017). A key area which could have prevented the
occurrence of the same, is the incorporation of cultural competence, which shall be discussed in
the succeeding sections. Overall the administration of the collaborative team based approach to
teaching resulted in the community response of increased feelings of unity, harmony and
eagerness to undertake a collective approach to disaster management and preparedness.
Areas of Strength and Improvement
The success of the teaching plan was due to the usage of several beneficial teaching
methods which proved to be key areas of strength in the teaching plan. Firstly, the teaching plan
adhered to a topic which was not only relevant to the current global pathological and
environmental situation but was also easy to understand. Usage of a recent, updated and
comprehensible topic in teaching curriculum has been implicated to generate increased levels of
awareness and interests among students to learn about the same (Lumpkin, Achen & Dodd,
(2015). Another key strength of the teaching plan lied in its ability to encourage the subject’s
cognitive creativity through the incorporation of practical based teaching approaches through
demonstration and subject usage of emergency disaster management kits. The incorporation of
practical, demonstrative and kinesthetic approaches to teaching has been associated with the
positive effects of increased levels of student’s knowledge, understanding and application of the

6EVALUATION OF TEACHING PROPOSAL PLAN
topics taught (Moyer & Savino, 2015). Lastly, a key strength was the incorporation of a
collaborative, team approach to learning which required subjects’ group participation. A
collaborative, team approach to teaching has been known to encourage unity and harmony
among subjects – a key pre-requisite in the enhancement of community preparedness in the face
of disasters (Steinfort, 2017).
Despite the prevalence of key strengths, the teaching plan was not devoid of limitations
and hence, presented key areas for future improvement. One of the key areas which requires
improvement is the inclusion of cultural competence to teaching. It was observed that the subject
populations also consisted of individuals belonging to ethnically dives groups for whom
understanding the information in English proved to be difficult. Teaching plans must be
culturally competent and inclusive of populations from all ethnicities in order to ensure equity in
accessibility of learning resources in the entire community and nation (Creech et al., 2017).
Another key area which could have been improved is the incorporation and adequate distribution
of practical based approaches to teaching such as demonstrations and practical task since this has
been prove to encourage eagerness among learners. The reason for this requirement in the
teaching plan was due to the teacher’s observation, that subjects seemed disinterred during the
theoretical teaching process but gained interest upon administration of practical learning (Singh,
2017).
Conclusion
Hence, to conclude, it can be observed that the proposed teaching plan was successful in
the enhancement of the existing levels of knowledge concerning the strategies required to
prevent and manage Zika virus, as well as the improvement of the levels of preparedness among

7EVALUATION OF TEACHING PROPOSAL PLAN
community members in the face of disasters. The success of the teaching plan can be attributed
to key strengths such as the incorporation of a simple and relevant topic, the administration of
practical based teaching methods and the utilization of a team based, collaborative approach to
learning. However, incorporation of cultural competence as well as greater usage of practical
based teaching would have improved the teaching plan in terms of inclusion of ethnic diversity
and enhancement of eagerness.

8EVALUATION OF TEACHING PROPOSAL PLAN
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Areas with Zika. Retrieved from
https://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/index.html.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Bioterrorism. Retrieved from
https://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/toolstemplates/entertainmented/tips/
Bioterrorism.html.
Cheung, K. Y. W., Stokes, S. F., Wong, A. M. Y., Chu, W. S. A., & Tin, C. C. Y. (2017).
International Service Learning: Cultural Competence, Interdisciplinary Practice And
Translational Learning Outcomes. In American Speech, Language, And Hearing
Association Annual Convention. doi: http://hdl.handle.net/10722/251511.
Creech, C., Filter, M., Wehbe-Alamah, H., McFarland, M. R., Andrews, M., & Pryor, G. (2017).
An intervention to improve cultural competence in graduate nursing education. Nursing
education perspectives, 38(6), 333-336. doi: 10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000163.
Florida Center for Instructional Technology. (2019). Hurricanes in Florida. Retrieved from
https://fcit.usf.edu/project/hurricanes/.
Florida Department of Health. (2019). Prepare Yourself | Florida Department of Health.
Retrieved from http://www.floridahealth.gov/programs-and-services/emergency-
preparedness-and-response/prepare-yourself/index.html.
Jang, H., Reeve, J., & Halusic, M. (2016). A new autonomy-supportive way of teaching that
increases conceptual learning: Teaching in students' preferred ways. The Journal of

9EVALUATION OF TEACHING PROPOSAL PLAN
Experimental Education, 84(4), 686-701. doi:
https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2015.1083522.
Lumpkin, A., Achen, R. M., & Dodd, R. K. (2015). Student perceptions of active
learning. College Student Journal, 49(1), 121-133. Retrieved from:
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/prin/csj/2015/00000049/00000001/art00012.
Moyer, M., & Savino, D. M. (2015). The Role of the Kinesthetic Learning Style and Prompted
Responses in Teaching Management Courses. Global Education Journal, 2015(1).
Retrieved from: https://web.b.ebscohost.com/abstract?
direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=21523622&AN=109021
783&h=WwHV6%2bo31Us%2baRJ6lsqUCnmBzV3jxy
%2fAWXxoiL8Ykympkm95bOQWkyYiitH2f9Wj78yt4PdVwkjeoZhivvTsjQ%3d
%3d&crl=c&resultNs=AdminWebAuth&resultLocal=ErrCrlNotAuth&crlhashurl=login.a
spx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler
%26jrnl%3d21523622%26AN%3d109021783.
Orange County Government. (2019). Hurricane Guide. Retrieved from
http://www.orangecountyfl.net/EmergencySafety/HurricaneGuide.aspx#.XJ3Za1UzbIV.
Orlando Sentinel. (2019). Zika is still in Florida, but majority of cases are travel-related.
Retrieved from https://www.orlandosentinel.com/health/os-zika-florida-numbers-
20180926-story.html.
Petersen, L. R., Jamieson, D. J., Powers, A. M., & Honein, M. A. (2016). Zika virus. New
England Journal of Medicine, 374(16), 1552-1563. Doi: 10.1056/NEJMra1602113.

10EVALUATION OF TEACHING PROPOSAL PLAN
Saga, Z., Qamar, K., & Trali, G. (2015). Learning styles-understanding for learning
strategies. Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal, 65(5), 706-709. Retrieved from:
http://www.pafmj.org/index.php/PAFMJ/article/view/1115.
Singh, V. (2017). Exploring the relationship between cognitive style and learning style with
academic achievement of elementary school learners. Educational Quest, 8, 413. doi:
10.5958/2230-7311.2017.00084.8.
Steinfort, P. (2017). Community and post-disaster program management
methodology. International Journal of Project Management, 35(5), 788-801. doi:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.07.005.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2019). Types of Disasters |
SAMHSA - Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Retrieved
from https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/disaster-distress-helpline/disaster-types.

11EVALUATION OF TEACHING PROPOSAL PLAN