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Schools and Societal Issues 47

Table 1. Comparison of Use of SOAP in Medicine and Education
Medicine Education
Subjective: The patient indicates to the Subjective: The teacher shares with the
physician that she is feeling congested, her principal that students tend to be off task
body aches, and she has chills. when she is modeling a lesson.
Objective: The physician notes that the pa- Objective: The principal observes the
tient’s temperature is 101.2 degrees, and a lesson noticing that when the teacher is
blood test indicates that the patient’s white modeling it is for 15 minutes and only two
blood cell count is high at 15,000 cu3. students are called on during this time.
Assessment: The physician discusses the Assessment: The principal and teacher
tests with the patient and takes into account discuss that the cause of this problem is
the patient’s comments to conclude that the that the teacher is not engaging students in
patient has the flu. the modeling of the lesson.
Plan: The patient is to drink at least 8 Plan: The principal recommends that
glasses of water daily, rest not engage in the teacher watch two professional
strenuous activities and take an antibiotic development videos on making relevant
for a week. A follow up visit will take place student connections and visit a colleague’s
in two weeks to monitor the patient’s classroom, debriefing strategies with
progress. that colleague. The principal will observe
another lesson in two weeks to monitor the
implementation of the new strategy.
Theoretical Framework
The researcher chose the theory of planned behavior (Figure 1) as the framework
for this study. This theory is “designed to predict and explain human behavior in specific
contexts” (Ajzen, 1991, p. 181). Human behavior is guided by three kinds of considerations:
behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, and control beliefs. Behavioral beliefs produce attitudes
toward the behavior. Normative beliefs result in a subjective norm. Control beliefs give rise
to perceived behavioral control (Ajzen, 2012). Fishbein and Ajzen (2010) explained,
When a behavior is carried out, it can result in unintended positive or negative
consequences, it can elicit favorable or unfavorable reactions from others, and it
can reveal unanticipated difficulties or facilitating factors. This feedback is likely
to change the person’s behavioral, normative, and control beliefs and thus affect
future intentions and actions. (p. 218)
For this study in the context of education, a teacher’s behavior is intended to mean the
teacher’s chosen instructional strategies. Behavioral interventions should be designed to
affect the attitude, subjective norms, or the perception of behavioral control of the teacher.
If changes in these factors occur, changes to behavior intentions should ensue, causing new
intentions to be enacted (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010). In this study, feedback provided by the
principal in post-observation conferences and the use of SOAP-structured conversations
were behavioral interventions that, if directed at the factors above, should cause teachers
to self-reflect, change their behavioral intentions, and exhibit sustainable new behaviors.
The theory suggests that individuals are encouraged to form an implementation intention
or specific plan detailing actions steps to be taken in order for the new behavior to be
implemented successfully (Gollwitzer, 1999).
Intentions are assumed to capture the motivational factors that influence a behavior
and are indicators of the effort and an individual’s plans to exert that effort in order to