Expatiating the interconnectivity between the key variables of lesson plan and content, by Yusuf Alhaji Lawan
“Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.”
Despite being a passive teacher at present, the little learnt as an Education student and the over a decade experience gained as a stakeholder in Education Industry, I feel obliged to share few words with both the active and passive teachers with a view to contributing to the development of education.
Part of the prerequisite activities for effective teaching is the development and implementation of Lesson Plan especially at the primary and secondary school levels. A Lesson Plan is a teacher’s detailed description of the course of instruction or learning trajectory for a lesson. It is the instructor’s roadmap of what pupils/students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during class time. A daily Lesson Plan is developed by teachers to guide class teaching and learning.
Lesson Plan contains vital information about the lesson topic, duration of the lesson, teaching aids, behavioural objectives, previous knowledge, introduction, presentation, evaluation, etc. There are integrated linked-ups between the items mentioned which are of utmost importance to note for effective teaching and learning process. Here, we will discuss most especially, the interconnectivity between Behavioral Objectives, Steps of Presentation and Evaluation as key variables of Lesson Plan and also likely few more items afterwards.
Behavioural Objective also called Educational Objective is a learning outcome statement in measurable terms which gives direction to the learner’s experience and serves as a basis for evaluation of learners. It states clearly what the instructor intends to achieve at the end of a particular lesson. At a glance, it presents a clear view of the purpose which the tutor is out for.
In order to achieve the objectives of the lesson, there has to be a circumnavigation across stages ranging from introduction of the lesson, presentation of the lesson which comes under a number of steps depending on the subject and topic and evaluation to ascertain whether or not the goal is achieved.
It is worthy of note to know that the number of items in Behavioural Objectives has to tally with the number of Steps in Presentation as well as the number of questions in Evaluation. In other words, if there are three (3) items in Behavioural Objectives, there has to be three (3) Steps of Presentation and three (3) Evaluation Questions. They are to be one for each.
Let us be practical. For instance, the subject at hand is Commerce and the topic is Meaning and Scope of Commerce. The Behavioural Objectives read; at the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
i. define commerce and explain its divisions.
ii. sketch a diagram to illustrate the scope of commerce.
iii. perform a sample transaction in the class.
In Presentation, Step 1 should be on the definition of commerce and its divisions, Step 2 to be on how to draw a diagram to illustrate the scope of commerce and Step 3 on performing a practical transaction as a business student. Then, Evaluation question 1 should be on the meaning and divisions of commerce, question 2 on drawing-up a diagram of scope of commerce and question 3 is on observation of students, asking them to make practical transaction.
This, if implemented as explained above, will enhance the realization of the goal of teaching and improve the seamless dissemination of knowledge and values in a proper way. Teachers who abide by this will have a lot to share as experience due to the positive change it provides.
Evaluation as an item in Lesson Plan is mostly not given the needed attention it deserves. At a time, I was privileged to flip through lesson plans drawn by teachers from different locations and I noticed over reliance on cognitive domain. Even in the cognitive domain itself, all the questions are mostly on level 1 (i.e knowledge). If possible, Evaluation questions are to cover the three (3) Educational Domains, viz; Cognitive, Affective and Psychomotor Domains. A careful observation of the example above on evaluation questions depicts such.
It is also discouraged to introduce lessons with the topic at hand. For example, a Biology teacher in a class with “Ecology” as a topic and he starts the lesson by asking the students what they know about ecology. If they are able to answer him, then the essence is defeated. The teacher has to leave since the students have already known what he intended teaching. There are 1001 ways of introducing lessons without resorting to the use of the topic at hand.
Introduction of lesson is expected to arouse interest and curiosity among learners and make them ask questions which leads to further involvement. A teacher may decide to introduce his lesson with story telling about a related activity. He may also pose a challenge on the learners and from there, move into the topic. Error correction, class discussion, review of previous lesson and other methods numerous to mention can be practiced.
I was a living witness of situations where lesson period ends and the teachers were at the middle of their lessons. In some cases a teacher beg the one with the next period some minutes to finish up while others leave without conclusion. Time Budgeting can help overcome this challenge. After drawing-up a Lesson Plan, the teacher distributes time (minutes) on each of the items/activities based on the overall period of the lesson. If this is done and implemented, there is guarantee that the teacher can accomplish his task within the specified time.
Further reading, researches, adopting new methods of teaching and implementation of new knowledge learnt are key activities that guarantee effective teaching and learning. It holds the promise of creating a new teacher out of the existing and enhance improved capacity which in turn give positive result in learners and change society for good.
Yusuf Lawan is a stakeholder in Education Industry. He hailed from Hausawa Asibiti Ward, Potiskum Yobe State. He can be reached @nasidi30@gmail.com.
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