LESSON PLANNING - HERBARTIAN STEPS IN LESSON PLANNING

Good lesson planning is the key to successful teaching. Lesson planning in advance has a futuristic implication which permits a teacher to anticipate pupil’s reactions, & by using these reactions to prepare adequately in order to avoid foreseeable difficulties. It helps a teacher manager her time effectively.

Definitions

A lesson plan is actually a plan of action. – Lester B Stands

Lesson plan is the outline of the important points of a lesson arranged in the order in which they are to be presented to students by the teacher. – C.V.Good

A lesson reflects & clarifies the teacher about ‘why to teach’ (objectives), ‘what to teach’ (content), & ‘how to teach’ (methods & learning experiences), & ‘how to evaluate’ (evaluation procedure). All these are the essentials of teaching & learning.

Advantages of lesson planning

·         Lesson planning makes the work regular, well organized & systematic.

·         It enhances the self confidence & self reliance of the teacher.

·         It facilitates appropriate use of aids at appropriate places.

·         It saves time, energy & resources because of good planning.

·         Lesson planning establishes proper connection between different lessons of study, thus ensuring continuity in the teaching – learning.

·         The student’s interest can be retained by planning suitable activities & assignments, according to the mental level of the students.

·         Lesson planning helps & accelerates the achievement of desired objectives of teaching that lesson.

Criteria of a good lesson plan

·         A good lesson plan should have the following features:

·         Instructional objectives must be very clear.

·         Content must be covered as per the objectives.

·         Method of teaching should be properly written & used, as per the need of contents & level of pupils.

·         Learning experiences to be given & the instructional aids to be used must be clearly mentioned.

·         Procedure of formative, diagnostic & summative evaluation must be well planned in the lesson.

Steps involved in lesson planning

J.F.Herbart suggested six formal steps for the development of a lesson plan (Herbartian plan). They are:

·         Introduction / Motivation

·         Presentation

·         Comparison / Association

·         Generalization

·         Application

·         Recapitulation

Introduction / Motivation – Every child should be made ready to learn before the presentation of the content. In the first step the teacher primarily does the following function:

Draws learner’s attention & arouses their motivation, curiosity, interest & readiness to learn through discussion or demonstration.

Tests their previous knowledge & experiences & the ability to receive or imbibe the current content to be delivered soon.

Creates a fruitful teaching – learning environment in the class.

Presentation – The teacher presents new ideas & concepts to the student & explains them very well so that the students could learn them easily. Both the teacher & the students should participate actively in the lesson. The teacher should use the required teaching aids like model, charts, activities, film, supported by discussion & explanation to let the students comprehend the topic well. The teacher should use sound communication, questioning, explanation, reinforcement, stimuli variation skills & other skills of teaching. He should also develop black board summary alongside. The whole presentation should be made interactive, interesting, comprehensive & joyful.

Comparison / Association – Following are done at this step:

Students are given examples which they have to observe carefully & compare with other sets of examples & facts.

Students are made to relate the concepts discussed with their daily lives or with the contents they have learned in other subjects.

Teachers are also associate the contents with their daily life situations or correlate them with other topics or subjects.

A few definitions or generalizations are induced from the students.

Teachers use relevant examples explicitly to explain main ideas.

Generalization – The chief aim of any lesson is to get the students generalize the concepts. This involves reflective thinking on the part of the learners. The teacher puts new & alternate questions & examples to help students arrive at answers, conclusions, & generalizations on their own. The teacher with appropriate questions can draw out various scientific principles, conclusions & formulas. The students are made to find the solutions of related problems of their own. Thus the students get new knowledge to apply in new situation.

Application – The students are encouraged to apply the newly acquired concepts, rules, formulas, laws, etc. in their day to day life situations. The teacher also tests the validity of the generalizations arrived at by the students. When the pupils apply this acquired knowledge then it stays with them permanent.

Recapitulation – This is the final step in which the teacher summarizes the complete lesson & tests students understanding & comprehension power by putting some suitable direct & indirect questions to them. The students may be evaluated through written or oral test, objective or subjective test or by performance test depending on the learning experiences given.

RESOURCE UNIT

A resource unit is a collection of suggested teaching & learning activities organized upon a given unit. It is a resource for teaching. It is prepared by a group of teachers for the use of many. It is a reservoir of teaching content, objectives, learning experiences, experiments, outdoor activities, tools of evaluation, assignments & even references.

Steps in the preparation of a resource unit

1.      Title

2.      Introduction – briefly indicate the social, scientific & pedagogical significance of the unit.

3.      General objectives

4.      Content analysis – Content is analysed in depth & elaboration & presented in the form of a series of paragraphs.

5.      Activities – General & specific methods of teaching, as well as activities of various kinds meant for teachers & pupils are decided.

6.      Teaching materials & sources – Material for teachers use & pupils use are mentioned & listed.

7.      Evaluation procedures – The evaluation procedures suitable for the unit have to be described.

8.      Editing   

UNIT PLANNING

WHAT IS A UNIT?

“A unit is as large a block of related subject matter as can be overviewed by the learner” – Preston

A unit is comparatively a large block of subject matter having close relationship among itself & is arranged in a sequential way considering pupil’s need, interest & should be easy to comprehend.

Unit planning is a middle ground between course & lesson planning.

Characteristics of a good unit

·         The aim should be clear & well defined.

·         It should cater to the needs, capabilities & interest of the students.

·         A good unit should provide suitable activities for students.

·         A good unit should be flexible enough to provide for individual differences.

·         It should provide for project work, excursions, film viewing & the like.

·         A good unit plan should be correlated to the life of the students as well as to the other subjects.

·         Students should be provided with enough time to plan, organize, & work on their own.

·         Provision should be there for evaluation & follow up.

·         The length of the unit should be such as to retain the interest of the students till the end.

·         A unit should be part of a sequence that permits growth from year to year.

Steps in unit planning

A unit should always be viewed as an integrated whole. While planning a unit, the following factors should be kept in mind:

·         Content analysis (the what of the unit)

·         Objectives with specifications (the why of the unit)

·         Learning activities (the how of the unit)

·         Testing procedures (evidence of achievement)

Content analysis -  In unit planning, emphasis is placed on analyzing the content, terms, facts, concepts, processes, generalizations, principles, laws, etc. This analysis helps the teacher get a thorough indepth understanding of the subject. This step will increase his self confidence & help him to plan his lessons retaining the continuity through the unit.

Objectives with specifications – The teacher should identify the general & specific objectives of the unit , after going through the content.

Learning activities – The third step is largely a matter of deciding upon suitable experiences that may be provided for pupils.  The best topics for the units provide for a variety of field trips, experiments, demonstrations & projects. Keeping in mind individual differences, the psychology of learning, the content & objectives, suitable learning activities can be planned to which the students will be exposed during the course of the unit.

Testing procedures – The last step of unit planning involves the choice of suitable evaluation tools & techniques through which the teacher can evaluate the content coverage & the teaching method used.

Advantages of unit planning

·         It breaks up the entire work into smaller sections. Most pupils work better on a series of short tasks than on a few large ones.

·         Unit planning helps clarify the general & specific objectives of teaching.

·         It helps cater to the needs, nature & aptitude of the students.

·         It is economical in terms of time.

·         By planning several different kinds of activities, a unit plan helps develop skills in students in a systematic manner.

·         It develops self confidence among students for it evolves opportunities for meaningful experiences wherein they can organize & review their learning.

YEAR PLAN

Year planning is a long term planning of the instructional process. At the beginning of the academic year, all teachers make a plan for organizing the year’s work. In this plan the total course material is divided into units & units into daily lessons. Year plan in a subject should indicate the course purpose & objectives, course units, number of lessons, the time schedule for dealing with each unit, suggested methods of teaching, details of equipments & aids, their sources, etc.

Why year planning?

·         It indicates the total weightage to be given for various instructional objectives & content.

·         It points out the way of achieving these objectives & the methods & approaches to be adopted for each topic.

·         It gives suggestions to make teaching interesting, economic & effective.

·         It makes evaluation easier as teachers are clear about the weightage given to objective as well as content.

·         It makes evaluation objective based.

·         It makes professional co-operation & mutual exchange of ideas as the teachers of a school plan for the year jointly.

KERALA SCERT TEXT BOOK CLASS 1 - 12

Soft skills and teaching

Soft skills is a sociological term relating to a person's EQ, the cluster of personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness and optimism that characterize relationship with other people.

'Soft skills refers to the cluster of personality traits, social graces and facility with language, personal habits, friendliness and optimism that mark people to varying degrees. Soft skills complement hard skills, which are the technical requirement of a job.'

According to World Health Organization 'soft skills are nothing but psychological skills, which insists upon accepting the behavior of others along with their culture'. Fundamental soft skills put forth by WHO are , self awareness, self esteem, critical thinking skills, decision making skills, problem solving skills, interpersonal skills, communication skills, empathy, coping with emotions, handling peer pressure, and negotiation skills.

Soft skills are very important as they help:

Ø  to handle interpersonal relations

Ø  to take appropriate decisions

Ø  to communicate effectively

Ø  to have good impression and impact to gain professional development.

Significance of soft skills in teaching

Both technical and soft skills complement each other and the balance between these two is what makes a teacher a complete professional. Soft skills help a teacher by the following ways,

Ø  To communicate effectively

Ø  To become an organized teacher

Ø  To avoid teacher burnout

Ø  Help to develop strategies to become an effective teacher

Ø  Helps to motivate students

Ø  Helps to create incentive ideas and modern methods of teaching, listening skills

Ø  Know how to give good feedback for others work

Ø  Win peoples cooperation

Ø  Helps in goal setting

Ø  Helps to positively deal with criticism

Ø  Keep discussions from turning into arguments

Ø  Resolve conflict

Ø  Helps to know interpersonal skills and their empowerment

Ø  Helps in objection handling and problem solving

Essential soft skills required for a teacher

1.    Communicative skill

Ø  Ability to deliver idea clearly, effectively and with confidence  either orally or in writing.

Ø  Ability to practice active listening skill and respond.

Ø  Ability to discuss and arrive at conclusion.

Ø  Ability to communicate with individual from a different cultural back ground.

Ø  Ability to expand one's own communicative skill.

Ø  Ability to use non oral skills.

2.    Team work

Ø  Ability to build a good rapport, interact and work.

Ø  Ability to give contribution to the planning and deal effectively with others.

Ø  Ability to understand and play the role of oneself and follower alternatively.

Ø  Ability to recognize and respect others attitude, behavior and beliefs.

Ø  Ability to coordinate group work.

3.    Leadership skill

Ø  Ability to lead.

Ø  Knowledge of the basic theories of leadership and leadership qualities.

Ø  Ability to understand and take turns as a leader and follower alternatively.

Ø  Ability to supervise members of a group.

4.    Time management skill

Time management is the act or process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity.

The major themes on time management include the following:

Ø  Creating an environment conductive to effectiveness.

Ø  Setting of priorities.

Ø  Carrying out actively around those priorities.

Ø  The related process of reduction of time spent on non priorities.

Ø  Incentives to modify behavior to ensure compliance with time related deadlines.

5.    Event management skills

Event management is the process behind planning, executing and evaluating corporate, association, government social and educational events. Some of the key skills involved in event management are:

Ø  Attention to detail

Ø  Creativity (not just in designing the look and feel but also in how to get round the inevitable problems)

Ø  Planning and rehearsal

Ø  Budgeting

Ø  Multitasking

Ø  Team work

Teacher Competencies Required : listed by NCTE

1) Personal

• Physically fit and healthy.

• Active and Energetic.

• Emotionally stable.

• Aware of self.

• Socially warm & friendly.

• Intellectually – love for teaching.

• Have principles & values.

2) Professional

• Subject Specialist with grasp and depth & up to date knowledge about subject.

• Appropriate teaching skills.

• Ability to try out innovative methods of teaching.

3) Social

• Develop inter personal & interactive skills.

• Be open to Criticism.

• Achieve the goals of the institution.

• Working in collaboration & coordination.

• Be a leader.

• Developing rapport and creating congenial & friendly environment.