Lesson Designing and Evaluation

 

Lesson Designing and Evaluation

YEAR PLAN:

     Planning is the process of deciding in advance what is to be done in future. Planning for the whole year’s work as part of the pedagogic analysis is known as year plan. By such a planning, the subject matter and other tasks related to curriculum transaction of all the inputs available also could be ensured. It helps the teacher to formulate objectives that could be realized during the year as a whole. Proper scheduling of evaluation and co-curricular activities too can be done. As such it should be taken up as a serious exercise. The advantages of making a good year plan are more specifically listed below.

IMPORTANCE OF YEAR PLAN:

1. Year plan helps in the allocation of the total time available for each subject, and for each unit according to its importance.
2. It provides a basis for the preparation of unit plans.
3. With the help of the year plan, teacher can formulate objectives to be attained by teaching a particular subject in its totality during the course of the year.
4. It helps a teacher to divide the subject into units and specify time for each, which in turn provides a basis for timely and continuous evaluation.
5. Year plan helps in arranging the units according to the difficulty levels as well as logical considerations and thus make learning psychologically and logically sound.
6. With the help of a year plan, the teacher can systematize the distribution of curriculum material.
7. The teacher can bring variety in teaching strategies by mingling various types of topics that call for various types of learning experiences. This would reduce the monotony in learning.
8. Above all, a well thought out year plan can help in economizing time and effort of the teacher as well as that of the learner.

STEP SIN YEAR PLANNING:

1. Formation of Units: The first step in the preparation of a year plan is to re-organize the subject content of the curriculum into suitable units. This is to be done only if the subject matter is not systematically and judiciously distributed and presented. For example, the content of the Accounting Part-I for class XI can be organized into the following units:

Unit-1: Accounting-Meaning, objectives and basic accounting terms.

Unit-2: Theoretical base of accounting.

Unit-3: Origin and recording of transactions.

Unit-4: Trial Balance and errors.

Unit-5: Financial statements- Trading account, Profit and loss account and Balance sheet.

Unit-6: Computer awareness.

 

2. Determining objectives:  Secondly, the teacher has to intelligently anticipate the extent to which the various objectives can be achieved through different units. Some units give more scope for the development of skill than other objectives. This can be clearly visualized in the case of Accountancy. Almost all objectives are developed simultaneously in the teaching-learning process, but with different weightages. Therefore, the teacher has to indicate the weightage to be given to particular objective as a part of the pedagogic analysis.
3. Scheduling of the time available for instruction: The third step is to estimate the total number of periods that could be made available for the subject. While doing this exercise the teacher should consider the probability of missing periods due to various co-curricular activities and unexpected loss of days. Or those activities also should be integrated with the scheduling of the time for each unit and details about this planning also should be given in the year plan. The teacher cannot be able to increase or decrease the total number of periods available for his subject. But he can allot the periods to the different units at his discretion. After completion of each unit, the teacher should conduct a unit test. Hence, he should take into account the number of periods required for tests also.

SAMPLE OF YEAR PLAN:

Format:

Name of the Teacher:

Name of the School:

                      Subject:

Month and year.	Unit No.	Name of the Unit	Objectives	No. of Periods required	Teaching-learning materials	Activities	Remarks
June… July….

 

 

UNIT PLAN

Meaning of a Unit plan:

      A unit is a part of a topic, got by combining related learning materials to form a totality (or meaningful whole). The plan for the instruction of a unit is known as unit plan. It is a challenging task to be performed by a teacher as part of the pedagogic analysis. A well-developed unit plan will give the teacher a meaningful gestalt of the unit and would enable him to handle it in a systematic manner. He should select the units as per the year plan. All aspects such as objectives, content analysis, major learning experiences, instructional strategies and aids, evaluation procedures, etc. regarding the unit plan are to be thoroughly analyzed and systematically recorded in the unit plan.

       In order to precisely understand the scope of the unit at that particular stage or lass the unit has first to be analyzed into subjects or major learning points, the example as given below:

       Introduction-Need for service facilities-Classification of service facilities-Transport-Land transport, water transport, air transport. Banking-Commercial bank- kinds of banks. Insurance- Principles of Insurance-Types of insurance-Miscellaneous Services-Warehousing, packaging, advertising and sales promotion.

IMPORTANCE OF UNIT PLAN:

1. Unit plan in the form envisaged above assists a teacher in arranging the contents of the unit in a meaningful way.
2. Teacher can utilize, the time and periods available for each unit in an effective and balanced manner.
3. Unit plan helps a teacher in achieving the anticipated learning objectives effectively.
4. The methods, techniques and teaching aids to be used for the particular unit can be planned in advance.
5. Unit plan provides a basis for evaluating student performance.
6. Unit plan provides a basis for the preparation of lesson plans.
7. Unit plan economizes the time and energy of both the teacher and the learner.
8. Unit plan helps a teacher in arranging the topics according to the individual needs of the learner so that each learner gets an opportunity to make worthy contributions.
9. It helps a teacher in providing information regarding the books and learning materials that could be effectively used in instruction.

PRINCIPLES OF UNIT PLANNING:

      While planning a unit, certain pedagogical principles have to be maintained in order to make it meaningful and feasible. The most important among these are:

1.  Principle of comprehensiveness.
2. Principle of clarity.
3. Principle of systematic presentation.
4. Principle of economy in time.

 

STEPS IN UNIT PLANNING:

1. Selection and systematization of the Unit: The first step in the preparation of a unit plan is to select a unit from the subject. A unit should be viewed as a whole. If the matter in the text book is not adequately grouped and presented the teacher has to reorganize and regroup it before developing the unit plan. The teacher must take into consideration the availability of adequate time also.
2. Content Analysis: After selecting the unit, the teacher has to analyze its content carefully. It must be divided into sub units and this must be well connected and should maintain proper sequence. The major learning materials involved in each sub unit also has to be identified by analysis. This analysis helps the teacher to have a thorough knowledge of the subject matter.
3. Determination of Objectives: The third step is to determine the major as well as specific objectives that should be realized by teaching this unit. This aspect of the pedagogic analysis should be in tune with the nature of the learning material and the level of the learners.
4. Learning Experience: Deciding upon the major learning experiences is the next step. These should be objective based life centered and learner centered.
5. Selection of Teaching Learning materials: For making the learning experiences objective based and effective a variety of instructional aids may become necessary. As such, the next step is to decide carefully what these teaching learning materials should be.
6. Evaluation: Here, the types of evaluation tools and techniques proposed to be used for assessing the realization of the pre-determined goals are to be given. These should cater to the formative (diagnostic) and summative functions. A unit test has to be developed for the latter.
7. Assignment: The final step is to decide upon the assignments to be given to students so as to provide opportunity to work independently. The assignment should be varied and suitable to the needs and interest of the students.

Advantages of Unit plan:

1. It makes provision for realizing the instructional objectives.
2. It helps the teacher to have mastery over the content.
3. It initiates for novel learning.
4. It makes provision for content organization.
5. It makes provision to provide variety of learning experiences.
6. It provides a frame work for the preparation of lesson-plan.
7. It is psychologically sound approach for effective teaching-learning process.
8. It develops the qualities like self-confidence, persistence, security etc. in the students.

SAMPLE UNIT PLAN:

Format:

1. General Information:

a.       Name of the Teacher:  ________________

b.       School/Class: ___________________

c.       Name of the Unit: __________________

d.       Number of Units required: ____________

2. Previous knowledge: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Sources of information: __________________________________
4. General Objectives:

a.       Remembering: ____________

b.       Understanding: ____________

c.       Application: ___________

d.       Skill: _______________

5. Content analysis:

a)       Main concepts

b)      Sub-concepts/co-concepts.

c)       Principles, laws, terms/definitions.

d)      Skills

6. Motivation/Preparation:
7. Development:

Sl. No.	Main Concepts	Range of Subject matter	No. of periods required	Method/process followed	Teaching-learning materials	Date

8. Conventional practice and review-need to be explained.
9. Evaluation- Unit/Achievement test.

 

LESSON PLAN

Ø  It is said that lesson plan is the ready food of the class room teacher. Lester B. Stands calls the “lesson plan an action plan”.

Ø  The instructional lesson plan of every lesson is said to be the daily lesson plan.

Ø   N.L. Bosing opines that lesson plan is a proposal consisting of general and specific objectives well set together. In a defined period of time the students receive the objectives of the lesson under the guidance of the teacher.

Ø  Lesson plan is a plan of action of instruction of a part of specified lesson limited to that period.

      A lesson plan is a plan of action. It gives an outline of the lesson to be taught. It indicates all the objectives to be realized by teaching a lesson, the learning experiences to be provided and the evaluation procedure to be adopted. Lesson planning involves defining the objectives, selecting and arranging the subject matter and determining the method and procedure. As such, this planning becomes one of the most important exercises under pedagogic analysis.

NEED FOR LESSON PLANNING:

The specific needs for planning a lesson are listed below:

1. To give a definite direction to the teacher for each day’s work.
2. To make the teacher thorough with the content and to enable him develop confidence.
3. To plan for maintaining links between different lessons for teaching a particular unit and between the various learning materials in the same lesson.
4. To specify well defined goals to be realized in the course of the lesson.
5. To prevent waste of time due to lack of pre-planning.
6. To decide upon appropriate learning activities and use of instructional materials.
7. To decide upon procedures for gathering feedback and for providing reinforcement.
8. To anticipate probable difficulties and to plan remedial measures.
9. To plan evaluation procedures both formative and summative.

PRINCIPLES OF LESSON PLANNING:

1. A lesson plan should be related to the previous lessons.
2. The materials of instruction or subject matter should be well selected, well analyzed. In to various kinds (concepts, principles etc.) and systematically organized.
3. Objectives, both general and specific should be clearly stated.
4. The plan should indicate the learning experience to be provided.
5. Instructional aids and mediators have to be specified and linked with the learning experiences.
6. It should indicate teaching techniques to be used by the teacher.
7. A good lesson plan should propose proper evaluation strategies to be used at each stage and at the end of the lesson.  
8. Assignments and other activities for enriching the lesson should be clearly indicated.
9. It should budget the time devoted to different phases of the lesson.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LESSSON PLAN AND UNIT PLAN

 

LESSON PLAN	UNIT PLAN
It is a plan for one period.	It is a plan for more than one period.
In lesson plan every teaching point, objectives etc. are analyzed in to specificity.	2. It shows the teaching points, objectives, learning experiences etc. in broader view.
In lesson plan the content is analysed task wise and written in terms of teaching points.	3.In unit plan the content is grouped under          subunits.
Learning experiences are written specifically.	4.Learning experiences are written broadly.
This is for a sub-unit.	5.This is for whole unit.
Evaluation procedures are used.	6.Evaluation tools are just mentioned.
Formative evaluation is used.	7.Summative evaluation is uded.

 

BEHAVIOURIST APPROACHES IN LESSON PLANNING

         The various behaviourist approaches of lesson planning based on behaviourist theories. The important among them are as follows,

1. Herbartian Approach.
2. Gloverian Approach.
3. Evaluation Approach.
4. Unit Approach.
5. RCEM Approach.

HERBARTIAN APPROACH:

     The great German philosopher and educationist Sir. John Fredrick Herbart (1776-1841) and his followers developed this approach which consists of the following four steps.

1. Clearness (Preparation)
2. Association (Presentation)
3. System (Abstract)
4. Method (Application)

These steps were further modified by his discipline as:

1. Preparation
2. Presentation
3. Association and Comparison
4. Generalisation
5. Application
6. Recapitulation

1.Preparation: This step is concerned with preparation of the mind of learners for receiving a new knowledge. Here the teacher has to check the related knowledge which the learner has already acquired. At this stage, the teacher should plan for the presentation of the content.

2. Presentation: It is the stage at which the learning materials and learning experiences are gradually presented in the sequential order. The new ideas or knowledge of content is imparted in such a way that it may be linked with the already familiar knowledge of the students. Here the teacher should follow a definite structure of learning activities and impart specific content.

3. Association and Comparison: This stage is meant for providing opportunity for comparing related ideas and for establishing linkages or associations. This would help in gaining holistic knowledge in the place of various learning points presented as pieces of information.

4. Generalisation: If the third stage is executed effectively, the pupils develop the ability to establish new relations by comparison and reflection, and thus to deduce generalization. This makes the knowledge thorough.

5. Application: Here the teacher creates situations or problems so that student can apply the generalized ideas and concepts in new situations. This would facilitate transfer of knowledge to many related, but novel situations. This would also facilitate acquisition of new knowledge and skills.

6. Recapitulation: This is the last step. The understanding comprehension of the subject matter as well as the ability to apply these taught by the teacher can be reviewed by putting some suitable questions on topic. This recapitulation helps consolidation of the knowledge acquired and also remediation in case of gaps, if any, noted.

EVALUATION APPROACH

     This approach was developed by Benjamin S. Bloom. It was an innovation in the field of education and it has revolutionized the teaching, learning and testing processes. It considers education as a tripolar process including the following three tasks.

1. Formulating educational objectives.          
2. Creating learning experiences.                                                          
   
3. 
   Evaluating the change in behaviour.                                                              

1. Formulation of educational objectives: The educational objectives are concerned with cognitive, affective and psychomotor changes in behaviour. As per this approach, the first step is the formulation of objectives.
2. Creating learning experiences: At this second stage, the teacher should provide adequate learning activities resulting in experiences which would help to achieve the pre-determined objectives. The learning experiences may be provided in the classroom and outside the school through a variety of activities.
3. Evaluating the change in behaviour: The learning experiences are expected to bring desirable changes in behaviour of the students. At this stage, change of behaviour is evaluated to make judgements about the effectiveness of learning on the basis of realization of objectives.

FORMAT

Lesson plan (Evaluation approach)

1. General information:

      Name of the teacher: _____________________________

      Class: ________________________

      Subject: __________________________ Unit: ______________________________

      Date: ________________________ Period: _________________________

      School: ___________________________________

2. Source consulted: ___________________________________________

3. Development:

Teaching points	Instructional Objectives	Teacher’s Activity	Student’s Activity	Learning Aids	Evaluation

Note: The lesson plan may run into 3-5 pages. Do not take the proforma to be a closed and open page plan. The proforma is only a suggested model for organized writing.

Merits of Evaluation Approach to lesson planning:

1. This approach is providing for specification of instructional or learning objectives in behavioural form.   

    So, it is easy to achieve the objectives.

2. This approach is suitable to achieve not only cognitive objectives but also affective and 

     conitive/psychomotor objectives.

3.There is Horizontal link between instructional objectives, teacher, student activities and evaluation so 

    it makes teaching more meaningful and systematic.

4.It is student-centered approach. The whole planning is done to bring about desirable changes in the 

    behaviour of the students.

5.Here provision is made for continuous evaluation. The learning outcome is assessed immediately as

   and when it occurs.

6.Like Harbartian approach the learning process is not compartmentalized. Here learning is made

    continuous process.

Limitations of Evaluation Approach

1.All the human behaviour has all the three components i.e., cognitive, conitive and affective domain.

   The behavioural outcomes cannot be specified only in one domain as it is done in this approach.

2.Here the specific instructional objectives are achieved one by one. There is no provision for integration

   of all the learning outcomes into one integrated experience.

3.There is no provision to evaluate integrated learning outcome at the end of the lesson.

 

Guidelines to Student Teachers:

     Herbartian approach and evaluation approach to lesson planning have their own merits and demerits. Similarly, there are many approaches to lesson planning. No approach is perfect or ideal. Therefore, the question before the teacher is that which approach is to be followed for lesson planning. The sincere suggestion is that you pick the good points from each approach and apply them, which suits your classroom environment. We need happy blending of all these approaches.

     We should follow an approach which makes our students active participates in the teaching learning process and makes learning meaningful and effective.