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BEDU101
Planning: A Key to Success

MQF Level: 6

ECTS Value: 4 ECTS

Self Study Hours: 40

Contact Hours: 20

Assessment Hours: 40

 

Overall Objectives and Outcomes

Teacher competences are a complex combination of subject knowledge and understanding, pedagogical knowledge content, values and attitudes leading to effective teaching performance, covering a wide field to include the learner, the institution and the wider community of learning.

An important domain of teacher competence is the professional ability of the teacher to plan, implement, assess and evaluate effective learning.  This unit focuses on the teacher’s ability to set goals and reflect own planning practice.

Preparation is a crucial stage towards success in teaching.  Studies show that the performance of a teacher in class reflects highly on the amount of time and dedication that the planning stage was given.

Essential factors influencing the students’ learning process are motivation and engagement in their own learning.  These two latter components are the basic blocks upon which the planning process is structured. To this effect, the planning process must have as its prime objective, the ‘motivation’ and ‘engagement’. This principle complements one of the core values of the unit, being the ‘learning outcome approach’, which establishes what the learner will know and be able to.

Building on these objectives, this unit provides training in planning to organise the subject content and the corresponding skills and competences within the academic time frame.  This will take a holistic approach and includes a wide spectrum of areas beyond the traditional subject content.  Thus, the planning stage incorporates space for learning activities which focus on the development of higher-order thinking skills, technical skills, team work collaboration and self- / peer assessment.

The learner, learning styles and diverse learning abilities are crucial areas which need to be considered at the planning stage.  Keeping in mind not only the current level of teaching of the participants, but also future opportunities, this unit looks at a wide spectrum of learners’ age of development. 

Such a unit will also provide an experiential opportunity to participants to explore, select and develop resources, tools and materials to address the objectives and the planned learning outcomes.  It takes into consideration the facts that the learners are adults, their own experience is given prime resource importance.

Studies show that a variety of teaching approaches enhance the learning experience.  Learning how to plan to use a variety of teaching strategies within the stipulated time frames is of utmost importance.

Based on the three conceptual frameworks of assessment (being “of”, “for” and “as” learning), the aspect of assessment forms an integral part of the teaching strategy.  Planning lessons to ensure that knowledge, skills and competences are being covered is obviously essential. However, it is likewise crucial to ensure that the planning needs to include strategies to provide time and space to check whether learning is taking place. 

Another key role of this unit is to provide the participant with the opportunity of understanding own strengths and weaknesses at the stage of preparation and of exploring ways of using these as challenging opportunities for growth and development.

By the end of this programme, participants should be able to:

Competences

a. Develop quality planning practice as one of the key factors in the teaching-learning process.

b. Organise the curriculum systematically for class implementation.

c. Engage critically with literature.

d. Develop an inclusive student-centred teaching approach which promotes motivation and engagement of the students.

e. Develop a systematic approach towards integrating assessment within the teaching strategy.

f. Devise a systematic approach towards own professional and personal growth and development.

Knowledge 

a. The basic key concepts and principles to include:

  1. The basic concepts and principles of the communication process.
  2. The biology of learning.
  3. Learning and stages of development.
  4. Different methods of learning.
  5. Pedagogical content knowledge: teaching and assessment methods.
  6. Continuous formative assessment – Assessment for learning and assessment as learning.
  7. Summative assessment – assessment of learning.
  8. Self- and Peer Assessment.

b. The Teaching-Learning Framework:

  1. The academic year.
  2. The curriculum.

c. The structural components of a Scheme of Work and Lesson Plan.

d. A systematic approach to reflective practice for continuous quality improvement: using quality tools e.g. the PDCA cycle.

e. Taxonomy Models e.g. Bloom’s taxonomy.


Skills

a. Map the curriculum to a scheme of work.

b. Interpret aptly each component of a lesson plan.

c. Design learning activities reflecting learning theories.

d. Plan success criteria that scaffold learning.

e. Apply a learning-outcome approach for each lesson.

f. Identify and select appropriate resources aligned to the learning outcome of the lessons.

g. Use different teaching methods e.g. active participation, collaborative and inductive teaching methods.

h. Manage time allowing for flexibility to exploit teachable moments.

i. Plan learning activities to address training in self- and peer assessment.

j. Design lesson plans to include space for students’ feedback.

k. Use feedback from students, peers and tutors as part of own reflective practice for improvement.

l. Apply personal professional experience to appraise the significance of planning

Assessment Methods

This module will be assessed through: Practical Assignment Tasks.

Suggested Readings

Core Reading List
  1. Armstrong, T. (2017). Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom 4th. ASCD.
  2. Brunn, P. (2010). The Lesson Planning Handbook: Essential Strategies that inspire Student Thinking and Learning. London: Scholastic.
  3. Lucas, B., Spenser, E. and Claxton, G. (2012). How to teach vocational education: A theory of vocational pedagogy. City & Guilds, Centre for Skills and Development.
Supplementary Reading List
  1. Abbott, J. and Ryan, T. (2001). Unfinished Revolution: Learning Human Behaviour, Community and Political Paradox. ASCD.
  2. Blumenfeld-Katzir T, Pasternak O, Dagan M, Assaf Y. (2011). Diffusion MRI of Structural Brain Plasticity Induced by a Learning and Memory Task. PLoS ONE 6(6).
  3. Cunningham, G. (2017). The New Teacher’s Companion. ASCD.
  4. Faraday, S., Overton, C., Cooper, S. (2011). City & Guilds, Centre for Skills and Development – Effective Teaching and learning in vocational education. LSN.
  5. Felder, R.M. and Brent, R. (1996). Navigating The Bumpy Road to Student-Centred Instruction. College Teaching 44(2).
  6. Johansson, B.B. (2000). Brain Plasticity and Stroke Rehabilitation; The Willis Lecture. Stroke, 31. p. 223-230.
  7. Kolb, B. Gibb, R. and Robinson, T.E. (2003). Brain Plasticity and Behaviour, Current Directions in Psychological Science. Vol 12(1). ; Bryan Kolb, 1 Robbin Gibb, and Terry E. Robinson, 2003
  8. Prince, M. (2004). Does Active Learning Work? – A Review of the Research. Engr Education, 93(3) p. 223-231.; Michael Prince
  9. Schoenfeldt, M.K. and Salsbury, D.E. (2008). Lesson Planning: A Researched-Based Model for K-12 Classrooms. Pearson.
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