Lesson planning for teacher effectiveness

Abstract

Well planned lessons enable learners to learn better and to develop better attitudes towards their work. The paper emanates from formal observations of the University of Zimbabwe Graduate Diploma in Education (Grad. D. E.) student teachers on three months teaching practice attachment. Many student teachers were found to be clearly on the path to becoming effective teachers but a sizeable portion, about 20-25%, were thought to be experiencing problems. In their planning of lessons, a wide range and variety of problems were noted. These include lack of real appreciation of the need to plan lessons, lack of the understanding that in order to be effective teachers they had to deploy different pedagogic approaches to meet the learning needs of the subject, inability to address lesson objectives and to match the maturity and social milieu of the learners in their care. Thus it is hoped that this paper may stimulate more interest in educators and student teachers alike beyond these student teachers passing or failing the teaching practice component to preparing really effective practitioners.