Professional Practice 4: Lesson Preparation

Background information

The students are separated into different classes based on their academic performance that is examined through placement assessment. The curriculum implemented in the first three classes is different from the lower ability classes. The curriculum that these classes implement is the LINUS program (English, Bahasa Melayu, and Mathematics). Therefore, the expectations set toward students that are placed under LINUS program are different from students from other classes. This also results in different learning objectives that are expected to be met in the lessons.

 

Description

The lesson objectives that the teachers use are provided by Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia. Every teacher in the school is given a teacher resource book that is called the "yearly scheme of work". They will receive different schemes of work for different subjects. The book serves as a guideline for the teachers to teach according to the syllabus as well as to be clear of the goals that have to be attained by students at the end of the year. The scheme of work contains learning objectives that students have to achieve under every chapter. From there, teachers will prepare and design their own lessons that can help to determine whether their students have achieved the lesson objectives. For Ms. Marina, she stated that she usually sets two objectives as her maximum amount of lesson objectives for a two period lesson. The reason behind this is that she believes that students are able to meet her expectations by limiting what is taught at one time. 

 

Teachers are not allowed to make major amendments to the learning objectives but it is okay for them to make a slight change to the objectives. In addition, if the students fail to comprehend what they are learning during the lesson which results in being unable to achieve the learning objectives, the teachers will have one week time to reteach the information in order to meet the expectations. This will be recorded in their Record Book that has to be submitted to the principal every Friday. They will jot down whether their students have met the learning objectives and the students' progress of attaining the intended learning outcomes.

 

 

Feelings and evaluation

It is nice to see the teachers make full use of the scheme of work as a guideline for them to plan their lesson. Also, monitoring or writing down the progress of students’ learning helps to inform the teachers how well students are progressing towards achieving the learning goals. However, I feel disheartened to know that teachers are restricted from making changes to the lesson objectives. This shows that teachers have limited control of how they want their lessons to be. I feel this way because I believe lesson objectives drive the whole lesson. It will be hard for a teacher to be creative and flexible in designing their lessons if the lesson objectives are fixed and rigid.

 

On the other hand, I can see how the teachers make the effort to ensure students are learning by assessing students' performance. It is a brilliant way to keep both teachers and students on track and also to reflect on the experience and assess the effectiveness at the end of every lesson. 

 

 

Analysis 

Ideally, learning objectives should be used to enable good assessment development and later to probe reflection. If the lesson objectives of the topic are not suitable for the students’ learning abilities, the lesson objectives will not help to measure students’ performance. That defeats the purpose of having lesson objectives. When that happens, teachers will not be able to reflect on the effectiveness. 

 

It is essential for a teacher to decide appropriate learning objectives based on students’ readiness and learning progression. This helps the students to have a clearer idea of what they will be learning and relate it to their prior knowledge. Bloom’s Taxonomy of six cognitive levels plays a vital role in deciding the lesson objectives for a lesson. The revised six cognitive levels begin with remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating. By using Bloom’s Taxonomy in the classroom, it helps teachers to assess students based on the learning outcomes that are meant to be achieved.  

 

Furthermore, it is vital for teachers to state learning objectives in a precise and concise form so that the appropriate level of behaviour will be achieved. Providing a clear understanding of expectations to students will result in students’ capability in achieving desirable learning objectives. Bloom’s Taxonomy effectively helps teachers to design assessment tools that can assess and measure whether the students meet the criteria stated in the learning objectives.

 

Conclusion

Lesson objectives are the foundational components in lesson plans. They serve as a purpose for teachers to make sure they are clear about the goal of a lesson before they start planning a fun and great lesson. Often times, teachers with no clear direction may get too distracted with "exciting" games or activities that may be fun but serve only to complicate the learning. This means that very little learning has happened despite the students enjoying themselves. Hence, I will always keep in mind and inform my future students about the lesson objectives to ensure they know what they are expected to achieve at the end of the day.

 

 

References

Anderson, L. W. and Krathwohl, D. R., et al. (2001) A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Allyn & Bacon. Boston, MA (Pearson Education Group)

 

Bloom, B.S. and Krathwohl, D. R. (1956) Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals, by a committee of college and university examiners.