MEDICAL EDUCATION
Year : 2022 | Volume
: 20 | Issue : 1 | Page : 48--51
Designing a comprehensive lesson plan: A crucial aspect in improving the teaching-learning process
Debkumar Pal, Manish Taywade, Gajjala Alekhya
Department of Community Medicine and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Manish Taywade
Department of Community Medicine and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Room Number: 322, 3rd Floor, Academic Building, Bhubaneswar - 751 019, Odisha
India
Abstract
Lesson plan is required for all medical educators as it would help in completing their teaching-learning activity within specific periods for completion of all learning goals. There are six steps and eight components in the formulation of a lesson plan. The lesson plan should include the instructional design or learning objectives. The learning activity should start with a proper set induction, i.e., induce the interest regarding the topic in the students. There should be a brief travel to the past lessons, and it should end with feedback from the students and one assessment for assessing the learning understandings of the students.
How to cite this article:
Pal D, Taywade M, Alekhya G. Designing a comprehensive lesson plan: A crucial aspect in improving the teaching-learning process.Curr Med Issues 2022;20:48-51
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How to cite this URL:
Pal D, Taywade M, Alekhya G. Designing a comprehensive lesson plan: A crucial aspect in improving the teaching-learning process. Curr Med Issues [serial online] 2022 [cited 2023 Jun 8 ];20:48-51
Available from: https://www.cmijournal.org/text.asp?2022/20/1/48/337311 |
Full Text
Introduction
A lesson plan can be considered as a written guide that is utilized to achieve learning outcomes. It is an integral part of the planned teaching and learning activity.[1] Lesson planning is an essential tool to direct and achieve the goal of teaching. Therefore, a medical teacher makes himself or herself more organized to attain the highest level of learning outcomes. As per “Oxford Languages,” a lesson plan means “a teacher's plan for teaching an individual lesson.”[2] Before the beginning of any activity, the plan should be kept in mind as it would help in the proper and smooth functioning of the activity. Similarly, for teaching purposes, before starting any class, the teacher should keep the plan of teaching ready in his/her mind or a physical medium (i.e., in the diary, electronic media), preferably in a physical medium.
Instructional design for a lesson plan is the key element to the acquisition of knowledge and skills more effectively and efficiently.[3],[4]
Why lesson plan is important?
A lesson plan helps both teachers and students in multiple ways.[4]
It will help the teachers in meeting the educational goals, especially when obvious educational objectives are not clearIt helps in providing a historical record of educational activity for validation of inclusion topics in question. A lesson plan can also help in formulating a new class on the same topicIt helps in communication among teachers of any topic so that in the absence of a predesignated teacher, any other teacher can take the class.
Requirements for formulating a lesson plan
For making a lesson plan following things should be kept in mind.[5],[6]
Students
It is essential to know the baseline knowledge of students, what they want to learn, and the extent of their actual interest in learning.
Strategies
For the teacher, there should be specific strategies predetermined for teaching his or her students.
Grouping
Teachers should know the group behavior of the students so the group behavior can be utilized properly for the facilitation of learning.
Timing
It should be predetermined what would be the limit in time within which the teaching would be finished. Furthermore, it will be important to choose the perfect timing within 24 h of the day for the teaching of the particular subject.
Materials
All the materials and methods that are going to be used should be prepared and rehearsed well before the teaching activity.
Success
The success of learning must be evaluated through an assessment-based approach from students so that it can help in the improvement of the teaching capability of the teacher.
Sequence
There should be a specific sequence of every event of any teaching activity so that there will be a smooth transition of knowledge with further improvement.
Rationale
Before starting making a lesson plan, it should be kept in mind that why is that topic or subject is important, and this importance should be told to students.
The main requirements of the lesson plan can be presented as a triangle [Figure 1].{Figure 1}
Components of the lesson plan
There are eight main components in the lesson plan.[7]
The predefined objective of learning activity fulfilling SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) criteriaOne anticipatory set or set induction for attracting the minds of students towards learning activityDirect instruction for delivery of the contentPredetermined strategies for students for practicing what they would learnProperly closure the class with one brief discussion about the topic in small groupsIndependent practice of students at home in the form of homework for practicing their learningProper materials and methods for content deliveryFormative or summative assessment for checking to if learning objectives are met or not.
How to Prepare a Lesson Plan?
For developing any effective lesson plan, the following six steps should be followed carefully[5],[8]
Set Induction: The set induction is an essential element of a lesson plan. The gaining of attention of students is one of the most important steps in the educational session. The attention of the students is needed to capture with a stimulus, and the best way is to present a real-life scenarioFormulating specific learning objectives: Specific learning objectives will help in deciding at the end of class what the student would be able to learn or perform. This should be in concordance with the competency to be acquired. The learning outcomes will help the students motivate them, essentially, if they are eager to complete the lesson. For that purpose, one teacher must know about the topic of the lesson, what the teacher wants to impart in the minds of the student during the class and what the teacher expects the student to take home in their mind from the class after understanding. These learning objectives should also be prioritized. It is the pillar of any lesson plan. The domains of learning can be divided into psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains.[9],[10]
For any topic, the special learning objectives can be made by
“Do” - The action verb“What” - The thing to be done“How” - The adverb for your action.
Example: For the topic of hypertension, the specific learning objective can be: Measure (do) blood pressure of patients (what) following guidelines (how). The specific learning objectives should follow SMART criteria, i.e., Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.[10]
Building an introduction: The introduction of the topic should be attractive to the students so that they can get interested in the topic. The introduction part should be interactive, so students feel that learning is not unidirectional. For introducing any subject, a teacher can incorporate any personal experience with it to make the topic more relevantPlan to check if the students understand or not: Assessment or Evaluation of students' understanding of a given topic is of utmost importance. This has to be planned to ensure that the learning outcomes are met after the lesson. The teacher should plan the questions in the form of multiple-choice questions, oral questions, and quizzes or activity demonstrations regarding the understanding of the topic. There are various platforms, Kahoot, Socrative, etc., that can be utilized for assessmentSummary: There should be a summary of the whole class at the end constituting the key points of the topic, which will emphasize depending on their importance. This take-home message should be brief and specific so that it can create an impact in the memory lane of studentsTimeline: There should be a one-time constraint framework for all activities or specific learning objectives during class as the attention span is not unlimited, which in most cases is approximately 15 min.[11] All the teaching activities should be divided equitably within the provided total period. The starting and closing of any teaching session are the important part.
Conceptual Framework of the Lesson Plan
[Table 1] is depicting one example of formulating a framework for lesson plan for topic of modern contraceptives[12],[13],[14],[15]{Table 1}
Conclusion
Student-centered learning and behavior are positively influenced by a lesson plan. The medical educator plays an immense role in enhancing the understanding of a particular topic.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
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