Lesson Plans and the Contingency of Classroom Interactions

Abstract

In their examination of elementary science classrooms, Amerine and Bilmes (1988) found that following instructions requires students to understand the relationship between the projected outcome and the corresponding course of actions. One of the most important resources for instructions is the lesson plan, which prescribes the sequence of teaching. However, there is often a gap between what is planned and what actually happens in the classroom. This raises the question of how teachers come to terms with contingent variants and unexpected outcomes that realtime interactions occasion and how lesson plans are configured into these processes. This study examines a teacher education program that uses lesson plans as a central resource for teaching mathematics. The results suggest that classroom teachers use lesson plans as communicative resources to identify problems, specify assumptions about their teaching and act on the evolving contingency of classroom interaction. The interactional contingency is the locus of teaching practices, not an obstacle to the application of procedures in lesson plans.

Designing and adapting tasks in lesson planning: a critical process of Lesson Study

“…This paper did not look at the impact of lesson planning on teachers' mathematical and pedagogical knowledge (Lee andTakahashi 2011, Lewis 2009). And the paper did not look at how the lesson planning process exposes teachers' beliefs.…”

“…In a similar vein to the research carried out by Lee and Takahashi (2011), discourse-in-interaction analysis (Sacks et al, 1974) was used to examine "the methods and procedures by which participants carry out ordinary tasks of classroom teaching and collaboration among teachers" (Lee and Takahashi, 2011, p. 215). The analysis began with unmotivated looking (Sacks, 1992) during the observations of the planning meetings in order to identify key discussions that eventually led to consensus regarding the lesson plans.…”

“…According to Lee and Takahashi (2011) "Lesson plans are central resources for these teachers in that they constantly refer to, problematize and act on them during the entire cycle of the [Lesson Study] procedure" (p. 210).…”

“…Their empirical study, in the context of Lesson Study, provided analytic descriptions of the interactive processes through which lesson plans are realized, leading to the conclusion that "classroom teachers use lesson plans as communicative resources to identify problems, specify assumptions about their teaching, and act on the evolving contingency of classroom interaction" (p. 209). However, Lee and Takahashi (2011) did not describe details of planning the lesson, including how teachers adapted or designed the task for the lesson, or how many hours they spent on planning.…”

Lesson Planning in Primary School Using Lesson Study and Open Approach

“…Many researchers surveyed teachers' teaching planning techniques, it was clearly indicated that the lesson plans play a major role in teaching as well as constructing the efficient learning environment (Clark & Dunn, 1991;Reiser & Dick, 1996;Shauelson, 1983cited in Koszalka et al, 1999. The teachers' preparation in lesson plan is an important thing for determining teaching goal, considering the existing resources, and designs the activity appropriately (Lee &Yakahashi, 2011). Fernandez andYoshida (2004) stated that for lesson planning, basic problems of students found in daily life were used as stimulators for students to achieve goal.…”