Lesson Plan Essentials from Kimberly Byng

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My name is Kimberly Byng. I have been teaching in Trinidad and Tobago (Port of Spain area) at the secondary level for approximately fourteen years. I teach English, Literature and literacy. I really enjoy teaching and teaching how to learn as well as learning myself. I am currently pursuing the Masters in Education, with concentration in curriculum at the University of the West Indies.

1. Describe your teaching style.

My teaching style is ever evolving – I try to be reflective (during and after a lesson), student- centered and accommodating. So if a student asks a question that demonstrates misunderstanding, I immediately question and assess what I may have said or done for the student to miss the learning I intended.

I then re-explain, give a different example/ analogy. If this does not happen during the class, it may happen sometime afterwards, including just before bedtime and I make a mental note to address it at the next class.

I tend to focus on student activities rather than teacher objectives and notes (I really embrace progressivism). Lastly, accommodating because a lesson normally develops with the mood of the class. I try to be accommodating of students’ pace, abilities, learning styles, etc.

2. Are there any methods that you use when making your lesson plans? If so, which ones?

Yes, although I favour progressive philosophy, formulating my lesson around objectives tends to keep me organized and focused. I ask myself what exactly I want my students to learn, to do, to achieve and how I am going to get them there. The lesson surrounds these focal points.

Although there are set objectives, I allow students to digress, question, talk and always find a way to bring us all back to the planned lesson. (Well… most times at least). In developing lesson plans, I always pay attention to my context – it makes absolutely no sense developing a lesson plan that looks and sounds great to use with a class that cannot relate to it. I try to adjust the lessons to students’ contexts.

 

3. How do you go about preparing your lesson plans, what do you include?

I start my lesson plans with a topic and a rationale for that topic. For example, I want to teach how to comprehend a text, using the KWL (Know, Want, Learn) strategy. Ummmmm…. why? What is the rationale for that? Well, students are often led to read a text in order to complete set questions in comprehension exercises but are hardly ever shown how to use pre-knowledge and devise a set purpose for reading. Teaching them to use a strategy to engage in meta cognition assists in actually comprehending and enjoying what they read.

The KWL strategy is a useful tool that students can use to aid in comprehending a text by activating pre-knowledge and identifying a purpose for reading. I also include in my lesson plans, objectives, what students should already know, materials/ resources, procedure, student activities, evaluation activities, closure and a contingency plan.

 

4. What are the essentials in a lesson plan according to you?

A crucial essential in a lesson plan is an outline of objectives and student activities. Your objectives put the lesson into perspective. This is the “what.” What do I want to achieve? Then there is the “how.” This is achieved through student activities. Perhaps, this is most essential for me. Students must be involved in their learning.

I think education has gone past chalk/ white-board and student notes. Having done extensive research and practice in Self- Regulated learning among students, I think that getting students involved in class activities helps them to become self- regulated learners. They understand more, remember more and enjoy learning more.

Of course students’ activities are aligned to your objectives, but how do you know if your objectives have been achieved? I usually do some form of assessment. It could be an oral question/ answer game, a group presentation, a worksheet or even a journal entry exercise. As such, evaluation is another essential that I use but I’m very careful here since many teachers and students see evaluation as a test when it does not have to be.

5. What do you do if a lesson doesn’t go according to the way you planned it?

Because I’m always reflecting during classes, if a lesson does not go according to plan, I immediately switch to the contingency. Although a contingency may be documented on the lesson plan, often, I take the flow of the class and the mishaps to determine what contingency is actually necessary.

As teachers, we never know what could go wrong and sometimes just cannot plan for it. I think that’s where experience and foresight comes in. That is why reflecting is so crucial to the planning and teaching process.

Other than that you would just freeze and complain about how “bad the kids of today are.” Instead of this method, it may be more prudent to ask as an educator, “What have I done to make this lesson fail like it has? What can I do to remedy it?”

Motivating Teachers to be Motivating Teachers

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by Mary Burns, Education Development Center

Motivation will almost always beat mere talent.
Norman Ralph Augustine

 

Why should we care about teacher motivation?
Talking with policymakers about the importance of motivating and motivated teachers can sometimes be met with blank stares. In many instances, thinking about teacher motivation may seem a luxury that education systems can ill afford; and many education leaders have adopted a default mindset that teachers are—almost by nature—unmotivated. This article discusses teacher motivation—what it encompasses, why teacher motivation matters, and what educational systems can begin to do to address teacher motivation.

“Teacher motivation” is a catalogue of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that encourage teachers to engage in certain practices and behaviors. To list a few, motivation includes a teacher’s job satisfaction; agency and well-being; sense of professionalism; degree of self-efficacy; feelings of worth and being valued; willingness and ability to complete all professional requirements; and receptiveness to reforms and innovations. Teacher motivation is often a function of expectancy (perceptions that their efforts will lead to student learning), instrumentality (the perception that they will be rewarded for their efforts) and valence (the desire of attaining those rewards) (Vroom, 1964, cited in Kelley & Finnigan, 2003).

Teacher motivation matters for several reasons.

Policy implications
Teacher motivation is critical from a policy perspective. Motivated teachers have lower rates of absenteeism and attrition (i.e., leaving the profession) than unmotivated (or demotivated) teachers. Absenteeism, and particularly attrition, result in teacher shortages and loss of instructional time, both of which stress the entire education system. Fewer teachers teaching mean larger classes which can exacerbate resource issues, adversely impact educational quality, and negatively influence student learning outcomes (especially in critical subject areas such as STEM). Teacher shortages, especially in rural areas and poor communities, exacerbate regional inequities, and many times, tensions. Additionally, teacher attrition places enormous financial burdens on educational systems — for example, in the U.S., $2.2 billion annually (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2015).

Program implications
Teacher motivation is also important for the advancement and implementation of educational reforms. Motivated teachers are more likely to embrace and enact specific educational reforms and support educational reform and progressive legislation in general (Jesus & Conboy, 2001).
From an implementation perspective, intrinsically motivated teachers undertake and complete professional tasks—such as transferring what they have learned in professional development to their classrooms. They do this, not simply to be compliant, but rather because they perceive the inherent value of such reforms or innovations (Jesus & Lens, 2005).

In addition to implementing reform and new practices from formal professional development opportunities, teacher motivation is also related to general teacher improvement. Broadly speaking, motivated individuals are more likely to focus on new ideas, devote more time to learning a task, and be more likely to remember and retain new information, and generally want to keep improving their craft. Motivation has an emotional component, so teachers who want to improve some aspect of their craft will be engaged by and enjoy the effort; believe such efforts will yield some kind of improvement to what they do; and feel greater satisfaction when they succeed. Again, these motivational aspects—expectancy, instrumentality and valence—may in fact help teachers consolidate new information (Speelman & Kirsner, 2005, cited in Abadzi, 2015).

Effects on Students
Motivation is also linked to practice. Teacher motivation is seen as a good predictor of teaching quality (Chalmers, 2007) and caring for students (Noddings, 2001). Both of these components—quality (and the bundle of behaviors that form part of quality) and care are the core of effective teaching (Ferguson et al., 2015). Indeed, research on teacher effectiveness suggests numerous linkages between teacher motivation, teacher effectiveness and student motivation. Motivated teachers are more likely to motivate their students to learn and help them learn more effectively. In essence, motivated teachers motivate their students.

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Unfortunately, studies show that teachers suffer more than other professional groups from the occupational lack of motivation (Jesus & Conboy, 2001). Further, teaching, in many parts of the globe, has become an increasingly insecure profession. This is the result of budget cuts; weak national economies that cut public servants’ pay; poor remuneration; its lack of attractiveness as a professional destination vis-à-vis other occupations; and in many cases, the blame that governments and societies cast on teachers for the failures of the entire education system.

A lack of teachers, in particular, a lack of motivated teachers imperils both the education system and (since education and economic growth are so tightly linked) a country’s economic well-being. Therefore, how can policymakers begin to promote policies and initiatives that promote teacher motivation?

Factors that Impact Teacher Motivation
It’s important to first identify some of the factors that drive teacher motivation. While the list below does not encompass every aspect associated with motivation, it does suggest that the factors affecting teacher motivation are complex, discrete and interrelated:

• Social recognition/occupational status: In countries where the occupational status and social recognition of teaching are high (Singapore, Japan, China, and Finland), Ministries of Education are able to attract the best candidates to the teaching profession and retain them. They are also able to ensure, through extensive preparation or rigorous examinations, the “fitness” of these candidates to be teachers. Rigorous recruitment, high expectations for teachers, making the threshold for entry into the profession more exacting, mutual accountability (on the part of teachers and the institutions that prepare them) together confer a higher degree of respect, value, and professionalism—all of which are associated with teaching as a high occupational status.
• Pay and benefits: Teacher pay often arouses opposition from governments or the public at large, especially in low-performing educational systems. The evidence may be mixed on the degree to which increased pay (in the form of monetary incentives) and benefits contribute to motivation. However, low remuneration deters many potentially effective candidates from joining the profession and leads others to leave or hold extra jobs which in turn often leads to absenteeism and denigrated performance. Research is fairly consistent that salary and an appropriate system of incentives can both motivate and retain good teachers (Vaillant, 2006).
• Working conditions: Supportive, stable, safe, stimulating working environments, decent labor conditions, perceptions of being treated fairly, access to teaching materials and resources and an environment where teacher voice is heard, valued, and respected all contribute to teacher motivation and job satisfaction (NCTAF, 2016).
• Preparation and support: Quality preparation, professional development, mentoring, opportunities to learn with peers, supervisory feedback, and helping teachers along a trajectory of lifelong learning are tightly connected to classroom practice and to student learning (Vaillant, 2006). The quality of these professional learning experiences and their empirical impact on both teacher practice and student achievement is tightly linked to increased self-efficacy (the belief that he/she can teach well), teacher engagement and motivation (Timperley, 2008).
• Participation in reforms: Integrating teacher voice in formulating policies and programs that impact them as individuals, their working condition, their schools and their students (NCTAF, 2016) is also associated with teacher agency and teacher motivation. If the goals of a particular innovation or reform are clearly defined, moderately challenging, and accepted by teachers, they are more likely to embrace and enact them (Heneman & Milanowski, 1999).

Motivating Teachers to Motivate Students                Motivated teachers instantiate many of the qualities that are associated with motivation and that are highly correlated with improved student learning outcomes. In brevi, motivated teachers motivate their students to learn and transcend the limits of their own expectations. As suggested by the previous section on factors that influence teacher motivation, there is much to do in the policy realm to create a critical mass of motivated teachers, especially in high-need, at-risk, more vulnerable communities and student populations.

Policy makers can and should collaborate with teachers and involve them in policy making decisions, versus ignoring them or involving them at the margins. Together, policy makers and teachers can move in new directions to promote higher qualifications, standards and accountability among all education officials, including teachers. But such policies must be accompanied by equally serious efforts to improve the status, professionalism and pay of the teaching profession.

Policymaking is often a reflection of larger public and societal values. In many parts of the globe, we need a societal “reset” on the value and importance of teaching and of being a teacher. Both in the public space and in government offices, teaching must be re-imagined for what it is and should be—a highly complex craft involving cross-cutting knowledge and skills in education, learning theory, psychology, sociology, clinical social work, pedagogy, content, technology, assessment theory, child and adolescent development, and communication theory—versus how it is currently regarded—as a semi-professional occupation in which anyone with a moderate level of education, low aspirations and a compromised work ethic engages. And we must do this quickly and seriously.

Teacher Motivation Working Group                                For more information, resources and tools about teacher motivation, please visit (and join) the Teacher Motivation Working Group website. This working group assembles research on the dynamics of teacher motivation around the world; identifies gaps in the research and guides an inter-organizational research agenda; and serves as a clearinghouse for lessons on teacher motivation and recommendations for improving and sustaining teacher motivation as part of the effort to improve student learning outcomes.

References
  • Abadzi, H. (2015). Training the 21st-century worker: Policy advice from the dark network of implicit memory. Retrieved from http://www.ibe.unesco.org/sites/default/files/resources/wp-16-training_21st_century_worker_eng.pdf
  • Alliance for Excellent in Education. (2014). On the path to educational equity: Improving the effectiveness of beginning teachers. Retrieved from http://all4ed.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/PathToEquity.pdf
  • Burns, M. & Guajardo. J. (2014, February). Teacher motivation in low–income contexts. Global Partnership for Education, Education for All Blog. Retrieved from http://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/teacher-motivation-low-income-contexts
  • Chalmers, D. (2007). A review of Australian and international quality systems and indicators of learning and teaching. Sydney, Australia: Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher
    Education Ltd.
  • Ferguson, R., Phillips, F., Rowley, J.S.F. & Friedlander, J.W. (2015, October). The Influence of teaching beyond standardized test scores: Engagement, mindsets, and agency. Retrieved from http://www.agi.harvard.edu/projects/TeachingandAgency.pdf
  • Heneman, H. G., & Milanowski, A. (1999). Teacher attitudes about teacher bonuses under school-
    based performance award programs. Journal for Personnel Evaluation in Education, 12(4), 327-
    342
  • Kelley, C.J. & Finnigan, K. (2003). The effects of organizational context on teacher expectancy. Educational Administration Quarterly, 39: 603. DOI: 10.1177/0013161X03257299
  • Jesus, S. N., & Lens, W. (2005). An integrated model for the study of teacher motivation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 54(1), 119-134.
  • Jesus, S. N. & Conboy, J. (2001). A stress management course to prevent teacher distress. The International Journal of Educational Management, 15(3), 131-137.
  • National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. (2016). What matters now: A new compact for teaching and learning. Washington, DC: Author
  • Noddings, N. (2001). The caring teacher. In V. Richardson (ed). Handbook of Research on Teaching (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association, 99–105.
  • Timperley, H. (2008). Teacher professional learning and development. Educational Practices Series, 18. Geneva, Switzerland: International Academy of Education and International Bureau of Education.
  • Vaillant, D. (2006). Documentos de Trabajo de la OIE sobre el Currículo No 2, julio de 2006. SOS Profesión Docente: Al Rescate del Currículum Escolar. Retrieved from http://www.ibe.unesco.org/resourcebank/working_papers.htm

mary_burnsMary Burns (mburns@edc.org) is a senior learning technologist at Education Development Center. She works on issues around teacher quality and teacher professional development across the globe—contributing to policy and research, designing teacher professional development and support programs, and teaching and coaching primary, secondary and university instructors. Mary speaks Spanish, French and Portuguese and has published widely on teacher professional development and instruction.

Teaching for 21st-Century Skills

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by Daniel Pier

For some teachers, the phrase “21st-century skills” conjures images of students learning to use the latest technology. However, a broad consensus recognizes that technology literacy is just one of an array of skills not emphasized in traditional educational settings that are becoming increasingly important for students’ eventual success in work and life.

ITEN Coordinator, Mr. Daniel Pier at the “Teaching and Learning in the Education 2030 Agenda: Policy Dialogue” meeting in Santiago de Chile, Chile

ITEN Coordinator, Mr. Daniel Pier at the
“Teaching and Learning in the Education 2030 Agenda: Policy Dialogue” meeting
in Santiago de Chile, Chile

ITEN was privileged to attend “Teaching and Learning in the E2030 Agenda: Policy Dialogue,” a three-day meeting in Santiago de Chile, Chile, organized by UNESCO, where ministry of education leaders and other experts from around Latin America and the Caribbean explored the theme of teaching, learning, and measuring 21st-Century skills.

As noted at the conference, 21st-century skills include, among others, creativity, critical thinking, information literacy, local and global citizenship, and collaboration. Presenters acknowledged that the need to add these skills to traditional domains of knowledge such as reading, writing, and arithmetic places greater demands on teachers, and that recruiting, preparing and assessing teachers must reflect this new reality.

For the recruitment and retention of teachers, experts shared several recently designed career ladders, including that of Chile, which includes four required and two optional assessments that demonstrate advancement to higher levels of expertise with associated increases in salary. Regarding teacher preparation, experts asserted that both pre-service and in-service teacher education must be more closely tied to the school experience and must facilitate learning among peers. Assessments highlighted included Bogotá, Colombia’s, SER exams, which measure students’ citizenship, arts, and physical skills, as well as Uruguay’s student assessment system, which is performed entirely online, offering teachers immediate feedback on how their students are performing.

While conference participants clearly recognized that the region needs to make great strides to incorporate the effective teaching of 21st-century skills into its education systems, the experiences shared demonstrate that much can be learned from policies, programs, and practices already in place.

How are you, your school, or your district incorporating 21st-century skills? Please let us know in the ITEN virtual community.

daniel_pierDan Pier is a teacher professional development specialist and curriculum developer with twenty years of experience in education, communications, and project management. He coordinates the Inter-American Teacher Education Network (ITEN).

Stimulating Social Entrepreneurship in the Classroom

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by María José de León |  Edited by Daniel Pier

Teachers work hard to help students learn mathematics, sciences and literacy, important skills all, but to prepare students to participate in a 21st century economy, is this enough? Ariel Fiszbein, Director of the Education Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, recently asked high-level representatives of OAS Member States: How can we prepare our youth and upcoming generations to participate in a more active society? How can we create schools that generate the technical abilities that are necessary to succeed at work and in business? He noted that in the Americas, unfortunately, there is a high mismatch between the skills demanded and the available supply.

In a recent study, employers in the region named as most lacking not academic skills but social and emotional skills (Maria Soledad Bos, Education Economist, Inter-American Development Bank). The ability to work in groups, adaptability to change, emotional intelligence, creativity and innovation are also not being stimulated enough by our school systems. Our region has over 20 million NINIS (15-24 year olds who neither work nor study), and promoting an entrepreneurial spirit in our young students could aid in decreasing this number. As noted by Ambassador Dr. Neil Parsan, Executive Secretary for Integral Development of the OAS, “Stimulating social entrepreneurship and innovative thinking in the classroom can be an instrument to tackling youth unemployment and fostering sustainable development in the region.”

The OAS 10 General Principles of Competitiveness in the Americas embrace providing a high-quality and pertinent education, and promoting innovation and entrepreneurship to enhance the competitiveness of Member States. Social innovation is happening and will continue in fields such as education, healthcare, sanitation, and energy, which are all crucial to reaching the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. To address the importance of an entrepreneurial mindset in building competitive and sustainable economies in the region from an educational perspective, ITEN hosted this month its first Webinar on Social Entrepreneurship in the Classroom, introducing teachers to this topic.

Watch the ITEN Webinar “Social Entrepreneurship in the Classroom” by the Amani Institute here.

 

MariaMaría José has a background in Economics and Business Administration with a Master’s in International Relations. The past 11 years, her academic and professional experience has taken place in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Germany and China. She has been working in Education and Human Development at the Organization of American States since 2012, and specifically in areas of international education, educational partnerships, and social entrepreneurship in the classroom.

 

Autism Spectrum Disorder

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by Naseem Smith

The following post briefly discusses the condition known as Autism Spectrum Disorder which continues to mystify educators and intrigue researchers. Although we can categorize these students for educational purposes and medical benefits, I welcome the discourse on international access to preschool screening as such prognosis can heighten the commencement of early intervention which in turn will improve the child’s overall outcome.

Autism falls under the category of Developmental and Behavioral Disorders.

Diagnosis

The DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition) uses the term ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder’ (ASD) as an umbrella diagnosis to describe children who meet certain criteria. Autism is classified as a neurological disorder that can be recognized by:

  • Impairments in Communication: Delayed speech; Echolalia; Monotone type; Inability to initiate/ sustain conversation.
  • Impairments in Establishing Social Relationships: Difficulty with direct eye contact (and often avoids it); Failure to empathize; Trouble establishing relationship with same aged peers; Unable to read body language and respond to non-verbal cues.
  • Restricted, Repetitive and Stereotypical Behavior : Covers ears to loud noises; Repetitive motor movements; Restricted food preference; Hyper/hypo sensitivity to any of the senses; Annoyed with deviation from routine.

In order to be diagnosed with ASD, the condition must meet the following criteria: 1). Be Present in Early Childhood, 2). Limit daily functioning, 3).Cannot be explained by intellectual impairment.

The prevalence has increased significantly and it is estimated that 1 in 68 children are diagnosed with more boys than girls being affected: 1 in 42 boys while 1 in 189 girls. The prevalence rates in China are similar to that of the United States. See https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/prevalence

Etiology

There is no single known cause of ASD. Because of its complexity and uniqueness, different factors are linked to the multiple types of ASD: Neurological factors; Genetics; Environmental interaction; Roles of other system including health factors. Detailed information is available at:

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Autistic-spectrum-disorder/Pages/Causes.aspx

Educational Intervention

One educational intervention technique known as the TEACCH method which was developed by the University of North Carolina is a structured teaching technique based on the learning characteristics of individuals with ASD which describes the conditions under which these individuals should be taught. It utilizes:

Physical Structure: This describes how the physical environment is set up. The physical environment consists of the location, design or layout (classroom or home).

Teaching Component: This aspect tells what is expected of the student during an activity; how much work should be done; when the task ends and shows cues for what happens next.

Visual schedule: This tells what activities will occur and in what sequence using photographs, drawings, or words. Visual scheduling can be arranged from “top-to-bottom” or “left-to-right” format. In addition to the general classroom scheduling, individualized schedules are often necessary for individuals with ASD.

Various instructional interventions can be incorporated into structured teaching programs. These include sensory integration, Picture Exchange Communication System- PECS, and Greenspan’s Floortime.

Other intervention strategies can be found at:

http://www.specialed.us/autism/index2.htm

Research aimed at improving the quality of life for persons with ASD is funded by an advocacy organization called Autism Speaks. Updated research can be viewed at www.autismspeaks.org

Watch the ITEN Webinar “Dyslexia: Discovering and Tapping into the Potential” by Naseem Smith here.

ATT_1442115934365_20150218_080047-1Naseem Smith is a teacher with over 20 years experience in the field of special educational needs. She has taught students with exceptionalities and currently heads a public school for students with special educational needs on the island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Naseem is currently pursuing her PhD with the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill campus.

Welcome to the ITEN Blog!

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Adriana Vilela Education Specialist and ITEN Coordinator

Adriana Vilela Education Specialist and Former ITEN Coordinator

The importance of the role of teachers as mediators of the teaching-learning process is undeniable.

However, we should ask ourselves: What the role of teachers in today’s classrooms should be ? In a society changing at a vertiginous pace, in which its citizens need more capacity to adapt to change, and more resilience than ever, the role of the teacher as a leader and guide is essential. Creative teachers, who can awaken  the curiosity of learning in students, who challenge them to blossom to their full potential, who teach them to be responsible for their own growth, to cooperate, to dissent in respect, to seek solutions to real problems, to participate positively in school life and in their communities.

Quality Teachers, Quality Education. This is the principle that guides the work of the Inter-American Teacher Education Network (ITEN) of the Organization of American States. With the creation of this blog we strive to grant a space of expression for education specialists of the ITEN community, and a space for reflection, discussion and idea generation for teachers of the Americas.

Welcome!

Adriana Vilela

Education Specialist and Former ITEN Coordinator