Dr+Lee's+Showcase


 * Unit Title: EXPLORATORY PRACTICE TEACHER DEVELOPMENT **

**Unit Summary: **

The planning of a lesson involves a sequence of decision-making and actions as part of planning, such as working out the overall unit/topic plan; planning the overall content of the lessons in sequence; planning the teaching strategies; writing the individual lesson plans; reflecting on and identifying potential problems; and planning back-ups. To imbue the cultures of reflexivity and research via exploratory practice, student teachers participate in an investigation to explore, learn about and understand the various decision making processes in lesson planning.

In this study, student teachers participate in a series of activities to help them investigate the decision making strategies use by different student teachers in lesson planning. In doing so, student teachers will have an opportunity to compare and contrast the various decision making strategies uses by different student teachers. The Visual Ranking Tool  will help students to compare the various principles relating to decision making in lesson planning. The main aim of this study is to create a profile of SPPS’ student teachers decision making process in lesson planning.

Playing the role of a principal investigator in this case study, they embark in a process of discovering the various decision making processes used by their peers in lesson planning. They use the Thinking tools from Intel to discuss the CFQs. They then prepare a power-point presentation and a blog ([|http://decisioninlessonplanning.blogspot.com]) to publicize their findings to their peers. Student teachers are given slot during their Research Methodology class to present their findings. After the presentation, they invite fellow student teachers to post comments on their blog. Student teachers will be assessed using rubrics on their products. They are given a month to complete the whole project.

CFQs:
 * **Essential Question ** || How can our learners learn better? ||
 * **Unit Questions ** || # How do student teachers plan their lessons?
 * 1) What are the decision making processes involved in lesson planning? ||
 * **Content Questions ** || # What are the most important principles that make a good lesson plan?
 * 1) What are the characteristics of a good lesson plan?
 * 2) What are the similarities and/or differences in the decision making strategies used by the student teachers’ based on gender, year group, and subject majors?
 * 3) What is the profile of the decision making processes of SPPS student teachers in lesson planning? ||