The Psychological Underpinnings
Several scholars define the term ‘planning’ as a psychological process of predicting the future, and taking into consideration the objectives and methods of attaining them. Therefore, lesson planning can be utilized as the systematic creation of instructional provisions, organizations, conditions, equipment and activities, as well as examination and evaluation of instructing and learning.
It entails the analysis of the learning goals and the creation of a delivery system to achieve those goals. The process of task analysis and the theories of cognition are some of the principles that are employed in the creation of the lesson plan. Cognitive theory reckons that human behavior is rooted in compression of the thinking processes. This emanates from the hypotheses that humans are reasonable beings who make decisions which seem sensible to them. Things like information processing through people’s mental activity can be compared to the work of a computer processor. This implies that the memory system is a structured data processor and prior knowledge is an essential aspect in learning.
The process of task analysis involves elements like the duration of the task, task assignment, mental undertakings and other exceptional and essential features that see to the achievement of a planned goal. This implies that it allows a task to be carried out in a classified way with specific levels that guarantees a goal to be achieved. There are several steps involved in the task analysis process. This involves collecting preliminary knowledge which is the first stage of task analysis identified by the analysts. In this case they familiarize themselves with the given knowledge and distinguish experts to take part in the knowledge search process.
The methods commonly applied in this stage include document analysis, observation, and structured or unstructured interviews. Analysts start their reviews by gathering any available written material describing the tasks such as books, magazines, reports and others. This enables to compare the present resources with what is being analyzed to distinguish the discrepancies. Observation is used to find out the tasks involved, possible barriers and constraints for the following analysis, and present data essential to perform the task. Another step is to identify knowledge representations in such formats as concept maps, flow charts, semantic nets, etc.
Representations usually provide direction and order to the following stages in the task analysis. Step three involves the application of fcused knowledge elicitation methodologies. Former studies indicate that unique elicitation methods intensify knowledge gains and that knowledge is not often expressed without being the center of elicitation. Some of the methods include both semi-structured and unstructured interviews. The fourth stage involves the analysis and verification of the data collected. This starts with the analyst making a summary of the interview in a standardized format.
To verify the individual task analysis the analyst edits the document to ensure accuracy and efficiency. Task analysis is an essential component of education. It is used to design a curriculum and to work out the essential capacities in order to see if the learning process is achievable and entails the right modifications. This implies that it enables the unraveling of duties that a student has majored in and data process that needs certain duties so that it allows the solution of a challenging or simpler assignment.From this stand point, it is essential that we link cognitive theory to the process of task analysis to guarantee the achievement of any educational plan.
This shows that when the cognitive and task analysis are linked they form the cognitive task analysis. Cognitive task analysis incorporates the ingredients of a task that are needed for good performance. This means that it is essential in the development of a lesson plan as it goes round the curriculum that needs to be taught and breaks down the curriculum to create knowledge and sub-skills that students need to learn. Therefore, the main significant goal of task analysis is to incorporate the sense of mental theories. These theories are utilized to see that a given task is achieved with the aid of the lesson plan.
Moreover, it analyses the merits and demerits of the task analysis process as well as enhancement to the lesson plan. Furthermore, the utilization efficiency of the cognition theory’s two opinions and the task analysis both rely on the successful connection of the two. Lesson planning is a step backward and two steps forward method. Although it may pose some difficulties in its development, and requires significant efforts to carry out in the beginning, it allows one to save much time. That is because lesson plans can be employed several times if only they are updated. They enable efficient time, effort and resources management.
They also give an overview of what is to be taught and learnt daily. In this case lesson plans will give the teacher several types of teaching processes that reducee monotony and redundancy as they enable the teacher to put in mind the age of the learner. It enables teacher organization in the process of teaching as well as ensuring variations in the activities of the teachers as the classroom has learners of different intelligence levels. The most important feature is that lesson plans enable the instructor to achieve their goals and objectives as well as enhance their teaching skills. I suggest that student’s personal needs are considered in order to improve the processes of lesson planning and task analysis. For example, while some students require physical objects in the explanation of mathematical concepts, others will need concepts to be explained in terms of football.
Thus, the instructor should include things like football in the lesson plan’s teaching materials. This does not mean that the lesson plan needs be geared towards a specific student but should instead be an easy option to create a lesson plan that is tailored towards the whole class. The lesson plan should not just consider the lesson alone but also the wider picture. We should ensure that we are able to fix what we are teaching into a large spectrum as well as ensuring that the students will benefit from the concept whether it is in isolation or incorporated. Most children understand better by seeing others do something before them, so teachers should ensure that when giving a task to be performed, they should try a demonstration first. Demonstrate the whole task and then let the learner emulate you through all steps as you demonstrate repeatedly.
It may be difficult to repeat something you are familiar with, but it is essential for the learner get the concept through practice, demonstration and repetition.Homeworks need to be given special attention as they reinforce what is taught in the classroom. Therefore, the instructors should ensure that it is not just a simple task of what has been directly taught in class. They should strengthen what they taught by expanding the boundaries, rather than just checking the students’ level of knowledge. Conclusion Most governments have invested heavily in education and its policies. Therefore if they have to achieve the objectives they set, they need to ensure that both psychological and cognitive issues are taken into consideration.
Effective lesson planning and task analysis need to be carried out at all levels, depending on clear understanding of individual student needs, so that all educational goals are achieved.
