By A Concerned Teacher
We commend the educational bodies throughout the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) for the part they play in educating the nations’ children.
For years now, however, the educational authorities in the OECS countries seem to be more focused on requiring teachers to write units and lesson plans rather than the quality of lessons delivered. While units and lesson plans are useful guides in teaching, is it really necessary to have teachers laboriously write them, oppressing and stressing them out? It is no wonder that quite a number of secondary school teachers do not write units and lesson plans.
A teacher can write many units and lesson plans and still end up teaching less effectively than a teacher who didn’t write any. For the teacher who didn’t write any may have spent useful time thinking of practical activities that help students understand concepts, whereas the teacher who wrote the units and lesson plans may teach in a predominantly abstract manner.
I do agree that lessons must be planned, but I object to the unnecessary, excessive, time-consuming writing of units and lesson plans.
Curriculum Development Unit
Can the workers at the Curriculum Development Unit be more productive than they presently are? For example, since reading has been an issue among the nations’ children for years now, how good it can be if workers at the Curriculum Development Unit spend time producing videos involving parents being interviewed about how they helped their children to learn to read well. Skits can be done to make the same point. Further, videos demonstrating effective ways to help parents/guardians teach reading to their children will be helpful. These videos can then be sent to principals who, in turn, can give to teachers to share on their group chats for parents/guardians to benefit, being shown how they can assist their children to learn to read well, among other things.
Of course, class teachers will continue to do their best to help their students. Counting the number of units and lesson plans a teacher writes does not magically make children brilliant. The focus on getting children meaningfully involved in learning, doing activities that help them grasp concepts, is the better way to go. That should be the focus of the education departments of the entire OECS.
The opinions presented in this content belong to the author and may not necessarily reflect the perspectives or editorial stance of iWitness News. Opinion pieces can be submitted to [email protected].
What ever is being done at the moment, it is not working. Our kids are being left behind because they are unable to read. Free the teachers to teach please.
As a teacher I am in total agreement with the opinions expressed. Lesson plans are important but over the years lesson plans have become more drawn out than ever. I cannot keep up with the number of lesson plan formats that have been forwarded over the last ten years. When I started teaching, lesson plan requirement was content and notes on teaching/learning activities. Now you have to write down to every question you will ask and all the possible responses from students, basically play out a lesson in your head. A lesson plan required these days takes hours, while teachers are given a half hour session each week to do lesson plans. The end result is teachers want their records to look good so they write lesson plans and forget about the students’ learning. Students are given seat work and teachers sit and do their lesson plans. At the end of the subject time they pass up their books. Teacher marks them, right, wrong. No time for individual help during the class time. If the students understand good for them, they don’t, too bad!