AU2001268838A1 - Method of electronically producing a lesson plan - Google Patents

Description

METHOD OF ELECTRONICALLY PRODUCING A LESSON PLAN

This invention relates to a method of electronically producing a

lesson plan. In particular, although not exclusively, it relates to a method

of electronically producing lesson plans and/or teaching units and the like

using a three-dimensional structure comprising different educational

frameworks and strategies.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

One feature of most education systems is the wide range of

results achieved by its students. The possible causes of this variation are

numerous. For example, the standard of results could be due to the level

of funding that an educational establishment receives. This is likely to be

dependent on whether the establishment is publicly or privately funded

and directly affects the resources available to both students and

educators. The standards achieved by students from a particular

establishment are also likely to be influenced by the geographical location

of the establishment. For example, students attending an educational

establishment in a remote location frequently do not achieve as highly as

students attending a more centrally located one.

Another probable explanation of the broad results spectrum is the

standard of the educator delivering the lessons, lectures or the like.

Capabilities of educators vary both within and between educational establishments. Their age, their own education, their experience, and the

length of time being an educator are some factors that may affect these

capabilities. These factors are also likely to affect an educator's drive

and enthusiasm and consequently the quality of the lesson, lecture or the

like that they deliver. In turn, this will affect the quality of education that

the students receive.

A further problem is how to fairly assess educators' capabilities.

Students' results are often used as an indicator of an educator's

effectiveness. However, students' results are often not an accurate

reflection of how well an educator teaches his or her students.

One way of attempting to raise standards and reduce the gap

between students' high and low results is to improve the capabilities of

educators. One method of doing this is for educators to employ a range

of teaching strategies. Various teaching strategies and concepts are

known and one of these is the Multiple Intelligences Model developed by

Howard Gardner, (Frames of Mind: the Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

Gardner, Howard, New York, Basic Books A83) . Thomas Armstrong

(Thomas Armstrong, Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, 1 994,

Association for the Supervisor and Curriculum Development, Alexandria,

VA) is one such educator who has promoted Gardner's work in the

regular classroom - Helen- McGrath and Toni Noble (Seven Ways at

Once, Classroom Strategies based on the Seven Intelligences, Adison-

Wesler, Longman Australia Pty Ltd, 1 995) - combined Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Model with Bloom's (Bloom, B. S. (Ed) (1 956) Taxonomy

of Educational Objectives, Handbook 1 , cognitive domain, New York,

Toronto, Longmans, Green) -- taxonomy of thinking (or cognitive)

processes to produce another model. The Applicant has also developed

these strategies to produce a matrix of sentence stems that incorporates

thinking and intelligence skills, cooperative and collaborative strategies

and the multiple intelligences.

Prior to conducting a lesson, lecture or the like, educators often

prepare lesson plans, lecture notes or schedules or the like. Such a plan

or schedule may be followed by the educator in delivering the lesson.

Alternatively, the educator and/or students may follow it when carrying

out the lesson activities and exercises.

Such lesson plans or teaching units are often hand written and are

consequently time-consuming to produce and amend. For example, it is

likely that they must be completely re-written to incorporate even small

changes to the lesson plan or teaching unit. Another problem is that the

educator must rely on their own educational skills and experience to

prepare an appropriate and effective lesson plan or the like. The educator

does not have a framework of teaching techniques and strategies around

which to form the lesson plan.

One alternative method of producing a lesson plan or the like is to

use a word processing computer application. Although a word-processed

lesson plan may be easily amended to incorporate changes, in comparison with a hand written version, a word processing computer

application still has the drawback of not supporting the educator with

teaching techniques and methods upon which to form the lesson plan.

Some educational software tools have been developed, but most

of these are aimed at teaching subjects to students. The Applicant is

unaware of educational software tools currently available to assist

educators in the preparation of lesson plans, teaching units and the like

that provide a framework of teaching techniques and strategies around

which the educator may structure the lesson plans.

Thus, current methods of preparing lesson plans are time

consuming to use and/or enslaving and/or only partially, if at all, use the

large range of teaching and educational concepts available.

Many educators are aware of the aforementioned educational

strategies and techniques, although there are many that are less familiar

with them or even unaware of them. However, all educators and

educational establishments would like to increase their teaching

effectiveness by making full use of these concepts and strategies in a

simple and efficient way. Educators wish to enhance their career

prospects by improving their professional skills and by using technology.

Furthermore, establishments are keen to effectively assess the standards

of their educators. OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of

electronically producing a lesson plan, teaching unit or the like.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a method of

5 electronically producing a lesson plan, teaching unit or the like, which

incorporates the three structural dimensions of cognitive levels, multiple

intelligences and teaching/thinking strategies.

Other objects will be evident from the following discussion.

10 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one form, although it need not be the only, or indeed the broadest,

form, the invention resides in a method of electronically producing a

lesson plan including the steps of:

selecting at least one development page from a master matrix,

15 each development page representing at least one intelligence and at least.

one cognitive level;

generating at least one formulated question or activity in the

development page using sentence stems provided responsive to said

selection;

20 selecting at least one of the formulated questions or activities; and

processing said selections to produce a lesson plan or the like from the

selected formulated questions and/or activities.

2. Preferably, said step of producing a lesson plan is according to pre-selected criteria relating to teacher objectives, student outcomes or

available resources, or any combination thereof.

Preferably, the pre-selections are provided in an overview page.

Preferably, the step of producing a lesson plan further includes the

step of selecting criteria governing the lesson plan from an overview

page.

The overview page may include one or more of each of the

following: a subject area or theme, a target group, a specific task, an

educator objective, a student outcome and/or a list of available resources.

The master matrix may include columns representing intelligences

and rows representing cognitive levels or teaching processes, or vice

versa. Preferably, the master matrix includes seven columns representing

intelligences and six rows representing cognitive levels or teaching

processes.

Each development page optionally includes a first row containing

at least some of the information specified in the overview page. Each

development page preferably includes a second row containing the

sentence stems or starters. The sentence starters combine the

intelligence and the cognitive level that the development page represents

on the master matrix. Each development page preferably further includes

a first column stating common verbs associated with the cognitive level

represented by the development page. Each development page

preferably further includes a second column comprising selectable educational strategies. The strategies are preferably divided into

cognitive strategies and group/cooperative strategies. The second

column optionally includes a selectable page describing he selected

strategy.

Selecting the formulated questions and/or activities may further

include selecting a sequence in which the questions and/or activities

appear in the lesson plan or the like. Optionally, a number representing

a position occupied in the sequence by a question or activity may appear

in the master matrix in the development page from which it originated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described with

reference to the accompanying drawings, which are given by way of

example only, in which:

FIG 1 shows a master matrix;

FIG 2 shows one development page from the master matrix of FIG 1 ;

FIG 3 shows a first page of a lesson plan; and

FIG 4 shows an overview page.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The electronic lesson planner of the present invention may be

accessed via the Internet or via an Intranet by means of a personal

computer (PC), a laptop computer or the like. The lesson planner may be used online or it may be downloaded to the PC or laptop and used offline.

It is envisaged that, upon the payment of a subscription fee, educators

will be allocated a logon identification and password to allow access.

Alternatively, the lesson planner may be provided on a storage medium,

such as a CD, diskette or other storage device, whether portable or

otherwise.

An overview of the elements of the electronic lesson planner will

first be discussed followed by a detailed description of those elements.

The method of the present invention utilizes a master matrix 1 , as

shown in FIG 1 . Preferably, the master matrix 1 comprises seven

columns representing the aforementioned multiple intelligences 2 and six

rows representing cognitive levels 3. The multiple intelligences and

cognitive levels are known by those skilled in the art and the present

invention is not limited to the order in which they appear in the matrix.

Also, in an alternative embodiment, the columns may represent the

cognitive levels and the rows may represent the multiple intelligences.

Thus, the master matrix comprises 42 development pages 4, one

of which is shown in FIG 2. Each development page 4 comprises

prompting information, the nature of which being determined by the

position of the development page 4 in the master matrix 1 , i.e., the

multiple intelligence and cognitive level which the development page

represents. An educator is thus provided with a framework that aids and

supports the educator in formulating questions and activities for his or her lessons.

Once the educator has compiled the desired questions and/or

activities in the desired development pages 4, the educator is able to

compose a lesson plan 5, as shown in FIG 3. The educator may select

some or all of the formulated questions/activities to appear in the lesson

plan. The educator may also choose the order in which the

questions/activities appear. The lesson plan may then be printed out for

use by the educator and/or the students._.

Preferably, the method of the present invention also features a

overview page 6. A possible layout of the overview page is shown in FIG

4. Although the overview page 6 is not an essential feature in the

production of the lesson plan, one is preferably included. Accessing the

overview page 6 is preferably the first step in preparing the lesson plan.

The educator may specify various aspects of the lesson in the overview

page 6 and some or all of these aspects may appear in the master matrix

1 , the development pages 4 and/or the final lesson plan 5. With

reference to FIG 4, preferably, the overview page allows the educator to

specify a target group, such as a year group or class, and/or a title of the

lesson or teaching unit and/or a learning area or theme. The educator

may also specify the task to be completed, the educator's objectives and

desired student outcomes. The educator may also list the resources that

are available for use in teaching or studying the lesson plan.

Once the overview page details have been submitted, they may be saved for future use and/or modification. A master matrix 1 based on

the overview page may then be accessed, as shown in FIG 1 . The

master matrix preferably includes the title, learning area or theme of the

lesson and the target group. The educator may now select one of the 42

development pages 4 to begin formulating his or her lesson plan.

The particular development page selected depends upon which

multiple intelligence 2 and which cognitive level 3 the educator wishes

to focus. For example, if the educator wants to focus on the cognitive

or thinking process of design and a - mathematical/logical intelligence, the

educator would select the development page at the intersection of the

relevant row and column. Once selected, the appropriate development

page 4 is displayed, as shown in FIG 2.

The development page assists and supports the educator in

formulating questions and activities that develop the selected cognitive

processes and intelligences. There are three main ways in which the

development page does this and these are described below.

Below a top row 7 that preferably displays the title of the lesson

plan and the target group, a second row 8 displays the selected

intelligence e.g. mathematical/logical. The second row also displays a

series of selectable sentence stems or starters 9. A sentence starter

forms a first part of a sentence that asks the student a question or

requests the student to participate in an activity. The sentence starters

9 either have been developed by the applicant or derived from generally well used questions/activities employed by the educators and are a result

of combining aspects of the selected intelligence 2 with aspects of the

selected cognitive level or process 3. The sentence starters employ two

of the three dimensions that the electronic lesson planner encourages the

educator to use. Selecting one of the sentence starters 9 causes it to be

displayed in a working area 1 0 below the second row 8.

A column 1 1 on the left of the working area 1 0 indicates the

cognitive level or thinking process 3 in which the development page 4 is

located and in which the educator is operating. For example, the left

column 1 1 may have the title 'Remember', below which may be listed

common verbs 1 2 which are used within this cognitive level, such as

'list', 'name', 'locate', 'define', and the like.

A column 1 3 on the right of the working area 1 0 lists strategies

14 that may be utilized when formulating the questions, tasks and

activities of the lesson plan. The strategy column comprises the

categories of cognitive strategies 1 5 and group/collaborative strategies

1 6. Selecting one strategy category reveals a list of strategies that fall

into that category. Once a question, task or activity has been

formulated, selecting one of the listed strategies causes that strategy to

be displayed in the working area 1 0 after the formulated question, task

or activity.

If an educator is not familiar with a particular strategy, an

explanatory description of the strategy may be selected. This may be in the form of a pop-up screen 1 7 or drop-down menu or the like.

Once the questions, tasks and/or activities for a particular

development page 4 have been formulated, they may be saved to the

master matrix 1 . With reference to FIG 1 , upon returning to the master

matrix, the relevant development page may include an indicator

representing one of the formulated questions or tasks. In one

embodiment, the development page includes at least the beginning 1 8 of

one of the questions formulated therein.

Once the educator has formulated all the questions (ikely to be

needed for their proposed lesson plan, the educator may select the exact

questions/activities that he or she wishes to appear in the final lesson

plan. The educator may also select the sequence in which they appear

in the final lesson plan. Each selected question/activity may be allocated

a number 1 9 corresponding to the position it will appear in the lesson

plan. The allocated number 1 may then be displayed in the matrix 1 to

indicate both its selection and its position in the final lesson plan. A

status bar or the like may also be displayed to indicate how many

questions/activities the. lesson planner currently contains and the

positions those questions/activities occupy.

A single operation may merge the overview page 6 with the

selected questions/activities to produce the final lesson plan 5, as shown

in FIG 3. In a preferred format, the details from the overview page

appear first followed by the questions/activities in the selected order. The questions/activities appear as formulated in the development pages

4 including the cognitive level, the intelligence and the strategy utilized.

The overview page may also include an assessment standard for

evaluation purposes. The standard may be preset for particular

circumstances or may be changeable to allow adaptation to differing

circumstances. For example, an assessment standard for a particular

topic may be set for education at a particular level in a specified region.

This standard may be different in a different region or at a different level

and therefore can be altered to suit the situation.

Clearly the present invention is not limited to the aforementioned

layout of the lesson plan 5 or the layout of the overview page 6 or

development pages 4 which contribute thereto. Furthermore, it is

envisaged that the layout of the overview page information and the

layout of the development page questions/activities may differ from the

layout of the same information in the final lesson plan. It is envisaged

that any layouts that present the information in a clear and accessible

format would be suitable.

The grid format of the master matrix 1 is a convenient way of

representing the different combinations of cognitive levels 3 and multiple

intelligences 2. However, it is envisaged that there may be alternative

ways of representing such combinations that still fall within the scope of

the present invention.

The present invention allows the educator to amend any information that he or she has entered at any stage of the production of

the lesson plan.

The electronic lesson planner may be used by an educator to

prepare their own lesson plans or teaching units. The stimulation

provided by the lesson planner should provide a rich source of material

for any learning situation.

Alternatively, an educator may use a lesson plan prepared by

another educator for his or her own lessons. For example, a head of

department may produce a lesson plan for a particular subject area and

year group that may be used by a number of other teachers in that

department.

The electronic lesson planner may also be used by a plurality of

educators to pool their ideas to produce a single lesson plan or a series

of lesson plans. Furthermore, by using the electronic lesson planner, it

is not necessary for all the educators to be together at one time. The

master matrix 1 indicates the learning areas for which questions/activities

have been formulated and those that have yet to be addressed.

An educator may select their own sequence of questions/activities

from the pool developed by a range of educators. The resultant lesson

plan can be tailored to their own style of teaching and thus, their own

individuality is being honoured. At the same time, an educator will not

only be including some of their own good ideas, but also those developed

by their colleagues. Due to the online accessibility of the lesson planner, it may be

used by groups of educators within the same department, within a

school, within a group of schools and/or by educators around the world.

The electronic lesson planner may also be used by students to plan

their own lessons or parts of lessons, for their own personal assignments

and/or for an educator.

It is envisaged that the present invention would be suitable for all

types and levels of education and tuition. It is also envisaged that the

present invention may be specialized to suit a particular application. For

example, the electronic lesson planner may be tailored to produce lecture

programs and tutorials for corporate or industrial applications. It is also

envisaged that the electronic lesson planner could be translated into

languages other than English. It is further envisaged that the electronic

lesson planner could be adapted to incorporate new teaching methods

and the like, as they develop.

Clearly the method of the present invention overcomes the

problems of the prior art methods of producing a lesson plan. Changes

to lesson plans can be made quickly and easily and the educator can

systematically build up a portfolio of lesson planners that can be modified

from year to year, for example, to include changes to the curriculum.

Also, the electronic lesson planner provides a wide range of teaching

ideas and strategy-linked questions/activities to assist the educator in

producing comprehensive lesson plans. However, the benefits of the electronic lesson planner are more

numerous than merely overcoming the problems associated with the prior

art.

At a glance, the master matrix 1 indicates the cognitive levels 3

and intelligences 2 that have been covered and those that are not being

addressed. The educator is thus guided to use a wider spread of

questions/activities and by doing so will reach more students more of the

time.

Since so many strategies are provided on each development page,

the educator is encouraged to place the focus of the lesson plan on the

students. The strategies consistently encourage the student to engage

in the learning process. Furthermore, the wide range of strategies is

likely to retain the attention of the student and contribute to their

motivation.

Evidently, the electronic lesson planner of the present invention is

an empowering tool. The educator will feel supported in preparing

lessons, lectures and the like and the combined input from a plurality of

educators will lead to a cross-fertilization of ideas. Armed with a

comprehensive lesson plan, the educator will be able to deliver their

lessons more confidently. The competency of the educator will be

demonstrated to the students who will also benefit from the improved

teaching techniques and ideas.

The competency and efforts, or otherwise, of educators will also be demonstrated to the establishment by whom they are employed. The

electronic lesson planner enables the establishment to monito r which

educators are contributing to particular lesson plans and the like and on

which strategies and areas they are focussing. This is likely to provide

a more accurate assessment of the effectiveness and industriousness of

their educators.

Rather than the standard of education being jeopardized by lessons

of an unsatisfactory quality, the overall educational standard will be

raised by the present invention due to the availability of a wide range of

teaching. techniques and strategies that can easily be implemented.

The programming techniques required to implement the electronic

lesson planner are known to those skilled in the relevant art.

Throughout the specification the aim has been to describe the

preferred embodiments of the present invention without limiting the

invention to any one embodiment or specific collection of features.

Persons skilled in the relevant art may realize variations from the specific

embodiments that will nonetheless fall within the scope of the invention.

Claims (17)

CLAIMS:

1 . A method of electronically producing a lesson plan including the

steps of:

selecting at least one development page from a master

matrix, each development page representing at least one

intelligence and at least one cognitive level;

generating at least one formulated question or activity in the

development page using sentence stems provided responsive to

said selection;

selecting at least one of the formulated questions or

activities; and

processing said selections to produce a lesson plan or the

like from the selected formulated questions and/or activities.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of producing a lesson

plan is according to pre-selected criteria relating to teacher

objectives, student outcomes or available resources, or any

combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said pre-selections are provided

in an overview page.

4. The method of claim 3, further including the step of selecting criteria governing the lesson plan from an overview page .

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein sard sentence stems are displayed

in the development page responsive to said selection.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein said overview page may include

one or more of each of the following: a subject area or theme, a

target group, a specific task, an educator objective, a student

outcome and/or a list of available resources.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said master matrix includes

columns representing intelligences and rows representing cognitive

levels or teaching processes, or vice versa.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the master matrix includes seven

intelligences and six cognitive levels or teaching processes.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein each development page includes

a first row containing at least some of the information specified in

the overview page.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein each development page preferably

includes a second row containing said sentence stems or starters.

1 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said sentence stems combine said

intelligence level and said cognitive level that said development

page represents on said master matrix.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each development page further

includes a first column stating common verbs associated with said

cognitive level represented by said development page.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each development page further

includes a second column comprising selectable educational

strategies.

4. The method of claim 1 3, wherein said educational strategies are

divided into cognitive strategies and group/cooperative strategies.

5. The method of claim 1 3, wherein said second column includes a

selectable page describing said selected strategy.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of selecting said

formulated questions and/or activities further includes the step of

selecting a sequence in which said questions and/or activities

appear in said lesson plan or the like.

7. The method of claim 16, wherein a number representing a position

occupied in the sequence by said question or activity may appear

in the master matrix in the development page from which it

originated.