Develop a Lesson plan basis on philosophy of realism?
Regards: Shahzad sharif Mughal
A lesson plan is the instructor’s road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done
effectively during the class time. Then, you can design appropriate learning activities and
develop strategies to obtain feedback on student learning. Having a carefully constructed
lesson plan for each 3-hour lesson allows you to enter the classroom with more confidence and
maximizes your chance of having a meaningful learning experience with your students.
A successful lesson plan addresses and integrates three key components:
• Learning Objectives
• Learning activities
• Assessment to check for student understanding
A lesson plan provides you with a general outline of your teaching goals, learning objectives,
and means to accomplish them, and is by no means exhaustive. A productive lesson is not one
in which everything goes exactly as planned, but one in which both students and instructor
learn from each other.
Before Class: Steps for preparing a lesson plan
Listed below are 6 steps for preparing your lesson plan before your class.
1. Identify the learning objectives
Before you plan your lesson, you will first need to identify the learning objectives for the
lesson. A learning objective describes what the learner will know or be able to do after the
learning experience rather than what the learner will be exposed to during the instruction (i.e.
topics). Typically, it is written in a language that is easily understood by students and clearly
related to the program learning outcomes. The table below contains the characteristics of clear
learning objectives:
Characteristic Description
Free from jargon and complex vocabulary; describe specific and achievable tasks
Clearly stated tasks (such as ‘describe’, ‘analyse’ or ‘evaluate’) NOT vague tasks (like ‘appreciate’,
‘understand’ or ‘explore’).
Describe the essential (rather than trivial) learning in the course which a student
Important learning goals
must achieve.
Achievable Can be achieved within the given period and sufficient resources are available.
Demonstrable and Can be demonstrated in a tangible way; are assessable; achievement and quality of
measurable achievement can be observed.
All students, including those with disabilities or constraints, have a fair chance of
Fair and equitable
achieving them.
Linked to course and
Consider the broader goals - i.e. course, program and institutional goals.
program objectives
The Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (link) is a useful resource for
crafting learning objectives that are demonstrable and measurable.
2. Plan the specific learning activities
When planning learning activities you should consider the types of activities students will need
to engage in, in order to develop the skills and knowledge required to demonstrate effective
learning in the course. Learning activities should be directly related to the learning objectives
of the course, and provide experiences that will enable students to engage in, practice, and gain
feedback on specific progress towards those objectives.
As you plan your learning activities, estimate how much time you will spend on each. Build in
time for extended explanation or discussion, but also be prepared to move on quickly to
different applications or problems, and to identify strategies that check for understanding.
Some questions to think about as you design the learning activities you will use are:
• What will I do to explain the topic?
• What will I do to illustrate the topic in a different way?
• How can I engage students in the topic?
• What are some relevant real-life examples, analogies, or situations that can help students understand
the topic?
• What will students need to do to help them understand the topic better?
Many activities can be used to engage learners. The activity types (i.e. what the student is
doing) and their examples provided below are by no means an exhaustive list, but will help you
in thinking through how best to design and deliver high impact learning experiences for your
students in a typical lesson.
Learning
Activity Type Description
Activity
Problem/task is presented to
Drill and students where they are asked
practice to provide the answer; may be
timed or untimed
Convey concepts verbally,
Lecture often with visual aids (e.g.
Interaction with content presentation slides)
Exercise to assess the level of
Students are more likely to retain information student understanding and
presented in these ways if they are asked to interact Quiz questions can take many
with the material in some way. forms, e.g. multiple-choice,
short-structured, essay etc.
Oral report where students
Student share their research on a topic
presentation and take on a position and/or
role
Goal-oriented exercise that
encourages collaboration
Game
Interaction with digital content and/or competition within a
controlled virtual environment
Students experiment with decision making, and Replica or representation of a
visualise the effects and/or consequences in virtual real-world phenomenon that
Simulation
environments enables relationships, contexts,
and concepts to be studied
Verbal activity in which two or
more differing viewpoints on a
Debate
subject are presented and
Interaction with others argued
Formal/informal conversation
on a given topic/question
Peer relationships, informal support structures, and
where the instructor facilitates
teacher-student interactions/relationships Discussion
student sharing of responses to
the questions, and building
upon those responses
Information provided by the
instructor and/or peer(s)
Feedback
regarding aspects of one’s
performance or understanding
Feelings, thoughts, ideas and
Guest experiences specific to a given
Speaker topic are shared by an invited
presenter
Detailed story (true or
fictional) that students analyse
Case Study in detail to identify the
underlying principles,
practices, or lessons it contains
Problem solving and Critical thinking
Graphical representation of
Concept related information in which
Presenting students with a problem, scenario, case, Mapping common or shared concepts
challenge or design issue, which they are then asked to are linked together
address or deal with provides students with
opportunities to think about or use knowledge and Planned set of interrelated
information in new and different ways tasks to be executed over a
Real-world fixed period and within certain
projects cost and other limitations,
either individually or
collaboratively
Reflection
Written records of students’
The process of reflection starts with the student intellectual and emotional
Reflection
thinking about what they already know and have reactions to a given topic on a
journal
experienced in relation to the topic being regular basis (e.g. weekly after
explored/learnt. This is followed by analysis of why the each lesson)
student thinks about the topic in the way they do, and
what assumptions, attitudes and beliefs they have
about, and bring to learning about the topic.
It is important that each learning activity in the lesson must be (1) aligned to the lesson’s
learning objectives, (2) meaningfully engage students in active, constructive, authentic, and
collaborative ways, and (3) useful where the student is able to take what they have learnt from
engaging with the activity and use it in another context, or for another purpose.
3. Plan to assess student understanding
Assessments (e.g., tests, papers, problem sets, performances) provide opportunities for
students to demonstrate and practice the knowledge and skills articulated in the learning
objectives, and for instructors to offer targeted feedback that can guide further learning.
Planning for assessment allows you to find out whether your students are learning. It involves
making decisions about:
• the number and type of assessment tasks that will best enable students to demonstrate learning
objectives for the lesson
o Examples of different assessments
o Formative and/or summative
• the criteria and standards that will be used to make assessment judgements
o Rubrics
• student roles in the assessment process
o Self-assessment
o Peer assessment
• the weighting of individual assessment tasks and the method by which individual task judgements will
be combined into a final grade for the course
o information about how various tasks are to be weighted and combined into an overall grade
must be provided to students
• the provision of feedback
o giving feedback to students on how to improve their learning, as well as giving feedback to
instructors how to refine their teaching
To learn more about designing assessment, click here.
4. Plan to sequence the lesson in an engaging and meaningful manner
Robert Gagne proposed a nine-step process called the events of instruction, which is useful for
planning the sequence of your lesson. Using Gagne’s 9 events in conjunction with Bloom’s
Revised Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (link) aids in designing engaging and
meaningful instruction.
1. Gain attention: Obtain students’ attention so that they will watch and listen while the instructor
presents the learning content.
o Present a story or a problem to be solved
o Utilize ice breaker activities, current news and events, case studies, YouTube videos, and so
on. The objective is to quickly grab student attention and interest in the topic
o Utilize technologies such as clickers, and surveys to ask leading questions prior to lecture,
survey opinion, or gain a response to a controversial question
2. Inform learner of objectives: Allow students to organize their thoughts regarding what they are about
to see, hear, and/or do.
o Include learning objectives in lecture slides, the syllabus, and in instructions for activities,
projects and papers
o Describe required performance
o Describe criteria for standard performance
3. Stimulate recall of prior knowledge:
o Help students make sense of new information by relating it to something they already know
or something they have already experienced.
o Recall events from previous lecture, integrate results of activities into the current topic,
and/or relate previous information to the current topic
o Ask students about their understanding of previous concepts
4. Present new content: Utilise a variety of methods including lecture, readings, activities, projects,
multimedia, and others.
o Sequence and chunk the information to avoid cognitive overload
o Blend the information to aid in information recall
o Bloom's Revised Taxonomy can be used to help sequence the lesson by helping you chunk
them into levels of difficulty.
5. Provide guidance: Advise students of strategies to aid them in learning content and of resources
available. With learning guidance, the rate of learning increases because students are less likely to
lose time or become frustrated by basing performance on incorrect facts or poorly understood
concepts.
o Provide instructional support as needed – as scaffolds (cues, hints, prompts) which can be
removed after the student learns the task or content
o Model varied learning strategies – mnemonics, concept mapping, role playing, visualizing
o Use examples and non-examples
To find out more about scaffolding student learning, click here
6. Practice: Allow students to apply knowledge and skills learned.
o Allow students to apply knowledge in group or individual activities
o Ask deep-learning questions, make reference to what students already know or have
students collaborate with their peers
o Ask students to recite, revisit, or reiterate information they have learned
o Facilitate student elaborations – ask students to elaborate or explain details and provide
more complexity to their responses
7. Provide feedback: Provide immediate feedback of students’ performance to assess and facilitate
learning.
o Consider using group / class level feedback (highlighting common errors, give examples or
models of target performance, show students what you do not want)
o Consider implementing peer feedback
o Require students to specify how they used feedback in subsequent works
8. Assess performance: To evaluate the effectiveness of the instructional events, test to see if the
expected learning outcomes have been achieved. Performance should be based on previously stated
objectives.
o Utilise a variety of assessment methods including exams/quizzes, written assignments,
projects, and so on.
9. Enhance retention and transfer: Allow students to apply information to personal contexts. This
increases retention by personalising information.
o Provide opportunities for students to relate course work to their personal experiences
o Provide additional practice
5. Create a realistic timeline
A list of ten learning objectives is not realistic, so narrow down your list to the two or three key
concepts, ideas, or skills you want students to learn in the lesson. Your list of prioritized
learning objectives will help you make decisions on the spot and adjust your lesson plan as
needed. Here are some strategies for creating a realistic timeline:
• Estimate how much time each of the activities will take, then plan some extra time for each
• When you prepare your lesson plan, next to each activity indicate how much time you expect it will
take
• Plan a few minutes at the end of class to answer any remaining questions and to sum up key points
• Plan an extra activity or discussion question in case you have time left
• Be flexible – be ready to adjust your lesson plan to students’ needs and focus on what seems to be
more productive rather than sticking to your original plan
6. Plan for a lesson closure
Lesson closure provides an opportunity to solidify student learning. Lesson closure is useful
for both instructors and students.
You can use closure to:
• Check for student understanding and inform subsequent instruction (adjust your teaching
accordingly)
• Emphasise key information
• Tie up loose ends
• Correct students’ misunderstandings
• Preview upcoming topics
Your students will find your closure helpful for:
• Summarizing, reviewing, and demonstrating their understanding of major points
• Consolidating and internalising key information
• Linking lesson ideas to a conceptual framework and/or previously-learned knowledge
• Transferring ideas to new situations
There are several ways in which you can put a closure to the lesson:
• state the main points yourself (“Today we talked about…”)
• ask a student to help you summarize them
• ask all students to write down on a piece of paper what they think were the main points of the lesson
During the class: Presenting your lesson plan
Letting your students know what they will be learning and doing in class will help keep them
more engaged and on track. Providing a meaningful organisation of the class time can help
students not only remember better, but also follow your presentation and understand the
rationale behind the planned learning activities. You can share your lesson plan by writing a
brief agenda on the whiteboard or telling students explicitly what they will be learning and
doing in class. Click on link here for tips and techniques to facilitate an interactive lesson.
After the class: Reflecting on your lesson plan
Take a few minutes after each class to reflect on what worked well and why, and what you
could have done differently. Identifying successful and less successful organization of class
time and activities would make it easier to adjust to the contingencies of the classroom. If
needed, revise the lesson plan.
REALISM AND ITS IMPLICATION TO EDUCATION
Like idealism, realism is one of the oldest philosophies in Western culture and dates back
at least to ancient Greece. Because of its respectable age, realism has had a variety of
proponents and interpretations as diverse as classical and religious realism to scientific, natural
and rational realism. Because of this confusing array of variations, it seems most reasonable to
approach this philosophy from common threads interwoven throughout its long history.
Perhaps the most central thread of realism is what can be called the principle of thesis of
independence. This thesis holds the reality, knowledge and value exist independently of the
human mind. In other words, realism rejects the idealist notion that only ideas are real. The
realist asserts, as a fact, that the actual sticks, stones and trees of the universe exist whether or
not there is a human mind to perceive them. Matter is real to realist; however, this does not
mean that all realists are rampant materialists who see matter in one form only. There can be
many kinds of what we call matter, and some realists believe in both matter and form. What is
important is that realists point to matter as an example of an independent reality.
Realism is a complex philosophy because of its many varieties, to wit: classical realism,
religious realism, scientific realism and others. This confusion dates back to Aristotle because
although his prominence in philosophy was primarily derived from his differences with
Platonic philosophy, probably more similarities than differences exist overall between Plato
and Aristotle. The primary confusion over realism today is between religious kind of realism
and a secular or scientific one. Religious realism shows how similar Aristotle’s philosophy is to
that of Plato and Aquinas; secular realism would relate Aristotle’s work more to the
development of scientific philosophy through the works of Bacon, Locke and Russell.
In realism, human acquire knowledge by inculcating knowledge to the minds because in
realism, it believes that the human beings have no inborn, or innate, ideas in their minds at
birth. When it first exists it is a blank slate, a "tabula rasa," an empty surface on which
experience will then subsequently write all that we ever know. All contents of consciousness,
that is, everything that ever gets into the mind, comes into it from one source only, and that
source is experience. Experience is the one source of input into the human mind. Ideas (or
sensations) in minds are caused by qualities in things. A quality is a power in a thing to cause
an idea in a mind. So a quality is not a thing, really, but is a power in a thing to cause an idea in
a mind. Sensation is simply the raw data that your senses bring into your brain, and perception
includes the judgments and interpretations that you add to the sensations so that it ends up
having some meaning for you. Raw sensation, plus how we construe those sensations, yields
what our minds then perceive. In imparting knowledge, values is integrated. In order for a child
to learn in an orderly mannered, he is informed properly. In realism, society has impact in
teaching the child. What surrounds him can affect his mind and views in life.
Locke believes that there are only four kinds of realities that exist in the world. He believes
that we know about the existence of minds - both our own and those of other people -- by a
process he terms "intuiting". He believes we know about the existence of ideas by reflection.
Locke believes that we know about the existence of things through sensation. Locke believes
that there is a God, and that we know about God's existence by logical proofs for his existence.
Aims of Education. In realism, it prepares the child for a happy and successful life. It
acquaints the child with nature and social environment. It develops the physical and mental
powers of the child. It develops and trains the senses of the child. It prepares the child for real
life. It provides the understanding of the material world through inquiry. It is a study of science
and the scientific method. It transmits culture and develop human nature and there is a need to
know the world in order to ensure survival and good life.
Realism and Curriculum. It was developed according to utility and needs. It contains
subjects concerning day to day activities. The main subjects are natural science, physical
science, health culture, physical exercise, math, geography, history and astronomy.
Realism and the Teacher. In realism, a teacher should be supreme. He brings the child in
touch with external realities of life. Imparts scientific knowledge in an easy and effective way.
A teacher should be educated and well versed with the customs of belief and rights of people
and the trends. He needs to find out the interest of the child and to teach accordingly. He should
teach subjects in proper order. He must be able to expose and guide the learners towards the
hard realities of life.
Methods of Teaching. Observation is very important aspect in the teaching-learning process.
The emphasis on critical reasoning is through observation.Responsibilities and accountabilities
were given emphasis and it promotes performance-based teaching. Scientific research and
development is one of the priorities in realism. Education should proceed from simple to
complex and from concrete to abstract. Specifically activities that enhance learning thru direct
or indirect experiences such as field trips, lectures, films, TV, audio-visual aids and library
were encouraged. Vernacular is of great importance and it should be the medium of instruction.
Since it is performance-based, hence, children should be given positive rewards
Realism in Classroom. It focuses on the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.
Classroom environment is highly structured and organized. It utilizes the standardized testing.
Education should be fun and interesting for the student and education should prepare students
for life in the real world.
Realism represents the reality of the world. It has truth that is aligned to the knowledge
acquired. Truth can be acquired by the use of sensation. In our lives, it is our nature to be good
and be bad. In realism, it teaches reality doctrine, the subjects of physical world such as Math,
Science and Social Studies. Realism exist in schools to reveal the order of the world and
universe. Teachers imparts knowledge form basic to complex. Child is well-mannered and
well-informed.
In realism, the human mind represents the external world but does not duplicate it. I exist,
you exist but some do not know that I exist or he exist. She is special to me but he is not special.
We have different views in life according to our experience. In teaching, we aimed for our
children to have a good life and accept the realities in life.
References:
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