Teacher planning: A literature review

Most teachers will agree that planning is an important part of effective teaching. Before teachers can be effective in the classroom, they must decide how to present the curriculum to the students in the most efficient and effective manner. But exactly what is teacher planning and what does it involve? This literature review examines the research documenting teacher planning and attempts to present a comprehensive overview of the major findings.

The review begins by defining "teacher planning." Clark and Peterson (1986) give two definitions of teacher planning. First, they state that planning is a set of basic psychological processes in which a person visualized the future, inventories means and ends, and constructs a framework to guide his or her future action. Drawing heavily upon cognitive psychology, this definition presents planning as a conceptual framework. Secondly, Clark and Peterson state that planning includes "the things that teachers do when they say they are planning" (p.260). The second definition is the more widely accepted definition of planning because of its descriptive approach to research about teacher planning. Few studies about teacher planning exist, and nearly all of this research has been published since 1970. However, there have been guidelines and approaches related to teacher planning before the 1970s, such as the highly touted Tyler (1950) model which has been widely prescribed at all levels for teachers in their planning. Yet, there was little or no research before the 1970's that described or explained what teachers actually do when they plan. Within the limitations imposed by the literature itself, this review presents those findings in the area of teacher planning in which the teacher assumes an important role as informant and as research collaborator.

Influences on Teacher Planning

Many factors influence teacher planning. Research has found that teaching experience itself influences planning.

When pre-service and beginning teachers plan, they often rely heavily on how they were instructed to plan in their preservice education courses. But when experienced teachers plan, they often reflect upon prior lessons and pull successful aspects of those lessons into plans for future lessons. Other significant influences on teacher planning discussed in this section are scheduling. Instructional materials, and the interests and abilities of the students themselves.

In a descriptive case study of 12...