THE IMPACT OF EFFECTIVE PLANNING ON TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. Background to the study

Planning in the context of education entails the process of setting objectives and determining the means to achieving the objectives. It entails deciding in advance what to be taught how, to teach, when to teach, who is be taught, and the evaluation of recipient.

Planning is the beginning of teaching and learning process, before a teacher goes to the class to deliver any lesson, he plans such lessons while education administrators make policy and plan the curriculum for the school to implement them.

Through planning for a lesson makes the teaching-learning encounter valuable and productive impact. Conversely, no planning leads to a wasteful and unproductive lesson. The motion pervades education at all levels and  in all subject areas (Egbe, 2008).

There appears to be widespread agreement not only on the value of planning, but also on the substance and format of plans. The plan that enlisted universal acceptance contains the purposes, experiences and their organization and evaluation.

If a lesson is to be effective, the teacher needs to make decision in these areas before the lesson. He needs to identify the objectives he intends to develop, the knowledge or subject-matter, objectives as well as the process and effective objectives. He needs to select and organize students learning experience that will develop the objective. He needs to make decision about activities to be used, materials to be gathered, amount of time to be spent, and other matters. Finally, he needs to decide what method or instrument to use to determine whether the teaching accomplished the objective of the lesson.

The notion that effective planning will give direction to teaching and result in worthwhile efficient learning has considerable logical validity. It would seem that careful, detailed planning concerning purposes, experiences and evaluation would result in useful and appropriate teacher behavior in the classroom. But is this assumption valid?

Does planning increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning?

It is against this background that the researcher deemed the subject matter.

The impact of effective planning on teaching and learning process worthy of investigation.

1.2     Statement of problem

The state of teaching is fast deteriorating in primary school in Chikun Local Government Area. Consequently, pupils become disenchanted and apathetic toward learning.

As such it becomes imperative to reappraise the impact of effective planning on teaching and learning process in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The main pedagogical problems to consider is: Does effective planning have a beneficial effect on teaching and learning?

Hence, the subject matter of this research the impact of effective planning on teaching and learning process becomes an empirical problem worthy of investigation.

1.3     Objectives of the study

The main objective of the study is to examine the impact of effective planning on teaching and learning process in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The specific objectives are:

1. To examine the beneficial effect of planning on teaching.
2. To evaluate how planning affect learning.
3. To identify the problems militating against planning in schools in the area of the study.
4. To proffer possible solutions to the identified problems affecting effective planning in schools in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

1.4     Research Questions

          i.        What are the beneficial effect of planning on teaching?

          ii.       How does planning affects learning?

          iii.      What are the problems militating against planning in schools?

• What are the possible solutions to this problems?

1.5     Significance of the study

The study will be useful to schools in Chikun Local Government Areas in particular and other schools in Kaduna and indeed Nigeria. Especially as they utilize the findings of this study as a basis for lesson, planning, administrative planning and general planning of school management. The study will be a good reference material for students, scholars and individuals undertaking similar research. It can be used as a spring board to undertake their own research.

1.6     Basic Assumptions

1.       Planning enhances teaching and learning in primary schools in ChikunLocal Government Area.

2.       Planning give direction to teachers in Chikun Local Government Area.

3.       Planning lead to the actualization of the educational objective of Chikun Local Government Area.

4.       Education planning in school is confronted with problems of inadequate data and skilled personnel in ChikunLocal GovernmentArea from twelve selected primary schools with a total population of 211 respondents using the Crusious (2001) sample size technique which advocate for ten percent of the total population as the appropriate  sample size.

1.7     Scope and Limitation of the study

The study covers an examination of the impact of planning on teaching and learning process in twelve selected primary schools from in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State. To this end, the study examines the beneficial effect of planning on teaching as well as learning. The study equally identify the problems militating against effective planning in schools in Chikun Local Government Area as well as making recommendation to the barriers to effective planning’s in schools.

Study covers a time from 2011 to 2012 being the timeframe for this study.

1.8     Definition of Terms

• Planning: The process of setting objectives and the means to attain educational goals.
• Curriculum: Sequence of teaching and learning in form of plans and intentions.
• Lesson plan: Setting specific objective in order to effectively teach what is in a scheme of work.
• Policy: Framework formulated in order to actualized educational attainment in a state.
• Forcast: Projection  into future goal attainment in school.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1     Introduction

This chapter reviews related literature on impact of effective planning on teaching and learning process in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The chapter highlights experts’ opinion, established concepts theories and factual statements on the subject matter of this study. The chapter is segmented into the following sub-themes:

• Theoretical framework
• Concept of effective planning in school
• The beneficial effect of planning on teaching
• The effect of planning on learning
• The problems militating against planning in school
• Summary of the Chapter

2.2     Theoretical Framework for education policy and planning

The notion of educational planning-making the education sector grow and function more effectively- may implicitly suggest a well  structured field of unambiguous issues, clearly defined objectives, mutually exclusive choices, undisputed causal relationships, predictable rationalities, and rational decision-makers. Accordingly, sector analysis has predominantly focused on the content-the ‘what’ of educational development: issues, polices, strategies, measures, outcomes etc. In contrast of this simplistic vision, educational planning is actually a series of untidy and overlapping episodes in which a variety of people and organizations with diversified perspectives are actively involved-technically and politically. It entails the processes through which issues are analyzed and polices are generated, implemented, assessed and redesigned. Accordingly, an analysis of the education sector implies an understanding of the education policy process itself-the ‘how’ and ‘when’ of educational development. The purpose of this section is to suggest a scheme or series of steps through which sound and workable polices can be formulated, and then, through effective planning, put into effect, evaluated and redesigned.

          Policy definition and Scope

Since the policy process is a crucial element in educational planning, it is essential to clarify the concepts of ‘policy’ and ‘policy making’ before proceeding any further. Understandably, competing definitions of ‘policy’ are numerous and varied. For the purposes of this paper, policy is defined functionally to mean: an explicit or implicit single decision or group of decisions which may set out directives for guiding future decisions, initiate or retard action, or guide implementation of previous decisions. Policy making is the first step in any planning cycle and  planners must appreciate the dynamics of policy formulation before they can design implementation and evaluation procedures effectively.

Polices, however, differ in terms of their scope, complexity, decision environment, range of choices, and decision criteria. This range is schematically depicted. Issue-specific polices are short-term decisions involving day-to-day management or, as the term implies, a particular issue. A programme policy is concerned with the design of a programme in a particular area, while a multi-programme policy decision deals with competing programme areas. Finally, strategic decisions deal with large-scale polices and broad resource allocations. For example:

Strategic: How can we provide basic education at a reasonable cost to meet equity and efficiency objectives?

Multi -programme: Should resources be allocated to primary education or to rural training centers?

Programme: How should training centers be designed and provided across the country?

Issue-specific: Should graduates of rural centres be allowed to go into intermediate schools?

Another example:

Strategic: Should we or do we need to introduce diversified education?

Multi-programme: How should we allocate resources between general education, vocational education, and diversified education?

Programme: How and where should we provide diversified education?

Issue-specific: How should practical subjects been taught in diversified schools?

Obviously, the broader the scope of policy is, the more problematic it becomes. Methodological and political issues become more pronounced such as, definition of the problem in conflictive societies: use of analytical techniques and optimizing: questions of proper theoretical base, measurement, valuation and aggregation, hard objective data vs. soft subjective data; and technical analysis vs. public participation.