Competency-Based Lesson Preparation

1.0 INTRODUCTION

• The implementation of competency-based curriculum heavily depends on

the quality of lesson preparation.

• The role of the teacher in the process is mainly on how well she interprets
curriculum goals to meet the diverse needs of their learners.

• A general principle of competency-based lesson delivery is student-centered

learning, which means empowering the students to process information actively to
construct intended meaning and skills.

Unlike traditional lesson plans which accumulates all the authorities to the teacher,
often seen as the imparter of knowledge, whose role is to lecture, dictate passive students,
competency-based lessons on contrary put the learner at the center of the lesson actively
engages the student in the whole learning process.

• The idea is to ensure that every learning activity is tailored to meet individual
student needs.

• As such, competency-based lessons aim at developing a wide range of broad curriculum

competencies such as reflective and critical thinking, creativity, innovation, self and moral
values, culture identity, self-expression, collaboration, and citizenship.

• The role of the teacher centers around preparation of activities, resources and
assessment of whether learning outcomes are being attained.

We will explore effective strategies for competency-based lesson planning, how to create
engaging, meaningful, and impactful learning experiences for their students.

2.0STAGES OF THE LESSON PLAN

Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE) mandated with curriculum
development, requires that the lesson proceeds in the four stages namely 1)
introduction, 2) competence development, 3) design and 4) realization.
However, the important

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issue in lesson preparation is not filling in statements in each stage but organizing
learning experiences that help the learner connect the lesson with prior experience,
acquire new skills, test them as she develops mastery of the same.

INTRODUCTION
• The stage seeks to trigger learner’s prior experiences, values and beliefs. In the
introduction, the learner is invited to participate in the lesson emotionally and
intellectually.
• In so doing, a learner engages in meaningful learning that integrates learner’s
interest, values, beliefs, emotions, curiosity and expectations to get her see the need
for the lesson which is about to begin.
In the content-based lesson, the practice has been to review the previous lesson
or ask questions that students answer. While this is not entirely wrong, but in
most cases, it does not really tap into learner’s experiences, beliefs and values.
• Instead of simple repetition of content challenge the learner to think through varied
teaching techniques For example, the puzzle, the video, the riddle, the story, the
song, the driving question, or presentation of images for learners to recognize.

Examples of lesson introducing activities:

1) The teacher displays the video of the children with varied level of
hearing (including the deaf) and asks students to guess what could be
wrong with ears.

Students to watch the video and identify the child who cannot hear (deaf)
and shout out their reflection as the video continues

2) The teacher shows the picture of objects (pie and loaves) of bread divided
to present fractions of the whole. She then projects the chart with
undivided whole objects and learners come up and divide them in halves,
thirds, fourth etc

Students call out the fractions as they observe and use worksheets of the
same.

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 3) The teacher narrates the observation of the recent development in news
outlets around the case and challenges students to reflect on
implication.

Students make sense of the story

4) The teacher distributes the worksheet with a puzzle to be solved in groups

of four students. Students to solve the puzzle and report their findings.

COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT
• In this stage, the learner is provided with a concrete learning experience that
develops the intended learning outcomes.
• The activity does not just come from the middle of nowhere but the main activity
suggested in the syllabus to achieve the specific competence shown in the same.
• The learner is therefore provided with activities that enable her build measurable
competencies through specific tasks such as reading texts, watching videos, listening to
audio sources, sharing experiences, investigating, observing, completing a worksheet,
interviewing and so on.
In developing these activities, the teacher is expected to use teaching techniques
and resources that embed the broad curriculum competencies including self-
expression, collaboration, reflective thinking, innovation, green education and so
on.
Examples of competence developing teaching and learning activities:
1) The teacher hangs the bright colored chart and passes out copies of the
same chart to students. Models how to complete the square (work several
examples to be sure students know what to do) and let them work on
their sheets.
Students complete the fraction with a denominator of 100 that equals the
fraction in the raw. Individually, students fill in the third square with the
decimal equivalent of that fraction.
2) Introduces students to the story in the book (page 112 – 113) and provides
instruction that they will read quietly and they should be identifying difficult
vocabularies.
Students read the story quietly to identify difficult words from the story

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 3) The teacher projects the problem for students to reflect on (a boy has the
loaves of bread and wants to distribute it to 8 friends, how much bread
should he give each of his friends?)
In groups of 4, students reflect on the problem through drawing and show
their different solutions (drawings) for plenary discussion.

4) The teacher provides the modality of learning teams to present their

findings on the projects they have been working on since last month.
Learning Teams B and D are invited to share the progress of their works
for 10 minutes.
Learning Teams B and D present their findings for 20 minutes and the rest
of the class compare their findings

DESIGN
• In the design stage, the teacher presents the learner with an opportunity to come up
with some form of evidence that she has acquired knowledge and skills.
• The idea is for the learner to practice what she has learned in the competence
development stage.
• Even in the situation that the teacher had direct instruction in the competence
development stage, here the role shifts entirely to the learner and the teachers
assumes the role of assessment of her performance. In view of that, it is expected
that the learner composes poems, for example, develops a story, draws pictures,
writes an artifact or designs new models.

In the content-based lesson, the practice for most teachers in this stage was to
give out some exercises as a way of reinforcing the content in question. In that
regard, the lesson plan had reinforcing stage which is not the case in the competency-
based lesson.

Examples of design activities:

1) The teacher challenges students to represent their solutions in numbers
(fractions) and allows students to point out seeming discrepancies.

Students attempt to convert their drawings into fractions and present their
reflections for others to react.

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 2) The teacher uses cases to challenge the learners to reflect on the
practical interventions to persons with varied forms of hearing
impairments.

In the groups, students read the cases and reflect on ways of helping people
with varied forms of hearing impairments.

3) The teacher provides work sheets on the –OH functional group. Gives
instructions on how the work is done.
Individually, students work on the provided work sheets. Selected students
present their work in in front of the class.

4) The teacher instructs students in pairs to use their dictionaries to find

meaning of the common difficult vocabularies.
In their pairs to use their dictionaries to find the meaning of the common
difficult vocabularies and share their own examples from their daily
experiences

REALIZATION
• In the realization stage, the learner is assisted to see the bigger picture of the lesson.
• The question that this stage tries to help learners answer is, ‘Why did we have to
bother with all these learning activities? How do we make use of this lesson?’ ‘We have
learned all these. So what?’
• In answering these questions, the teacher provides learners with an activity that
achieves any of the following.
• First, demonstration of mastery of acquired skills. Mastery is demonstrated when
one applies the acquired knowledge or skills in different contexts.
In this case, the learner is assisted to find relevance of the lesson, extending the lesson to
everyday experiences.
How does this happen? Invite the learner to talk about own interpretation of the
lesson for example and let her suggest the application of what she has learned.
• Secondly, the learner summarizes the major take aways of the lesson. It is another
form of reflection where a learner assesses herself to see how they have filled in the
gap that existed in their prior experiences.

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 • In this way, the realization goes back to the introduction stage and realizes what was
initially desired.Contrary to content-based lesson, the teacher does not have to see
this stage as formative assessment opportunity since assessment was continuously
done in each activity. If the teacher sees realization as an assessment stage, the
essence of assessment criteria is completely lost.
Examples of realization activities:
1) The teacher provides students with exit ticket and asks them to reflect on
their own values and how they have affected their decisions.
Students to individually write down their own assessment and point out areas
of improvements.
2) The teacher interprets the activity (that fractions that look different can
be equal in order to point out the relationship of decimals and fractions)
and asks students to relate what they have learned with life experiences.
Students point out relationships of decimals and fractions
3) The teacher reviews what students have done and provides clarifications on
relationships of decimals and fractions. Students take note of the
relationships of decimals and fractions
4) The teacher invites students to reflect on the need for following
the example of Joshua in the present day.
Selected to share their personal reflection on how the life of Joshua informs
our present experiences.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
• Formative assessment of learning is yet another key characteristic of competency-
based lesson.
• In each stage of lesson, the teacher is therefore required to develop clear, measurable
performance indicators that serve as criteria of assessment as the learning activity
proceeds.

In the content-based lesson, where a teacher overemphasizes class management

techniques. Statements such as ‘walk around the class to see whether students are
discussing’, ‘observe whether students are taking notes’ are common even when the
outcome of the learning in the proposed activity is unclear. This is usually the
case, since the idea is often to ensure that students are paying attention to
teachers’ instructions.
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 • Competency-based lesson addresses this limitation by clarifying specific desired
learning outcomes that a learner needs to demonstrate in terms of knowledge and
skills on completion of the activity.
• Each criterion shows clearly the expected learning outcomes as an activity is being
competed.
• It may be worded in passive voice and strictly not in past tense. For example, it can not
be,‘Students recognized the odd numbers’, but rather, “Odd numbers recognized
correctly.”
In other words, an activity is incomplete without a clear assessment criterion
and therefore it should be prepared before entering the classroom. The
information obtained at this part will finally help a teacher to write good remarks
after the lesson.

Examples of assessment criteria:

1) Fractions presented correctly
2) Relationship between decimals and fractions clearly established
3) Relationship between decimals and fractions clearly established
4) Solutions to the cases are provided clearly and reactions are
handled properly

REMARKS

In the remarks section of a lesson plan, the teacher provides reflective

comments and observations based on performance of the specific activity. The
comments are usually written after the lesson has been implemented. The
teacher, therefore, writes the following:
1) Identifies the number of learners who at least met the threshold of
the assessment criteria. In other words, reflecting on every activity, how
many students were able to perform at least the minimum expected
outcome? How many students did not hit the threshold and what
should happen an intervention?
2) Uses information she collected in each assessment criteria to remark
the performance of the specific activity. In that regard, the teacher
proposes adjustments to teaching techniques, materials, or pacing
based on observations from the current lesson.

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 LESSON PLAN FORMAT
Subject: Class:
Date: Time:

STUDENTS’ ATTENDANCE
REGISTERED PRESENT ABSENTEES
BOYS GIRLS TOTAL BOYS GIRLS TOTAL BOYS GIRLS TOTAL

MAIN COMPETENCE:
(taken from the syllabus)
SPECIFIC COMPETENCE:
(taken from the syllabus)
MAIN ACTIVITY:
(taken from the syllabus)

SPECIFIC ACTIVITY :
(taken from the syllabus)

Teaching and Learning Resources:

References:
LESSON DEVELOPMENT STAGES

Time(Min) Assessment
Teaching Activity Learning Activity
Stage Criteria

INTRODUCTION
(Stimulating
Learning, Relating
with Experiences)

Time(Min) Assessment
Stage Teaching Activity Learning Activity
Criteria

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 NEW
COMPETENCE
DEVELOPMENT
(Change in beliefs,
values, attitudes,
or practice)

DESIGN
(Application of
Learning)

REALIZATION
(Demonstration
of Mastery)

Remarks:

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