LESSON PLANNING COMPETENCY OF ENGLISH MAJOR UNIVERSITY SOPHOMORE STUDENTS

This study examined the lesson planning competency of English major sophomore university students enrolled in a government higher education institution in Cebu City, Philippines. We employed a descriptive survey research design utilizing primary and secondary data gathered from the study respondents and from online peer reviewed research journals. Data analysis included assessing the strength, weakness and extent of lesson planning competencies as well as lesson planning outcomes. The study is anchored on the experiential learning theory (ELT) which contends that experience plays a central role during the holistic adaptive process of learning. ELT merges experience, perception, cognition and behaviour. As a process, ELT considers learning as knowledge creation through the transformation of experience. Findings revealed that common lesson planning pitfalls include limited teacher experience and access to instructional materials, poor students’ interests; less spontaneity in the classroom, limited freedom, teacher’s struggle upon starting a lesson, and assessment not matching the learning objectives which often confuses the pre-service teachers. University sophomore students manifested strength towards lesson planning competency with very high capability to construct an effective lesson plan. The study also found out that lesson planning competencies are highly useful for pre-service teachers in developing their potentials. In conclusion, exposure towards improving instructional planning helps sophomore students recognise opportunities towards developing strategies which enable to overcome challenging situations in the teaching practice. Moreover, becoming aware of the challenges toward lesson planning allows sophomore students to be prepared of their tasks in the actual setting. Well-executed lesson plan brings about competent teachers who become effective and efficient educators. We recommend that lesson planning activity should partake through a series of analysis commencing from instructional planning.  Article visualizations