An Analysis of Strategies for Teaching Standards-Based Lesson Plan Alignment to Preservice Teachers

Research consistently shows that well-aligned lesson plans lead to better student learning outcomes. The development of well-aligned plans presents a challenge both to preservice teachers in their attempts to master the process and to the teacher educators who instruct them. This exploratory study examined strategies for teaching lesson plan alignment utilized by 87 teacher educators in the United States. Analysis of the results showed that three instructional approaches–- expository, hands-on, and collaborative–-were used, with the predominant evaluative tool being either an analytic or completion rubric. Data also revealed that the participants tended to focus more on summative performance–-the completed lesson plan–-than on students' engagement in formative practice.