How are elementary teachers prepared for lesson planning? A critical scoping review

Lesson planning is a central activity of teaching, yet little is known about how preservice elementary teachers are prepared to construct lesson plans. In teacher education research, most studies continue to examine preservice teacher learning at the level of a single course or single program, limiting generalizability of findings. Further, little is known about how well the lesson plan approaches promoted in teacher education programs align with evidence-based practices for effective teaching. This critical scoping review of studies (n = 37) of elementary generalist preservice teachers’ preparation to write lesson plans was conducted to address this gap. Results indicate that most studies simply describe preservice teachers’ practices for lesson planning, ignoring the influence of teacher educators, while few provide insights into innovations and designs that build teachers’ capacity for lesson planning. Further, most studies of preservice teachers’ lesson planning relate to accepted norms for planning based on key reforms, policies, or theories. However, results also show that most researchers do not articulate the underlying approach to lesson planning promoted in their research. When they do, the most common approaches are constructivist and behaviorist approaches to planning lessons. Other approaches, such as esthetic or ecological approaches to planning, lack attention.