Note: This example uses ChatGPT 4o (paid-for version)
A Guide to Effective Lesson Planning
Effective teaching is not just about delivering content but understanding how students learn. A solid foundation in learning theories allows you to design lessons that foster deeper understanding, engagement, and long-term retention.
Bloom's Taxonomy: Structuring Learning Objectives
Bloom’s Taxonomy, developed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956, provides a framework for categorising educational goals based on cognitive complexity. It is often visualised as a pyramid with six levels, each representing a different type of cognitive skill:
Remembering: Recalling facts and basic concepts.
Understanding: Explaining ideas or concepts.
Applying: Using information in new situations.
Analysing: Breaking information into parts to explore relationships.
Evaluating: Justifying decisions or course of action.
Creating: Producing new or original work.
Why it matters for teachers: Bloom's Taxonomy helps you structure your lessons with clear, progressive learning objectives. By considering the different levels of cognition, you can ensure that students are not just memorising information but are also able to apply, analyse, evaluate, and create based on their knowledge.
How to use it in lesson planning: You can design your lessons to move from lower-order thinking (remembering, understanding) to higher-order thinking (analysing, evaluating, creating). For example, a history teacher could introduce a new topic by asking students to recall key events (remembering), then move on to discussions about the causes of these events (understanding), and later encourage students to analyse their implications (analysing) and evaluate their historical significance (evaluating).
Gagne's Conditions of Learning: Designing for Effective Instruction
Robert Gagne’s theory, introduced in 1965, focuses on the conditions necessary for learning to occur. Gagne identified nine events of instruction that align with specific cognitive processes. These events include:
Gain attention: Use an engaging activity or question to focus students' attention.
Inform learners of objectives: Clearly state what students will learn.
Stimulate recall of prior knowledge: Activate students' existing knowledge before introducing new content.
Present the content: Deliver the lesson using a variety of methods.
Provide learning guidance: Offer scaffolding, examples, and cues.
Elicit performance: Have students practice what they’ve learned.
Provide feedback: Offer constructive feedback to reinforce learning.
Assess performance: Evaluate whether learning objectives have been met.
Enhance retention and transfer: Use exercises that encourage students to apply learning in different contexts.
Why it matters for teachers: Gagne’s framework is grounded in cognitive psychology and provides you with a clear roadmap for structuring lessons. The nine events ensure that learning is active, organised, and that students are given opportunities to apply their knowledge with feedback, leading to better retention.
How to use it in lesson planning: You could use Gagne’s events by beginning a lesson with a stimulating question (gain attention), informing students of the lesson's objectives, and then guiding them through the learning process with appropriate resources and opportunities for practice. Feedback can be incorporated throughout the lesson to help students refine their understanding.
Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction: Ensuring Effective Teaching Practices
Barak Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction, based on decades of research, offer evidence-based strategies for improving teaching effectiveness. Some key principles include:
Begin with a review of previous learning: Helps students build connections.
Present new material in small steps: Reduces cognitive overload.
Ask questions: Promotes active engagement and checks understanding.
Provide models and worked examples: Shows students how to approach tasks.
Provide guided practice: Allows students to apply concepts with support.
Give feedback: Helps students adjust their understanding.
Provide independent practice: Encourages learners to apply knowledge independently.
Why it matters for teachers: Rosenshine’s principles are grounded in the science of how people learn and offer practical guidance for creating lessons that are engaging and effective. The principles emphasise the importance of scaffolding, feedback, and spaced practice in helping students retain information.
How to use it in lesson planning: You could use Rosenshine’s principles by breaking down new content into manageable chunks, guiding students through practice with frequent feedback, and ensuring that students have the opportunity to apply their learning independently. The principles also stress the importance of regular reviews and retrieval practice to enhance long-term retention.
Cognitive Load Theory: Managing Mental Effort
Cognitive Load Theory, developed by John Sweller in the 1980s, focuses on the limitations of working memory. It suggests that learning is most effective when instructional design reduces unnecessary cognitive load, allowing students to focus on the most important aspects of learning.
There are three types of cognitive load:
Intrinsic load: The inherent difficulty of the material.
Extraneous load: The load caused by poor instructional design.
Germane load: The cognitive effort used to process and understand the material.
Why it matters for teachers: By understanding cognitive load, you can avoid overwhelming students by presenting information in a clear, manageable way. Reducing extraneous load and optimizing germane load leads to better understanding and retention.
How to use it in lesson planning: Teachers can manage cognitive load by breaking down complex concepts into smaller, more digestible steps, providing visual aids, and minimising distractions. For example, when teaching a complex algorithm, you could use diagrams or worked examples to help students visualise the steps, thereby reducing intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load.
Metacognition: Fostering Self-Awareness in Learning
Metacognition refers to the process of thinking about one’s own thinking. It involves self-regulation of learning by monitoring and controlling cognitive processes. Metacognitive strategies help students become more aware of how they learn, enabling them to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning more effectively.
Why it matters for teachers: Encouraging metacognitive thinking helps students develop essential skills like problem-solving, reflection, and self-assessment. By fostering metacognition, you can empower students to become independent learners who can regulate their cognitive processes to optimise learning outcomes.
How to use it in lesson planning: You can integrate metacognitive strategies by prompting students to reflect on their learning processes. For example, at the beginning of a lesson, you can ask students to set goals for their learning. During the lesson, you can encourage students to ask themselves questions such as, “How do I know I understand this?” or “What strategies can I use to solve this problem?” At the end of the lesson, you can ask students to evaluate their progress and identify areas for improvement.
Integrating Learning Theories into an Effective Lesson Plan
To create a comprehensive and effective lesson plan, you can integrate these theories in the following way:
Start with Bloom’s Taxonomy to set clear, progressive learning objectives.
Use Gagne’s Conditions of Learning to structure the lesson with events that guide students through the process of learning, from gaining attention to enhancing retention.
Incorporate Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction to ensure that new content is broken into manageable chunks, with opportunities for review, practice, and feedback.
Apply Cognitive Load Theory to manage the cognitive load of the lesson by presenting content clearly, reducing unnecessary distractions, and offering support for more complex material.
Encourage Metacognitive Practices by prompting students to reflect on their learning, set goals, and monitor their progress, helping them become more self-aware and independent learners.
By combining these theories and incorporating metacognitive strategies, teachers can design lessons that not only engage students but also optimise their cognitive processing, making learning more efficient and effective.
Understanding learning theories and incorporating metacognition is essential for teachers who aim to create meaningful and effective learning experiences. Bloom’s Taxonomy, Gagne’s Conditions of Learning, Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction, Cognitive Load Theory, and Metacognition each provide valuable insights into how students learn and process information. When used together, these theories offer a comprehensive framework for designing lessons that support deep learning, encourage engagement, and help students develop the skills they need to succeed. Through metacognitive awareness, students also gain the tools to become more self-regulated and reflective learners.
How To Use ChatGPT Effectively
Step 1: Create your lesson plan
Example prompt:
Can you create a lesson plan to teach students about the main concepts of computational thinking? I would like the students to understand what computational thinking is, what is meant by decomposition, pattern recognition and abstraction. I would like to define three learning objectives for the lesson using Bloom’s Taxonomy. I would like to structure the lesson using Gagne’s Conditions of Learning. I would also like to incorporate Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction and apply Cognitive Load Theory to ensure students are fully supported in understanding the material. The lesson will be 90 minutes long and there will be 10 students in the class. I would also like to provide students with the opportunity to reflect on their learning at the end of the lesson, incorporating the principles of metacognition.
Step 2: Create a worksheet for the lesson
Once you have outlined your lesson plan, you need to start constructing the materials you will use. Start with a student worksheet which will identify the activities that the students can complete during the lesson. Make sure you continue this in the same chat.
Example prompt:
Could you create a worksheet for this lesson?
You can also create a revision guide for students, which is useful for exam based subjects.
Example prompt:
Could you create a revision guide for this lesson?
Step 3: Create worked examples
Using worked examples provides scaffolding for students. ChatGPT may suggest some examples you can use when it generates the lesson plan. But you can also describe your own and ask it to produce a worked example based on your description.
Example prompts:
Can you create the worked examples to use to demonstrate the principles of computational thinking?
Can you create the worked examples to show how to identify patterns in a problem and abstract a solution using a real-world scenario?
Step 4: Asking Questions
Asking questions during the lesson helps you assess students’ understanding. You can use a multiple-choice question (MCQ) after each ‘chunk’ of the lesson to assess understanding.
Example prompt:
Can you create a set of 10 multiple-choice questions that could be used in this lesson?
Step 5: Create the hook
The hook is the starter activity for your lesson. ChatGPT can make some suggestions and produce a slide deck or worksheet to go with it.
Example prompt:
Can you suggest a hook activity for this lesson?
Follow-up:
ChatGPT: Would you like a printable prompt sheet or slides to go with this activity?
Me: yes please
Step 6: Put It All Together
ChatGPT can create a PowerPoint of slides (although it’s not very pretty). You can also ask ChatGPT to bundle up everything it has created for your lesson into a downloadable lesson pack for you.
Example prompts:
Can you create the slide deck for this lesson? I would like to a relevant multiple-choice question after each chunk. I would also like to incorporate the worked examples into the slide deck.
Please create the worksheet as an editable word document and the revision guide as a PDF. Please package this as a lesson pack that I can download.
Example Lesson Pack
Download example lesson pack:
This has not been edited and is an example of the output currently produced by ChatGPT.
Files created by ChatGPT, LLM (02/05/2025).