The teacher’s professional excellence depends upon his planning and methodical approach. The first thing is curriculum planning followed by syllabus coverage planning. Curriculum and syllabus are different. Syllabus is only a part of the curriculum. Curriculum is the totality of the educational programmes which are planned to achieve certain objectives. The activities and the syllabus are to be used for achieving the goals of the curriculum.

The teacher has to make a diagnostic study of the learner potential and the needs of the student, formulate the objectives and organize the subject matter sequentially and present it step by step in controlled language that suits the level of comprehension of the student. The whole thing requires careful planning. The student comes to the school or college with ‘entering behavior’ and leaves it after the examination with his ‘terminal behavior’. ‘Entering behavior’ is the student’s knowledge and skills when he joined the course. ‘Terminal behavior’ is the change and improvement after finishing the course.

It requires lot of planning and methodical

performance of the teacher to transform the ‘course objectives’ into ‘behavioral objectives’. For example, let us take the case of English. The syllabus of the course will contain a few prose lessons, a selection of poems and a book of non-detailed study. They form the course. When the student finishes the course, he should be able to speak, write, think, etc. The latter are the practiced skills which will be tested for employment or success in life. Unfortunately, today students get high marks in the examination but cannot speak, write and think. Behavioral objectives include skills and attitudes. It requires professional planning on the part of the teacher to use the course material to equip the student with behavioral /practical skills.

Teaching is not a mechanical and ritualistic exercise. It is not a straight-jacket lecture. It is objective-based, planned performance. The teacher has to follow different methods and organize different activities to suit the different objectives he has to achieve. The planned activities are to be carried out within a pre-determined time-frame. Methods, activities, materials and evaluation tools are the salient features of professional planning.

It is necessary to prepare the

(1) Year plan

(2) Unit plan and

(3) Lesson plan.

(1) Year plan: To prepare this plan, the teacher has to take into consideration the course or the instructional objectives of the subject and the total number of the periods available in the year, making provision for holidays and no-work days. The difficulty level of the segments of the syllabus should be kept in view. Difficult parts require more periods. The entire syllabus should be divided into units.

(2) Unit plan: The unit plan should divide the content matter into 10-12 periods. Number of periods required to cover each sub-unit must be determined. It is desirable to analyze the content for the choice of methods, materials, activities, evaluation tools etc.

(3) Lesson plan: A lesson plan is a plan of action showing the aims to be realized by teaching a lesson, the methods to be employed and the activities to be undertaken in a single period. The most effective teacher is the one who plans his lesson everyday. It is a programme of action. At college level, methods include lecture, tutorial, seminar, discussion, questioning etc.

Experts say that if learning is to be effective, it should be personalized and individualized. The best method is Upanishadic interpersonal two-way communication.

Teachers at university level are expected to realize higher goals.

(1) Providing latest knowledge

(2) Transmission of culture

(3) Socialization by inculcating right attitudes, values and skills

(4) Preparation for the adult occupational roles

(5) Research-Creativity-Innovation.

At this level, the teacher has greater responsibilities through ‘guided reading’, ‘supervised study’ and ‘case studies’.

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