Journal o fEducation, 2016
Issue 66, http://joe.ukzn.ac.za
The what and how in scripted lesson plans:
the case of the Gauteng Primary Language
and Mathematics Strategy
Yael Shalem, Carola Steinberg, Hannchen
Koornhof and Francine De Clercq
(Received 25 April 2016; accepted 9 November 2016)
Abstract
Lesson plans are advocated as useful forms of teacher support because they can expand a repertoire
of teaching practices. But what kinds of scripted instruction can effectively guide and improve
teachers' instruction and how can lesson plans achieve that? This article examines the nature and
purpose of the scripted lesson plans (SLPs) used in the Gauteng primary education system and then
investigates how teachers enacted these routinised SLPs. Through a review of the literature on
teaching English language and on SLPs, the article assesses the opportunities and challenges
afforded by the Gauteng Primary Language and Mathematics Strategy's (GPLMS's) lesson plans
for Grade 3 English as First Additional Language (FAL). Then, through an analysis ofan English
FAL lesson taught differently by two teachers, it points to the many professional judgements made
by the teachers as they enact the prescribed teaching routine. Our analysis suggests, firstly, that the
knowledge resources given to teachers need to be considerably more detailed and, secondly, that
teachers need strong subject matter knowledge to transmit the conceptual relations that underlie the
teaching routines of the lesson plan.
Introduction
The Gauteng Primary Language and Mathematics Strategy (GPLMS) was a
four-year, large-scale, government-based, literacy and numeracy intervention
(2010-2013) targeting underperforming primary schools and is considered the
most innovative recent development programme in South African education.
Learners' poor results on annual national assessments (ANAs) and growing
evidence of unstructured teaching practices, in particular in terms of lesson
planning, pedagogy and inadequate curriculum coverage, gave rise to this
multi-pronged intervention (Botha, 2014; Fleisch & Schoer, 2014).
14 Journal o f Education, No. 66 1 2016
Championed by the Gauteng MEC for Education in 2010, the GPLMS
targeted close to 12 000 teachers in 1 000 primary schools that scored below
the provincial and national average learner results. The aim was to increase
the Grade 3 and 6 pass rate of languages and mathematics in the Foundation
and Intermediate Phases from below 40% in 2010 to at least 60% by 2014
(GDE, 2010) through improved teaching and a reduced gap between the
intended and enacted curriculum. The intervention was considered successful
and was incorporated into the structures of the Gauteng Department of
Education (GDE) in 2014. 1
The main feature of the GPLMS were scripted lesson plans (SLPs) for the
subjects of Mathematics, Home Language (versioned into the 11 official
languages of South Africa), and English as a First Additional Language
(English FAL). The SLPs were accompanied by graded readers, phonics
tables, posters, workbooks for learners, 'just-in-time' training and 'ongoing
in-class coaching' for teachers. Coaches observed teachers and acted as
critical friends, modelling the new teaching routines and assisting with how to
plan, prepare and deliver the SLPs. When the intervention moved into a
second phase inside the GDE,2 the district subject advisors and school-based
HoDs were tasked with the coaches' role of supporting and monitoring
teachers. This has made GPLMS SLPs a central feature of these primary
schools.
The lesson plans for English FAL translate the weekly content and skills set
out in the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS, 2011) into core
teaching routines ('Greetings', 'Phonics', 'Listening and Speaking', 'Shared
Reading', 'Group Guided Reading', 'Language Use'), and specify the pacing
of the learning activities with strict daily timeframes, standardised for the
whole school year. The SLPs provide content, questions, activities and forms
The idea for this r,ap_er developed from a critic.ill review of the 11.rofessional d velopment
programmes whichlhe Gauteng Department or Education (GDE) introduced m the first 20
years of democracy (De Clercq and Shalem, 2014). The main finding o f the review was that
until 2009, most of the programmes were targeted at the improvement of a few discrete
aspects o f teacher practice, to comply with a new curriculum framework. Around 2009, the
GDE turned towards scripted teaching in the form of standardised lesson plans so as to
engineer a whole new practice for teachers in order to improve learners' results.
2
This second phase incorporation was rather controversial for some GDE district officials who
did not want SLPs in their schools. In addition, the training of school-based HoDs and district
subject advisors to assume the coaches' role was relatively neglected.
