Teacher Planning Templates: Helpful Tool or Waste of Time? A Comparative Analysis of the Perceptions of Novice and Experienced Teachers in the UAE and USA

Lesson plan templates are a frequent requirement in schools around the world. School administrators often choose a standard lesson plan style and require the consistent layout for all teachers of all grade levels and across all disciplines. Lesson planning, when done well, should be a guide for both teachers and administrators of the educational concept the students need to learn, how the teacher will teach the concept, and how student learning will be evaluated. Lesson planning is a time-consuming task for the teacher and a requirement and expectation by which administration oversees instructional practices in schools. This research study sought to obtain, evaluate, and analyze the perspectives of administrators and teachers from both the United Arab Emirates and the United States on the perceived usefulness of lesson planning templates in the planning process. A quantitative method employing a close-ended survey was used to obtain data. An exploratory factor analysis was applied to determine perspective of teachers on the value and utility of completing templates for instructional planning purposes, and an independent variable T-test was applied to examine similarities and differences in perspectives based on time in the field. The impact of the study could shape future views on the practice, benefits, training, use, and research of lesson planning templates. Keywords: novice teacher, experienced teacher, lesson planning templates, administrative requirement, teacher planning