Connect English

Don’t follow the plan; follow the learners

This morning, while walking Vida, my dog, I realised that teaching has a lot in common with it.

Every walk starts with a plan. I know roughly where we’re going and how long we’ll be out.

Within five minutes, the plan has usually changed.

Vida wants to stop and sniff something that seems completely unimportant to me. She notices things I would never have seen. Sometimes she pulls me in a different direction altogether. If I insist on sticking rigidly to my original route, the walk becomes a battle. If I let her explore, while gently guiding us towards where we need to end up, we both enjoy it much more.

Teaching feels the same.

Every lesson starts with a carefully thought-out plan. We have aims, timings, activities and a clear destination in mind. Then the learners arrive.

A question takes the lesson somewhere unexpected. A task turns out to be much harder than anticipated. Someone shares an experience that sparks a discussion worth having. Or students grasp an idea much faster than expected, making it obvious it’s time to move on.

In those moments, the lesson stops being about following a plan and starts being about making professional decisions.

Many believe that education should be rooted in learners’ experiences and that expert professionals are people who reflect in action by constantly thinking and adapting while they work. To me, that’s what teaching really is. Not delivering a perfect lesson plan, but knowing when to follow it and when to take a different path because that’s what your learners need.

The irony is that the better I get at planning, the more comfortable I become with changing the plan.

Vida reminds me of that every morning.

Sometimes the most interesting part of the walk isn’t where we planned to go. It’s where curiosity takes us.