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What is good planning?

What do we mean by Planning ?

Planning is the ability to take a strategic overview of your learning, and make sensible decisions. It means:

  • taking stock of the problem and the parameters within which you must work
  • assessing the available resources, both inner and outer, and deciding which you think are going to be needed
  • making an estimate of the time the learning will take, and the competing priorities that may have to be delayed or sacrificed
  • imagining a route-map for the learning
  • anticipating hurdles or problems that may arise along the way.

Good learners like taking responsibility for planning and organising their learning. They welcome opportunities to decide for themselves when, where, why and how they are going to learn—and to get better at doing so. Research shows, for example, that people who can make a reasonable estimate of how long a task will take are more likely to finish on time, and to do better work.

What does being a good Planner involve?

A well formed Planning habit involves being ready, willing, and able to:

  • Identify end goals or objectives before considering possible action;
  • Consider timescales and possible obstacles in drawing up a realistic plan;
  • Make use of a wide variety of skills and tools to gather ideas and information;
  • Sequence activity in order to decide what needs to be done;
  • Think laterally as well as logically so that the task benefits equally from creative and rational thought;
  • Be open-minded and flexible about how things might happen so that opportunities can be seized and fresh directions taken.

Try this activity

Jumbled up planning

click to enlarge

Can you put these jumbled aspects of planning into a sensible order? Could you use the outcomes to create a planning flowchart with your class to guide future planning?

 

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