Process-product models of teaching (s. Brophy & Good, 1986) include variables of teaching behaviour and teacher characteristics but no links to teacher’s procedures of lesson planning. This is logical since the empirical studies of teaching mostly rely on observable evidence that is available in the classroom. Lesson preparation activities usually happen a few days or hours before the performance of the lesson and therefore are not observable in the classroom. However, lesson planning is both a central part of teacher education and a routine task in teachers’ every day’s work. There are at least two theoretical threads underpinning the impact of lesson planning on the quality of teaching. Firstly, if teacher classroom performance is viewed as the optimization of decision making on teaching actions and delivering tasks to students, a major part of these decisions is to be located in the preparation of the lesson and not in its actual performance. Viewing expert teaching as problem solving in the classroom (s. e.g., Berliner 1986, Bromme 1992), decision making is a central part of it addressing the perceived properties of the actual situation by available and partly explicitly prepared actions. The second major approach is known as the “German Tradition” (Westbury, Hopmann, S. & Riquarts, 2000) originating in the human science approach in educational science and being spelled out in at least two major models of lesson planning. A broader theoretical background is attached to the work of Wolfgang Klafki on “general didactics” (s. Meyer & Meyer 2007) and--as a part of it--on the “Didactic analysis” (Klafki 1958) and its further development into the “perspectives scheme for lesson planning” (Klafki 1994). The second major approach is known as the “Berliner Didaktik” and “learning theory based didactics” respectively (Schulz 1965). It focuses on teacher decision making in four interrelated fields: goals, content matters, instructional methods, and media. Both models emphasize that the quality of teaching strongly depends upon the quality of lesson planning given the responsibility to the teacher to take a critical stance to the syllabus requirements. However, there is little comparative research on different traditions of lesson planning in Europe, so the theoretical threads identified above are to be considered as preliminary. Therefore, the main objective of the symposium is to discuss these preliminary findings from a comparative point of view and to explore the distinctiveness of the various traditions and to analyse their relatedness.

The symposium brings together a series of presentations to provide for an international overview on the different theoretical levels and practical procedures of outlining lesson planning in a scientifically based manner. There are some countries with a strong tradition in General Didactics as a theory of analyzing lessons as well as a tool for lesson planning. In other countries the major impact of General Didactics may be providing instructional methods and sequencing instructional units. The international comparison of the different traditions will be made possible by the methodical approach of guiding questions (German: Leitfragen) (Hörner 2001).

Both the distinctiveness of the various traditions and the foundations of a common conceptual framework of lesson planning will be presented. The tradition of and the current research on lesson planning in dif-ferent European countries are outlined by addressing the following central issues: (1) To which degree is the planning of single lessons or units an issue in the research on teaching and in which academic disci-plines? (2) Which aspects and variables are teachers expected to consider when preparing their lesson plans? (3) On which theoretical/normative basis do they integrate different variables in order to provide consistence between pupils’ needs and interests, content requirements, teaching methods, and media available? (4) Is there empirical evidence of the effects of the quality of lesson planning on the quality of teaching and on the learning outcomes? (5) To which degree is the instruction in lesson planning an issue in teacher education programs?