A case-based system for lesson plan contruction

Planning for teaching imposes a significant burden on teachers, as teachers need to prepare different lesson plans for different classes according to various constraints.  Statistical evidence shows that lesson planning in the Malaysian context is done in isolation and  lesson plan sharing is limited. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether a case-based  system can reduce the time teachers spend on constructing lesson plans. A case-based system was  designed - SmartLP. In this system, a case consists of a problem description and solution pair and  an attribute-value representation for the case is used. SmartLP is a synthesis type of CBR system  which attempts to create a new solution by combining parts of previous solutions in the adaptation. Five activities in the CBR cycle - retrieve, reuse, revise, review and retain - are created via  three types of design: application, architectural and user interface. The inputs are the  requirements and constraints of the curriculum and the student facilities available, and the output  is the solution, i.e. appropriate elements of a lesson plan. The retrieval module consists of five  types of search - advanced search, hierarchical, Boolean, basic and browsing. Solving a problem in  this system involves obtaining a problem description, measuring the similarity of the current  problem to previous problems stored in a database, retrieving one or more similar cases and  attempting to reuse the solution of the retrieved cases, possibly after adaptation. Case adaptation  for multiple lesson plans helps teachers to customise the retrieved plan to suit their constraints.  This is followed by case revision, which allows users to access  and revise their  constructed   lesson plans in  the  system.  Validation mechanisms, through case verification, ensure that the  retained cases are of quality. A formative study was conducted to investigate the effects of SmartLP on performance. The study  revealed that all the lesson plans constructed with SmartLP assistance took significantly less time  than the control lesson plans constructed without SmartLP assistance, although they might have  access to computers and other tools. No significant difference in writing quality, measured by a  scoring system, was noticed for the control group, who constructed lesson plans on the same tasks  without receiving any assistance. The limitations of SmartLP are indicated and the focus of further research is proposed.