Analyzing HEAT of Lesson Plans in Pre-Service and Advanced Teacher Education

Higher-order thinking, Engagement, Authenticity, and Technology integration combine to form HEAT to boost the rigor of a lesson plan to impact K-12 student learning. This preliminary study examines both pre-service and advanced teachers’ lesson plans to determine the level in each of the HEAT components. Through this study an instrument has been revised and refined using previous research of HEAT. The researchers assessed the current HEAT level of lesson plans at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The findings show a difference in HEAT performance of the pre-service and advanced teachers’ lesson plans; however, Higher-order thinking was the highest component of performance for both groups’ lesson plans. In this preliminary study, Technology was found to be the strongest predictor of overall HEAT performance.