Planning which happens to be a major Undergraduate Research Project in the context of education entails the process of setting objectives and determining the means to achieving the objectives. It entails deciding in advance what to be taught how, to teach, when to teach, who is be taught, and the evaluation of recipient. Planning is the beginning of teaching and learning process, before a teacher goes to the class to deliver any lesson, he plans such lessons while education administrators make policy and plan the curriculum for the school to implement them. Through planning for a lesson makes the teaching-learning encounter valuable and productive impact. Conversely, no planning leads to a wasteful and unproductive lesson. The motion pervades education at all levels and in all subject areas (Egbe, 2008). There appears to be widespread agreement not only on the value of planning, but also on the substance and format of plans. The plan that enlisted universal acceptance contains the purposes, experiences and their organization and evaluation.
If a lesson is to be effective, the teacher needs to make decision in these areas before the lesson. He needs to identify the objectives he intends to develop, the knowledge or subject-matter, objectives as well as the process and effective objectives. He needs to select and organize students learning experience that will develop the objective. He needs to make decision about activities to be used, materials to be gathered, amount of time to be spent, and other matters. Finally, he needs to decide what method or instrument to use to determine whether the teaching accomplished the objective of the lesson. The notion that effective planning will give direction to teaching and result in worthwhile efficient learning has considerable logical validity. It would seem that careful, detailed planning concerning purposes, experiences and evaluation would result in useful and appropriate teacher behavior in the classroom. But is this assumption valid? Does planning increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning? It is against this background that the researcher deemed the subject matter. The impact of effective planning on teaching and learning process worthy of investigation.
The state of teaching is fast deteriorating in primary school in Nigeria. Consequently, pupils become disenchanted and apathetic toward learning. As such it becomes imperative to reappraise the impact of effective planning on teaching and learning process in Nigeria. The main pedagogical problems to consider is: Does effective planning have a beneficial effect on teaching and learning? Hence, the subject matter of this research the impact of effective planning on teaching and learning process becomes an empirical problem worthy of investigation.