LESSON 6USING AND EVALUATING

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

Prepared by: Shane Velasco Jaymar Tuazon Michael Talento

Using and Evaluating Instructional Materials

“ You should have a good idea of your destination, both in the over-all purposes of education and in the everyday work of your teaching. If you do not know where you are going, you cannot properly choose a way to get there.”

After being acquainted with different instructional b materials through Edgar Dale’s Cone of experience, let us, learn how to select and use these materials in order to achieve our desired learning objectives.

Selection of Materials

Do the materials give a true picture of the ideas they present? To avoid misconceptions, it is always good to ask when the material was produced.

Do the materials contribute meaningful content to the topic under study? Does the material help you achieve the instructional objective?

Is the material appropriate for the age, intelligence, and experiences of the learners?

Is the physical condition of the material satisfactory? An example, is a photograph properly mouted?

Is there a teacher ‘s guide to provide a briefing for effective use? The chance that the instructional material will be used to the maximum and to the optimum is increased with a teacher’s guide.

Can the materials in question help to make students better thinkers and develop their critical faculties? With exposure to mass media, it is highly important that we maintain and strenghten our rational powers.

Is the material worth the time, expence and effort involved? A field trip, for instance, requires much time, effort and money. Is it more effective than any other less expensive and less demanding instructional material that can take its place? Or is there a better substitute?

The proper use of materials

To ensure effective use of instructional material, Hayden Smith and Thomas Nagel, (1972) book authors on Instructional Media, advise us to abide by the acronym PPPF.

Prepare yourself. You know you lesson objective and what you expect from the class after the session and why you have selected such particular instructional material. You have a plan on how you will procede, what questions to ask, how you will evaluate learning and how you will tie loose ends before the bell rings.

Prepare your students. Set a class expectations and learning goals. It is sound practice to give them guide questions for them to be able to answer during the discussion. Motivate them and keep them interested and engaged.

Present the material under the best possible conditions. This is means “ running out of gas” which usually results from poor planning. (Smith 1972) Using media and materials, especially if they are mechanical in nature, often requires rehearsal and a carefully planned performance. Wise are you if you try the materials ahead of you class use to avoid a fiasco.

Follow up. Remember that you use instructional material to achieved an objective, not to kill time nor to give yourself a break, neither to merely entertain the class. You use the instructional for the attainment of a lesson objective. You use of the instructional material is not the end in itself. It is a means to an end, the attainment of a learning objective. So, there is need to follow up to find out if objective was attained or not.

P- Prepare yourself P- Prepare you student P- Present the material F- Follow up

To ensure that instructional materials serve their purpose in instruction, we need to

observe some guidelines in their selection and use. The materials that we select must:

►give a true picture of the ideas they present

►contribute to the attainment of the learning objective

►be appropriate to the age, intelligence and experience of learners

►be in good and satisfactory condition

►provide for a teacher’s guide

►help develop the critical and creative thinking powers of students

►be worth the time, expense and effort involved

For optimum use of instructional material , it is necessary that the teacher prepares:

►herself

►her students

► the instructional material and does follow up

Robert Gagne’s nine

Gain attention Inform learner of objectives Stimulate recall of prior learning Present stimulus material Provide learner guidance Elicit performance Provide feedback Assess performance Enhance retention transfer

Postscript There is no such thing as best instructional material

Any instructional material can be the best provided it helps the teacher accomplish her intended learning objective.

No instructional material, no matter how superior, can take the place of an effective teacher.

Instructional materials may perceived to be labor-saving devices for the teacher. On the contrary, the teacher even works harder when she makes good use of instructional materials.