Lesson 6 Using and Evaluating Instructional Materials

As future educators, it is really important for us to use instructional materials. Furthermore, we also need to make sure that the instructional material we used is appropriate for our objective and can serve its purpose for the optimum learning experience of our students.

There are some guidelines for us to select the right materials for our lesson. These are as follows:

- the material must give a true picture of the ideas they present

- contribute to the attainment of our learning objective

- be appropriate to the age, intelligence and experience of the 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
We should also put in mind that we don't just select a material for our lesson but we also need to know how to use them properly. To ensure effective use of our selected instructional material, we need to remember the acronym suggested by Hayden Smith and Thomas Nagel- the PPPF which means...
My Learning:
The use of instructional materials is not the end in itself, but it is a means to an end, which is the attainment of the learning objective. Selecting appropriate instructional materials is one thing and it is another thing to ensure its effective use. And there is a need to follow up to find out if the objective was attained or not, otherwise they become useless.