Lesson 6. Using and Evaluating Instructional Materials

• One of the instructional materials used to attain instructional objectives is field trip. 

• For an effective use of instructional materials such as field trip, there are guidelines that ought to be observed, first of all, in their selection and second, in their use.

Selections of Materials

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

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

• Is the material aligned to the curriculum standards and competencies?

• Is the material culture – and grades – sensitive?

• Does the material have culture bias?

• Is the material appropriate for the age, Intelligence, and experience of the learner?

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

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

• Can the material in question help to make a student better thinkers and develop their critical faculties? With exposure to the mass media, it is highly important that we maintain and and strengthen our rational powers.

• Does the use of material make learners collaborate with one another?

• Does the material promote self – study?

• Is the material worth the time, expense and effort involved? A field trip, for instance, requires much time, effort and money. It is 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 Nigel, (1972) book authors on Instructional Media, advise us to abide by the acronym PPPF.

Prepare Yourself

• You know your lesson objective and what you expect from the class after the session and why you have selected such particular r instructional materials. You have a plan on how you will proceed, what question to ask, how  you will evaluate learning and how you will tie loose ends before the bell rings.

Prepare Your Students

• Set reasonably high 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.

Prepare the Materials

• Under  the best possible conditions.  Many teachers are guilty of the R.O.G syndrome. This is means “running out if gas” which usually refers 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 your class use to avoid a fiasco.

Follow - up

• Remember that you use instructional materials to achieve 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. Your use 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 to use.

Robert Gagne's Nine (9) Instructional Material in the Subject Facilitating Learning

There is no such thing as best instructional material

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

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

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

• “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.”

Lesson 7: Direct-Purposeful Experience

• Direct-purposeful experiences are our concrete and first hand experiences that make up the foundation of our learning.

• These are the rich experiences that our senses bring from which we construct the ideas, the concepts, the generalizations that give meaning and order to our lives (Dale, 1969).

• They are the sensory experiences.

Examples of Direct Purposeful Activities:

Preparing meals or snacks

Making a piece of furniture

Performing a laboratory experiment

Delivering a speech

Taking a trip

Contrast, indirect experiences are experience of other people that we observe, read, or hear about. They are not our experiences but still experiences in the sense that we see, read, hear about them. They are not firsthand but rather vicarious.

                                                                 

Why are these direct experiences described to be purposeful?

 • They are experiences that are internalized in the sense that experiences involve the asking of questions that have significance in the life of the person undergoing the direct experiences.

 • These experiences are undergone in relation to a purpose, i.e. learning

 • It is done in relation to a certain learning objective.

What does Direct Purposeful Experience imply to the Teaching-Learning Process?

 • Let us give our students opportunities to learn by doing. Let us immerse our students in the world of experience.

 • Let us make use of real things as instructional materials for as long as we can.

 • Let us help our students develop the five senses to the full heighten their sensitivity to the world.

 • Let us guide our students so that they can draw meaning from the first hand experiences and elevate their level of thinking.

Lesson 8: Contrived Experience

• Contrived experiences are the edited copies of reality and are used as substitutes for real things when it is not practical or possible to bring or do the real thing in the classroom.

• They are designed to stimulate real life situations.

Examples:

1. Model

• A reproduction of a real thing in a small scale, or a large scale or exact size- but made of synthetic materials.

• It is a substitute for a real thing which may or may not operational –Brown, et. al, 1969.

2. Mock up

• An arrangement of a real device or associated devices, displayed in such way that representation of reality is created

• A special model where the parts of a model are singled out, heightened and magnified in order to focus on that part or process under study.

• The best example of Mock up is Planetarium.

3. Specimen

• Any individual or item considered typically of a group, class, or whole.

4. Object

• May also include artifacts displayed in a museum or objective displayed in exhibits or preserved insect specimens in science

5. Simulation

• A representation of a manageable real event in which the learner is an active participant engage in learning a behavior or in applying previously acquired skills or knowledge  -Orlich et. al, 1994.

6. Game

• Games are used in any of these purposes:

• To practice and/or to refine knowledge/skills already acquired

• To identify gaps and weaknesses in knowledge or skills

• To serve as a summation or review

• To develop new relationships among concepts and principles

Why do we make use of contrived experiences?

• Overcome limitations of space and time.

• To edit reality for us to be able to focus on parts or process of a system that we intend to study.

• To overcome difficulties of size.

• To understand the inaccessible.

• Help the learners understand abstraction.

Ten general purposes of simulations and games

1. to develop changes in attitudes

2. to change specific behaviors

3. to prepare participants for assuming new roles in the future

4. to help individuals understand their current roles

5. to increase the students’ ability to apply principles

6. to reduce complex problems or situations to manageable elements

7. to illustrate roles that may affect one’s life but that one may never assume

8. to motivate learners

9. to develop analytical processes

10. to sensitize individuals to another person’s life role

Lesson 9: Dramatized Experience

• Dramatic - is something that is stirring, affecting, or moving.

• Dramatic entrance - is something that catches and holds attention, and has emotional impacts.

Dramatized Experiences can be range from:

a. Formal Plays

•    Depict life, character, culture, or a combination of the three. They offer excellent opportunities to portray vividly important ideas about life.

b. Pageants

• Are usually community dramas that are based on local history. An example is a historical pageant that traces the growth of a school.

c. Pantomime

• Is an art of conveying a story through bodily movements. The effects of pantomime to the audience depend on the movements of the actors.th of a school.

d. Tableau

•    A picture-like scene composed of people against a background

e. Role-playing

•   An unrehearsed, unprepared, and spontaneous dramatization of a situation where assigned participants are absorbed by their own roles.

f. Puppets

•    An inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a Puppeteer. Puppets can present ideas with extreme simplicity.

Types of Puppets

 Shadow puppet 

                          - flat, black, silhouette made from lightweight cardboard shown behind a screen.

Rod puppets 

                     -flat, cut figures tacked to a stick with one or more movable parts, and are operated below the stage through wires and rods.

Glove-and-finger puppets

                     -make use of gloves which small costumed figures are attached and rods.

Marionettes 

                  -flexible, jointed puppets operated by strings or wires attached to a cross bar and maneuvered from directly above the stage.

Lesson 10: Demonstration

•     Like role-playing and pantomime of the dramatized experience, demonstration is also something very handy. It requires no elaborate preparation and yet as effective as the other instructional materials when done properly.

(According to Webster’s International Dictionary)

     It is define as, “A public showing emphasizing the salient merits, utility, efficiency, etc, of an article or product…”

    In teaching it is showing how thing is done and emphasizing of the salient merits, utility and efficiency of a concept, a method or a process or an attitude.

                                     

Guiding Principles (Edgar Dale 1969)

1. Establish rapport.

·             Greet your audience.

·              Make them feel at ease by your warmth and sincerity.

·              Stimulate their interest by making your demonstration and     yourself interesting.

·              Sustain their attention.

2. Avoid COIK fallacy (Clear Only If Known).

 - What is this fallacy? It is the assumption that what is clear to the expert demonstrator is also clearly known to the person for whom the message is intended. - To avoid the fallacy, it is best for the expert demonstrator to assume that his audience knows nothing or a little about what he is intending to demonstrate for him to be very thorough, clear detailed in his demonstration even to a point of facing the risk of being repetitive.
Planning and Preparing For Demonstration (Brown 1969)1. What are our objectives?2. How does your class stand with respect to these objectives? This is to determine entry knowledge and skills of your students.3. Is there a better way to achieve your ends? If there is a more effective way to attain your purpose, then replace the demonstration method with the more effective one.4. Do you have access to all the necessary materials and equipment to make the demonstration? Have a checklist of necessary equipment and material. This may include written materials.5. Are you familiar with the sequence and content of the purposed demonstration?Outline the steps and rehearse your demonstration. 6. Are the time limits realistic? 
Point to Observe in the Demonstration Dale (1969)1. Set the tone for good communication. Get and keep your audience’s interest.2. Keep your demonstration simple.3. Do not wander from main ideas.4. Check to see that your demonstration is being understood. Watch your audience for signs of bewilderment, boredom, or disagreement.5. Do not hurry your demonstration. Asking questions to check understanding can serve as a “brake”.6. Do not drag out demonstration. Interesting things are never dragged out. They create their own tempo.7. Summarize as you go along and provide a concluding summary. Use chalkboard, the overhead projector, charts diagrams, PowerPoint and whatever other materials are appropriate to synthesize your demonstration.8. Hand out written materials at the conclusion. 
Questions to Evaluate Classroom Demonstration (Dale 1969)- Was your demonstration adequately and skillfully prepared? Did you select demonstrable skills or ideas? Were the desired behavioral outcomes clear?- Did you follow the step-by-step plan? Did you make use of additional material appropriate to your purposes- chalkboard, felt board, pictures, charts, diagrams, models, overhead transparencies, or slides? - Was the demonstration itself correct? Was your explanation simple enough so that most of the students understood it easily?- Did you keep checking to see that all your students were concentrating on what you were doing?- Could every person see and hear? If a skill was demonstrated for imitation, was it presented from the physical point of view of the learner?- Did you held students do their own generalizing?- Did you take enough time to demonstrate the key points?- Did you review and summarize the key points?- Did your students participate in what you were doing by asking thoughtful questions at the appropriate time?- Did your evaluation of student learning indicate that your demonstration achieved its purpose?
Summary: Good Demonstration is a an audio-visual presentation. It is not enough that the teacher talks. To be effective, his/her demonstration must be accompanied by some visuals.
Actual Conduct of Demonstration1.Get and sustain the interest of the audience2.Keep the demonstration simple, focused and clear3.Do not hurry nor drag out the demonstration4.Check for understanding in the process of demonstration5.Conclude with a summary
6.Hand out written material at the end of the demonstration