PRIORITIES FOR EVALUATING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

Teachers make a difference in student learning, and materials with effective learning strategies can support or impede their impact. Yet, insufficient number, type, and quality of learning strategies have been persistently identified in textbooks.

 Two special cases for learning strategies are:

.Expertise reversal effect

. Powerful resistance to learning

It is important to have more direct instruction and fewer guided activities .  As the literature states it includes:
1. Motivation strategies

Instructional materials must include features to maintain learners’ motivation. Some features that maintain student motivation include positive expectations, feedback and appearance.
2. Big ideas

Instructional materials should thoroughly teach a few important ideas, concepts, or themes. Big ideas or major themes provide focus for students and completeness.

3. Explicit instruction must contain clear statements of information and outcomes. It also depends upon clarity of directions and explanations, and exclusion of ambiguity.

4. Guidance and support must include guidance and support to help students safely and successfully become more independent learners and thinkers. Effectiveness of guidance and support depends on level and adaptability.

5. The combination of instructional strategies should also be complete enough to achieve the learning outcomes. Simultaneously, it is essential for the combination of assessment strategies to be comprehensive enough to achieve the target learning outcomes.

In my opinion, teachers should not teach to test, learning can be improved by changing the frequency, purpose, or cognitive levels of testing and evaluating. Materials must be based on the students level of expertise if they want to maintain students motivation.

Evolution of instructional materials design

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Evolution of instructional materials design

View more presentations from VickyBC.

Principles of effective present final

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Principles of effective present final

View more presentations from VickyBC.

Costa Rica en LEGO®

AUTHENTIC MATERIALS AND CULTURAL CONTENT IN EFL CLASSROOMS

Authentic materials have positive effect on learner motivation, they also provide authentic cultural information, they relate more closely to learners’ needs, and they support a more creative approach to teaching. But on the other hand there are certain disadvantages when using authentic materials; they often contain difficult language, unneeded vocabulary and complex language structures.

 texts that are designed for native speakers; they are real text; designed not for language students, but for the speaker of the language. Authentic materials is significant since it increases student’s motivation for learning, makes the learner be exposed to the “real language”.

Cultural content is a key to effective teaching and learning a language. Introducing culture into EFL classroom will motivate effective learning in students.

Knowing a language goes beyond the knowledge of grammatical rules, vocabulary and pronunciation. Successful language learning requires language user to know that culture underlying language in order to get the meaning across.

Nowadays, with the help of technology, teachers have access to many sources easily and quickly, also the use of magazines, newspaper, and videos will reinforce learners’ interest in the target language.