Selecting and Using Instructional Materials

Tell a class that the Earth is round and many students will struggle to picture it. Bring in a globe and turn it slowly in front of them, and they understand at once and remember it for years. Objects used in this way, to make teaching simple, effective and lasting, are called instructional materials.

Without instructional materials, teaching and learning activities cannot be completed properly. Materials let students learn the content in a practical way, by seeing and handling things instead of only hearing about them. That is why a teacher plans the materials for every lesson according to its content.

Instructional materials are used so that teaching aims at clear objectives and actually produces results. Students today need an education that is practical and useful for life, and materials are one of the strongest ways to give it. They help learning last, and they are also needed when a student has to show, by doing, what they have learnt.

For learning by seeing, materials are essential, and without them the objectives written in a lesson plan are hard to reach. Yet bringing just any object into class does not help. The material must suit the context, be visible to everyone and match the students' interests. A teacher checks a material against these bases:

• It must serve the lesson's objective, carry meaning and be usable in class.
• It may be simple, but it should be attractive and durable.
• It should suit the students' interest and level and be able to motivate them.
• Its shape and colours must be complete and correct.
• It should be low in cost, and local materials should be used wherever possible.
• Both the teacher and the students should be able to use it.
• It must fit the subject and the particular lesson.
• Everyone in the class must be able to see it or use it.

An example makes these bases clear. A teacher shows the water cycle to a class of forty on a small mobile phone screen. Only the few students in the front can see it, so the material fails the base that everyone must be able to see it. The same cycle drawn large and correctly on thick paper and stuck on the wall can be seen by all, costs little, has the right shapes and colours, and fits the lesson. When one material meets many bases at once, it is a good choice.

Behind these practical bases lie a few principles. The well known educationist Grout gave four principles for selecting and using teaching materials:

• Materials must be used as tools of teaching.
• Materials are selected on the basis of the objectives of teaching and learning.
• A material must be scientifically correct for the content it shows.
• Materials must be attractive.

Along with these principles, a teacher weighs the interest of the subject, the need, the context of the content, the time available and the condition of the classroom. A material that takes an hour to set up in a forty minute period, or a model too big to fit in a small room, is a poor choice however good it looks. The choice always follows the set content and what the lesson plan says.

Instructional materials are not all of one kind, so the material is chosen to suit the nature and form of the content. Solid objects found inside and outside the school and classroom, in the local community and in the natural environment can all be used, and so can ready-made items. Electronic devices such as a television, a radio or a computer are used as audio-visual materials, meaning materials that are both heard and seen. Some materials a teacher can also make through their own hard work.

Making a good material is only half the work. While using it, a teacher keeps these points in mind:

• It must match the content being taught.
• It should be kept in a safe place where students can reach and handle it themselves when needed.
• Every student must have access to it.
• It must be used so that every student in the room can see and read it easily.

Some materials can be used in almost every subject: the chalkboard, the flannel board, the poster, the display board, the chart, the graph and the model. What each one is, how it is used and what care it needs are set out below, one at a time.

The chalkboard is the oldest traditional instructional material, found in schools at every level. Old as it is, it is still used as much as ever: to write the lesson title and main points, to draw summary charts and maps, and to solve mathematical problems in front of the class.

A chalkboard is usually black. In the past it was made by painting a wooden board black. Today boards are often built of cement right into the classroom wall and painted with yellow or green enamel. Cement boards, plywood boards, magnetic boards and graphic boards are also in use. In both city and village schools, the old blackboard and chalk are now giving way to the whiteboard and marker, and to the smartboard.

A teacher uses the chalkboard to:

• write the lesson title and the date, so students' attention is focused
• note the main points and draw pictures that hold students' attention
• write new words from the lesson, have students copy them and explain their meaning
• write a summary at the end of the lesson
• write important passages, give revision practice, set homework and present data
• write internal assessment questions for students to practise
• call students up to solve a problem themselves, which builds their confidence

While using the chalkboard, a teacher takes care to:

• stand to one side so their body does not hide what is written
• give students some practice on the board as well
• keep the students' attention while writing on the chalkboard or whiteboard
• write every letter correctly, clearly and attractively
• erase what is written only after asking the students
• clean the board before leaving the classroom

Pictures, paper cut-outs, posters, photographs and charts that match the lesson are stuck on the flannel to make the content clear. When teaching the parts of a plant, for example, a teacher can put up separate pictures of the root, stem, leaf and flower one by one, from the bottom upward, so the plant is built in front of the students' eyes. Showing things in sequence like this is what the flannel board does best.

In the classroom a flannel board is used to:

• display the pictures and data a subject needs
• put up pictures that are hard to draw on the spot, made or found before the lesson
• show coloured, ready-made materials
• put up cuttings from newspapers and magazines
• show materials one after another, in order
• display students' own good work: compositions, essays, drawings and handwriting

Posters are used to motivate students, create the right atmosphere for discussion, share creative experiences and communicate ideas. A poster showing hands being washed with soap under the words 'Clean hands, healthy life' can open a whole health class discussion on hygiene.

In the classroom a poster is used like this:

• The poster, made to suit the content, is stuck up straight with cello tape or thumbpins where every student can see it.
• Students are given plenty of time to read it.
• Where needed, the teacher explains it, leads a discussion and draws a conclusion with the class.

A display board keeps students up to date. On a board in a school corridor you might find this week's sports notice, drawings by students who won prizes at the science exhibition and a weather report cut from today's newspaper, all in one place. A display board is used to:

• give important school notices to students and teachers
• show important work done by students
• display pictures, newspapers and magazines
• display information about subjects such as geography, science, literature and history
• inspire students to be creative

A chart is useful whenever details need to be compared. A class timetable, Nepal's seven provinces with their capitals, or the number of students admitted to a school in each of five years can all be set out in a chart, so that one glance is enough to compare them. A chart is used to:

• show the facts of the content in an organised way
• be prepared by the teacher at home and displayed in class
• show things so that every student can see and clearly understand them
• present facts in a simple and useful form

The graph is an important instructional material. It can make a heavy topic clear in a short time, which is why it is valued for effective teaching. It is especially useful in science, mathematics, education, geography and economics. A graph is used to:

• show facts to scale and in their true amounts
• find trends in the facts and make estimates from them
• make the point being shown clear and easy to understand

In the picture below, the number of students in classes 6 to 10 is shown twice, once as a chart and once as a graph. The chart gives the exact number for each class. The graph, with its bars getting shorter, shows at once the trend that fewer students remain in the higher classes.

When the real object is not available, a larger or smaller model can take its place. Teaching often reaches points where the teacher simply cannot use the real thing. Mount Everest, a railway train, the Earth, a temple, a Buddhist monastery, a statue and an aeroplane cannot be shown in their real form in a classroom, so for these a model is absolutely necessary. A globe is a small model of the Earth, and a small clay temple is a model of a real temple. When something is too small to see properly, such as an insect, a model much larger than the real thing is made instead.

The purpose of any instructional material is to help students understand a difficult topic in a simple way. So the material itself should be simple and easy, made from things students already use and know in their daily lives. Local materials do exactly this.

Expensive, high-cost materials are beyond the reach of many schools. Our country lacks modern sources and resources, but that gap can be filled with resources of our own. Maize kernels, pebbles or bamboo sticks for teaching counting, clay for modelling a hill and a river, leaves and flowers from nearby for showing kinds of plants, and a flannel board made from an old blanket are all local materials. Because they cost almost nothing, they are also known as no-cost materials.

When such materials are made and used, both the teacher and the students must take an active part. This develops many different abilities in students, and it makes using teaching materials simple and easy.

The importance of local materials becomes clear from these points:

• They put no financial burden on the school.
• Things available locally are put to good use.
• They help connect teaching with local life.
• Local labour and skills can be used in practice.
• Both teachers and students develop the habit of searching for things and making them.
• They help develop creativity and skill with the hands.
• They help students understand and make classroom teaching effective.
• Students develop the habit of learning by doing.
• Things that would otherwise be wasted locally are put to good use.
• Students come to value the sources and resources of their own area.