Resources, Practices and the Acceptability of Teacher-Made Learning Materials in Social Studies 9 (Economics)

Abstract

The study explored the status of crafting contextualized learning materials by determining the resources and practices used by teachers in preparing learning materials for Social Studies 9 (Economics), in a school district of Zambales, Philippines. It also determined the acceptability of such materials to teacher specialists and secondary students in the area. The descriptive research design was used with quantitative and qualitative techniques. Data were derived from documents, interviews with teacher-makers of learning materials, acceptability ratings from local evaluators and the mean percentage scores of classes after using the materials. Strategic intervention materials (SIM) and work booklets were prepared to help failing students improve their performance on specific lessons. The teacher themselves, the school and the community were the three main resources in the preparation of learning materials. Teachers had five major means or approaches in contextualizing learning materials—place, student context, pedagogy, disciplinary content and cultural or learner’s diversity. They infused information from the environment, community problems, daily events and existing structures into the lessons when considering the place. Student context as a consideration used interests and experiences of learners to contextualize lessons. Pedagogy as a means of contextualization emphasized classroom management and engaging learners in self-analysis of their experiences and interests as well as developing skills in analysing community problems and drawing solutions. For disciplinary content, teachers prepared contextualized materials for topics covered in the prescribed K-12 course guides. Cultural diversity as a means of contextualizing considered learner’s differences, preparing lessons with varied activities and approaches and developing values among learners. The evaluation results indicated that the crafted learning materials were acceptable in terms of readability, content, computerization, diversity of learners and presentation but still needs to improve in terms of contextualization. The mean percentage scores (MPS) of classes on tests administered after the use of the learning materials exceeded the requirement. It is recommended that the teacher being, a maker and user of contextualized materials, be given more training and support in this task. Also, that further studies be conducted on the relationship of the different approaches or means of contextualization and the specific economic and social skills of learners.