Teaching Materials and Their Implementation

Abstract

Materials prepared to help educators perform their various roles effectively are referred to here as teaching materials. They aid teachers to motivate learners, diagnose class and individual needs, organize instruction and materials of instruction, teach and guide learning, counsel and advise pupils, evaluate pupil progress, and confer with parents concerning their children. They aid administrators, supervisors, and curriculum consultants to perform similar functions in relation to school, community, teachers, and other assigned personnel. Teaching materials in decade of sixties must be severely scrutinized because of extraordinary creativity in production of learning materials and emphasis on drastic curriculum changes. Tremendous effort has been expended in publication of outstanding curricular documents, but gap between theory and practice in schools is almost unbelievably great. Corbin and Crosby (1965) noted the disparity between curriculum guides and their enactment and claimed that the programs were outstanding on paper. What was missing was an effective method of putting them into action. Implementation of printed materials continues to pose a major problem. Research concerned with effectiveness of curriculum implementation is conspicuously weak except in relation to new media developments and specific institutes. It fails to deal significantly with classroom teacher's problems of coordinating and synthesizing available learning materials for children with diversified cultural backgrounds at specific growth levels. In addition to describing research studies concerned with teaching materials, this chapter will bring together recommendations and ideas for improvement of printed and new media materials as well as ways of using them in preservice and in-service education of those engaged in mighty educational task of producing Great Society.