Teaching Materials Development and Meeting the Needs of the Subject: A Sample Application

Abstract

It has been determined that the drawings, photographs and pictures related to the subject of the continuity of the tangent function on page 68 of the Ministry of National Education’s twelfth-grade mathematics textbook contradict principles 1, 7 and 10 of Yanpar’s (2007) teaching material development principles. According to these principles, teaching materials should: i) be simple, plain, and understandable, ii) reflect real life as much as possible, and iii) be easy to develop or revise, if necessary. This study aims to develop a portable tangent bridge model to meet the needs of the subject of the continuity of the tangent function. With this aim: i) teaching with the analogies model in the design of the teaching material, ii) “this is my project” format in the development and iii) Yanpar’s (2007) principles were considered. The design of the model lasted 14 weeks. At the end of the study, a portable tangent bridge model from waste products was designed and developed. This model is thought to contribute to the teaching effectiveness of teachers (Shulman, 1987) with content knowledge alongside with pedagogical knowledge (Shulman, 1986). With this contribution, the needs of the subject as described by Taba (1962) and Tyler (1949) will be met. This model will also serve as an example of meeting the needs of the subjects of knowledge and its product, technology, as highlighted by Cahit Arf (Terzioglu &Yilmaz, 2006).