What are the factors to consider in choosing learning activities and instructional materials?

Even pre-pandemic, teachers were creative when choosing instructional materials to use with students. When presented with a recommended or even required curriculum, RAND research has found, teachers exercised great autonomy in modifying teaching materials and finding additional resources to supplement them.

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Appropriately Challenging
Factor #2: Budget Considerations
Factor #3: Equitable Access
Factor #4: Classroom Conditions
Factor #5: Sustainability

So, what do teachers want when it comes to instructional materials, particularly now?

Knowing the answer to this question can help district and school leaders select online materials that teachers are more likely to use and guide curriculum developers to create resources with these features in mind. As many districts face the likelihood of continuing online schooling, part- or full-time, for many more months, the answer is more important than ever.

To find out, we recently conducted a survey and interview study of middle and high school English language arts and mathematics teachers through the American Instructional Resources Survey (AIRS) Project and learned that the most valued instructional materials have three key dimensions: they are engaging and appropriately challenging for students, and easy to use for teachers.

Of course, engaging, challenging, and easy to use can all be defined in different ways. Here's how the teachers defined each term:

Engaging

The most valued instructional materials have three key dimensions: they are engaging and appropriately challenging for students, and easy to use for teachers.

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The teachers described engaging materials as appropriately challenging for students—neither frustratingly difficult nor too easy—and are interactive or collaborative. Games, quizzes, and hands-on activities are especially sought. Materials connected to the real world and to students' interests—say, using a baseball-related example to work through a math problem—are also important. In addition, the teachers said they value multicultural content, to make sure all students are represented, and that the visual appeal of content is critical; web pages that are too busy or dense can disengage students easily.

Appropriately Challenging

The teachers prefer materials that progress in difficulty and/or have entry points for students of different skill levels (“scaffolded”). This way, students can build to a higher level of difficulty as they progress. Teachers said materials should be written in contemporary English, feature text that matches students' vocabulary levels and focus on appropriately mature topics and themes. But they shouldn't overwhelm students with too much information.

Usable

Teachers especially prefer digital resources that are easily accessible—a tough find, as engaging materials such as quizzes and activities are prone to technical difficulties or don't always work on all devices. They also said they appreciate different options for advanced students and those who struggle, including those learning English. Finally, the teachers noted that they looked for materials that are editable or easy to modify according to their classroom formats (online or print) and their own students' needs.

In the survey and interviews, teachers reinforced the idea that they regard themselves not as passive curriculum implementers, but as active educational decisionmakers. They often talked about making choices about what materials to use or how to modify or supplement them based on the characteristics of their students, class, school, and community (student interests, proportion of English learners, school priorities for the year, current events).

So how can principals and district leaders best support their dedicated, knowledgeable, and independent-minded teaching workforce in materials selection? The findings in our study suggest there are five things to try:

Prioritize the three characteristics. Consider engagement, appropriateness of challenge, and usability when helping to select materials.
Elicit teacher input. Teachers usually know what they want and need for their students, so include them in materials previews or piloting.
Remember that diversity can support student engagement. How well do the materials address diverse students' interests and experiences? Consider developing a library or list of supplemental materials that are connected to students' interests and cultural backgrounds and, if needed, find ways to support teachers in integrating content that students identify with.
Support teachers by providing guidance on how they can supplement and modify required and recommended materials so they are accessible to all students. This can be done through professional development. Schools and districts can develop guidelines to help teachers find or modify high-quality supplemental materials while ensuring academic rigor. Teaching coaches can provide guidance on differentiation.
Find materials that invite modification. Finding easily editable materials for your teaching staff can lessen the time they need to spend on this task. Of course, online accessibility right now is especially important: While teachers prefer easily accessible digital materials in the time of school shutdowns, they may also need to know whether all their students have secure, reliable technological devices and network access.

Elaine L. Wang is a policy researcher, Andrea Prado Tuma is an associate social scientist and Julia Kaufman is a senior policy researcher at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.

This commentary originally appeared on The 74 on February 10, 2021. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.

Introduction Instructional materials are items that are designed to serve as major tool for assisting in the instruction of a subject or course. These items may be available in bound, unbound, kit or package form and may consist of hard backed or soft backed textbooks, consumables, learning laborites, slides, films and film strips, recording, manipulative and it’s commonly to accepted instructional tools. And instructional method it’s the same with teaching method this are defined as the principles and methods used instruction.  The number of learners within the class are too many that the government expectations from their rules and regulations and we end up not having to know who is around or cheated.  Our classrooms are very hot and…show more content…
(Emphasis and brackets added.) Learning styles Learning styles or cognitive styles are defined by Woolfok (1995: 126) as the different ways of learners of perceiving and organizing information. In fact, Gunter et al.(1995: 10) quote Fulghum saying: “we different from one another on the inside of our heads as we appear to be from one another on the outside of our heads”. Hamachek (1995:259) distinguishes what he calls three basic learning styles, being: a) Visual – people prefer to learn by reading new material. b) Aural –these people believe they learn best by listening to lecturers, tapes or discussion; c) Physical –people believe to learn best by doing or performing activities, like experiments for examples Hamachek (1995:260) stresses the fact that the above mentioned are preferred learning styles and it does not mean that learners cannot benefit from any other way of learning than the one preferred by them. Slavin (1998:312,313) and Woolfolk (1995:126,127) refer to another type of classification of learning styles, namely field dependent styles versus field independent styles. Learners who are field dependent tend to perceive a pattern as a whole and have difficulty in separating one element from the total visual field. Concerning schoolwork, they cannot easily focus on one aspect of a situation, pick out details or analyze patterns according to

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Congratulations: Your school has established a common vision for educational technology, and all stakeholders agree that the use of information and communication technology is critical to the mission. Now it’s time to identify the technology that will help your organization realize its vision.

Consider these five factors when selecting classroom technology:

Your school improvement plan is fundamental to the selection of classroom technology. There are some great solutions for improving performance and achieving outcomes. For example, graphing calculators and probeware can visually enrich lessons and provide immediate feedback in math and science courses, and teachers of reading can use document cameras, interactive whiteboards, software and websites for improving literacy skills.

Factor #2: Budget Considerations

Consider your funding sources and their availability. A one-time allocation of funds requires the selection of technology with a long lifespan. But technology can be replaced more often if funds are available on a recurring basis. Don’t forget to budget for professional development, technology support, infrastructure, retrofitting classrooms and installations.

Factor #3: Equitable Access

All students, staff and leaders must have “robust and reliable access to current and emerging technologies and digital resources.” Universal access can be achieved with an infrastructure that brings connectivity to all learning spaces, or by equipping all learning spaces with document cameras and projectors.

Factor #4: Classroom Conditions

Consider the technology capacity of your classrooms. For a 1-to-4 computer-student ratio or a notebook initiative, make sure there is enough real estate and electrical capacity in the classroom. Also, check the location of electrical outlets; if computers are crowded along a single wall, students won’t have room to work in small groups.

If you are considering projectors and document cameras or interactive whiteboards, how will you arrange the cables so students don’t trip? Is there room on the front wall for an interactive whiteboard? These issues require that thought be given to the impact on instructional classroom best practices, varied teaching styles, traffic patterns and safety — in addition to budgetary considerations.

Factor #5: Sustainability

Without a large grant or technology levy, sustainability may be the prevailing factor when selecting classroom technologies. The following is a list of indicators for sustainability:

Broad in scope: Sustainable technology can be used for student learning, professional development, board presentations, and PTA and community meetings.
Applicable to most subject areas: Technology that can be used for instruction across the curriculum reduces the need for specialized training and support.
Easy to use: Teachers will embrace technology that is easy to connect, turn on and use right out of the box.
Easy to integrate: Teachers don’t have a lot of time to create high-end, professional-quality lessons. The best technologies are those that teachers can use to trans- form old lessons into visually rich activities that yield high-end results.
Minimal training and support: Setup, training and an- nual support should require less than an hour, and the technology should be easy for teachers to troubleshoot.
Stands the test of time: Sustainable solutions are still used to meet their original purposes five or more years after their purchase. They can be kept up to date with new (usually free) software and drivers found on the Internet.

EXPLORE: Find the resources you need to support the future of learning.

IT spending estimates peg U.S. educational institutions at $56 billion by 2012, according to Compass Intelligence, an IT consultancy and market research firm. This year, education spending will likely exceed $47 billion, a 2.5 percent increase from 2008.

Most of the money is expected to go toward telecommunications, collaborative technologies and outsourced IT services. Another top expenditure is wireless technology: About 35 percent of all K–12 schools were using wireless by the end of 2008. The market for Internet and electronic learning tools is projected to grow to $12.9 billion by 2012, Compass Intelligence reports.