The materials are different elements that can grouped together, gathered according to their use for a specific purpose. The elements of the set can be real (physical), virtual or abstract.
The teaching materials is one that brings together means and resources that facilitate teaching and the learning. They are often used within the educational environment to facilitate the acquisition of concepts, abilities, attitudes and skills.
Elements for learning
It is important to bear in mind that the didactic material must have the elements that allow a some specific learning. For this reason, a book is not always a teaching material. For example, reading a novel without carrying out any kind of analysis or work on it does not mean that the book acts as teaching material, even though it can provide data from general culture and broaden the literary culture of the reader.
On the other hand, if that same novel is analyzed with the help of a teacher and studied according to certain guidelines, it becomes a didactic material that allows learning.
Characteristics of a teaching material
Specialists affirm that, to be didactic, a work must be communicative (it must be easy to understand for the target audience), have a structure (that is, be consistent in its parts and in its development) and be pragmatics (to offer sufficient resources that allow the student to verify and exercise the knowledge acquired).
It should be noted that not only books can constitute teaching material: films, records, computer programs and games, for example, they can be too.
Classification according to function
It is possible to classify the teaching material using different criteria. One of them is the function it fulfills, and here we have the following options:
* orientation: During training, students need much more than a set of content. If these are dispersed and without an apparent connection, the process becomes very difficult. That is why it is necessary to have a teaching material that points in the address more suitable at every step;
* simulation: This occurs in certain fields more than in others, but it is important to place the student in different realities so that he understands the contents through abstraction and does not consider them as distant things;
* learning guide: resembles the first point, although it is a series of tools that help the student to acquire knowledge, more than an arrow that points the way;
* exercise skills: having a marked path, the abstraction to simulate the theoretical situations and the guide to learn the concepts in the best possible way, it is important to put all this into practice through exercises designed by specialists in learning. This means that it is not about proposals isolated or arbitrary, but carefully woven to reinforce learning;
* motivation: The quality of the didactic material or the experience of the teachers does not matter if they fail to awaken in the student a genuine interest that prompts him to soak up the subject and get to explore all its corners, through a process that also allows him to learn about himself;
* evaluation: This part of the didactic material is the least attractive for the student, since its result usually directly influences their status within the educational center and if it is negative it can tarnish their history. For this reason, teachers should strive to convert the evaluation in a tool that helps you grow, rather than a danger;
* opinionTeaching should never go one way. The teacher must present the knowledge using their educational resources but also give the student the space to share their own points of view, something that benefits both parties.
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