On Developing Instructional Designs Essay

Efforts to ensure improvement in the quality of education across all states have been the central focus in the education arena. Schools have employed many different ways to make learning easier and more qualitative. These ways include preparing instructional designs that meet the present-day needs of students. Instructional designs are needed to identify certain goals and methods to be employed during instruction. Designed accordingly, they promote improvement in teaching strategies, and identify needs of students that should be addressed during the learning process. Importantly, instructional designs should consider the learner as the focus of instruction. This means that the whole program should be geared towards providing all possible assistance to the student. Proponents of student-centered instruction promote the role of the learner as the major key player, whereas that of the teachers serves the supportive role. For instance, activities that maximize student participation (discussing, presenting in groups, etc. are more favored than those which highlight the effectiveness of the teacher. Another consideration in preparing instructional designs is the comprehensive review of learners’ needs which are briefly discussed under Goals and Challenges and Limitations. By gaining a comprehensive view of learners’ needs, teachers would be able to target each need, and give solutions to them. Such are the things specified under Results. In this part, the student is viewed to acquire or learn relevant skills designed for the instruction. Still another consideration in preparing relevant instructional designs is the selection, development or modification of instructional materials. To ensure relevant instructional materials, one may employ the research strategy. There are many ways by which one can explore the use of this strategy. It may involve formal search for peer-reviewed materials, or reading reviews or critiques by colleagues who had experienced using the same resource. It may also include online search and gaining feedback through online discussion boards involving colleagues from different states or countries. Moreover, the research strategy should examine whether the material may appropriately address the needs of the students. One need is to develop multiple intelligence of students to adhere to holistic goals of the school. Definitely, a good material is one that does not discriminate among cultures, skills, gender, and religion. As such, the role of the teacher is to examine whether the materials selected for instruction adhere to this standard. In order to do this, one must be sensitive to the language of the material and analyze its contents for the said purpose. Critiquing a material for instruction should be done in order to find out its implications to students, whether positive or negative. Although teachers have the ability to critique a selection, it may also help to seek opinions from students, for they themselves will be the ones to use the materials. During discussion, the teacher could ask students how they feel about certain passages in a text, and from this the teacher would know whether the material is sensitive enough to cultural differences. If the teacher discovers such fallible, s/he should refrain using the material or use it to emphasize the inability of the author to respect cultural differences. Finally, to test the usability of the instructional materials, the teacher could base findings from students’ performance in tests, activities, and discussion. These materials would truly determine usability of the materials because as the materials challenge students to react, create, and apply learning, more learning outcomes are achieved. Also, employing a survey among students at the end of each unit could prove effective. After each lesson, the teacher could devise an evaluation sheet to be answered by students to allow them to express whether the materials used had been helpful or not. Also, as mentioned earlier, the teacher could seek the help of colleagues in evaluating the material. In this regard, online forums are a great help to gain a worldwide perspective.