CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

Instructional materials typically provide a physical and/or visual supplement to a session in the
form of slides, handouts, and images. Incorporating instructional materials in the teaching-learning
process is important for both teachers and students. Teachers would be able to facilitate the learning
process properly and students would have more motivation and would arouse their interests in any
given lessons. These visual aids, however, would need certain characteristics in order for them to
become more effective and can be used more efficiently in teaching.
One of the characteristics is size and style. Instructional materials should be made in a way
that all students should be able to comprehend the ideas included in them. This would require these
materials to have an appropriate font size and font style. According to Kitchel (2011), choosing an
appropriate font is the first step, and the focus should be on a clean, clear font with adequate spacing
between letters. Although there is little research to suggest that font style substantially impacts reading
speed or comprehension for most readers, Dos Santos Londsale (2014) claims that people tend to
express a preference for serif fonts which are often recommended for long blocks of texts such as
textbooks. We should avoid the use of fonts with unusual features or ones that might distort when
printed or copied. May it be in handouts or reports, it is important to make sure that the sentences and
words are read properly through the use of simple yet comprehensible fonts. For the size, Illinois
Library suggests that the general recommendation for font size is 12, whereas size 18 is already
considered a larger type and might be suitable for older adults and people with certain visual
disabilities. In using visual aids, font style is considered in a way where the sentences should be large
enough for even the students at the back to be able to read properly.
The next characteristic is color. The use of colors in instructional materials has proven to play
an important role in creating different emotional reactions and capturing learners’ attention. Students
are more interested to those materials which are colorful and beautiful. According to Moreno et.al.
(2007), a visual design has two functions, one is to support the learners to process materials
cognitively and the other is to influence learners’ attitudes and motivation effectively. This suggests
that the purpose of providing an instructional material with an appropriate visual design contributes
not only to the cognitive response of students, as they learn by the manner in which the material is
presented, but it also arouses more interest on the learner to place his attention on the material
presented. With this, the color as an important factor for creating an effective instructional material,
should also be considered as a priority. According to Vetter et.al. (1995), color can help learners
improve their learning efficiency, since learners can process color automatically without requiring
conscious process. In other words, color as a graphical device can reduce visual search time and
might support learners to quickly access information. Keller and Grimm (2005) also suggest that
compared with the monochromatic information, color-coded information visualizations can better
support knowledge acquisition.
Durability as one of the characteristics of an instructional material is also considered.
Instructional materials are not made for one use or one session only. They must last and may also be
reused for future purposes. Making use of materials for a longer duration of time makes the effort and
money to not go to waste. The durability of a material also focuses on its quality to provide knowledge
to students. A high-quality instructional material can yield improvements in student learning outcomes
equal to or greater than many interventions that are often more costly. Furthermore, this allows
students to engage more deeply and meaningfully with the standards. Research shows that students in
general gain months of learning when teachers use stronger instructional materials. There is ample
research to show that adopting high-quality materials is not only effective but also cost-neutral.
This is related to another characteristic which is to consider the economy. Consider also the
salary of the teacher and his expenses in creating the instructional material. They can use their
resourcefulness and creativity to produce their own material. If possible, use the cheaper things in
making your materials so that it is not a burden in your part. This would also allow learners to have a
wider accessibility to your materials. A cheaper material means more learners would be able to access
it, opening for more opportunities for them.
Considering the continuous improvement of technology, it is also important that an
instructional material needs to be portable. Materials needs to be carried and handled easily for more
convenience when teaching from one place to another. This characteristic benefits mostly the educators
because having less struggles from handling the materials would mean that teachers may allot more on
the topics to teach. It is also important for teachers to become adaptive to changes. The improvement
in technology paved way for gadgets to be used in teaching such as laptops, so creating instructional
materials, through this device becomes more convenient for them.
Another characteristic is the relativity of the instructional material to the lessons and topics at
hand. The instructional material is required to be related to the lesson you are into. These materials are
used to ease the burden of teaching so that students will understand the subject better. Therefore, it is
important for instructional materials to be unique and are based on the diverse learning capacities of
students. This adaptability would be helpful in catering to each student’s needs in learning.

References:
 Illinois Library (Date Unknown). Designing Instructional Materials. Retrieved February 10,
2024 from https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/pressbooks/instructioninlibraries/chapter/designing-
instructional-materials/
 Chang et.al. (2018) The Impact of Colors on Learning. Retrieved February 10, 2024 from
https://newprairiepress.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4001&context=aerc#:~:text=The
%20use%20of%20colors%20in,manipulating%20their%20cognition%20and%20emotions.
 Oregon Department of Education (2023). Importance of High-quality Instructional Materials.
Retrieved February 10, 2024 from
https://www.oregon.gov/ode/educator-resources/teachingcontent/instructional-materials/
Documents/InstructionalMaterialsToolkit/Importance%20of%20High-Quality%20Instructional
%20Materials.pdf
 Serdak and Durmus (2020). An investigation of Preschool Instructional Materials: A mixed
Method Study with many Facet Rasch and Nvivo. Retrieved February 10, 2024 from
file:///C:/Users/BARAQUIEL/Downloads/AnInvestigationofPreschoolInstructionalMaterialsA
MixedMethodStudywithManyFacetRaschandNvivo.pdf
 Dominican University of California (Date Unknown). Impact of Affordable Learning
Materials. Retrieved February 10, 2024 from https://libguides.dominican.edu/affordable-
learning-materials/impact