Northern College Good Practice Guide in Teaching and Learning

13.1 Tutors support their classroom teaching with a range of appropriate learning aids and resources. The main ones are:

13.2 Both the white board and the flip chart are used to record information with coloured markers. Care is taken that anything written on them is sufficiently large (at least 6 cm in height) and is presented in an easily readable style. Sheets from the flip chart are sometimes hung in the class to reinforce learning at various stages of the session.

13.3 The overhead projector is used to project an image from an acetate sheet or transparency onto a screen. The transparency has a number of advantages:

Daylight conditions can prevail in the classroom.
The tutor can talk to and face the class.
Other learning aids and resources (the white board, flip chart, etc) can be used simultaneously.
Materials can be developed before a session and further developed as the session proceeds.
Materials can be stored and re-used many times over.
Hard copies can be made before or after the class.
Overlays can be used to present complex data.

Care is taken to ensure that the size of the lettering, typed or hand-written, on the transparency is sufficiently large (at least 6mm in height) so that students can easily read the information. Care is also taken to ensure that the transparency is not cluttered with too much information.

13.4 In addition to the above aids and resources, tutors often use handouts to help students achieve the session's outcomes. The handouts are of two basic types:

Information handouts give an overview or summary of the topic, reproduce carefully selected passages from books or articles, contain the full transcript of the session itself or of a reading, and\or provide factual or graphical data.
Worksheets contain questions or activities that students are asked to complete.

Some handouts (e.g. the overview or summary of the topic) are given out at the beginning of the session, while others (e.g. worksheets) are given out at different stages of the session. Care is taken to ensure that the handouts are not just error-free but easy to read and understand. Handouts are either hand-written or, better still, typed and presented to a near-professional standard with the use of word processing and desktop publishing computer programmes.

Visual aids (e.g. a collection of film slides displayed through a slide projector
Audio-visual aids (e.g. a pre-recorded videocassette played through a video recorder)
Multi-media aids (e.g. a PowerPoint presentation prepared on a computer and displayed through a multi-media projector)

In their everyday lives students are already exposed to a range of media (e.g. television, radio, videos, advertisements, magazines, posters, postcards, and so on). They are thus able to relate to the classroom better if they can use the same or all of the senses (hearing, seeing, feeling, and so on) that they normally use in their encounters with the media.

13.6 Learning aids and resources, especially the visual ones, are more effective when they are:

simple and straightforward
brief and to the point
relevant and focussed (i.e. related to learning outcomes)
interesting and colourful

The London Underground map can be seen as an excellent visual graphic because it is not only simple and straightforward but represents geographical information in an interesting and colourful (though not accurate) way.

Tutors ensure that the classroom is suitable for using the various learning aids and resources to the best advantage. They also regularly evaluate the various learning aids and resources by asking students and other tutors about their suitability for a particular subject or topic and about their role in assisting student learning.

13.7 In general, learning aids and resources constitute an extremely useful aspect of the tutors' teaching repertoire. Amongst other things:

They arouse and sustain students' interest in the topics raised.
They help students reinforce their understanding.
They help students retain information.
They provide variety in learning.
They allow for a more effective use of class contact time.
They facilitate and improve communication skills amongst participants.
They enhance the achievement of learning outcomes.