The Current State of Instructional Materials Education: Aligning Policy, Standards, and Teacher Education Curriculum

Overview & Synopsis

Effective use of instructional materials is stated as an important professional competence that foreign language teachers should have in the policy documents of Turkish Higher Education Council, and in the standards documents of Turkish Ministry of National Education. In spite of this emphasis on the policy and standards, beginning teachers continue to demonstrate low competence in instructional materials. This may result from limited instructional materials education that is potentially misaligned to teacher education policies and professional teaching standards. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to analyze the alignment between teacher education policy, professional standards for teacher practice and preservice instructional materials course curriculum through a curriculum alignment methodology. The study concludes with a discussion on the current state of instructional materials education with implications for enhancing teacher preparation in this area and future research on materials education.