Constructivist Materials in Teaching Selected Topics in the Contemporary World Course

Abstract

Using the descriptive research design and the Research and Development methodology, the aim of this study was to develop a Constructivist Material in teaching The Contemporary World course. The study specifically sought to determine which lessons in The Contemporary World would be best taught using constructivist strategies, determining the features and parts of the constructivist materials to be developed and validate the material in terms of its learning outcomes, content, activities, assessment techniques and instructional qualities. The major steps in the Research and Development cycle followed by the researcher in preparing the resource materials were the bibliographic stage, developmental stage and the validation stage. Data were gathered using two instruments and the first one is a survey checklist to determine the lessons in The Contemporary World that can best be taught using constructivist strategies and the constructivist strategies that are most suited to teach each lesson and the other instrument is the content validation scale to determine the validity of the constructivist material for The Contemporary World course. The content validity of the constructivist materials was determined using the mean. The results revealed that the developed material in teaching The Contemporary World course met the standards in developing a constructivist learning material as manifested by the overall highly valid descriptive rating. The constructivist material in teaching The Contemporary World is recommended for use and to further validate and determine its effectiveness, a pilot testing can be administered for further enhancements and refinement. Similar research is recommended to continue the development of constructivist strategy-based resource materials in the other fields of the social sciences, particularly the new set of courses in the newly revised General Education curriculum.