Information, Education and Communication: Kits


Kits:

With the recent all-out effort to modernize educational procedures, development of packages of materials designed to Achieve specific instructional goals has provided the trainers with a wide assortment of teaching resources. These packages, Termed as kits, are carefully selected from available materials, or are specifically designed and produced to be used in a Systematic Programme based upon sound learning theory.

The kit programme is an outgrowth of school science study projects developed by scientists and classroom teachers as a Confidence building point for the teachers. Before the final kit is made available much field testing and revision of the contents is undertaken to ensure a valid programme. Now the kit programme has successfully been developed for various other programmes aimed at imparting knowledge, Creating awareness, developing certain interests and skills, and seeking a charge in attitude, etc.

What is a Kit?

The kit is packaged collection of carefully selected available appropriate materials on a subject, a programme or part of the programme designed specifically for use in an instructional programme for selected group of audience. The compact kit is handy and easy to be carried. It may have one or more units.

A simplified reality for quick learning, a visual tool of learning, learning by investigation, Learning by doing, etc. are some of the phrases used to describe the kit.

Contents:

A kit contains:

A carefully selected variety of real materials and printed material for use by the worker in demonstrations.

Besides the printed materials in various forms hand bills, folders, pamphlets, brochures, posters, photographs the kit may contain visual aids like models, flashcards, flannel graph or audio visual aids like films, filmstrips and slides.

The worker is provided with detailed guide sheets on each instructional unit in the kit. These include background information, tested suggestions on procedures and activities, etc.

The kit should carry a comprehensive handbook for workers describing the purposes, content, structure and material covered in the kit. The handbook also contains detailed instructions for a variety of adaptations of the resources in the kit to fit varying learning situations.

Using the kit:

An intervice training programmme should be organized for workers carrying out educational activities with the aid of kit.

DEVELOPING THE KIT:

The person developing a kit should put to himself the following questions:

  1. What are the objectives, goals or aims that the worker wants to accomplish?
  2. Who will be taught? What is their ago, appreciative base, native and social intelligence, etc.?
  3. What is the budget allotment?
  4. What is the size of the group to be taught?
  5. What is the ability of the worker who will use the kit?
  6. What is the time the worker would be able to allot to kit-education programme?
  7. How many will be instructed at one time?
  8. What is the nature of desired results? Is it creation of certain attitudes, implanting of knowledge or teaching of specific skills?


A careful consideration of the above criteria is essential not only for developing the kit but also in attempting to pretest and evaluate the kit. In an attempt to measure the end results and to convince the administrator, the evaluation is a must.

While criteria are rules or tests by which anything is tried in forming a correct judgement respecting it, to evaluate means to place a value on the results obtained. Pretesting is carried out in sample groups of those who are to teach as well as those who are to be taught Vis-Avis the criteria set for instruction as well as for each aid in the kit. Results of pretest may help to change, modify or alter the contents of the kit.

The Objectives:

Kit is an instruction aid. As such the objective of a kit is to help achieve the objectives or goals of the instruction programme. What is the instruction to accomplish? What are the specific and related objectives. When the objective have been established, criteria of instruction can be prepared. This criteria can be used for measurement of the results and television of the kit used for measurement of the results and revision of the kit. Similarly, objectives can be established, criteria laid and evaluation performed for each instructional material in the kit.

Evaluation:

Kit is an instructional aid through which audience is said to learn more, learn uniformly, remember longer, give better attention, learn faster and have better morals. These are qualitative and quantitative values. So far nothing has been done to validate these claims. Mostly their evaluations have been subjective and therefore invalid & unreliable.
Other claims made are:

  1. A kit creates more valid impressions: When properly used it can dress up the instruction.
  2. The kit use additional organs of sense
  3. It gets and holds audiences attention
  4. It simplified the knowledge to be learned
  5. It improves the quality of instruction


The evaluation can assess the extent to which above claims are met. The technique should be to consider each aid in the kit separately and to evaluate it in terms of objectives of each aid. The objectives should relate to standard performance against which achievement may be checked.


Measurement of effectiveness:

How can an instructor know and prove that his instruction aid is effective in assisting him to prove that his instruction aid is effective in assisting him to attain his objectives? Following points may be considered:

  1. Audience reactions and increased learning efficiency.
  2. Participation and interest by instructional personnel concerned.
  3. Identified deficiencies that have been overcome.


Advantages of the kit:

  1. Attracts and holds attention.
  2. Aids retention of information and visual images.
  3. Assists in forming correct images.
  4. Assists in understanding proper relationships of component parts.
  5. Makes learning easy and uniform.


Limitations:

  1. Error of commission, distortion, misapplication or overemphasis, if made is carried down to the learner.
  2. The educators idea that they have nothing to do when the aid is there may lead to ineffectual teaching. There is no substitute for the part played by a good teacher.
  3. Requires training of the worker in using the aid.
  4. With passage of time needs changes, adaptations, etc.