Teachers' Design of Instructional Materials: Locating Teachers' Appropriation of Usable Knowledge

The phenomenon of teachers designing their own instructional materials is gaining more attention in research. Different aspects of this enterprise have been examined--its potential to reveal the complexity of teachers' instructional planning considerations, the design principles employed by teachers to realise instructional goals, among others. In the study reported in this paper, the focus was on its utility as a form of teacher professional development. In particular, evidence was sought for this claim: not only is teacher-designed instructional materials a useful tool for professional development, it can capture usable knowledge teachers appropriate from professional development.