Content Analysis- Content analysis in teaching

 

Content Analysis

Meaning, Importance, Elements and Methods

 

Content analysis is a part of planning for teaching. Normally it is done by a teacher while prepare lesson plan or teaching manual. Content analysis is a procedure of data collection in research, but in teaching, it is a procedure of scrutinizing the teaching unit by a teacher. Content analysis is a process of breaking down the teaching content by a teacher for effective planning and transaction.

  Content analysis means the scrutinizing or examining the content by a teacher for effective teaching. The content may be a unit or subunit or a specific area. Teacher analyze the content to different particles with psychological and factual point of view. By content analysis a teacher can identify the significant areas, facts, concepts and other relevant particles of the content. It is a method for exploring and/or retrieving meaningful information from the teaching unit.

ഒരു ടീച്ചർ പഠിപ്പിക്കാനുള്ള പാഠഭാഗത്തെ വിശകലനം ചെയ്ത് അധ്യയനത്തെ സഹായിക്കും വിധം ക്രമീകരിക്കുന്നതാണ് കണ്ടന്റ് അനാലിസിസ്. പഠിപ്പിക്കേണ്ടുന്ന ടോപിക് (content) വിശകലനം ചെയ്യുമ്പോൾ അതിലെ പ്രധാന ആശയങ്ങൾ, വസ്തുതകൾ, സ്ഥല നാമങ്ങൾ, പേരുകൾ, വർഷങ്ങൾ, ബോധനത്തിനു വേണ്ടുന്ന പഠന സഹായികൾ തുടങ്ങിയവയെല്ലാം കണ്ടെത്തുന്ന പ്രക്രിയയാണ് ഇത്. 

Content analysis helps a teacher to identify

-          Major and minor concepts of the content

-          Major facts that are to be transacted from the content

-          Major years, places, names, terms and such relevant matters from the content

-          Suitable teaching – learning aids to support the teaching

-          Suitable teaching learning activities

-          Suitable teaching learning tasks

-          Suitable evaluation

 Teachers make use the process of content analysis to explore the purposes, messages, and effects of the teaching content. They can also make inferences about the organization of the learning content they analyze. Content analysis can also be used to quantify the occurrence of certain words, phrases, subjects or concepts in the teaching unit.

“Content analysis is an analysing process used to determine the presence of certain words, themes, or concepts and the like within with in the content to be taught (i.e. from the text book or syllabus). Using content analysis, teachers can quantify and analyse the presence, meanings and relationships of concepts, certain words, themes, or learning materials”

Content analysis is valuable in planning the teaching because it allows teachers to collect and examine the distinctions of the teaching content, student perceptions, and relevant trends. 

 Elements of Content Analysis

         The content analysis for teaching process has certain elements. The major elements that considered for performing content analysis are: words, characters, themes, factual explanations, concepts, items and teaching tasks. By content analysis, a teacher identifies all these elements from the content to teach.

Methods and Steps in Content Analysis

         Content analysis in teaching process is an analysing technique used to make reproduceable and valid inferences by interpreting and coding learning material.

The content analysis follows learner cantered method, teacher centred method and learning cantered method. A teacher may follow certain step in the process of content analysis. It is suggested five steps by certain experts. They are

1.     Step 1: Identify and collect details for the teaching unit

2.     Step 2: Determine specific categories of the content

3.     Step 3: Distinguish the specific features from the content

4.     Step 4: Ensure the relevance of the identified features

5.     Step 5: Make use  the coded features for planning the lesson

 Why Content Analysis?

Content analysis is making a teacher capable to transact the content effectively. The analysis process gives thorough knowledge. It infers all the relevant details of the topic to teach. By content analysis, a teacher can have proper knowledge on all the elements of the teaching unit. He or she can combine information on the facts, concepts, years, terms and so on of the content matter by analyzing it.  Content analysis is essential for effective planning and transaction of lessons.