ABSTRACT
This article presents an overview of a newly designed course in materials development at a teacher education institute in the Netherlands. It also includes an evaluation of the course by its participants, student teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Dutch secondary schools. The course overview describes the aims and objectives of the course, its practical organisation, structure and contents, and details of assessment procedures. The course evaluation consists of student teachers’ written responses to a questionnaire. The purpose of this small-scale study is to explore (1) whether this materials development course facilitates innovative designs by EFL student teachers, (2) the principles behind the course which appear to be most successful in doing so, and (3) the potential pitfalls for teacher educators who design and develop a materials development course in their own context. Findings indicate that students generally consider their classroom materials to be innovative, and that the elements of the course that facilitate the creation of these innovative materials are the contribution of theoretical perspectives through compulsory reading assignments, the execution of a small-scale research project alongside the materials development project, and the requirement to use ICT. Recommendations are made to inform the debate on the responsibility of teacher education in preparing teachers for a role as materials developers.
