Selected bibliography of research on programming at the Children's Television Workshop

This article is an annotated bibliography of 36 formative, summative, and theoretical research studies on the four educational children's television series the Children's Television Workshop has produced since 1969:Sesame Street, The Electric Company, 3-2-1 Contact, andSquare One TV.     

Mediating the message: television programme design and students' understanding

The research reported represents a non-standard approach to basic research on educational television, in that it uses qualitative methods to describe learning and to illuminate which programme features are important. It was based on observation, interview and test data from five groups of 20–30 Open University students, each watching a social science television programme as part of their course. A qualitative analysis of students' summaries of the programmes showed that only half achieved the intended learning outcomes. A further analysis of the students' responses to key extracts showed that this is more likely to be because of programme structure than because of presentational quality. The research design and results are related to similar studies on students learning from text, and contrasted with the methodology adopted in other studies of the effects of educational television.     

Teaching Children to Evaluate Television Violence Critically: the impact of a Dutch schools television project

Using a quasi‐experimental pretest‐posttest control group design, the study investigated the educational effects of a six‐programme schools television series designed to encourage children aged 10‐12 to become more discriminating consumers of violent television crime series. Results indicated that the schools television project led to an increase in factual knowledge of differences between violence as depicted in crime series and real‐life violence, and a decrease in the perceived realism of violent television programmes. Children reacted very positively to the schools broadcasts and found them instructive and useful. Teachers reacted positively to the broadcasts and the related materials (student workbook and teacher's manual) that accompanied the programmes.     

Factors that Influence the Use and Impact of Educational Television in School

The main arguments in this article were presented in a paper at a European Broadcasting Union (EBU) seminar on research into educational television. It focuses on factors that influence the use and impact of educational television in school, drawn from an overview of international research on educational television, mainly in the eighties. The critical factors influencing the use and impact of educational television in schools are described as quantity and variety of educational television broadcasts available, easy access to equipment, regular transmission slots in the broadcast schedule with repeats, programme series, information, support material, relation to the curriculum, new demands, attitudes to educational television and teaching style and philosophy.     

Popular Media Portrayals of Inequity and School Reform in The Wire and Waiting for “Superman”

Two popular media forms are examined—the documentary film Waiting for “Superman” and the HBO television series, The Wire—that present distinct, and at times conflicting, depictions of how to address educational inequity. Qualitative media content analysis was used to analyze the two media documents and to situate them within broader popular media representations of school failure. Waiting for “Superman” depicted school choice and dismantling unions as one way to address school failure. The Wire, in contrast, suggested a more complex and uncomfortable portrayal of school failure where blame is not directed at teachers and schools exclusively, but instead encompasses a complex web of inequity due to bureaucracy, economics, culture, politics, and media coverage. The analysis suggests that media sources such as film and television can play a role informing the public on issues of school reform and should be critically examined as pieces of the larger puzzle of improving schools and addressing school inequity.     

Language,Educational Television and Young Children

Ninety‐one percent of 227 surveyed teachers of children up to seven years of age (including 101 teachers who monitored educational television series for the Project), in 17 local education authorities in England and Wales, claimed to use educational television broadcasts to assist them with children's language development. However, apart from the nursery teachers, they appeared to put emphasis on language skill acquisition rather than language development, reinforcing the language policy of the schools. Two thirds of the teachers stated that they were catering for children individually when using educational television, although class viewing was the normal practice. The usual method was to watch a programme continuously from beginning to end (even when a video recorder was used) and then to discuss it with the children and to give written work on letter formation, sentence formation, initial sounds, etc., often by filling in worksheets. The teachers were encouraged in this practice by the television series, as these promoted the learning of language and reading skills rather than language development. There was no evidence to suggest that general interest series were used to any extent to enhance language development, in spite of overwhelming agreement by the teachers that television stories, songs and poems were valuable in this respect. A change of attitude by teachers towards language and educational television is desirable, involving the examination of current practices, the analysis of the material presented by broadcasters and the relating of developmental factors to the medium     

The globalization ofSesame Street: A producer's perspective

Sesame Street, the Children's Television Workshop's pioneering educational television series for preschoolers, has become an international—as well as an American—institution. Licensed versions, adaptations, and coproductions of the series have been seen in approximately 115 countries. Children in 65 countries have viewed the series in its English-language form. In addition, the program has been coproduced in 13 other languages for broadcast in 50 countries. Each local adaptation ofSesame Street is unique, reflecting the varying educational, social, and cultural needs of children from country to country. This article documents the spread ofSesame Street—and the CTW research and development model—abroad, and includes several case studies of different foreign adaptations ofSesame Street.He works withSesame Street coproductions worldwide, providing onsite consultation through all phases of project development and production.     

The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science

Researchers who have investigated the public understanding of science have argued that fictional cinema and television has proven to be particularly effective at blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. The rationale for this study lies in the notion that to teach science effectively, educators need to understand how popular culture influences their students’ perception and understanding of science. Using naturalistic research methods in a diverse middle school we found that students who watched a popular science fiction film, The Core, had a number of misunderstandings of earth science concepts when compared to students who did not watch the movie. We found that a single viewing of a science fiction film can negatively impact student ideas regarding scientific phenomena. Specifically, we found that the film leveraged the scientific authority of the main character, coupled with scientifically correct explanations of some basic earth science, to create a series of plausible, albeit unscientific, ideas that made sense to students.     

Mediatizing educational policy: the journalistic field,science policy,and cross‐field effects

This paper is concerned to demonstrate the usefulness of the theory of Bourdieu, including the concepts of field, logics of practice and habitus, to understanding relationships between media and policy, what Fairclough has called the ‘mediatization’ of policy. Specifically, the paper draws upon Bourdieu’s accessible account of the journalistic field as outlined in On television and journalism. The usefulness of this work is illustrated through a case study of a recent Australian science policy, The chance to change. As this policy went through various iterations and media representations, its naming and structure became more aphoristic. This is the mediatization of contemporary policy, which often results in policy as sound bite. The case study also shows the cross‐field effects of this policy in education, illustrating how today educational policy can be spawned from developments in other public policy fields.     

L'usage de la radio dans l'enseignement secondaire à Montréal, 1920–1970

The use of radio for educational purposes in high schools expanded considerably between 1920 and 1970. Education scholars generally qualify radio for schools as a failure. This conclusion is based on the accessibility of radio sets in schools, the interest of teachers in radio for schools, and the budgets allocated for the purchase of radio sets. A wider investigation shows that educational radio resulted from collaboration among school personnel, radio broadcasters and the political authorities. We agree with communication scholars that using a means of communication for educational purposes involves many spheres of society. An examination of the origins, development and decline of radio broadcasting for schools also reveals that this was a technical substitution phenomenon; one means of communication was replaced by another. The use of radio in schools gradually declined, following the introduction of television in schools during the 1960s. Taking all these aspects into account, our study identifies the social mechanisms whereby radio was used for teaching in high schools. This clearly illustrates on a more general level the change in use of audiovisual tools in schools. The Montreal Catholic School Board (CECM) — the largest French‐language school board in Canada — is an institution of particular interest for the study of radio broadcasting for schools. Because of it size, the CECM had sufficient resources and personnel to be a pioneer in education. From 1931, CECM personnel went on the air on CKAC radio to popularize instruction in music, literature and language. Members of Montreal's educational community, parents and students alike, and listeners interested in learning, began to view radio as a means of conveying knowledge. In 1936, Société Radio‐Canada (SRC), the French‐language section of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, appeared on the Quebec radio scene, and educational radio gradually became more clearly defined. The programs that were aired, of which the best known was Radio‐Collège, gave the green light to educational radio in francophone Quebec. Before emulating SRC initiatives, the CECM used radio as a tool for social communication. In the early 1950s, the school board used radio mainly as a forum for explaining educational issues to the public; for example, teachers' salary negotiations. From autumn 1950, the CECM School and Family Committee aired a series of ten programs about the role of the school in society. Post‐war Montreal society was in a state of flux. Urbanisation and the emergence of mass communication and consumption were transforming the entire social structure. The francophone elite was starting to question traditional values taught by the Church, and religious practice was declining. Reacting to these new realities, the CECM appealed to parents for their help to ensure that together, family and school would succeed in the task of educating children. The board also used CKAC to discuss the shortage of schools. When parents demanded schools for their children, speakers from the School and Family Committee explained how the problem would be solved. As these examples show, Montreal schools initially made use of radio for social communication.

In 1954, following the third congress on the French language in Canada (Troisième congrès de la langue française au Canada), the CECM devised a wide‐ranging campaign to improve the spoken language of students. This was the beginning of educational radio. With the help of executives at CKAC radio, the board created school broadcasting designed to improve everyday language in students from grades 1 to 12. After the first series of programs proved a success, the board repeated the project the following year, broadcasting twice as many lessons. The glory years of Améliorons notre langue parlée would follow, with the series airing continuously from 1954 to 1963. As a result of this enduring venture, the government extended teaching by radio to other school boards across the province of Quebec. This marked the institutionalization of school radio broadcasting. Transistor radios, the democratisation of high school teaching and active pedagogy were all elements that boosted the use of radio in schools. Radio was now present in every classroom, but television was also being introduced. Radio had earned pride of place but was gradually superseded by television. The range of academic subjects widened, and the numbers of hours set aside for television broadcasting increased. Meanwhile, the use of school radio broadcasts gradually diminished. We therefore attribute the decline in radio broadcasting for schools to the emergence of television for schools, in other words, a phenomenon of technical substitution.

Finally, our research shows that the contribution by social agents incidental to schools and the influence of various factors external to schools are of major importance in explaining the mechanisms whereby educational radio became part of school life. It shows that radio changed in status from a public communication tool in the 1930s, to a pedagogic tool supporting the teaching of French twenty years later. Our study also shows that radio for schools was created not only by school‐related actors and institutions but also by the mass media and government. Far from being a failure, as education scholars maintain, educational radio was a success, but was replaced by television in the late 1960s.     

An in-depth study of a teacher engaged in an innovative primary science trial professional development project

The implementation of effective science programmes in primary schools is of continuing interest and concern for professional developers. As part of the Australian Academy of science's approach to creating an awareness ofPrimary Investigations, a project team trialed a series of satellite television broadcasts of lessons related to two units of the curriculum for Year 3 and 4 children in 48 participating schools. The professional development project entitledSimply Science, included a focused component for the respective classroom teachers, which was also conducted by satellite. This paper reports the involvement of a Year 4 teacher in the project and describes her professional growth. Already an experienced and confident teacher, no quantitative changes in science teaching self efficacy were detected. However, her pedagogical content knowledge and confidence to teach science in the concept areas of matter and energy were enhanced. Changes in the teacher's views about the co-operative learning strategies espoused byPrimary Investigations were also evident. Implications for the design of professional development programmes for primary science teachers are discussed.     

Critical Viewing of Television News: the impact of a Dutch schools television project

Using a quasi‐experimental pretest‐posttest control group design, the study investigated the educational effects of a six‐programme schools television series designed to teach children aged 10‐12 that television news broadcasts give a selective and thus subjective and incomplete impression of the news. Results indicated that the schools television series led to an increase in children's knowledge of the selection processes involved in the production of news programmes, and an increase in children's proficiency in recognizing the moments of selection in news items. However, the television series did not result in a decrease in the level of credibility children attribute to television news broadcasts. The reason for the latter finding probably is that the series showed that the makers of news programmes are conscious of the selection processes involved in making news programmes and do their utmost to make the choices in the most responsible way possible. As a result, the series may have unintentionally created the impression that the problem of selectivity can be satisfactorily solved.     

Educational implications of the TV medium

Conclusion It should be clear that television has much to contribute to education both in extending educational opportunity more widely and in raising the level of quality of what is offered. But to use it effectively it is essential that its characteristics be understood, its potentials be utilized, and its limitations be overcome. Wisely used, television can prove to be a twentieth century answer to some of the century’s most pressing educational problems. On leave from Ohio State University, the husband and wife American specialist team of I. Keith Tyler (long-time director of the Institute for Education by Radio-Television and consultant in educational broadcasting) and Margaret C. Tyler (supervisor of the Ohio School of the Air) spent six and one-half months in the United Arab Republic working with UAR-Television and the Ministry of Education developing an instructional TV series in Arabic literacy and laying the foundations for the extensive use of television in formal education. They followed this with short-term assignments in Manila, Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan, lecturing and consulting with leaders in education and television. Educational Implications of the Television Medium was originally presented by Mr. Tyler to representatives of the Ministry of Education in Cairo as basic orientation, and, with minor changes, to educators and broadcasters at Ateneo University in Manila.     

Teacher development in advanced educational technology

Advanced educational technology promises to improve science teaching and learning. To achieve the posited outcomes, however, teachers must have access to, know how to, have the skills to, and want to use the proposed advanced educational technologies in their teaching. In response, for the past eight years with support from the National Science Foundation, BSCS has conductedENLIST Micros — a teacher development to help science teachers improve their use of microcomputers.ENLIST Micros has three phases — Phase one (1984–1986): BSCS designed, tested, and producedENLIST Micros (Ellis and Kuerbis, 1987, 1989) teacher development materials (text, video, and tutorial software) for helping science teachers improve their use of educational technology. Phase two (1986–1989): BSCS designed, developed, tested, and disseminated a staff development model for helping science teachers integrate educational technology into instruction. Phase three (1989–1992): BSCS established Teacher Development Centers to implement theENLIST Micros teacher development materials and staff development model with science teachers throughout the United States.ENLIST Micros has served more than 1500 science teachers in 15 states. Teachers who have participated in the program have improved their knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy about computer usage and have improved their use of microcomputers in their science courses. Furthermore, as part of the project, BSCS has described the implementation process and has developed recommendations to support improvements in the use of educational technology in science programs.     

Television and education: A review of research

Summary The existing research on television of interest to educators was analyzed and found to be grouped into four general categories: (a) studies of the general social effects of television, (b) content analyses, (c) studies of the educational effects of television, and (d) technical studies. Studies in each of these four categories were reviewed and generalizations drawn from them. No attempt was made to review related research that is, no doubt, applicable to the problems of television. For example, the vast amount of research information developed in the audio-visual field during the past 30 years was not touched. Future investigators will find that the existing television research and the existing audio-visual research provide only a sketch map of the field of audio-visual communication. To use these important instruments wisely, and this is particularly true of television, it is necessary that we know and understand much more. This is the challenge for future research. To the knowledge of the editor, this is the first comprebensive review of educational television research to be published. The organizing of the research into four categories—general social effects, content analyses, educational effects, and technical problems—the rather detailed reviewing of the results, and the drawing of general conclusions should greatly aid the educator in understanding the unique contributions of educational television. An attempt will be made in future issues of Audio-Visual Communication Review to supplement this review of research by regularly publishing, in “Research Abstracts,” reviews of the most recent television studies. Dr. James D. Finn is Associate Professor of Education and Chairman of the Audio-Visual Education Department, University of Southern California. This paper was originally prepared at the request of the California State Department of Education for inclusion in theBrochure of Background Materials: Educational Television for the Governor’s Conference on Educational Television, held in Sacramento, California, December 15–16, 1952. It was necessary to develop the material in a very short time, and the writer wishes to express his indebtedness to F. Dean McClusky and May V. Seagoe of the University of California, Los Angeles, and to Lester F. Beck and Nicholas Rose, his colleagues at the University of Southern California, as well as to several of his graduate students for helping in locating copies of the studies reviewed.     

Integrating Research into Television Production: Square One TV and the case of “Pauline”

Within the field of formative research, there is debate as to whether researchers should collaborate with producers or serve as independent evaluators. The Children's Television Workshop (CTW) produces educational programs through a collaborative process of development that has come to be known as the “CTW Model”. Under the CTW Model, producers, content specialists, and researchers work together throughout the life of a project, from its initial conceptualization through its final production. This paper illustrates the value of the CTW Model via an in‐depth case study of the development and production of a single repeated format within Square One TV, an educational television series about mathematics. In particular, we focus on the multifaceted role played by formative research at all stages of production.     

Popularising science through television

Conclusion Currently the 26 films in the Science Territory series have been shown to audiences who watch Channel 8 commercial television in the vicinity of Darwin. They are still being shown to audienc who watch Imparja Television. There are no plans at the moment to shown Science Territory for any extra time on either Channel 8 or Imparja, once the Imparja programmes are completes. There are plans however to develop materials to complement the programmes, which could be used in schools and there are also plans to repeat the success of Science Territory and to expand it on a national basis to a series of programmes to be called “Science Oz”. This research note has described of the Scienc Territory project which has attempted to improve students' and parents' attitudes to science. It has alo attempted to explain how the issue of determining the effectiveness of the project has been addressed. Overall, Science Territory proved to be an interesting, exciting, successful and whorthwhile venture, particularly for the small scientific community of the Northern Territory. It also appears to be unique both in Australia and worldwide. There are therefore lessons that science educators can learn from this about new ways of improving students' attitudes to science. Specializations: Science education policy, curriculum development and science education development projects with industry. Specializations: Science teacher education, chemical education, science education in developing countries, educational Issues.     

THREE STEPS TO A REVOLUTION

>The author, speaking at the 1979 Conference ‘Television in Society’, reviews the uses of television in education and considers the future as affected by the microelectronics revolution. A redefinition of television itself is only part of a radical series of events involving three major steps: the evolution of microelectronics technology, cheap storage of information and cheap transmission of it over long distances. The consequences for educational television will be manifold, but the problems will remain educational     

Research and development at the Children's Television Workshop

Since its establishment in 1968, the Children's Television Workshop (CTW)—as a matter of policy—has incorporated research into the process of designing and producing educational materials. The first CTW project to use this team approach wasSesame Street, the educational television series created for in-home viewing by preschoolers. Today, the scope of CTW's efforts has widened dramatically to include other media (home video, print, computer software), other learning environments (schools, community organizations, afterschool child-care settings), and other national cultures. This article introduces this issue ofETR&D, which has been authored entirely by CTW researchers, producers, and executives. It describes CTW's approach to research and development, and sets out in broad terms the opportunities and constraints imposed by the environments in which the various projects and productions function.     

Making broadcast television participative: Eliciting mathematical behavior throughSquare One TV

The current reform movement in mathematics education has called for new ways of teaching that encourage children to become active participants in mathematical problem solving. In this article, the potential of educational television to elicit such behavior is investigated by reviewing research on theSquare One TV television series. A sizable body of evidence indicates that, through viewer participation,Square One TV can promote mathematical behavior directly among its target audience of 8- to 12-year-olds. Described in the article are the types of viewer participation that have been observed, threeSquare One TV formats that have consistently been found to elicit participative behavior, and several characteristics of these formats that may have been responsible for increased viewer participation. If these characteristics are incorporated into future television-based materials, they may increase the potential of the materials to elicit active participation among viewers. The production ofSquare One TV and the research described here were supported by the National Science Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Carnegie Corporation, and the U.S. Department of Education. Production of the first season was also supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and by the IBM Corporation. Additional funding for the fourth and fifth seasons was provided by the Intel Corporation. This article is based on a paper presented at the 1993 meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Atlanta, Georgia.