TELEVISION AS TEACHER: MOTIVATION TO LEARN MESSAGES IN CHILDREN'S EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING
By
DEBORAH KARIN WAINWRIGHT B.A., University of British Columbia, 1996
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS
in
THE FACULTY OF EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AND SPECIAL EDUCATION
We accept this thesis as conforming to the jequire4^tandard
UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
April 2004,
© Deborah Karin Wainwright, 2004 Library Authorization
In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission.
Deborah Karin Wainwright Name of Author (please print) Date (dd/mm/yyyy)
Title of Thesis: Television as teacher: Motivation to learn strategies in children's educational programming
Degree: M.A. Year: 2004
Department of Department of Educational & Counselling Psychology, & Special Education The University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC Canada ABSTRACT
This study examined the use of recognized production features and motivation to learn strategies in 3 educational television programs: Sesame Street, Between the Lions, and ZOOM.
It was hypothesized that educational television may be limited with regard to its presentation of motivational strategies: A content analysis of 5 episodes of each subject program was conducted. Coders observed the use of production features of the medium believed to support children's learning from viewing, and the use of teacher and learner strategies known to support intrinsic motivation for learning. Coders also examined any attempts by these programs to extend the on-air lessons beyond the television viewing time. The results reveal that these programs incorporate many of the production features thought to support children's learning from television. But the results also show that few of the recognized motivation to learn techniques are being portrayed in the content of these programs. As well, there is little evidence of attempts to extend the lesson beyond the program viewing time. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that these educational children's programs are not providing much support for intrinsic motivation in their viewers. Suggestions for how producers can revise or develop programming that can motivate viewers are discussed. The results inform producers, researchers, and parents of learning and motivation to learn opportunities offered to children on educational television today. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ii List of Tables v List of Figures vi Acknowledgements vii
CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION 1 The Impact of Television 1 Life-long Learning 3 The Present Research 5 Educational Programming 6 Research Questions and Hypothesis 11 Significance of this Study 11
CHAPTER TWO - REVIEW OF LITERATURE 13 Part One - Educational Television 13 A Brief History of Children's Television 15 Television Can Teach • 16 The Elements of Effective Educational Programming 18 Non-informational Content 19 Informational Content 23 Summary - Part One 30 Part Two - Motivation to Learn 31 A Brief History of Research on Motivation 31 Intrinsic Motivation 33 Developing in Learners an Intrinsic Motivation for Learning 35 Teacher Strategies that Encourage Intrinsic Motivation 35 Elements of an Intrinsically Motivating Learning Environment 42 Learning Strategies that Encourage Intrinsic Motivation 45 Summary - Part Two 48 Overview 49
CHAPTER THREE - METHODOLOGY 51 Sample 51 Subject Programs 52 Coding Instrument 55 Message Units 55 Academic Lessons • 57 Coding Procedure 58 Reliability .61 IV
CHAPTER FOUR - RESULTS 67 Data Analysis Overview -. 67 Overall Proportion of Academic Content 68 Part One - Content Designed to Attract & Engage Viewers 69 Non-informational Content 70 Informational Content 79 Summary - Part One 84 Part Two - Content Designed to Motivate Learning :....87 Motivational Teaching Strategies 87 A Supportive Learning Environment : 99 Learner Strategies 104 Attitudes toward Learning 108 Summary - Part Two 110
CHAPTER FIVE - SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS 114 Summary of Findings 115 Discussion 116 On-Air Academics 116 Motivational Content 119 Limitations of this Present Study & Directions for Future Research 123 Conclusion 125
REFERENCES ; 126
APPENDICES 138 Appendix A - Codebook 139 Appendix B - Running Record ...145 Appendix C - Tally Sheet 150 LIST OF TABLES
1. Inter-coder Reliability 62
2. Inter-coder Percentage and Kappa Agreement 64
3. Percentage of Series Using Non-Informational Features that Enhance Attention to Television 71
4. Percentage of Series Using Informational Features that Enhance Attention to Television 80
5. Total Percentage of Programs Incorporating Content that Appeals to,
and Enhances Comprehension of, Child Viewers 85
6. Percentage of Series Incorporating Motivational Teaching Strategies 88
7. Percentage of Series Incorporating Elements of a Motivational
Learning Environment 99
8. Percentage of Series Portraying Learner's Strategies and Attitudes 105
9. Total Percentage of Program Incorporating Intrinsically Motivating Elements Ill vi
LIST OF FIGURES
1. The elements of successful educational television 19
2. Teacher and learner strategies that encourage intrinsic motivation 36 Vll
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
No Masters degree is ever completed alone. I would like to acknowledge many people for helping me through the process.
I must start by thanking my advisor, Nancy Perry, for her generous time and commitment. She continually stimulated my analytical thinking and patiently waited through my constant delays. I am also grateful for having an exceptional thesis committee. I wish to thank Shelley Hymel for her many words of support and her genuine enthusiasm for my work over the years. Tannis MacBeth is the reason I began down this path. She has been both my mentor and my advocate and I cannot thank her enough. I must also thank the Faculty of Graduate Studies at UBC for recognizing the importance of continuing a career while working on a Masters, and for providing me with the extensions and liberty this life-combination required.
My secondary coder, Corinne Rubin, offered me her time, her patience, and her dedication to the study. A better colleague could not have been found and my heartfelt appreciation is sent to her.
Without the unending support of my family my work would never have been completed. The continual teasing and praise of my parents, Sandra, Jim, and Laura, my brother Kevin, and my sister Cori meant they were proud of me, reminded me not to give up, and focused me on following my passion. To my aunt and uncle, my friends, and my cousins, who listened to me whine and asked me questions with such heartfelt interest -1 am grateful.
I would like to express particular appreciation to my friend, Gordon Simpson. His sense of humour, his love, and his charitable reading and re-reading of my drafts were invaluable. No one could ask for a better friend in life than he has always been to me.
Most of all, it is almost impossible to express how blessed I am to have Raeff Miles as a life partner. His loving support is immeasurable. I am so lucky.
DKW 1
CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION
Television has a ubiquitous presence in our world and because of this its ability to influence our lives has been the subject of extensive research. Almost all North American homes have at least one television set, many have more, and thus understanding its impact on children's development is particularly vital. The idea that television viewing in and of itself, or by substitution over other activities, adversely affects children has been examined by a number of researchers in a number of ways, and conclusions have fallen on both sides of the argument.
A surfeit of research has looked at how television might be acting as a negative force on children's behaviour, mental development, and physical well-being. To a lesser extent, researchers have studied television's positive influences. They have focused primarily on children's learning of prosocial behaviours and early academics. None of the past research links television viewing with motivation to learn. My study may be the first to suggest we consider television's potential as an extension of the formal education system in this manner. The research herein examined the motivation to learn messages offered in three educational television programs for children.
The Impact of Television
Quite often television is Warned, by researchers, parents, and educators alike, for undermining children's academic achievement and social adjustment. Early research suggested that children were passive receivers of televised information, often portraying them as mesmerized, or "drugged" (Postman, 1982; Winn, 1985). Without a doubt, children can appear to be completely engrossed in their viewing and most parents concur it is often difficult to pull them away from "the tube." Television has been called a baby sitter, a wasteland, a drug, and is accused of being a portal to all the evils of human society (Mander, 1978; Winn, 1985). It is thought to influence violent and antisocial behaviour (Williams, 1986). It is blamed for our 2 inactivity and health problems (Andersen, Crespo, Bartlett, Cheskin & Pratt, 1998; Dietz &
Gortmaker, 1985). It is said to create or continue ethnic stereotypes (Oliver, 1994), objectify women (Signorielli & McLeod, 1994), and numb the minds of our children (Healy, 1999; Winn,
1985). Even without reading the research we could develop these opinions ourselves simply by scanning the glut of programming available today - most of which is clearly not aimed at developing the mind of the viewer.
On the other hand, there are advocates for the medium who argue that television should not be condemned as the rival of learning; rather, it should be seen as an opportunity to discover new things, to be challenged or inspired. In fact, entire networks have been created with the intention of doing just that (e.g., The History Channel, Discovery, The Learning Channel) and some research suggests this may be an achievable goal.
According to the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress (National Center for
Educational Statistics, 2000), 4 year olds, 8 year olds and 12 year olds who reported watching 6 or more hours of television a day had lower achievement in both reading and science than did children who spent fewer hours viewing TV. However, the relationship appears to be curvilinear. Children who watched no television whatsoever scored only slightly higher in achievement than children who watched for 6 or more hours per day, but children who watched between 1 and 5 hours of television per day scored higher on achievement scales than the non- viewers or excessively high viewers. Is it possible that an optimal amount of television viewing sparks children's imagination and activates their cognitive processing of information? Can it be that getting hooked on television early in life will play a causal role in children's academic behaviour as they grow older? How important is the content of the television they are viewing in ensuring this causal impact will be positive? 3
Preschool viewing of informational programming has been found to relate to higher letter-word skills, number skills, vocabulary, and school readiness (Wright, Huston, Murphy, St.
Peters, Pinon, Scantlin & Kotler, 2001). It is also associated with higher school grades, more leisure time reading, and more out of school creative activities in high school, even when gender, parent education level, and birth order are controlled (Anderson, Huston, Schmitt, Linebarger &
Wright, 2001). It is possible that the increased school readiness brought on by viewing educational programming may put children on the path to academic success. Research indicates that by entering school with skills already in place, children may be perceived by teachers as more able, which could in turn lead to more attention from instructors, better achievement academically and ultimately higher levels of academic motivation (Anderson et al., 2001;
MacBeth, 1996). These findings indicate that television may be one of our most powerful educational tools. Let's face it, television isn't going away, and children are watching! In fact,
The 1999 State of Children's Television Report found that in the United States children between the ages of 10 and 17 watch about 1,000 hours of television per year - the same number of hours they will spend in a classroom in that time (Woodard, 1999). Television producers could use its appeal to inform viewers and to motivate them to continue their learning beyond the televised event.
Life-long Learning
Life-long learning, or learning in school and beyond, may be the most important of all goals for our formal education system. I argue that it simply cannot be achieved in the classroom alone. We must look to the other sources of information in our lives and society and demand that they, too, focus on this auspicious goal. Arguably, one of the greatest of these influences, particularly in the life of a child, is the television set. Nevertheless, life-long learning 4 requires more than just instruction from a teacher or a television program. The path to achieving life-long learning requires a foundation of motivation.
Motivation refers to a learner's eagerness, need, yearning and compulsion to take part in, and be successful at, the learning process (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). In fact, no real learning can happen without it. Motivation also concerns the reasons or goals that underlie a student's willingness to attempt an activity. Sources of motivation can be categorized into two broad groups, extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic sources of motivation are available from external sources. These may be tangible rewards such as good grades or gold stars, or verbal rewards such as praise or recognition. Extrinsically motivated students perform or attempt a task in order to obtain these rewards or avoid a punishment. Intrinsic sources of motivation originate from within the learner. These internal sources may include a desire to know more or a goal of self- improvement. Students who are intrinsically motivated to learn undertake an activity for the learning or enjoyment it provides and will consistently strive to seek out more knowledge.
While motivating students is a critical factor in education, it is also one of the most difficult to master. In my own experience, I have heard many teachers discuss a lack of knowledge about motivation to learn techniques, not to mention the difficulty of incorporating these techniques into their classroom time. Research suggests that, indeed, this may be the case
(Ames, 1990). Teachers have been found to be either unaware of some motivational techniques or to use them infrequently and inconsistently. If educators struggle to understand and incorporate motivational teaching and learning strategies then it stands to reason that producers of children's educational television, few of whom are educators, may also struggle or simply fail to attend to the use of these motivational methods. Furthermore, if it is true that motivation-to- learn strategies are limited at school, then this is an area that educational television could indeed support. 5
We do not want our educational system simply to enable children to achieve but rather we want it to develop in those children a value for the process of learning, a desire to know more, a need to improve, a yearning to learn. Similarly, for educational television to be truly successful, motivation of viewers should be an outcome that producers and broadcasters strive to accomplish.
The Present Research
Analyses of the effects of educational television programming on its viewers fall into two categories. Most studies use a laboratory setting with child subjects. Their purpose is to detect what learning, if any, occurred due to the viewing of particular and specifically edited video segments (Fisch, McCann Brown, & Cohen, 2001; Greenfield, 1984; Kelly & Gunter, 1996;
Rice, Huston, Truglio, & Wright, 1990; Wright & Huston, 1984). The others assess the content of the programs being offered on-air. Most of these content analyses focus primarily on social issues such as the representation of gender, ethnicity, or the number of acts of violence (Oliver,
1994; Woodard, 1999). Fewer focus on academic content. One content analysis that did so focused solely on the teaching of literacy skills (Mates & Strommen, 1995). Another more recent study looked at program structure and genre for the purposes of determining the type of lessons (academic or prosocial) being offered (Jordan, Schmitt, & Woodard, 2001). To date, no research, of which I am aware, concentrated on motivation to learn messages present within televised content. My study had this focus.
A content analysis can be defined as the systematic, objective, quantitative analysis of the characteristics of communication messages (Gall, Borg, & Gall, 1996; Neuendorf, 2002; Weber,
1985). These communication messages may be: character portrayals in TV programs, films, or works of literature; human interactions; or messages in the text of news releases, political speeches or radio announcements. The communication messages of a television program consist 6 of the characters and dialogue as well as all visual elements (e.g., graphics, colours) and aural elements (e.g., music, sound effects).
Content analysis combines both quantitative and qualitative operations to make inferences about the message, its sender, and/or receiver (Neuendorf, 2002; Weber, 1988). This methodology benefits from the unobtrusive nature of its observation element. Neither the dispatcher nor the receiver of the message is aware that it is being observed or analyzed so there is little danger that the observation will act as a force for change. Content analysis was, therefore, ideal for determining the motivational messages offered on children's educational television programming.
An instrument uniquely sensitive to the context in which motivational messages occur was developed for this study (Appendix A, B & C). This instrument allowed coders to carefully and impartially examine five very different elements in the content of educational programs: (1) the use of the formal features of the medium which have been found to enhance a viewer's learning while viewing; (2) the incorporation of motivation to learn teaching strategies; (3) the portrayal of a supportive learning environment; (4) the incorporation of learning strategies which support motivation to learn; and (5) attempts to extend the lesson beyond the program content time. This coding instrument provides for a comprehensive evaluation of whether, when, and how these elements are offered to viewers in educational programs for children.
Educational Programming
A quick scan of the television listings shows a plethora of programming available for today's children. In fact, entire networks are devoted to broadcasting for youngsters (e.g.,
Treehouse, YTV, Nickelodeon, Fox TV Kids). However, only a small percentage of the programs available meet the criteria of "high quality" as defined by Jordan (1996) in her State of
Children's Television Report from the Annenberg Public Policy Center in the United States. 7
Jordan defined high quality programs as those that incorporate: age appropriate content; a lesson that is clear, understandable and salient; a diverse set of characters; and high production values.
Of all children's programs across the Networks only 36% met this definition in the 1999 State of
Children's Television Report (Woodard, 1999).
The Children's Television Act (CTA) of 1990 and the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) guidelines of 1996 established a set of criteria for television programs including their intended audience and purpose. The designation of "educational program" refers to the apparent intention of the producer to teach. Educational programs are those designed to inform or educate in each and every episode. They must be regularly scheduled to broadcast between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m., and be at least 30 minutes in length (FCC, 1996).
Jordan and her colleagues (2001) found that most programs receiving an Educational or .
Informational label centred on prosocial issues rather than on academic topics. Three programs that did include academic content were selected for this study: Sesame Street (SS), Between the
Lions (BTL) and ZOOM. These programs were chosen because they have a large viewership.
They broadcast daily on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), a non-commercial television network which is available on basic cable across North America. According to PBS, each boasts more than 5 million viewers per week in the United States. Additionally, all three programs use education advisors to consult on the use of recognized teaching strategies within their curriculum, and they incorporate results from focus groups and summative evaluations about the merits of their on-air content. Curriculum documents and evaluation results are available, and were obtained for all three programs. Not only should these educational programs be teaching in each and every episode, but also they should be doing it well. In short, in evaluating these three programs, I assessed quality educational television and a representative sample of what a large number of children watch in the way of educational programming. 8
Sesame Street (SS). This series requires very little introduction. Produced by the
Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop), SS originated in the late 1960s in conjunction with the Head Start program, an initiative aimed at supporting better basic education and school readiness for inner city children. SS appeals to preschool aged children (ages 2-5 years) while teaching them prosocial skills, basic numbers and counting, letters, and letter sounds (Sesame Workshop, 2003). Each episode is one-hour in length and includes human and puppet characters interacting in an inner-city neighbourhood. In between puppet/human segments, short animated or live-action video segments also support the educational focus.
Recently SS adjusted its long-standing format. The new program consists of a collection of modules. Each module has its own lesson focus and may include a compilation of shorter segments or consist of one long segment which lasts a number of minutes.
Since its inception, much research has been done to show that SS is a successful resource for teaching young viewers. In the past, most studies have asked the question, "Is SS successfully teaching?" (Fisch, Truglio, & Cole, 1999; Rice et al, 1990). The majority of these studies have focused on what information is being presented (Fisch, 2000; Mates & Strommen,
1996; Rice et al., 1990), or how children come to understand information presented on television
(Anderson & Burns, 1991; Armstrong & Greenberg, 1990; Lorch & Castle, 1997). The results have shown that viewing SS increases a child's readiness for school (Wright et al, 2001; Zill,
2001) and may predict increased leisure reading for teens as well as positive attitudes towards math and science for teenaged boys (Zill, 2001). There have been fewer content analyses of SS, one focused on literacy messages (Mates & Strommen, 1996), but none have considered messages that support viewers' intrinsic motivation for learning or incentives to continue learning beyond the viewing experience. Nonetheless, knowing that this large amount of research exists, one might rightfully ask, "Why is more research necessary?" 9
SS has always aimed at supporting a child's school readiness (Palmer & Fisch, 2001), but to fully enhance the education of its viewers, fostering in them an intrinsic motivation to learn is very important. Research about whether and how motivational messages are being presented on
SS is, therefore, warranted.
Between the Lions (BTL). BTL is co-produced by production company Sirins Thinking and the WGBH Educational Foundation. The series was developed from a recognized lack of literacy-focused children's educational programming, beyond the initial stages of letter/number recognition such as in SS. Using puppets, animation, and the occasional human, the program aims to teach literacy skills to home viewers. Different from SS, this program has a slightly older demographic (children ages 4 to 7 years) and is only half an hour in length. As is standard with most programs aiming to convey academic content, BTL has a magazine format, which means it is a collection of fast moving, short and distinct vignettes (Calvert et al., 2001). Each episode has one main storyline that disappears and reappears throughout the half-hour program.
This main story takes place in a library and, while that story may have little bearing on the vignettes that surround it, on its own it has a comprehensive and clearly evident plot from the beginning to the end of each episode. Like SS, BTL is broadcast on the PBS and therefore has no commercial breaks.
This series also has a very extensive website with information not only for viewers but also for teachers and caregivers. According to the BTL curriculum documents, this series aims to
"motivate children to read and write by demonstrating that both behaviors are a source of deep, aesthetic pleasure and a steppingstone to every other kind of learning experience" (WGBH,
2000, p. 1). The producers also include in their seven priorities for show content the intention to
"show that learning to read and spell can be a struggle, but it's worth it," and the goal of offering 10
"viewers a chance to have a meaningful and manageable reading experience" (WBGH, 2000, pg.
3). All of these goals align with the main focus of this study.
ZOOM. Also produced for PBS by the WGBHEducational Foundation, ZOOM is similar to the other two series chosen for inclusion in this study in that it broadcasts daily on PBS without commercials. Unlike SS and BTL, however, ZOOM has a cast of non-actor children who follow no script. Its target audience is older elementary school children between the ages of 8 and 11 years. ZOOM is the only children's' series offering science and math content currently airing on PBS. It has surpassed both Bill Nye the Science Guy and Where in the World Is
Carmen Sandiego? in the ratings and may well be the most successful educational program for its age group on television today. The ZOOM target audience is considered by television producers and programmers to be one of the most difficult audiences for which to create programming. At this age, children are still entertained by the programs targeted at younger viewers but are more interested in watching "grown up" shows (Fisch & Truglio, 2000; Wartella,
1987). Although nearly three quarters of the children's programming being broadcast in the U.S. is targeted at the elementary age market (ages 5 through 11), only one third of these are considered to be of high quality educationally. Those that are will most likely air on PBS
(Woodard, 1999), making ZOOM a program worthy of inspection.
The educational mandate of ZOOM is to "interest kids in science and math, model science as process and inquiry and put the power of investigation solely in the hands of kids"
(Goodman Research Group, 1999, p. 1). Included in the program mandate is the intent to awaken curiosity and engage children in scientific and mathematical ideas, to "motivate viewers to try the activities [offered on the show] for themselves," and "motivate them to submit their own ideas to ZOOM" (Goodman Research Group, 1999, p. 1). By doing a content analysis of a 11 week's worth of ZOOM episodes, this study evaluated whether and how ZOOM is successfully reaching these goals.
Research Questions and Hypothesis
While it is evident that the educational programs chosen for inclusion in this study are intended to teach, we do not know what, if any, motivational messages they convey to viewers.
The hypothesis that drove this study was:
Hi: Television programs designed to be educational are lacking in t heir use of strategies that foster in children an intrinsic m otivation to learn.
The research questions this study answers are:
1. Are these educational television series using production techniques that will enhance comprehension from television viewing? And if so, how?
2. Are these series using instructional techniques that promote a motivation to learn in the home viewer? And if so, how?
3. Are these series portraying the steps/strategies of successful learners? And if so, how?
4. Are these series displaying attitudes towards learning that support a learner's intrinsic motivation for learning? And if so, how?
and,
5. Do these programs promote a child's continued investigation of the lesson even after the program ends? And if so, how?
Significance of this Study
By broadening its motivational impact, television can be an important tool to support the education system. In order to better understand how to work with this tool, we need to examine the ways in which children can and do learn from the medium of television while considering the teaching and learning methods that support intrinsic motivation for learning. At the same time, elements that are common to the existing theories about learner motivation need to be applied to the context of children's educational television. By integrating elements of these two seemingly 12 disparate fields, this study provides a theoretical basis for educational television to develop in its viewers a motivation to learn. It is a precedent-setting look at whether and how three successful children's educational television programs, produced with the intention of educating their viewers, incorporate teaching and learning strategies that foster motivation to learn. 13
CHAPTER TWO - REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This review of the literature is organized in two parts. First, I summarize the existing research on educational television's ability to inform and educate young children, highlighting the potential this medium has to link the classroom and the home by inciting in viewers a continued motivation to learn. Second, I review the literature on teaching and learning strategies that have been found to increase children's intrinsic motivation in classrooms, concentrating on those strategies which can be transferred to television programming. I conclude each section with a summary and critique of the literature. At the completion of this chapter there is an overview of my study and its place in the existing research.
Part One - Educational Television
While early commentators on the topic of television generally concluded that all forms of prograrnrning were dangerous, numbing our minds and wasting our time (Mander, 1978;
Postman, 1982), later studies suggest that these writers failed to distinguish between entertainment programming and those which have been produced with the intention of instructing viewers (Fisch, Truglio, & Cole, 1999; Rice, Huston, Truglio, & Wright, 1990).
Even researchers who have examined children's educational programming in particular have been split in their opinions of viewer impact. Some speculated, for example, that the fast paced editing and constant bombardment of images create a cognitive overload in child viewers
(Singer, 1980). Others deteirnined that these same features of children's programming work to enhance a child's engagement and ultimate learning from the content (Anderson, 1998). Some researchers believed that the time children spend watching was the problem; the hours children spend in front of the television replace other seemingly more academic activities (Neuman,
1988). It turns out that the impact of television viewing on our socialization and learning may 14 not be an issue of "everything in moderation." The key to television's impact appears to be what you watch more than how much (Kelley & Gunter, 1996). The beneficial effects of watching television designed to be educational have been well documented over the years. Educational programming has been found to support a child's school readiness and early literacy skills
(Linebarger, 2000; Wright et al., 2001). Longitudinal research has found that children who were viewers at a young age perform better academically in high school (Anderson, Huston, Schmitt,
Linebarger, & Wright, 2001). This study continues the investigation of television as an educational tool, particularly where children are concerned, but extends the research by suggesting we think of television not as an entity unto itself but rather as a key ingredient in our formal education system. For that reason, I will limit the scope of Part One of my review, emphasizing studies that focussed on pre-school and elementary aged children and their academic learning from television.
In order to understand the influences of broadcast television, we need to be able to manipulate the content being viewed. To this end, studies have been conducted in controlled laboratory settings using programming designed for the purposes of the research. There has been some question, however, as to the transfer of this information into real life situations.
Accordingly, other research has focussed on the impact of viewing in naturalistic settings (home viewing) in which the programming screened was from broadcast television and not video that had been manipulated for research. This naturalistic research has allowed recontact studies which compared data about viewing habits at a young age with academic achievement as the children grew older. Both laboratory and naturalistic research are important and valid. Studies that manipulate program content offer producers and programmers information for future program content development. The research that examined program content "as produced" gives researchers, broadcasters, and parents a more realistic idea of the home viewing experience. I 15 will summarize the conclusions of both types of research. I also will touch briefly on the research into interactive media (computer programs or distance learning) because this type of on- screen instruction often reflects the design of educational programming on television.
A Brief History of Children's Television
In the early years of television (the 1940s and 1950s), the medium was being hailed as a
"window to the world." Consumers were being told it was something every home should have.
Television manufacturers were extolling the virtues of the medium for children and programming for young viewers was being broadcast in prime time (Lesser, 1974). As TV increased in popularity, and more and more sets appeared in people's homes, the broadcast space in prime time became truly "prime" for advertisers and children's programs were bumped to afternoon slots. It wasn't long until the stay-at-home mom became the advertiser's afternoon target and so children's programs were moved again, this time to Saturday morning where they continue to rule the airwaves to this day on private TV networks. Although children's programming did have a presence on the air during these years, most of the programs were limited in scope and demographics. The majority were aimed at elementary aged children and none were for pre-schoolers. Those programs that were considered educational were often little more than books being read on film. Maggie Muggins was the first children's program produced in Canada. It began airing in the 1950s and was predominantly a program that offered children a cast of puppets who simply read familiar stories on-camera. It wasn't until late into the 1960s that children began to see some quality educational prograrnrning. The public networks,
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in Canada and PBS in the United States have lead the way, in North America, in creating educational programming that goes beyond simply rereading familiar stories to developing content that is intended to enlighten the viewer intellectually, creatively and socially. There have been pre-school programs like Mr. Dressup and The 16
Friendly Giant, which include puppets and humans interacting through crafts, songs and stories.
There have been programs for older children like the more recent Bill Nye the Science Guy, a zany show about the fascinating world of science. Educational producers are developing programs that appeal to a large audience with content that is high energy and fun, but, more importantly, they are programs created just for kids.
Perhaps the most famous children's educational program is Sesame Street (SS), created in the United States in the late 1960s as an initiative aimed at supporting better basic education for inner city children. Like other pre-school programs, SS offers a cast of puppets interacting with humans. But SS goes beyond simple story telling to direct interaction of cast and viewer, with the television characters speaking directly to the learner, at home or on the set, as a teacher. SS was the first program created with one foot in the world of television and the other in the world of education, as each and every episode was, and still is, developed with a precise educational curriculum (Palmer & Fisch, 2001). Streams of children's programs have been produced to take advantage of the positive attitude (not to mention the marketing possibilities) SS has created.
This surge of programming for children has been accompanied by an equally enthusiastic surge of research.
Television Can Teach
After years of television having slowly worked its way into almost every room in our homes, it is not surprising that we began to question its impact. It is also no wonder that much of the research focused on the development of children. This research has given us evidence that infants who grow up with a television in their home display their first awareness of it when they are about six months of age (Hollenbeck & Slaby, 1979). In Canada, children between the ages of two and 11 years watch an average of 15.5 hours of television per week (Statistics Canada,
2000). Around the age of three, children have established regular viewing habits and begin to 17 pay more attention to the content of the television shows they are watching (Wartella, 1987).
When they reach second grade their time spent with the television begins to increase, and continues to increase until adolescence (Luke, 1988).
While statistics show that children are spending a significant amount of time with television, to demonstrate that television has an influence on viewers it is necessary to understand how viewers engage with it while they watch. Research indicates that, even when children appear to be passive while viewing television (simply staring at it rather than reacting to it), they are actively attending, seeking out information and investing considerable mental effort in processing the information offered on-screen (Anderson & Burns, 1991; Bordeaux & Lange,
1991; Lorch & Castle, 1997). Moreover, Fowles (1992) noted that children absorb more information than adults do per hour of television viewing and suggested that this is because children are always trying to learn about the world around them. This is good news for children, particularly if the program they are watching is aimed at teaching.
Over the years, research has determined that pre-school children who viewed SS regularly performed better on tests than those who rarely or never watched (Anderson, 1998).
Viewing SS at age two was positively associated with reading, math, vocabulary and school readiness at age three (Wright et al., 2001). As well, viewers of educational programs were found to be less likely than non-viewers to require special help in school for reading problems
(Zill, 2001). In fact, significant improvement in learning can come from viewing almost any genre of television prograrnrning if the show has been produced to instruct (Greenfield, 1984;
Kelley & Gunter, 1996; Rice et al., 1990; Wright & Huston, 1984).
Much of the past research looked at the immediate recall of televised information and not at its reach beyond the televised event. Recently, Anderson et al. (2001) and Wright et al. (2001) conducted longitudinal studies aimed at detennining the long-term academic impact of early 18 educational television viewing. Both studies provide evidence of a possible connection between the viewing of educational programming as a youngster and academic success in later years. In fact, 15 to 18 year olds who had been viewing educational programming when they were five had higher academic achievement than those children who did not watch television when they were young (Anderson et al., 2001). This study also indicates that one of the long-term consequences of viewing educational television as a young child might be the development of motivation and an interest in education that persists to adolescence. What qualities of educational programming are associated with these positive effects?
The Elements of Effective Educational Programming
The more attention children pay to a television program the more likely they are to learn from its content. Considerable research has been aimed at determining the elements of a program's content that attract the child viewer. Of course, unlike a classroom teacher guiding a student, it is difficult for the educational television producer to know how much mental effort a child invests when viewing. Several studies have assessed the child viewer's attention to television (Campbell, Wright, & Huston, 1987; Crawley, Anderson, Wilder, Williams, &
Santomero, 1999; Danling & Hong, 1995; Lorch & Castle, 1997; Rolandelli, Wright, Huston, &
Eakins, 1991). Most have measured the amount of time children spent looking at the television set and relating these times to various manipulations of the televised material's appeal. In some cases the researchers investigated attention on a deeper level. Crawley and his colleagues
(1999), for example, defined attention to television not only as looks but also as verbal or non• verbal interactions with the program. Others investigated auditory monitoring of the television along with visual attention (Rolandelli et al, 1991) and determined that children may still be cognitively engaged with the content even when they are not looking directly at the screen. In their research, Lorch and Castle (1997) maintained that children's engagement with the content 19 increased as the length of their looks at the television-screen increased. Children were instructed to turn off a buzzer every time it sounded during the viewing of a SS program. The longer the child had been looking at the screen the slower was his or her response to turn off the buzzer.
This suggests that children who attend to the television for some time may have increased engagement with the content they are viewing. It seems reasonable to conclude, therefore, that a program can guide the amount of mental effort a viewer invests by increasing the viewer's attention to the television screen. To capture children's attention, the program simply must appeal to them. As shown in Figure 1, both the informational or educational content and the non-informational content (the formal features of the medium) have to be taken into consideration when creating programming that will interest, and ultimately educate children.
TELEVISION THAT CAN TEACH
NON-INFORMATIONAL INFORMATIONAL CONTENT CONTENT Content that captures and maintains a Content that engages a child's mental child viewer's attention. effort.
- incorporates child focused formal - does not overwhelm academic features: bright colours, lively music and content with "seductive details" sound effects - offers viewers direct interaction - offers information that is comprehensible with on-screen characters and modelled for the viewer - offers the lesson repeatedly and in - offers characters who represent the child a variety of contexts ethnically, physically and academically in real-life situations
Figure 1. The elements of successful educational television.
Non-informational Content
Television's Formal Features. The auditory, visual and editing techniques, such as camera moves, visual dissolves, music, sound effects and pacing, that either make up or support 20 the content of a show are the formal features of television. Production features such as bright colours, lively music, goofy characters, and. repetition of activities, appear to be the most effective in motivating children to watch and maintaining their attention throughout an episode
(Campbell, Wright & Huston, 1987; Crawley et al., 1999). Of course, even when children have chosen to watch a television show, they often engage in other activities simultaneously such as colouring and playing with toys. When competing activities exist, the viewer's attention is divided and comprehension is in jeopardy (Lorch & Castle, 1997). Research has shown, however, that while children may not keep their eyes on the television set the entire time a program is on-the-air, they appear to keep listening (Hawkins, Kim & Pingree, 1991). They turn their attention back to the television set when they are cued to do so by those same production features - bright colours, up-beat music and verbal prompts (Anderson, 1998). For most pre• schoolers, a verbal prompt in the form of a child's or woman's voice signals material that is likely to be interesting and comprehensible to them and is more likely than the voice of a man to return their attention to the screen (Huston & Wright, 1989).
Appealing and Comprehension-Enhancing Content. The formal features of a television program, however, do not stand alone. These elements are simply used to support the program's content. As children flip through the channels, the formal features will act as a cue that a program is meant for them, but the content must keep them watching. If children determine that a program is not intended for them (e.g., having content which appeals to adults) or is incomprehensible to them (e.g., in a language she doesn't understand) they will look for some other way to pass the time (Campbell, Wright & Huston, 1987; Lorch & Castle, 1997). Content that is appealing to child viewers offers on-screen characters who carry out a mental activity for the viewer (e.g., "This is how I'll complete the task" or "I think I know how to do this"), who model the activity (e.g., carrying out the steps as mentioned), and who suggest the steps the 21 viewers can take to carry out the activity themselves (Wright & Huston, 1984). We will see, in
Part Two of this review, that these same characteristics also develop a child's motivation for learning in a classroom.
Researchers have determined that if a program's content appeals to child viewers, those children are likely to attend more to the program (Danling & Hong, 1995; Huston & Wright,
1989; Lorch & Castle, 1997). In fact, the longer children's attention is maintained, the more engaged they appear to be and the better their comprehension of the material is likely to be. For educational television to be effective, sustaining a viewer's attention is vital. Still, the relationship between appeal and comprehension appears to be quite complex. Campbell, Wright and Huston (1987) investigated the influence of comprehensibility on appeal by measuring child viewers' attention to videotaped segments, which varied in intelligibility or difficulty of the content. They also measured how children's attention to a television program altered when watching programs designed for children compared to those designed for adults. The results suggested that children paid more attention to program content that had been designed for children no matter how difficult the content, leading to their conclusions that "comprehensibility of content may be a less important determinant of attention than children's perceptions or expectations about its likely comprehensibility" (Campbell, Wright, & Huston, 1987, p 324).
We will see in Part Two of this review, that research on motivation supports this idea of the child- focused lesson design (Schiefele, 1991). Therefore, a television show that weaves its educational content within a program designed with the child viewer in mind (by using child focussed formal features) will be more likely to motivate children to watch and sustain their interest throughout.
Program Familiarity. The phenomenon of "channel surfing" leads us to another aspect of television content that is important for capturing a viewer's attention - familiarity. If we think 22 about the programs that stop our surfing, we have chosen them because they have appealed to us in some way. Perhaps the program's music or images were recognizable, or the dialogue interested us. Something has cued us that the program we are seeing is one we will enjoy. In fact, a program's format and intent must be quickly recognizable in order for the surfing to stop.
In their research on mental effort when viewing, Bordeaux and Lange (1991) found that having an idea regarding what we are about to watch or experience makes us more comfortable and more motivated to watch. If we are familiar with a program's format, and know what to expect for the duration of the show, we often relax into the watching. This familiarity is our pre• existing schema for television.
To every experience in life we bring a pre-existing schema, and television is no different.
Having a pre-existing schema for a particular program provides the child viewer with expectations pertaining to what events might occur during that program, how the characters will behave, and what the motives are behind their actions (Bordeaux & Lange, 1991; Fisch &
Truglio, 2001). For SS, it may simply be an existing knowledge of the show's format. There will be Muppets who discover things, there will be grown-ups who will explain things, there will be songs, and letters and numbers. Similarly, animation cues children that a program may be of interest to them. This pre-existing schema may cause some parents grief in the case of the numerous adult focused animated programs that have been added to the broadcast schedule over the past few years. Nevertheless, in the case of educational programming, having this immediate knowledge of a television show's purpose and characters will reduce the demands of processing the entertaining content and result in a more efficient processing of the educational elements
(Fisch, 2000). Additionally, familiarity with a show's format will guide the viewer's attention and comprehension of the information being presented. Therefore, a television program with a 23 standard set of characters appearing on each episode will draw on existing knowledge and facilitate learning more readily.
Furthermore, it seems reasonable to expect that children may attend more to, and learn more from, models who are like them or familiar to them (Van Evra, 1998). Fisch (2000) found that a program offering a diverse set of characters who represent the viewer ethnically, and developmentally, and which puts these characters into situations that reflect a viewer's real life, can enhance the child's learning from viewing. In Part Two of this review I will provide evidence that modelling, in addition to offering familiarity with a television program, is an important element for increasing a child's motivation to learn.
Informational Content ,
To this point the review has focused on research that has determined elements of a television program's design that can serve to capture and maintain a child viewer's attention and enhance comprehension. By being aware of the supportive use of these elements, a program can grab hold of viewers and ultimately assist in their assimilation of the presented material. Still, for a television program to instruct, appealing to viewers is only one half of the educational program producer's challenge. The research into educational television has found that, to support learning while viewing, a television show must be designed with the intention of educating and provide content that instructs while it entertains (Greenfield, 1984; Kelley &
Gunter, 1996; Rice, Huston, Truglio, & Wright, 1990). To enable this, some educational programs enlist the expertise of educators and professionals in the field of child development to design their formal educational curriculum (e.g., instruction in literacy, numeracy or science).
Aside from the academic content, particular teaching strategies have been found to be especially useful for enhancing a child's learning while viewing as well as his motivation to learn. These 24 include characters interacting directly with home viewers, repeating the content to be learned throughout an episode, and balancing the lesson with the entertaining aspects.
The Danger of Seductive Details. It is important to note that entertaining content and lively formal features, while the backbone of capturing television viewers, must not overwhelm the educational information being presented if a program is to educate. Researchers have investigated the impact of entertaining content on learning. In their research, Renninger, Hidi, and Krapp (1992) found that the addition of interesting but irrelevant information to a text passage can significantly thwart learning. When entertaining details distract the learner's attention there are fewer cognitive resources left available for processing the central content.
Garner (1992) refers to this overwhelming of main ideas with interesting but non-essential information as the "seductive details effect." If not handled properly, the highly interesting but unimportant elements added to a story may decrease the amount of attention allocated to essential lesson points and, in turn, lessen the amount of recall by the learner of those important non-seductive details. The extent to which seductive details are distracting appears to relate to their type, amount, and location within the text. For example, Harp and Mayer (1998) found that seductive details kept to the end of the lesson do not interfere with the processing of important material. Seductive details offered at the beginning of the lesson can stimulate prior knowledge that may be irrelevant to the present lesson and which can distract from the learning at hand.
When learning objectives were provided prior to students reading a passage, however, their recall of the main ideas was increased whether or not there were seductive details in the passage
(Harp & Mayer, 1998). Producers of educational television would do well to be alert to this type of content organization by making the learning objectives explicit and the formal features supportive to the lesson. Educational programs offering formal features which support rather than distract from the educational content are more likely to be successful teachers. 25
There are some critics who feel that television, no matter how educational it intends to be, has no positive impact whatsoever, and the entertaining elements are exactly the reason why
(Healy, 1999). In her book Endangered Minds, Jane M. Healy (1999) referred to the design of
SS as carnival-like. She suggested the content was a cacophony, glitzy and filled with "sensory hucksterism" (p.234), a visual deluge that gets in the way of teaching. A study by Zillman,
Williams, Bryant, Boynton and Wolf (1980) found evidence to the contrary. Their research suggests that the addition of irrelevant but entertaining elements to children's educational programs increases viewer's attention to the screen and ultimately their memory for the program content. In fact, many researchers have sought to understand the interaction between the visual and auditory elements of television (Linebarger, 2001; Rolandelli et al., 1991; Walma van der
Molen & van der Voort, 1997). These researchers aimed to determine if the audio competed with the visuals, rendering learning less complete than when information was presented visually or aurally only. These studies found that when the audio portion of a television program is accompanied by supportive or redundant visual images the viewer more easily assimilates the information being presented. Rather than competing for cognitive resources, the doubling up of information maximizes, if you will, the information-processing abilities of the learner (Gunter,
Furnham, & Griffiths, 2000; Mayer, 1997). Ricci and Beal (2002), in their study of the influence of interactive media on lesson recall, found similar results. The children in their study who were exposed to lessons verbally, but were given no visual support, recalled less of the content than those who saw an audiovisual presentation. They also recalled less than those children who were able to interact with the audiovisual presentation, or who watched others interact with the audiovisual presentation. Their research supports the suggestion that it is a combination of auditory information and supportive visual information that enables better recall of a lesson.
Perhaps this is a key to the use of entertaining elements in educational television. As long as 26 audio and video are not competing against one another, as long as the visual information and auditory information are supporting each other, the lesson will get through. There are several ways this "doubling up" can be handled without making the content trite or dull.
If for example the "glitz", as Healy (1999) called it, is actually colourful graphics offering text that supports the verbal lesson (Linebarger, 2001) or songs that are accompanied by supportive visuals (Calvert, 2001), then the learning may in fact be enhanced by their inclusion.
Linebarger (2001) found that children who watched videotaped clips accompanied by captions recognized more target words and were able to transfer those words to text not related to the video, even several days after viewing, more so than children who watched without captions.
Calvert (2001) was interested in whether and how children learn through song. On television, particularly in children's educational television, it is not uncommon to see attempts at teaching through tunes. In her research, Calvert examined the impact of televised songs on children's recall of educational content. She found that, when accompanied by animated pictures which supported the lyrics, both children and adults showed increases in verbatim memory more often than when they heard songs with no such visual accompaniment. However, her results suggest that while mastery of certain types of tasks are improved by televised songs, true learning or deep processing of the educational content is better enhanced when the factual information is spoken and not sung. Therefore, programs that do offer educational content in song are well advised to offer this same content in spoken word at another time in order to ensure the lesson is learned.
A quick scan of any television show, educational or otherwise, tells us that entertainment or seductive details may be the soul of this medium. After all, in order for children to be motivated to watch a television program over the bounty of other activities available as ways to pass their time, the program simply must appeal to them. It is the manner in which these 27 entertaining elements are incorporated into the educational content that seems to determine the message received by the viewer, his desire to attend to the lesson and ultimately his motivation to learn. Therefore, the goal of an educational television producer should be to include entertaining content in a manner that supports or is relevant to the principle lesson.
Direct Interaction with the Viewer. One obvious difference between children's programming and other television productions is that on children's shows characters often speak directly to the viewer at home by asking questions, giving supportive comments, or perhaps letting the viewer in on a joke. Research on interactive media and distance education has investigated this on-screen character to home viewer interaction to determine if it is having any instructional effect (Kawachi, 2003; Ricci & Beal, 2002). While television may not be the archetype of interactive media, the research of Ricci and Beal (2002), and Kawachi (2003), provides insight into how children may be learning from on-screen characters on television.
When on-screen characters speak directly to the home viewer they are offering a face-to-face experience similar to that of a teacher having a one-on-one interaction with a learner in a classroom. Kawachi (2003) found that this face-to-face interaction by an online tutor who gave explicit examples of relevance to the at-home learner increased that learner's intrinsic motivation for academic and vocational tasks.
Still, there is more to computer based learning than simple direct interaction with the instructor. In some cases the learner at home can guide his own way through the lesson by using his mouse and clicking on different aspects of a program. Ricci and Beal (2002) hypothesized that the learner's control over the lesson may be influencing the impact on his learning more so than the instructor alone. Much of the research on learning suggests this is true, as we will see in
Part Two of this chapter. Since a television viewer has no control over the direction or speed at which information is offered, it is exciting to discover that Ricci and Beal (2002) found no 28 indication that actual physical interaction (the ability to click on particular elements on-screen and control the direction of the lesson) enhanced recall of the main ideas of the lesson. Learners retained the same amount of information whether they were simply viewing the lesson or in control of it. The direct speaking of the on-screen instructor to the learner at home, therefore, seems to be enough to pass on vital information.
Surely there must be more to the relationship between an on-screen character and a child's learning than simply the information being offered. A Finnish study (Jylha-Laide, 1994) determined that non-English speaking children can learn to speak English by watching cartoons with English dialogue. Jylha-Laide (1994) suggests this is not only because the language of cartoon programming is simplistic but perhaps more importantly because a viewer can observe an on-screen character's body language. The implicit information that occurs in this type of interaction can assist the learner in drawing conclusions about the information being presented..
This idea was supported by the research of Fisch, McCann Brown and Cohen (2001) who investigated programs, such as Teletubbies, which use mainly nonsense words and implicit information to educate their viewers. Their research found that children were able to understand the content of a program in spite of its lack of real language; the implicit information was enough.
Kawachi (2003) found that academic achievement and a positive attitude toward the subject were positively correlated with the enthusiasm, friendliness, humour, dynamism and charisma of the on-line tutor. The same has been found in classrooms (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002;
Stipek, 1988). Research into student/teacher interactions in school has determined that the way an instructor speaks to students plays a powerful role not only in learning, but also in building learners' self-esteem and self-efficacy for certain tasks (Csikszentmihalyi & McCormack, 1986;
Stanulis & Manning, 2002). Self-esteem and self-efficacy is vital to the development of 29 children's motivation to learn and can easily be supported on educational television by offering viewers at home a direct interaction with charismatic on-screen characters.
Repetition. Repetition is perhaps the most elementary of all learning strategies and is essential for permanent long-term memory of learning material (Cornford, 2002; Weinstein &
Mayer, 1991). Children often repeat the names of things as they discover them in order to remember them and even adults do this at cocktail parties when trying to remember someone's name. Successful learning of new information always appears to involve repetition. From repetition we can move on to elaboration, which involves building on what we already know, relating things we learn to that which we already understand, or summarizing what we have discovered in order to make it a more manageable size. All of these learning strategies lead to deeper and longer-term learning (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 1999, p.87).
In children's educational programming, repetition or multiple contexts for portraying the same information may be a producer's most valuable tool. Rice and Woodsmall (1988) found that repetitions, along with a clear presentation of the educational information, are critical in children's ability to learn words from television. When children see something they already know or understand, they approach the repeated exposure to it with less discomfort and their motivation for attempting the learning task increases. In fact, repetition is one of the most powerful tools employed by the successful pre-school program, Blue's Clues (Anderson, Bryant,
Wilder, Santomero et al., 2000). Blue's Clues repeats the same episode on five consecutive days. Anderson and his colleagues (2000) found that repeated exposure to the program allowed for viewer's increased comprehension. However, they also determined that a substantial amount of the content has been learned after viewing the episode just one time.
Repetition also is a key element in enabling a child to transfer learning from one situation to another. Fisch (2001) suggests that presenting the same educational material in several 30 different forms and in different contexts throughout the length of a television program might help children transfer what they have learned to new but similar situations (see also Salomon &
Perkins, 1989). Anderson et al. (2000) found that multiple viewing of the same episode of
Blue's Clues significantly increased transfer. Children in their study who watched an episode five times were more likely to use the strategies they observed during the Blue's Clues episode when they were presented with new problems than were children who had not seen the episode multiple times.
Summary - Part One
Research indicates that television programs designed to be educational, can be powerful tools for educating children. They can not only prepare children for school but also enhance their achievement in later grades (Anderson et al., 2001; Wright et al., 2001). Designing a program that educates requires awareness that attention to the television-screen and comprehension of the material being offered are inextricably intertwined (Anderson & Lorch,
1983). The research reviewed here has outlined elements of educational programming that must be carefully considered in order to ensure a program can enhance a child's learning while viewing. These elements include both the formal features of the medium that are particularly appealing to children and elements of content design which enhance the comprehension of the child viewer.
Formal features that appeal to children include bright colours, lively music, child voices, and wacky characters (Anderson, 1998; Huston & Wright, 1989). Content designed to keep children watching and expand their curiosity include characters who are representative of the child at home, who model the desired behaviours (Wright & Huston, 1984), and who speak directly to the camera with enthusiasm (Kawachi, 2003; Ricci & Beal, 2002). Learning is also enhanced by content that ensures the entertaining elements do not overwhelm the educational 31 lesson (Gamer, 1992). When combined, in educationally effective ways, these features can provide a quality learning opportunity for viewers.
Children are watchers of television. That they can learn while they are viewing is no longer in question. Research has documented much evidence that learning from television is possible, particularly if the programs being screened have been created with the intention of teaching. The existing research has established a compilation of features of the medium that promote cognitive engagement and learning from viewing. One critical aspect to learning, which has not been examined in the research on educational television, is motivation. To be truly educational, children's programs should be supporting their viewers' motivation to learn.
Part Two - Motivation to Learn
Motivation is a multifaceted notion. In Webster's dictionary, motivation is defined as
"something (as a need or desire) that causes a person to act. Incentive. Drive." (Mish et al., p.774). Specific to education, motivation refers to a learner's desire, need, and willingness to join in, and be successful at, the learning process (Bomia, Beluzo, Demeester, Elander, &
Johnson, 1997). According to the research, children start school with very high intrinsic motivation and appraisals of their own competence level (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999, p. 90; Stipek, 1992). From kindergarten through elementary school their judgements about their abilities and the importance of school begin to change, and often their motivation begins to decrease (Wigfield, et al., 1997). How can we harness this early motivation for learning and help students to maintain it for years to come? This question drives motivation theory and research.
A Brief History of Research on Motivation
Historically, theories on motivation were drive based or behavioural. Our actions were all reduced to a collection of reactions to satisfying our emotional and physiological drives. We 32 are propelled into action by internal forces. Woodworth (1918) suggested our drives vary in intensity, direction and persistence. Only when a drive is triggered do we act. That which elicits the most powerful response will be acted upon first. Freud's psychoanalytic theory was similar in that it suggested all human behaviours are a result of biological instincts. We act in order to satisfy a need. To Maslow (1954) our actions are all based upon a hierarchy of these internal desires. A need that is unsatisfied motivates behaviour that will satisfy it. The most important or necessary needs will be satisfied foremost. Other researchers believed these theories could not speak to all behaviours and sought non-drive based answers. To this end, the conditioning theories suggested rewards played a key role in motivating behaviour. Pavlov's classical conditioning determined that reinforcement elicits a conditioned response. Skiriner's (1953) theory of operant conditioning suggested that rewarding desired behaviour is the best insurance for motivating the behaviour in the future. Contemporary researchers postulate that these reward perspectives on motivation also are incomplete, particularly where learning motivation is. concerned. These more recent researchers have a cognitive focus. Their theories propose that our mental processes guide our behaviour and may be the key to learning motivation. To
Bandura (1986), for example, it is the individual's beliefs about the consequences of his behaviour, and not the reward he might get, that motivates him to act. To Weiner (1979), motivation is based on the attributions we ascribe to our past successes or failures, and these attributions influence our future behaviour. Other researchers postulate that the key to learning motivation is our beliefs about our abilities regarding a specific task (Schunk, 1984), or our emotions and self-worth (Covington, 2000). Still others suggest motivation is goal driven, dependent upon the rewards we believe the task offers us, either intrinsically or extrinsically
(Ames, 1992). In essence, the views on what motivates us are extensive and diverse. 33
Intrinsic motivation is believed to be more robust than extrinsic motivation and more related to deep quality and long-lasting learning (Kawachi, 2003; Schiefele, 1991). For this reason, most educators try to foster intrinsic motivation in their students. The remaining half of this chapter summarizes the teaching and learning strategies that have been found to nurture in children an intrinsic motivation to learn. For the purposes of my research I will use intrinsic motivation and motivation to learn interchangeably (Stipek, 1988).
Intrinsic Motivation
Learners who are intrinsically motivated are motivated to engage in an activity for its own sake (Pintrich & Schunk, 1996). They are self motivated (Gottfried, Fleming, & Gottfried,
2001), or motivated to acquire skills relevant to, their own future desires, intellectual interests, or self-improvement (Kawachi, 2003). Intrinsically motivated learners will be motivated by their self-concept, self-esteem, or personal values (Bomia et al., 1997). They are seeking to learn not just the requirements put forth by the teacher but whatever they can discover about a subject.
Intrinsically motivated children want to learn even when there is little or no reinforcement or reward for learning and persist even in the face of obstacles to the learning process (Bomia et al.,
1997; Deci & Ryan, 1985). Furthermore, when intrinsically motivated children do participate in an activity or take on a task, they do so for the enjoyment of it, the learning it will facilitate, or the satisfaction its completion will produce. For this study, the definition of intrinsic motivation was motivation to take on a task for its own sake, the challenge it offers, and the learning opportunity it presents.
Mastery Orientation. Goal Theory mirrors very closely the distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Developed by educational psychologists primarily to investigate achievement motivation in school settings, Goal Theory might be the most applicable theory for understanding children's motivation to learn (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). Goal Theory focuses 34 on the reasons why a person attempts, or completes, a task and the value the learner assigns to that task. This theory breaks into two parts - mastery goals and performance goals. Different goals will elicit very different motivational behaviours (Ames, 1992) and these motivational behaviours will change as the goals change (Covington, 2000). Is the student interested in the trophy, the praise, or the high grade? Is she interested in increasing her knowledge, or discovering new things? If a student is interested in achieving high grades, performing better than other students, or receiving a tangible reward for completing the task, that student is interested in extrinsic rewards and has a performance goal orientation. If a student is focused on the intrinsic rewards that come with learning such as improving at a task, or completing a challenge, then that student has a mastery goal orientation.
In general, the research suggests that a mastery orientation is an intrinsic motivation.
Mastery oriented students, like intrinsically motivated students, are likely to try hard, persist even when tasks are challenging, and have higher levels of cognitive engagement and interest in the learning process (Ames, 1992). These mastery motivated students seek to understand the lesson more fully, participate in learning for its own sake, and are likely to take on learning tasks more frequently. They are truly motivated to learn.
Almost all children begin their schooling with a strong pre-existing intrinsic motivation to learn and high opinions of their school-related competence (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking,
1999; Bouffard, et al., 2003). Harnessing and supporting the continuation of these beliefs is considered to be vital for a child's achievement in the education system. Gottfried, Fleming and
Gottfried's (2001) longitudinal study found that children's level of academic intrinsic motivation is developing in the early years of elementary school and becomes a relatively stable construct through late adolescence. The degree of academic motivation children have in kindergarten predicts their motivation in first grade. The first grade level of intrinsic motivation predicts the 35 level in second grade. By the age of nine, the degree of academic intrinsic motivation has developed some stability with the motivation level of each prior age predicting the motivation level of the subsequent age. Nurturing in children a high academic intrinsic motivation in the early years of schooling thus may influence their later success and, ultimately, their learning in life beyond school.
How does an instructor foster this type of motivation? Research has much to recommend regarding the most effective teaching and learning strategies for supporting a child's intrinsic motivation to learn. My review of this research focuses particularly on those elements that might be equally useful in the development of educationally motivational television.
Developing in Learners an Intrinsic Motivation for Learning
As shown in Figure 2, there are two important elements to increasing learner motivation, the role of the teacher, and the role of the learner (Stipek, 1988). The teacher guides the student.
The learner brings pre-existing beliefs regarding personal abilities, reasons for attempting or avoiding tasks, and a collection of strategies for learning. Both the role of the teacher and that of the learner can be further divided in two: teaching strategies are supported and extended by the learning environment in which they take place (Kawachi, 2003; Stanulis & Manning, 2002), and learners influence their own motivation through their behaviours and attitudes (Stipek, 1988).
Teacher Strategies that Encourage Intrinsic Motivation
Make the Task Meaningful. Just as was mentioned in Part One of this chapter, for children to be motivated to attend to a lesson they must first be interested in the topic. Only those items to which we choose to apply our minds will shape our learning and become a part of our experience. The research suggests that when children are interested in what they are learning the learning is more complete, meaningful and long-term, and it promotes a motivation for further learning (Schiefele, 1991). 36
Developing Intrinsic Motivation in Learners
Teacher Strategies Learner Strategies
Things teachers can do: Learning Environment Things learners can do: Learner attitudes/beliefs: - make task meaningful, - avoid competition - use talk-alouds / think- interesting, challenging - offer intrinsic rewards alouds - compare success and important - welcome questions - use self-regulation and failure to past - provide models for - incite curiosity - put in the effort not to others desired behaviour - extend the lesson - see learning as an - offer supportive feedback beyond the immediate incremental skill . - scaffold the lesson event - speak with excitement and interest
Figure 2. Teacher and learner strategies that encourage intrinsic motivation to learn.
In his research, Schiefele (1991) found that learners who were interested in the topic, and
were therefore intrinsically motivated to learn, spent more time and effort on the process,
internalized the meaning of the text more fully, and inevitably felt better about what had been
learned. It seems that, more than the non-interested student, the intrinsically motivated learner
uses elaboration and information-seeking strategies that: support deeper learning (Schiefele,
1991); lead to better transfer of the material (Malone, 1981); improve achievement; heighten
self-efficacy; and lower anxiety towards academics (Gottfried, Fleming, & Gottfried, 2001). If
they are not interested, their cognitive engagement with a lesson will be limited. Stimulating
learners' interest, therefore, is crucial to supporting intrinsic motivation. Still, stimulating
interest can be exceedingly difficult. The key seems to be making the task personally
meaningful to the learner. 37
But what makes a task meaningful to any given child? A meaningful task has personal worth and is seen as authentic. To increase the worth or authenticity, the instructor can link the task to the child's world or explain why doing the task is important and what skills it is designed to teach (Stipek, 1988). According to Blumenfeld (1992), the meaningfulness of a task may derive from a collection of variables: it could draw on a learner's prior knowledge or experience; it could teach skills important to future life beyond school; or it could challenge a learner and therefore activate his desire for mastery. The most meaningful and intrinsically motivating activities are those that keep these qualities in mind.
Activate Prior Knowledge. Linking a new task to a child's prior knowledge may be the most readily available of all meaningful-task strategies. As children master a task, the instructor can make them aware of this newly acquired knowledge thereby increasing their self-efficacy for that task in the future. The importance of a learner's self-efficacy is one component of
Bandura's research (1986). Bandura's (1986) Self-Efficacy Theory suggests that our self- referent thoughts influence our behaviour, our motivation, and ultimately our success at any given task. Efficacy expectations are situation-specific and influence whether or not learners will take on the task they are offered (Winne & Perry, 1994). For children to involve themselves in meaningful learning over sustained periods they need to have sufficient self-efficacy
(Margolis & McCabe, 2003). Students with low self-efficacy will not perform as well as students with higher self-efficacy, no matter what their level of skill or ability. If learners' self- efficacy for a task, or in a situation, can be increased then the likelihood that they will be motivated to take on that task, work harder at the task, and persist at the task when having difficulty will also increase (Ames, 1991; Bandura, 1993). If an instructor links a new task with a task the child has already mastered (prior knowledge), that child's self-efficacy for the task will increase, as will his interest and the likelihood that he will be motivated to attempt the new task. 38
Link Tasks to Real Life. Even when a task has been linked to prior knowledge, learners still may not consider it meaningful. An important next step to increasing a child's interest in a task may be linking the task to the child's life outside the classroom (Blumenfeld, 1992). We all remember times in school when we thought, "Why do I need to know this?" and we often then tuned out the lesson. For interest to be activated, not only should the task be important but the learner should be made aware of this importance. It is necessary for the instructor to highlight for learners the link between the lesson and real life in order to activate and sustain their interest
(Stipek, 1988). Research done by both Kawachi (2003) and Malone (1981) suggests that delineating for learners what the outcome will mean to them (what they would be able to do, or do better, as a result of mastering a task) will reinforce the task's meaningfulness, initiate intrinsic motivation, and result in persistence through challenges.
Make Tasks Optimally Challenging. Tasks that are challenging often are perceived as being more valuable than tasks that are easy (Stipek, 1988). If learners accomplish a difficult task they may have a greater sense of triumph for having done something they were unable to achieve before (Stipek, 1988). Tasks that are too easy may be boring. Tasks that are too difficult are frustrating. The challenge is to balance the two. Make the task optimally stimulating. Offer achievable steps, each of which is seen as a success that will ultimately lead to mastery. Tasks should be difficult enough to entice the child to want to achieve mastery but not so difficult that failure is likely (Ames, 1992; Blumenfeld, 1992; Malone, 1981; Nolen, 2001;
Pintrich & Shunk, 1996; Stipek, 1988). By achieving challenging goals learners begin to feel more competent and ultimately their self-efficacy and perceived control over outcomes increases. This may lead to the setting of new goals for the future and maintain intrinsic motivation. The instructor, or producer in the case of educational television, should therefore make explicit early on what is being learned and how that learning is useful for the child. As 39 well, the levels of difficulty should be staggered throughout the lesson. Still, one of the snags will always be making these objectives personally meaningful and challenging to most learners.
Since an individual task cannot be all things to all children, a television program, much like a classroom, must offer challenges at different levels of difficulty to reach a greater diversity of abilities in viewers. This is no small task for any instructor. Kawachi (2003) suggests that a steady increase of the difficulty level throughout a program may allow the educator to hit this target.
Model Learning Behaviour. A very simplistic way of increasing a child's interest and the meaningfulness of the task may be by offering models that represent the child learner. Models are examples of adults or children who act out the desired behaviour. Learners derive a plethora of information from this observation of others. Seeing others succeed can convey to children that they too are capable of succeeding and may motivate them to attempt the task (Schunk,
1990).
It is important to offer a variety of models since diversity could reflect a range of model types and make learners more likely to observe someone similar to themselves. Modelling could take many forms, including demonstrations by expert models (adults who show how the task is done), peer mastery models (children who try and succeed at the task), and peer coping models
(children who struggle but ultimately complete the task showing that mastering the task takes time, effort and practice). Coping models offer the learner an awareness of learning differences from student to student. They also show learning and ability as incremental skills.
Understanding that she is not expected to be able to be successful on his first try will support the learner's interest in attempting a task and increase her self-efficacy (Bomia, 1997; Schunk,
1987). Although teacher or expert modelling is highly effective, the research suggests that observing a "similar other" or peer model offers the best basis for comparison. Students learn 40 something about their own ability from knowledge of the abilities of others like them (Schunk,
1987). Schunk's (1987) research found that learners' efficacy was increased when they observed peer coping models and peer mastery models more than when they viewed expert or adult models or no models at all.
For an educational television program, the use of child models is a motivational strategy that can be easily incorporated into a show's content to enhance viewers' efficacy for the on• screen tasks.
Offer Supportive Feedback. Along with vicarious experience, the Self-Efficacy Theory suggests a person's self-efficacy is developed through verbal persuasion or feedback (Bandura,
1986). Precise diagnostic feedback that includes specific guidance and direction on how to improve or succeed, corrects errors and remedies problems, links success with effort, and, if given at regular intervals throughout the lesson, can increase a child's self-efficacy (Pintrich &
Shunk, 1996). Ultimately, learners' intrinsic motivation for a task will also increase because, with supportive feedback, they are being told outright that they can succeed and also how to do it
(Bomia, 1997; Guskey, 1990).
However, feedback can be a double-edged sword. Praise must be given on relevant aspects of the task or the educator runs the risk of the child discounting the feedback. If children are praised on easy tasks, or on tasks that are noncontingent on their effort or performance, then they may see the praise as evidence they lack ability, thereby undermining their self-confidence
(Winne & Perry, 1994). This has been found to be even more salient in older children (Ames,
1991). As well, suggesting that the reason for failure was due to a lack of effort may decrease children's sense of self-efficacy if they believe they have tried hard to do well. It must be clear that, for successful completion of a challenging task, effort alone is insufficient. The key is to 41 use feedback to link effort to effective strategy use in order to foster learners' self-efficacy and ultimately their intrinsic motivation (Paris & Paris, 2001).
Scaffold the Lesson, Making Each Step a Goal. When discussing the need to create challenging tasks, I indicated that achieving small goals as steps toward mastery will assist in
J keeping a challenging task interesting for learners (Stipek, 1988). These small goals or "steps to success" are like a scaffold for the lesson. Learners will have a sense of control and increased intrinsic motivation if they recognize that particular steps are required for completing a task.
Next, they must choose to use those steps and monitor the impact of each step on progress.
Ultimately they must attribute success to the use of these steps (Paris & Paris, 2001). Knowing the steps, or strategies, helps learners predict the results of their effort and ultimately the results of future attempts (Pintrich & Shunk, 1996). Very different from skills, which may be seen as established and unchanging, strategies are developed and manipulated by learners based on each situation. They can be taken from task to task and often are necessary for successful task completion. Learners will only apply learning strategies, however, if they are aware of them, recognize that they will work in the particular situation, are willing to put in effort at the task, and believe that putting in the effort will result in success (Ames, 1990).
Self-efficacy is one motivational factor that has been shown to influence and be influenced by the use of learning strategies. When learners begin to understand how to set short- term achievable goals, and are given the steps or strategies that will enable them to reach these goals, their efficacy will increase (Ames, 1991). Alternatively, when children have high self- efficacy for a task they are more likely to use success strategies while attempting the task. Peer modelling may be a highly effective way to make the strategies, or steps to success, observable and relevant (Paris & Paris, 2001), supporting learners' self-efficacy for the task. 42
Be Enthusiastic About The Lesson. The literature on student/teacher interactions in classrooms suggests that the ways an instructor speaks to students plays a powerful role, not only in learning, but also in building a child's self-esteem and self-efficacy for academics
(Csikszentmihalyi & McCormack, 1986; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002; Stanulis & Manning, 2002;
Stipek, 1988). Kawachi (2003) found this link is equally salient in on-line education. In his research, both higher achievement and a learner's positive attitude toward the lesson were linked with the on-line tutor's apparent enthusiasm, expressiveness, humour, and charisma. As indicated in Part One of this chapter, on-screen characters speaking directly to the viewer at home could express enthusiasm towards the subject and, in so doing, increase the viewer's motivation for the lesson.
Elements of an Intrinsically Motivating Learning Environment
As outlined above, research suggests the nature of the tasks an instructor provides and the instructor's attitude towards the lesson are key ingredients to supporting a learner's intrinsic motivation. The type of learning environment also plays an important role in fostering the motivational orientation of learners and their self-efficacy for certain tasks.
Avoid Competition. Most classrooms are set up in such a way that there is competition for grades (e.g., the watchful eyes of peers, tangible rewards for success). These classroom elements distract from the intrinsic reasons for participating in a task and may develop a performance orientation in learners (Ames, 1992). Learners with a performance orientation are more apt to put in less effort toward completing a task, fail to persist when faced with a challenge, spend less time on the task, and ultimately process the task less fully than intrinsically motivated students (Elliot & Dweck, 1998). As well, these performance-oriented learners often see failure and corrective feedback as direct evidence of their lack of ability. The logical step would seem to be doing away with grades and assessment altogether and offering only 43 constructive feedback (Stipek, 1988). In fact, one study (Butler & Nisan, 1986) found that doing this led to learners' increased interest and effort. But, the school system is set up to give grades.
The challenge, therefore, is to de-emphasize their importance for individuals. Stipek (1988) suggests that a way to downplay the competition of grades would be to offer them based on individual improvement rather than on a normative standard.
Ultimately, educational television programs should strive to create a learning environment that supports a mastery orientation towards learning in viewers. Since viewing television happens in one's own home, without the watching eyes of peers and instructors, the circumstances under which educational television seeks to inform are primed for a mastery rather than performance orientation. A television program that promotes mastery will encourage viewers to regard errors as opportunities to learn and set goals that are based on personal progress.
Welcome Questions. Another example of a learning environment that supports an intrinsic motivation is one that cultivates a child's natural curiosity by welcoming questions, by encouraging exploration and promoting the belief that learning is worthwhile, satisfying and fun
(Ames, 1992; Pintrich & Shunk, 1996). The verbal and non-verbal behaviour of both instructors and other learners plays a key role in developing and maintaining this supportive environment
(Stanulis & Manning, 2002). When teachers, or a child's peers, send explicit or implicit messages regarding their opinion of a learner and his abilities, those messages may play a vital role in supporting his competency beliefs and ultimately his motivation for learning. Children with a mastery goal orientation regard asking questions and being offered corrective feedback as ways to receive information to be used for future success. Although a television program cannot interact with a viewer at home, as mentioned in Part One of this chapter, the program could 44 model supportive behaviour, both explicit and implicit, through discourse among the on-screen characters.
Support Fantasy and Curiosity. One of the most important features of an intrinsically motivating learning environment may be the extent to which it can continue to stimulate and satisfy the curiosity of the learner. This is the same challenge that television producers face in trying to capture and maintain viewers' attention. Fantasy is "the free play of creative imagination or imaginative fiction featuring strange settings and characters" (Mish et al., 1986, p.449). This fantasy world is common among children's television programs, with the locations and characters are often magical or impossible. Still, fantasy on its own will not promote motivation to learn. In order for intrinsic motivation to be activated, the instructor should explain the rationale for the lesson in each fantasy (Kawachi, 2003). In terms of learning, fantasy should also mean offering analogies that make the strange familiar and the familiar strange by expanding the way children look at a topic and awakening their curiosity.
Alternatively, the fantasy could present just enough information to make learners want to know more, or offer unexpected outcomes. Malone (1981) recommends increasing fantasy by injecting anecdotes or personal and emotional elements into a lesson. Garner (1992) calls these anecdotes "seductive details" and, as mentioned in Part One of this chapter, they should be used with caution. It is important that the fantasy elements of an educational television program do not overwhelm the lesson.
Extend the Lesson. The most valuable ingredient of an intrinsically motivating educational environment may be its ability to extend the lesson beyond its borders. If students are intrinsically motivated to learn they are more likely to engage in learning activities that exist outside formal school settings (Stipek, 1988) and, presumably, beyond the episodic lesson of a television program. Many television programs today have links to, and a symbiotic relationship 45 with, other media, including websites, CD-ROMS, books, games and toys (Jordan, 2003).
Television programs that offer these links may stimulate children's interest in other activities that could also be potentially valuable and which could motivate continued learning.
Learning Strategies that Encourage Intrinsic Motivation
To this point I have been discussing the teaching strategies and elements of learning environments that research into learner motivation has found to support learner self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation. Still, strategies used by teachers are only half the learning equation. In order to facilitate successful learning and ultimately intrinsic motivation, learners also must have and apply strategies of their own (Guskey, 1990). The next section of this review discusses such learner strategies. Of course, educational television, by its nature, takes the role of instructor with the viewer at home acting as the learner. A program that incorporates learner strategies can do so only by modelling the desired behaviour for child viewers to observe and emulate, or by offering strategies viewers can use in their own learning situations.
Self-Regulation. If the aim of educators is to instill in children an interest in discovering new things, completing their homework, and answering in class (mastery-oriented behaviours), then they are working to develop self-regulated learners (Ames, 1991; Paris & Paris, 2001).
Self-regulated learners approach academic tasks with confidence, determination and strategies.
They seek out information and do what they can to master a skill even when faced with setbacks
(Zimmerman, 1990). Self-regulated learners see the acquisition of knowledge as something over which they have some control, but they ultimately accept responsibility for their successes and failures (Zimmerman, 1990). In fact, self-regulated learning often is the result of an educational environment which incorporates the teaching strategies and environmental conditions mentioned earlier (i.e., an academic environment where teachers minimize competition, outline the steps to success, offer supportive feedback and promote an atmosphere of safety and collaboration). 46
Schunk's (1990) research indicates that self-regulated learning behaviour and intrinsic motivation may be reciprocally related. Self-regulated behaviour promotes learning. Learning leads to the perception of greater competence. The perception of greater competence sustains motivation and ultimately leads to self-regulation for attaining new goals. Supporting a child's adoption of self-regulated behaviour may, therefore, promote a mastery orientation for learning, and fostering a mastery orientation for learning may support the use of self-regulated behaviour.
A television program that models self-regulated learners (i.e., learners who plan, set goals, organize, and monitor their own learning progress) may thus promote motivation and self- regulation.
Talk-Alouds/Think-Alouds. Self-talk is believed to be an important element in a child's development of self-regulation (Stanulis & Manning, 2002). Self-talk refers to the things we say out loud to ourselves about our abilities, and our behaviour (Berk, 1986). Learners who use these "talk-alouds" or "think-alouds" are talking themselves through an academic problem. For example, a student using self-talk may say, "Well that didn't work, so I think I'll try this." The purpose of these talk-alouds seems to be to guide one's thoughts and actions. According to Berk
(1986), preschoolers and elementary school children naturally use self-talk as they work their way through new situations. Berk's (1986) research found that how well children did on math assignments or exams was related to their use of task-relevant self-talk. She also suggests that learning environments that support talk-alouds can enhance children's learning.
Just as intrinsic motivation and self-regulation are intimately linked, the same appears to be true of intrinsic motivation and talk-alouds. Chiu and Alexander (2000) examined private speech in preschool children and found that children's mastery behaviours were consistently related to the amount of self-talk used during task performance. Although their research could not clarify the direction of the effect between metacognitive talk-alouds and mastery motivation, 47 they discuss the possibility that the two work in a reciprocal manner, with mastery oriented children being more apt to use self-talk and self-talk promoting a mastery orientation. It is plausible that a television program that models or promotes talk-alouds could support the development of a mastery motivation in its viewers, especially if the content of the self-talk is mastery oriented.
Learners Attitudes, Beliefs & Effort. It is clear that a learner's self-regulation is dependant upon the attitudes and beliefs he brings to a task. Bernard Weiner's (1979)
Attribution Theory suggests that learners' beliefs about the reasons for their past successes and failures will have a significant influence on their future actions. Children who believe they will be successful are more likely to try a task, increase their effort, and stick with a task when faced with difficulty (Ames, 1992). The beliefs students hold about a lesson or their own ability, together with the motivational properties of those beliefs, their behaviors in the past, and the reward structure of the learning environment, influence the amount of effort they will invest.
Effort plays a key role in this theory. If children believe their failure is due to inability, they are more likely to have low affect and low expectations for future success. If, on the other hand, children feel they have failed due to lack of effort, they are more likely to be optimistic about future success. As was suggested in the Self-Efficacy Theory, it would behoove teachers to promote attributions that link outcome to things the learner can control, that is, effort and effective strategy use (Covington, 2000). Children who believe they have been successful because of the effort they put into the task are likely to be hopeful about future achievement and will often engage in strategic, self-regulating behaviour towards reaching that achievement
(Ames, 1990).
Not only should children attribute successes and failures to the effort they put in and the strategies they used, but they also should be focused on comparing current success or failure to 48 past results rather than to other children. If learners are focused on improving (mastery), then their motivation for learning is intrinsic.
Summary - Part Two
Intrinsic motivation is believed to result in more enjoyment of a learning task and, ultimately, deeper processing of the lesson (Stipek, 1988). Learners who are intrinsically motivated attempt a task because of the joy it brings, the self-expansion it offers, and the personal gratification it allows. The collection of models and theories that incorporate our extensive knowledge on how children learn, and how we can increase intrinsic motivation for learning, provide some indication of the abundance of factors influencing students' learning behaviors.
Teaching strategies that have been found to support children's self-efficacy for a task, their mastery orientation towards learning, and their positive attribution towards success and failure include: making the learning meaningful to their lives (Schiefele, 1991); reminding them of what they already know (Blumenfeld, 1992); and outlining the purpose and goals for the lesson (Kawachi, 2003; Malone, 1981). Models can be used to support children's belief in their own abilities (Schunk, 1991), feedback encourages them to keep trying (Bandura, 1982), and the welcoming of questions makes the learning environment safe and comfortable (Pintrich &
Shunk, 1996).
Similarly, there are several learner techniques that can support and facilitate intrinsic motivation: be aware that strategies exist which can assist learning (Guskey, 1990); understand how to use these strategies and recognize when failure is due to a poor use of them; use talk- alouds and think-alouds (Chiu & Alexander, 2000); and think about successes and failures as they relate to past results rather than by comparison with the performance of others. 49
Most of the educational strategies that promote a mastery goal orientation in learners, that is, strategies grounded in motivation to learn theories, could be included within television program content without detracting from program design and without detrimental effect on a show's appeal.
Overview
We know that learner motivation has a direct impact on academic achievement and that a mastery orientation toward learning is linked to positive learning outcomes (Ames, 1992;
Blumenfeld, 1992). We also know that television is a pervasive presence in our lives and a source of much influence on its viewers, particularly children (Huston & Wright, 1989; Rice, et al., 1990; Williams, 1986). If the goal of educational television is to support and enhance the learning of child viewers, as it is assumed to be, then a program that incorporates the production techniques and content elements outlined in Part One of this review and the teacher and learner strategies that foster intrinsic motivation summarized in Part Two of this review would go a long way towards reaching this goal.
This study, through a content analysis, examined the use of the formal features of the television medium found to support a child's learning from viewing as well as the quality of the motivational messages offered by SS, BTL and ZOOM. By choosing these programs as the content for this study, my research analyzed educational programs that have a large audience reach in North America. These programs are broadcast daily on the Public Broadcasting System
(PBS) and, according to the Nielsen Television Index (2002), children between the ages of 2 and
11 years spend more time watching PBS than they do the commercial broadcasters. The three series in this study also are developed with the intent of instructing viewers and have superior production values. Each program incorporates a large cast, high quality graphics, and new music, all of which add to production quality. 50
The wealth of research into television and its effects on children reminds us that this is a powerful medium with an impact on children's learning that must be taken seriously. Children are choosing television 7:1 over the gamut of other activities available (Bransford, Brown &
Cocking, 1999) and, according to the National Research Council (1991), when they watch television, they will choose to watch entertainment programs 7:1 over educational ones when both options are available. Continued attempts to study television programs in order to understand what makes them popular, what engages child viewers, and what helps them acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes towards learning that support their learning in school and beyond, is imperative if television is to be truly educational. 51
CHAPTER THREE - METHODOLOGY
A content analysis was conducted to examine the motivation to learn messages in three educational television programs for children. Specifically, SS, BTL, and ZOOM were analyzed for (a) evidence of teaching and learning strategies known to foster intrinsic motivation, and (b) formal features of television which have been found to support learning while viewing. The three programs examined in this study were identified as educational/informational according to self-report and the FCC standards. As well, all three programs chosen have an educational curriculum and a team of educational advisors who work to develop the educational messages provided in the on-air content. I requested and received the up-to-date curriculum documents or series outlines for each program from the individual production companies. Understanding the goals of each program created an opportunity for me to compare the observed on-air content with a show's educational objectives.
Sample
Sampling for this study was a three-step process. First, as mentioned above and in
Chapter One, a determination of the appropriate series for inclusion was made based on the
FCC/CTA guidelines for educational programming. The choice of series was limited to PBS because of its broadcast reach. The three programs were selected for inclusion in this study because they each have advisory boards whose job it is to assess the content of the series for their age-appropriateness, appeal, educational content and accessibility. These programs also were chosen because they broadcast to children of varying ages from pre-school (age 2) through late elementary school (age 12). Finally, since the research has shown that a television program with a standard set of characters appearing on each episode will draw on a learner's existing knowledge and facilitate a viewer's learning more readily (Bordeaux & Lang, 1991; Fisch, 52
2000), each of the series screened for this study offered this familiarity in their format and on• screen characters. While each series has its own design, the format and characters within each series are consistent across episodes.
Subject Programs
SS is an hour-long program with a cast made up of both human and puppet characters.
The program is designed for pre-school children and the goals include both prosocial and early academic skills. Each hour is made up of a collection of short modules, both live-action and animated, ranging in length from one or two minutes (e.g., the Spanish Word of the Day module) to 16 minutes (e.g., the Elmo's World module). Each module has its own curriculum and star characters. Once a module is complete a new module and new lesson begins. Every episode starts with a street segment where viewers meet characters on the SS set. After this opening scene the other modules follow, including: the Number of the Day module with The Count, the
Letter of the Day module with Cookie Monster, the Journey to Ernie module with Ernie and Big
Bird, the Global Grover module and others. The program always concludes with the Elmo's
World module.
BTL\s& half-hour program designed to teach literacy skills to early elementary aged children through a cast of both human and puppet characters and animation. Each episode is a collection of brief vignettes"ranging in length from just a few seconds to four or five minutes.
Each episode begins in the library where the challenge or story for the episode is laid out and the letter/letter-sounds of the day are established. Immediately following the library segment is a segment with two pigeons and a cement bust named Buster Busterfield. This segment always relates to the opening scene, either adding to or commenting on the challenge or continuing the letter/sound of the day. Throughout the half-hour episode we meet Martha and the Vowelles who sing the sound of the day, Smarmy Marmy and Arty Smarty Pants who combine words to 53 make one bigger word, Dr. Ruth Wordheimer who helps people who are scared of big words understand how to sound them out, Cliff Hangar who uses books to get out of sticky situations and Gwain and his knights who combine letters and sounds to make words. These characters appear every episode.
ZOOM is a half-hour program designed for later elementary aged viewers. The cast is a group of late elementary school age children (the ZOOMers) from a variety of cultures who participate in games, skits, science challenges (ZOOM-Sci) and plays-on-words throughout the show. ZOOM'S content is a collection of brief vignettes all live-action. The funding for the series is primarily science-based. While the majority of segments take place in studio, on each episode there is a ZOOM Into Action video clip segment that occurs out in the real world. This segment talks about volunteer work. There is also a segment on each episode that is a video clip of a ZOOM aged viewer who talks about his or her life. The ZOOMers are the same for the whole season of ZOOM and all 7 children appear on every show.
The second step in the sampling process was to determine an appropriate and acceptable number of episodes to analyze. It was determined that a week's worth of episodes (five episodes per series) would be recorded. The decision to include five episodes of each program reflected the desire not only to assess accurately the content of a "typical" episode of a series, but also to examine the content presented to children over the course of a week. According to the
CTA/FCC criteria, educational programming must be, or have the intention of, teaching in each and every episode. I believed that reviewing five episodes of each program would provide the opportunity to view a broad and representative range of the programs' teaching and learning strategies and motivational messages. The production companies for each show confirmed that five consecutive episodes would accurately represent these programs. 54
Finally, the broadcast weeks to analyze were chosen. The sample episodes included in this study were recorded from the PBS broadcast onto VHS videotapes, weekdays from Monday,
September 15, 2003 through Friday, September 26, 2003. These two weeks were chosen from all possible broadcast weeks for several reasons. First, I wanted to avoid weeks that may be affected by national holidays. During holiday periods programs may be produced differently in order to represent these special occasions. Second, the weeks included in this study did not occur during ratings periods. During ratings periods or "sweeps weeks" producers often adjust their show content to increase their audience. Third, during the week of Monday, September 15th through Friday, September 19th, 2003 episodes from the newest season of both BTL and ZOOM began broadcasting. Recording this week enabled the study to include the most up-to-date episodes of these two series.' Due to difficulties with the videotape recorder, the Monday,
September 15th episode of BTL was not recorded. The following Monday episode, September
22nd, was recorded in its place. ZOOM offered the same episode twice in the recorded week, therefore the information for this episode was included twice in the results. The decision to include the coding information for this episode twice reflects the desire to represent the viewing experience of children at home who would have seen the same episode twice when viewing
ZOOM that week. Fourth, Monday, September 15th through Friday, September 19th, 2003 was
"Raise A Reader Week" on PBS and, although BTL and ZOOM did not adjust their prograrnrning to incorporate the theme of this special broadcast week, SS did. Because the SS episodes broadcast that week were not considered representative of typical SS programming, the episodes for inclusion in this study were recorded the following week, Monday, September 22nd through
Friday, September 26th, 2003. 55
Coding Instrument
There are three parts to the coding instrument for this study: the codebook (Appendix
A), the running record (Appendix B), and the tally sheet (Appendix C). All variables for coding during the content analysis are fully explained in the codebook. This codebook corresponds to elements of the running record and also to the tally sheet, both of which are used by coders to record all observed elements. The codebook outlines for each coder the step-by-step process for a complete analysis of an episode. It links each question from the tally sheet to the appropriate variable it measures, provides a full description of the educational principle the variable seeks to address, and gives examples of how the variable might be presented on-screen. The running record is used for making notes during the screening of the episodes. For each segment of a program, the coder notes on the running record the characters observed, the plot of the segment and any and all motivational strategies used. It is on the running record that the coder makes comments or observations regarding a particular segment's motivational qualities and elements deemed important to remember. As well, the notes made on the running record enable the coder to better answer the questions on the tally sheet.
The tally sheet is a collection of 74 questions developed to assess the motivational quality of the program as a whole. The coder answers each question for every segment screened. A further description of the running record and tally sheet follows in the coding procedure section below, but first it is necessary to understand the individual message units on which these coding instruments were used.
Message Units
Segments. Children's educational programs, particularly those with a magazine format, typically consist of a compilation of brief segments from 15 seconds to a few minutes in length.
These segments may or may not relate to each other, a general theme, or the story line. 56
Unrelated segments on SS, for example, may include an interaction between characters discussing how to retrieve something that is stuck in a tree, followed by an animated segment with only music and the number seven on the screen. Alternatively, related segments on BTL may include the puppets discovering the "oa" sound in "boat" followed by an animated segment in which the "oa" stays in the middle of the screen and the beginning and ending letters change creating several different words. Related or not, each segment of an episode was, for this study, considered an individual "message unit" or unit of analysis.
I discovered, as the practice coding process progressed, that the definition of "segment" required some massaging. Generally a segment meant a single, stand-alone element of the program. Visually, this could mean that a segment begins with a dip to black or with the beginning of an unrelated topic, or when a. similar topic is being offered but in a completely different manner, with completely different characters on-screen. It was quite easy to tell when segment changes occurred on ZOOM since most segments began with a graphic title. It also was evident where segment changes happened in BTL, as most segments were not longer than a few minutes and were followed by a complete change of location or design. The new module format of SS, however, caused some confusion. It was determined that each of the SS modules would stand alone as a single segment. Elmo's World for example, which lasted up to 16 minutes in some cases, included a variety of smaller segments. It was clear, however, that these smaller segments were part of the entire module and they were coded as such. Alternatively, the Letter of the Day module occasionally seemed to be made up of three or more separate segments and so the module was not coded as one unit but rather as several units. Each of unit could contain a number of motivational messages. Separating the Letter of the Day module into smaller individual segments may have decreased the average segment length for the SS programs. By contrast, Elmo's World was considerably longer than all other modules and therefore may have 57 increased the average length of segment for SS. Since the study was concerned more with the overall motivational message than the individual message length, breaking up the Letter of the
Day module should not have impacted my results.
Program Content. Together, a collection of segments make up a show's total program content time. Coders were instructed to code only program content. It was necessary, therefore, to define what program content included. It was determined that, for this study, program content is prograrnrning which falls between the opening credits/theme song and the closing credits/theme song. Following these guidelines, SS content began immediately following Super
Grover's showing of the episode number at the end of the theme song. BTL content began at the end of the theme song as an animated book opened and the title of the episode appeared. ZOOM content began immediately following the end of the theme song.
Program content ended as the closing credits began. SS content ended immediately following the segment with Big Bird recapping the Letter of the Day and Number of the Day.
BTL content ended with the closing of the animated book. ZOOM ended with a different s segment from day to day but the closing credits were always the same, therefore coded content stopped with the segment prior to the closing credits. I found that both BTL and ZOOM had program-style elements that followed the closing credits. As credits are an indication that a program has ended and often act as a cue to the viewer to move on to new activities or alternative prograrnrning, these elements were not included in coded content time.
Academic Lessons
Most programs designated as educational/informational on the air today focus on prosocial lessons (Jordan, Schmitt & Woodard, 2001). The opening paragraphs of the SS curriculum, for example, state the producers' goal to prepare child viewers "not only for kindergarten but also for their lives outside of school" (Sesame Workshop, 2003, p. 2). While 58 social or emotional messages are necessary and important to the development and socialization of children - and indeed motivational messages may be included in these prosocial lessons - for the purposes of this study coders were instructed to ignore prosocial lessons and look solely at lessons having academic objectives. To this end, academic lessons included lessons focusing on language acquisition (letters/words), mathematical concepts (numbers/relational concepts/geometry), science, and social science (history, world issues). Since the focus of this research was to determine the potential ability of a program to develop in viewers an intrinsic motivation for academic learning, questions on the tally sheet, which asked coders to assess elements of the lesson, always referred to academic lessons only.
The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether and how the formal features of the medium known to support learning from viewing, and teaching and learning strategies known to support a child's intrinsic motivation to learn, were represented in the program content of SS, BTL, and ZOOM. This study did not seek to evaluate the relative merits of these shows.
Coding Procedure
Step One - Running Record. Coding of the subject episodes was a two-step procedure.
The running record (Appendix B) was used during the first step. Coders filled in one section of the running record for each segment screened, providing a full description of the characters
(gender, age, human or puppet), the plot, and the segment length. Appendix B provides an example of a completed running record for one episode of BTL. The space provided on the running record was used for recording any additional observations the coder deemed important for remembering. As well, this fleshing out allows for a rich, thick description of the motivational messages contained in each segment and ultimately of each episode. Coders were allowed to re-screen a segment as often as they felt was necessary for an accurate and full description. 59
Step Two - Tally Sheet. The final step in the coding procedure was to record all observations on the tally sheet (Appendix C). The tally sheet put the individual segments through a rigorous set of questions relating to the observation of the specific formal features associated with capturing and mamtaining a viewer's attention to the television screen and the instructional strategies which have been found to either promote or inhibit a learner's intrinsic motivation.
This tally sheet is divided into five sections. The first section examined how representative the on-screen characters were of the home viewer. Questions in this section varied from, "Were children present?" and "Were there characters of varying physical ability?" to questions regarding the representation of gender and ethnicity. Answers to these questions indicate how likely it is that children will see themselves reflected on the screen.
The next section assessed what attitudes, if any, regarding academic activities were presented during the episode. Each of these series is intended to be educational and, because of that, we would assume the attitude they project about learning situations would be a positive one.
In fact, if a program is going to support an intrinsic motivation to learn, a positive attitude toward learning is essential. For example, one question in this section asked, "When academic activities were presented, were they portrayed as work - a chore?" Answers to these questions offered evidence about the attitudes toward learning these programs project.
The third section focused on the formal features and production techniques of the medium of television. Questions here looked for the use of brightly coloured characters or graphics, the use of music, and the use of sound effects. Programs that include these types of formal features have been found to support a child's cognitive engagement with, and ultimately learning from, the content. If the series included in this study are incorporating these features, 60 they are more likely to be engaging the interest and the attention of their child viewers, a necessary step in motivating these same viewers to learn.
The fourth section of the coding instrument focused on educational elements that foster a motivation to learn. If educational television is to support and enhance the learning of child viewers, then teaching techniques that foster an intrinsic motivation to learn should be present in the content of educational programs. Many of the strategies that foster a mastery goal orientation, strategies grounded in motivation to learn research, can be seamlessly included within television program content (e.g., modelling the desired academic behaviour, offering supportive feedback to a learner, downplaying competition between learners). The most intrinsically motivating educational programs will therefore be those that offer a learning environment that focuses on valuing both the process of learning and the improvement of skills.
The fourth section of the tally sheet sought to assess this offering. Questions in this section included, "Was there evidence of failure at an academic task?" and "If there was evidence of failure was it due to poor strategy use?" In this case, I was looking for evidence of a constructive view of failure in the presentation of learner attitudes and beliefs. If a program modelled failure, coders were looking for on-screen learners seeing these failures as an opportunity to learn. For example, learners may have modelled asking for help, or recognizing that the strategies they were using were not working and they needed to use different tactics.
The final part of the tally sheet asks questions regarding the program's use of strategies to extend the lesson beyond the televised event. Questions in this section included the direct asking of, "Were ideas for continuing the academic lesson at home suggested?" or "Were viewers directed to a website?"
Coders were permitted to re-screen the episode as often as necessary to complete the tally sheet. Once the tally sheet had been completed, the coders considered the screening of that 61 episode concluded. Appendix C shows the completed tally sheet for the running record of BTL that was shown in Appendix B.
Reliability
For a study to avoid bias and be considered reliable, it is imperative that more than one coder can use the established coding protocol with similar results (Gall, Borg & Gall, 1996;
Neuendorf, 2002; Weber, 1985). Reliability for this study was assessed using inter-rater agreement.
Training of Secondary Coder. I trained a second person to use the coding instrument.
The secondary coder was a female, mother of two, with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Using the codebook (Appendix A) and episodes of the series from weeks other than those targeted for inclusion in the study, a pilot study was run. During the pilot study, the secondary coder was made aware of all key variables and the ways in which they may possibly be presented on• screen. At each pilot coding session, the secondary coder and the researcher discussed the results and, where there was disagreement, discussed and reviewed the segments until agreement was reached. These pilot coding sessions continued until inter-coder reliability agreement was averaging 90%.
Inter-coder reliability. Inter-coder reliability refers to the extent of agreement between two or more coders for the same content. The reproducibility of the coding instrument for this study was monitored through inter-coder reliability checks which took place during the pilot coding sessions. Reproducibility was also checked through two means of blind coding during coding of the episodes that were the content of this study. ^
Although the second coder had a clear understanding of the variables and their measures, she was unaware of the hypothesis and research questions that guided this investigation. This blind coding was used to reduce bias that might compromise the validity of the study by 62 allowing the second coder the opportunity to make judgments about an episode without input from the researcher. As well, the two coders screened and coded program episodes independently. As a means of establishing item-by-item reliability, one episode (20%) of each series was chosen at random and coded by the secondary coder. Since the main coder was unaware of which episodes the secondary coder would screen, and because the secondary coder was unaware of the research hypothesis of the study, the coding could be considered double blind.
Table 1 summarizes the results of the agreement between the raters. Blind coded episodes yielded a total of 42 show segments (SS =18, BTL = 14, ZOOM=\0). Coders recorded their observations by answering the questions on the tally sheet for each segment. This means, each of the show segments was reliability tested on 198 observations (3 shows x 66 observations per show), making a total 2772 possible agreements across the screened programs. There were
2635 agreements of the possible 2772. There were only 137 disagreements across the three episodes screened. There was an overall coder agreement of 95.88%, with an average of more than 90% agreement for each program.
Table 1
Inter-coder Reliability
Episode Avg. No. of Observations Possible Agree Disagree % Length Segment Segments Agreements Agree (min.) Length (min.)
SS 60 3:01 18 66 1188 1120 68 94.28 BTL 30 1:28 14 66 924 868 56 93.94 ZOOM 30 2:15 10 66 660 647 13 98.03 Total 120 2:14 42 198 2772 2635 137 95.88 63
Reliability was also tested for each of the 66 observations. Table 2 lists the percent agreement for each observation. Of the 66 observations, 13 had 100% agreement between coders, 49 of the 66 observations (74.24%) were coded at higher than 90% agreement, and only
4 observations had less than 90% agreement - each with an agreement of 88.10%.
Along with percent agreement, Cohen's Kappa was calculated for each item in the coding system. Table 2 lists the item by item kappa results. The kappa statistic was run in order to control for reliability due to chance and/or guessing. A number of sources report kappa to be the most widely used reliability coefficient for content analysis research (Neuendorf, 2002; Perreault
& Leigh, 1998; Zwick, 1988). According to Landis and Koch (1977), a kappa value between
0.20 and 0.39 is considered fair agreement. Only three of the 66 observations resulted with a kappa value in this range. Six of the observations in this study resulted in kappa values ranging from 0.40 and 0.59. These values would be interpreted as moderate agreement. Eighteen of the observations resulted in kappa values between 0.60 and 0.79 and can be considered substantial agreement. An almost perfect kappa value of between 0.80 and 1.00 (Landis & Koch, 1977) was calculated for 15 of the 66 observations. However, because the observations in my study were based on a simple "1 = Yes" (the item was observed) or "0 = No" (the item was not observed) judgment, there were several occasions when a 2x2 analysis could not be run. For example, if one coder observed children were present in each and every segment they would never have recorded a "0" and a 2x2 analysis would be impossible, and a kappa statistic could not be calculated. Additionally, due to the nature of a 2x2 analysis when the results were weighted heavily to either a "Yes" or a "No" for both coders, the kappa statistic reported a low result in spite of an extremely high percentage agreement. Again, kappa was not a reliable statistic in these situations. Because of these limitations to the kappa statistic, percentage agreement appears to be the more valid statistic for evaluating coder agreement in my study. 64
Table 2
Inter-coder Percentage & Kappa Agreement % Agreement Kappa OBSERVATION: Were children present? 100 - Were adults present? 88.10 0.76 Were females present? 97.62 0.95 Were males present? 92.86 0.78 Were there characters of varying physical ability? 100 - Were White Caucasian characters present? 90.48 0.80 Were African American characters present? 97.62 0.92
Were Asian, Latino or other ethnic characters present? 97.62 0.94
Were viewers directed to website? 100 -
Were characters seen to be learning? 92.86 0.78
Were characters enjoying the learning experience? 92.86 0.78
Was there an academic lesson in this segment? 92.86 0.85
Were academic activities presented as work (a chore)? 100 -
Were academic activities presented as play (just for fun)? 92.86 0.84
Were academic activities positive (important/necessary)? 90.48 0.77
Were academic activities negative (risky/were kids made fun of)? 100 -
Were characters seen modelling the academic task? 90.48 0.74
Was the overall message about academic activities positive? 92.86 0.86
Was the overall message about academic activities negative? 100 -
Was the location one children would be familiar with? 90.48 0.81
Did characters speak directly to the home viewer? 90.48 0.74
Were brightly coloured graphics or characters evident? 90.48 0.55
Were lively music or sound effects evident? 190.48 0.79
Were wacky goofy characters evident? 90.48 0.80
Was a voice-over used? 90.48 0.77
When a voice-over was used was it a woman's voice? 95.24 0.48
(continued next page) 65
Table 2 (continued)
OBSERVATION % Agreement Kappa When a voice-over was used was it a man's voice? 90.48 0.45
When a voice-over was used was it a child's/character's voice? 90.48 0.55
Was a narration used as a guide to the lesson? 95.24 -
Was there a song? 95.24 0.88
When a song was heard was the singer a woman? 100% - -
When a song was heard was the singer a man? 96.62 0.84
When a song was heard was the singer a child/character? 92.86 0.73
Were academic lessons interwoven with story-line? 90.48 0.79
Were academic lessons integral to story-line? 88.10 0.76
Was it difficult to distinguish academic lessons from the fun? 88.10 0.63
Was a summary of the academic lesson given? 92.86 0.54
Has this lesson been seen in a previous segment? 90.48 0.80
Was the academic learning task age appropriate? 92.86 0.85
Did it show a character struggling but completing the academic task? 92.86 0.38
Were think-alouds or talk-alouds evident? 97.62 0.84
Were the steps for completion of the task offered to learners? 95.24 0.72
Was the completion of each step seen as a success? 97.62 - \ Was supportive feedback given to learners? 92.86 0.63
Were children reminded of what they know (prior knowledge)? 97.62 0.66
Was there evidence of acceptance of learning diversity? 100 -
Was there evidence of failure at an academic task? 97.62 -
If there was evidence of failure, was it due to poor strategy? 100 -
If there was evidence of failure, was it due to lack of effort? 100 - •
If there was evidence of failure, was it due to inability? 100 -
Was there evidence of success at an academic task? 92.86 0.36
(continued next page) Table 2 (continued)
OBSERVATION % Agreement Kappa Were characters seen/heard comparing success/failure to others? 97.62 -
Were characters seen/heard comparing success/failure with their past? 97.62 -
Was there evidence that effort pays off? 97.62 -
Were children praised for making an effort? 97.62 -
Was effort seen as more important than success? 100 -
Was there evidence that learning and ability are incremental skills? 100 -
Was there an attempt to make the learner aware of what he learned? 95.24 0.64
Was there an attempt to make the task meaningful to a child's life? 88.10 0.40
Was there evidence of learning something for future use? 97.62 -
Were prizes offered for learners? 97.62 -
Were prizes offered for child viewers? 100 -
Were questions from the learner encouraged? 97.62 -
Was a safe supportive learning environment offered? 95.24 0.77
Were ideas for continuing academic lessons at home suggested? 92.86 0.38
Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? 90.48 0.81
Note. Dashes indicate Cohen's Kappa could not be calculated. 67
CHAPTER FOUR - RESULTS
This study investigated how three educational television programs applied formal
features of the medium known to support learning while viewing. This study also examined how these programs incorporated teacher and learner strategies known to foster intrinsic motivation for learning. The research questions that guided this study are:
1. Are these educational television series using production techniques that will enhance comprehension from television viewing? And if so, how?
2. Are these series using instructional techniques that promote a motivation to learn in the home viewer? And if so, how?
3. Are these series portraying the steps/strategies of successful learners? And if so, how?
4. Are these series displaying attitudes towards learning that support a learner's intrinsic motivation for learning? And if so, how?
and,
5. Do these programs promote a child's continued investigation of the lesson even after the program ends? And if so, how?
To answer these questions, a content analysis methodology was used to examine five episodes of each of the three television series - SS, BTL and ZOOM. The average percentage of each program incorporating the aforementioned variables was calculated.
Data Analysis Overview
By examining all the messages of motivation present in the 15 episodes, this study has
examined the proportion of each series that promotes a mastery orientation toward learning and
suggests whether the overall message encourages children to attempt academic tasks or avoid
them. This study has also facilitated a clear picture of which motivational strategies are being
used most often, which strategies are being used for which age group, and which strategies are
being left out (or used very rarely). 68
My data analysis is descriptive rather than predictive. It facilitates a portrayal of each series individually with regard to its use of motivation to learn strategies. Although each of the programs is educational, and cross comparisons will be made, each series has a different demographic and a different educational focus, so the intention of this analysis was predominantly to examine variables within rather than across the series Therefore, each program is considered on its own merits. Comparisons across the series acknowledge the differing demographics and mandates. By taking into account these distinctions, the qualitative data allows for an examination of the use of particular variables and, when appropriate, offers reasons why each series might differ in strategy use.
The results divide into two parts. In Part One, each program is assessed on its
incorporation of the formal features of television found to enhance a child's attention to, and
comprehension of, televised material. A program cannot motivate viewers if it is not first
capturing and maintaining their attention by using content designed to engage them cognitively.
This section examines variables that relate to both informational and non-informational program
content. Part Two of the analysis assesses each program's integration of content designed to
motivate. Of primary interest was the adoption of teacher and learner strategies that have been
found to increase a child's intrinsic motivation for learning. Part Two is further divided into
four sections: teacher strategies, elements of the motivational learning environment, learner
strategies, and learner attitudes towards academics. Understanding the use of these variables
allows for a rich, thick description of a program's potential motivational impact.
Overall Proportion of Academic Content
Since this study sought to assess the motivational messages associated with academics, it was first necessary to determine the proportion of each series dedicated to these types of lessons.
To this end, coders answered the direct question, 69
"Was there an academic lesson in this segment? "
According to the SS curriculum, academic tasks on this series share on-air time with lessons of a prosocial nature (Sesame Workshop, 2003). This may account for why SS offered academic lessons in only 65.01% of all segments screened. Academic lessons were much more predominant in BTL, with a total of 92.73% of segments offering such lessons. The high percentage in BTL reflects the series' very focused academic mandate. ZOOM had the least academic content during an average program with a total of only 21.42% of all segments containing academic lessons. The mission statement of ZOOM suggests the show is made up of a "host of segments that are specifically designed to motivate reading and writing" (Goodman
Research Group, 1999, p.3), but no literacy-related segments were seen in the episodes included in this study. All coded academic tasks were part of the ZOOM-Sci segments and were therefore science rather than literacy related.
Part One - Content Designed to Attract & Engage Viewers
Part One of the analysis answered the first research question;
Are these series using production techniques that enhance comprehension ' from television viewing? And if so, how?
Since the research assessing a child viewer's attention to television has found that a child's cognitive engagement with the content of a program increases as his attention to the television-screen is maintained (Danling & Hong, 1995; Huston & Wright, 1989; Lorch &
Castle', 1997), programs that incorporate production features that attract and maintain a child's attention will more likely be suited for teaching than shows that do not. The coding system included 29 items dealing with the ability of a program to attract and maintain its viewers' attention. These observations included design elements of both informational and non- informational content. Together these two forms of televised content combine to create a 70 program that could potentially lead to more successful learning on the part of the child at home.
Coupled with motivation to learn strategies, programs that incorporate these formal features could support viewers' intrinsic motivation for academics.
Non-informational Content
Non-informational content refers to the basic design of a program and its formal features.
The variables considered non-informational include: the technical elements of the medium
(sound and visual effects), the appearance and behaviour of on-screen characters, the program's plot, and the show's location. The proportion of non-informational content observed in each series is shown in Table 3. Several questions were answered to determine the total percentage of each series incorporating these non-informational variables.
Entertaining Content. Most of the research done on entertainment/appeal of educational programs has focused on the pre-school/early elementary series (Campbell, Wright & Huston,
1987; Crawley et al., 1999; Danling & Hong, 1995; Greenfield, 1984; Kelley & Gunter, 1996;
Lorch & Castle, 1997; Rice et al., 1990; Rolandelli et al., 1991). These studies have determined that child-focused production features (e.g., the use of bright colours, lively music, goofy characters and repetition of activities) appear to be the most effective means of motivating children to watch a program and maintaining their attention throughout the episode. I have found no research that looks at these same formal features in prograrnrning for older viewers.
That does not mean the characteristics of a program that capture the attention of younger children do not pique the interest of older children as well. Many of the successful, purely entertainment programs for the ZOOM age group do indeed include these same attention- grabbing techniques. Certainly the child-focused broadcasters for older elementary aged children (e.g., Nickelodeon, Fox Kids, YTV) offer a cacophony of bright colours, loud music 71
Table 3
Percentage of series using non-informational features that enhance attention to television SS BTL ZOOM Variable Observation % %of % %of % %of series lessons series lessons series lessons Academic lesson 65.01 - 92.73 - 21.42 -
Entertaining Brightly coloured Content graphics/characters 82.88 - 97.65 - 87.25 -
Lively music/sfx 72.16 - 75.45 - 23.83 - • Wacky/goofy characters 72.13 - 75.44 - 13.17 - Voice-over 35.44 - 38.30 - 0 - Voice-over was female 21.00 - 46.19 - 0 - - Voice-over was male 39.08 - 53.24 - 0 - Voice-over was child 39.56 - 6.40 - 0 - or character
Song 36.10 - 28.74 - 8.92 - Sung by female 9.83 - 30.62 - 0 - Sung by male 39.67 - 46.42 - 0 - Sung by child or 66.95 - 30.83 - 8.92 - character (57.29) (68.98) (23.17) Appealing Learning task age Content appropriate 65.01 100.00 92.73 100.00 21.42 100.00 Representation of viewer Children present 67.84' - 28.90 - 100.00 -
Adults present . 40.84 - 75.93 - 9.25 - Females present 45.73 - 54.02 - 90.25 - Males present 72.06 - 75.42 - 82.92 - Disabled characters 5.61 - 0.95 - 2.50 - White Caucasians 26.72 - 39.19 - 77.25 - African Americans 26.95 - 13.34 - 66.25 - Asians or Latinos 24.62 - 0 - 83.17 - * Location familiar to 67.40 - 62.11 - 20.25 - children (41.97) (38.87) (59.09) Modelling Characters model behaviours 26.08 40.12 46.87 50.55 19.08 89.11
Note: Dashes indicate cells not associated with academic lessons, therefore no percentage was calculated. Bracketed percentages refer to the percentage of the variable as a whole. Italicized items and percentage relate to the associated observation only and not to the series as a whole. 72 and wacky characters throughout the broadcast day. It seems reasonable to conclude that the use of these techniques is suitable for all three series in this study.
The results indicate that entertaining formal features were used more often in the prograrnrning for younger children than they were in ZOOM. More than half of all segments of
SS (57.29%) and BTL (68.98%) included elements of this type, whereas only 23.17% of all
ZOOM segments incorporated these features.
Specifically, coders were asked:
a) "Do these programs offer brightly coloured graphics or characters? "
b) "Do these programs include the use of lively music and sound effects? "
c) "Do these programs offer child characters and goofy/fun characters? "
and,
d) "Do these programs use female, child, or character voices for voice-over or song elements? "
Graphic elements generally consisted of words, letters or numbers on the screen. While these elements were evident in all three series, their design and use differed for the programs aimed at younger children. For SS and BTL the words or letters/numbers being taught always appeared on-screen in a brightly coloured font. Both programs used brightly coloured puppets and/or animated characters in almost every segment. In contrast, on-screen graphic elements of
ZOOM were rarely used as educational tools but rather as a graphic card (e.g., "ZOCW-Sci"), which introduced a new activity. While ZOOM rarely incorporated brightly coloured characters
(puppets and animation are not in the design of this series), the children on-screen always wore bright t-shirts and, when acting in a skit, often had brightly coloured costumes. Overall, the programs were fairly even in their use of brightly coloured elements - 82.88% of all SS segments, 97.65% of all BTL segments and 87.25% of all ZOOM segments included brightly coloured graphics or characters. 73
Music was also used very differently in the programs for younger and older viewers.
Segments that were entirely music were offered in 72.16% of the SS episodes and in 75.45% of all BTL episodes. Bright tunes with easy rhyming, jazzy tunes that would likely strike a chord with parent viewers, or tunes that are reminiscent of well-known children's songs were most common. Although not always associated with music segments, both SS and BTL used celebrities as on-air characters. Often the celebrities were personalities children would not recognize (e.g., the lead actor from the adult program The Sopranos appeared in a segment about fear on SS, and a jazz/blues singer appeared in a segment in BTL). This incorporation of adult- oriented music and characters could entice parents to watch along with their children. Parents who watch television with their children often support the learning that is taking place while viewing (Lemish & Rice, 1986). Thus, keeping parents watching is an excellent way to ensure that child viewers will be back and that their learning may be enhanced. Although music was common throughout ZOOM, it was not often characterized as lively. The 23.83%) of segments coded as utilizing lively music or sound effects were more often coded this way because of sound effects used to highlight punch lines rather than for the type of music used.
Under the definition of "wacky or goofy characters," coders included animated characters, puppet characters, or live actors dressed in, or behaving in, a wacky or goofy manner.
As mentioned above, puppets and animated characters are common in the design of the programming for younger viewers. SS included these types of characters in 72.13% of the on-air time, and BTL did so in 75.44% of all segments. Not as common in ZOOM, wacky characters were observed in only 13.17% of the content time. Most of these portrayals occurred during the play-acting segments.
Since research has found that female voices and child or character voices are more appealing to child viewers than are male voices (Huston & Wright, 1989), coders were asked to 74 specify the voice in both song and voice-over elements screened. In SS, voice-overs were used in 35.44% of all segments and when used, it was a female voice 21% of the time. Most of the SS voice-overs, 39.56%, were done by child or character voices. Songs with lyrics were observed in 36.10% of all SS segments. When a song had lyrics, the voice was female only 9.83% of the time, and was most often the voice of a child or character (66.95% of all songs).
In BTL, voice-overs were used in 38.30% of all segments. A female voice was used
46.18% of that time and a child or character voice in 6.40% of the voice-overs. Male voices were used most often; more than half (53.24%) of the BTL voice-over segments were male.
Songs with lyrics were observed in 28.74% of all BTL segments. When a song had lyrics, the voice was female in 30.62% of the songs and was the voice of a child or character in 30.83% of the songs. As was the case with voice-overs, songs with lyrics more often included male voices.
These were used in 46.42% of all songs. Some songs used more than one type of voice. Since the research suggests young children are more likely to pay attention to the voices of children, character voices and/or the voices of women, we can conclude that the segments that used male voices alone may be slightly less effective as a teaching tool than they would be if they had a child or female voice.
Songs were used to convey some quality motivational messages, particularly in BTL.
The lyrics of one song, "If you can read a - y, ay, then you can read pay and day... come on give it a try, all you need is a little a -y" were an excellent recap of the main lesson of the show.
However, sometimes song lyrics were too quick to catch or were difficult to distinguish without stopping the videotape and rewinding to listen to the segment more than once. In these situations, the lesson may be lost on child viewers who do not have the opportunity to rewind and review a segment. As well, Calvert's (2001) research suggests that learning from song is limited unless the same lesson is given in spoken words. In order to avoid losing the lesson of 75 songs, the segments that precede or follow the song segments should speak the same message.
In the case of the "If you know ay" song, the preceding segment showed ay words on a blackboard. The first letter of the word was erased and replaced with other letters showing the same ay sound in different words. The lesson was not explicated in the blackboard scene, but it did mirror the lesson in the song segment. Together the two segments are a more powerful teaching tool than the song segment might be alone.
Voice-overs are not a part of the ZOOM design and were therefore never used in episodes screened (0%). Songs also were scarce, with only 8.92% of all segments including songs with lyrics. All of these songs were sung using child voices.
Appealing Content. We know that educational content that is moderately difficult sustains children's interest in television programs (Campbell, Wright and Huston, 1987), but there is a delicate balance to devising an academic challenge both in the classroom and on television. An appealing task must be difficult enough to promote a sense of accomplishment upon completion, but not so demanding that it is impossible for a child to succeed (Pintrich &
Schunk, 2002). As an adult, it is difficult to judge whether child viewers would be challenged by the educational content of a television program. We can only assume that, as is the case in a classroom, all televised lessons will not be challenging to all viewers. The best programs would therefore be those that offer tasks ranging in difficulty. Using as criteria the British Columbia
Ministry of Education (1997) kindergarten through grade six learning outcomes, coders were asked,
"Was the academic learning task age appropriate? "
As Table 3 indicates, when academic tasks were presented, coders judged them to be consistently age appropriate for all three series (100% of all academic tasks). The tasks were 76 also considered to be of the same difficulty level throughout an episode. There was no evidence of increasing the level of difficulty as an episode progressed.
Representation of the Home Viewer. Research suggests that by offering a diverse set of characters, ethnically, physically and academically, and by putting these characters into situations and locations that reflect a viewer's life, learning from television will be enhanced
(Fisch, 2000). Jordan (2003) found that the majority of educational programs on the commercial networks were highly diverse in their representation of both ethnicity and gender. To determine whether this was true for the PBS programs included in this study, coders were asked to make the following observations:
a) "Were children present? "
b) "Were females/males present? "
c) "Were White Caucasian/African American/Latino or other ethnic
characters present? "
and,
d) "Were children with physical disabilities present?
When all of these questions were answered and the results combined and averaged, the programs for younger children (SS and BTL) appear to be less representative of the home viewer than ZOOM (see Representation of viewer, Table 3). Fewer than half of the SS on-air segments,
41.79%, were considered representative. The same was true for BTL, only 38.87% of all segments were coded as representative. Diversity was represented in 59.09% of all ZOOM segments observed. An individual look at each variable is necessary in order to fully understand what is being seen on-air.
During the practice coding with the secondary coder, one of the most difficult determinations was often whether or not a child was present in puppet segments. It seems that viewers have different opinions about the age of certain puppets. I asked a small group of 77 viewers (parents and children) the age of particular puppets. There seemed to be no consensus either between adults and children, or between children themselves, as to puppet age. On SS for example, some felt Oscar the Grouch was a child and yet in one episode screened he drives a car. Some felt that Bert and Ernie were adults, others that Ernie was a child but Bert was a * grown-up. On BTL, there are recurring monkey puppets. Their dress and deep voices suggest that they are adults, but they are often portrayed as upset about not knowing how to sound out a word. This is a child-like behaviour. During the pilot coding, coders came to an agreement on the age of all regularly occurring puppets on both programs.
Children (or child characters) were present in 67.84% and adults in 40.82% of all SS segments. SS offered fewer segments with female characters than with male characters.
Females were seen in 45.73% of all segments. Males were in 72.06% of segments screened.
There were few representations of characters with physical disabilities; they were seen in only
5.61% of all segments. We did not assign ethnicity to Muppets. When humans or animated characters with an obvious cultural background were represented, a variety of ethnicities was observed across the SS episodes. White Caucasian people/puppets were present in 26.72% of the segments, African Americans in 26.95% of the segments, and Asian, Latino or other ethnicity in
24.62%o of the content screened.
Children were underrepresented in BTL. Children (or puppets representing children) were present in only 28.90% of all BTL segments whereas adults (or characters representing adults) were present 75.93% of the time. Male characters (75.42%) were seen in more segments than were female characters (54.02%), and there was almost no representation of characters with physical disabilities (0.95%) in the segments screened. Although the main characters of BTL (a family of lions) are from Africa, animal puppets were not given an ethnicity by coders. Some of the BTL puppets that are people do have a definite ethnic background, however, and in these 78 cases their ethnicity was coded (e.g., Smarmy Marmy is a White Caucasian female, Martha of
Martha and the Vowelles is an African American female). White Caucasian characters were present in 39.19% of all segments, African American characters in 13.34% of all segments, and there was no representation of other ethnicities seen during the five episodes screened.
The seven ZOOM children are the main characters of each episode of ZOOM. There is at least one child, and often all seven children, on-screen during each segment. Therefore, as Table
3 indicates, children were present in 100% of the ZOOM on-air time. Adults were only present in 9.25%) of ZOOM segments. Segments that included adult characters were all live-action videotape inserts. Adults were never seen on the ZOOM set. There was an almost equal distribution of females present (90.25%) with males (82.92%) across the episodes, but only one segment included a child with a physical disability (2.50%). He was hearing impaired. The
ZOOM children are a mix of ethnicities and gender, including two African American girls, one
Hispanic girl, one Asian girl, two White Caucasian boys, and one Hispanic boy. White
Caucasian characters were present in 77.25% of the episodes, African Americans in 66.25% of the episodes and Asian, Latino or other ethnicities were present in 83.17% of all program content time.
Coders were also asked to examine the environment in which the segments took place.
The setting of a television program can be representative of locations in the home viewer's real life. The street set on SS, for example, was developed and designed with the intention of offering viewers a representation of their own neighbourhoods. Since SS was created with the inner city child in mind, the anchor location for the series is a downtown street (Lesser &
Schneider, 2001).
Coders were asked,
e) "Was the location one with which children would be familiar? " 79
Coders judged that the location of the segments on SS was one with which children would be familiar 67.40% of the time. Muppet segments often took place on the SS street set or in a character's home. Locations that took place in the studio with no real setting were not coded as familiar. Locations offered on BTL were coded as familiar in 62.11% of the segments. The main action of each BTL episode took place in a library. Locations such as nightclubs or settings that had no real "place" were not coded as familiar to children. The majority of ZOOM takes place quite obviously in a television studio and, although set pieces often are brought in to represent recognizable settings, coders felt that a studio was not a place familiar to the home viewer and therefore coded only 20.25% of the segments as familiar locations.
Modelled Behaviour. On-screen characters representing the child at home that act out the desired behaviour of a learner are called "models." Children derive a wealth of information about their own abilities from observing others like them (Schunk, 1991), and may have a higher level of engagement with the television when they see themselves represented on-air (Fisch,
2000). Child models can easily be included in an educational program's content and have high potential to enhance a viewer's motivation to learn. Modelling is a non-informational content element, but also a successful motivation to learn strategy. I will discuss modelling as a motivation to learn strategy in the second part of this chapter.
Informational Content
In addition to capturing a child's attention, in order for a program to educate it must be designed with the intention of teaching and provide content that instructs while it entertains
(Greenfield, 1984; Kelley & Gunter, 1996; Rice, Huston, Truglio, & Wright, 1990). Particular on-air strategies have been found to be especially useful for enhancing a child's learning while viewing, as well as her motivation to learn. These include a character's direct interaction with the child at home, repetition of the academic material to be learned, and avoidance of 80 overwhelming the lesson with entertaining but irrelevant elements. On the tally sheet, five questions sought to determine whether and how these programs incorporated informational content that supports viewer learning. Table 4 summarizes the percentage of show content using these informational features.
Table 4
Percentage of series using informational features that enhance attention to television SS BTL ZOOM Variable Observation %of %of %of %of %of %of series lessons series lessons series lessons Academic lesson 65.01 - 92.73 - 21.42 -
Direct Interaction Narration 4.27 - 5.53 0 - Characters spoke to Viewers at home 67.62 69.20 - 87.67 (35.95) (37.37) (43.84)
Repetition Lesson in previous segment 36.06 - 72.53 - 2.00 -
Seductive Lesson interwoven with Details Story 66.01 100.00 92.73 100.00 21.42 100.00 Lesson integral to story 36.16 55.62 67.16 72.43 25.42 100.00
Lesson lost in the fun 6.69 J 0.29 27.75 29.93 4.00 18.68 (51.09) (79.95) (23.42) Scaffolding Steps for completion Given 1.11 6.92 29.08
Note: Dashes indicate where no percentage was calculated. Bracketed percentages refer to the percentage of the variable as a whole. Italicized items and percentages relate to the associated observation only and not to the series as a whole.
Direct Interaction. Hart (1996) found that an online tutor expressing information with enthusiasm, friendliness and charisma could influence a student's attitude toward an academic subject. Other research has found a positive correlation with the online tutor's behaviour and academic achievement (Abrami, Leventhal, & Perry, 1982). Although I found no research about 81 television .characters per se, it seems likely the results would be similar to those found in these studies of on-line learning, particularly when on-screen characters take on the role of instructor.
For the purposes of this study, direct interaction refers to the guiding of a viewer's experience by a character, on-screen or off. I was looking for segments in which a character spoke directly to the viewer at home, either through narration (off-screen) or by looking directly at camera.
Coders were asked,
a) "Did characters speak directly to the home viewer? "
and,
b) "Was narration used as a guide to the lesson? "
Characters on-screen spoke directly to the child viewer in 67.62% of all SS segments.
For example, in the Journey to Ernie module, Big Bird asked viewers if they had seen Ernie or if they could remember the clues Ernie gave him. Sometimes he would simply encourage viewers to call things out and participate in his search. On BTL, characters on-screen spoke directly to camera in 69.20% of all segments. This type of on-camera character/home viewer interaction was seen most in ZOOM with 87.67% of the segments using this technique.
Narration was not commonly used in these programs. Only 4.27% of the SS episodes screened used a narrator to guide the lesson. BTL often would have characters begin reading a story on-screen and then have the camera move into the book. The rest of the story would be told off-screen as we watched the animated pictures. In cases like these, the lesson was not coded as narrated as we did see the character on-screen at first. Only 5.53% of the segments of
BTL had narration guiding the lesson. ZOOM did not use narration as a guide to any lessons offered (0%).
Repetition. Repetition enhances long-term memory of learning material (Cornford, 2002;
Weinstein & Mayer, 1991), and recognition of material already learned improves a student's 82 self-efficacy for tasks. Studies of television have found repetition makes child viewers feel comfortable with a show's content (Fisch, 2000). To determine the amount of repetition being used in these programs, coders were asked,
"Has this lesson been seen in a previous segment? "
Only 36.06% of all SS segments contained content that had been seen in other segments of that same episode. This lack of repetition was predominantly due to the separation of the show into modules. Once a module is completed, that lesson is over and a new lesson begins with a new module. There was also no evidence of academic lessons being repeated from episode to episode during the week screened. Repetition was much more common in BTL. Of all BTL segments, 72.53% contained content that was in other segments of that same episode.
For example, the name of the letter or the sound of the letter may be repeated several times within the one segment (e.g., "A, ay, a, Play, Day, ay..."), then that same lesson is taught in much the same way throughout the show in different segments. This is consistent with the show format, which focuses on one letter/letter sound for the entire episode. Only 2% of all ZOOM segments contained content that had already been seen in the same episode. Due to its design of independent segments for games, skits, word play and science, ZOOM is much broader in its overall content and therefore lessons are not often repeated from segment to segment. When an academic lesson was seen more than once within a ZOOM episode, the project was typically one that could not be completed in a single segment. Although it was uncommon for the academic lesson to be repeated from episode to episode, on one occasion the ZOOM children suggested the viewer tune in to ZOOM in the future to see how their science experiments turned out.
Seductive Details. Some features of the medium of television, while magnets for a viewer's attention, may instead impede a viewer's ability to learn from the content. If a television program is to support learning, it is important that the entertaining elements do not 83 overwhelm the educational information being presented. This overpowering of main ideas with interesting but non-essential information has been called the seductive details effect (Garner,
1992). Distraction by seductive details could decrease the amount of attention allocated to essential lesson points and, in turn, decrease the amount of recall by the learner of those important non-seductive details (Schraw, 1998). When entertaining content is interwoven with or integral to the storyline, the lesson may be enhanced. Coders were looking for a balancing of entertaining elements with academic lesson points by offering entertaining content that supports, or is essential to the main lesson. Coders were asked,
a) "Were academic lessons interwoven with story-line? "
and, '
b) "Were academic lessons integral to the story-line? "
Also, to determine if the seductive details were potentially detrimental to the academic lesson, coders were asked:
c) "Was it difficult to distinguish the academic lesson from the fun? "
Whenever an academic lesson was presented on SS, this academic lesson was interwoven with the storyline 100% of the time. In half of these scenarios (55.62%), the academic lesson was integral to the story line. Very rarely did the coders believe that it was difficult to distinguish the academic lesson from the entertainment elements of the segment (10.29%).
Similarly, on BTL, the academic lesson was interwoven within the story in 100% of the academic segments. The lessons'were integral to the story in 72.43% of these academic segments. However, coders judged that the fun overwhelmed the lesson 29.93% of the time.
ZOOM offered very few academic lessons within the show content. Academic lessons were coded as present in only 21.42% of the on-air time. When these lessons were offered, however, they were interwoven with and integral to the storyline 100% of the time. The ZOOM 84 children were extremely animated and interested in the tasks they took on, and they always appeared to be having fun doing them. Coders judged lessons were overwhelmed by the entertainment elements in 18.67% of the academic segments screened.
Scaffolding the Lesson. Children are more cognitively connected with the lesson on• screen when that lesson is offered in a step-by-step manner (Wright & Huston, 1984). This step- by-step information can be presented by a model or by the instructor directly. Scaffolding of the lesson in this manner is an element of a television program's informational content, but it also is a motivational teaching strategy. The results of my investigation into the use of this strategy will be discussed in more detail in Part Two of this chapter.
Summary - Part One
The results in Part One indicate that the programs analyzed in this study used, to varying degrees, many formal features of television known to increase a child's attention to, and comprehension of, televised material. Whereas the programs were similar in their use of some formal features (e.g., brightly coloured graphics or characters, the direct interaction of characters with at-home viewers), they differed with respect to the use of other design elements. The results of Part One are summarized in Table 5.
The most notable difference between the three programs examined was the amount of academic content offered to viewers. BTL offered the most academic lessons of all three programs. Of the BTL segments screened, 92.73% included instruction of some kind. SS devoted 65.01% of on-air time to academic content. ZOOM offered the fewest academic tasks with only 21.42% of all segments including this type of task. When academic lessons were offered they were always suitable for the age group they targeted and were always interwoven with the storyline. 85
Table 5
Total percentage ofprogram incorporating content that appeals to and enhances comprehension of child viewers. % of Series Variable SS BTL ZOOM Academic lesson 65.01 92.73 21.42 Appealing/Age-appropriate content 65.01 92.73 21.42 Entertaining elements 57.29 68.98 23.17 Representations of home viewer 41.97 38.87 59.09 Modelling 26.08 46.87 19.08 Direct interaction with viewer at home 35.95 37.37 43.84 Repetition of lesson 36.06 72.53 2.00 Seductive details (that do not distract) 51.09 79.95 23.42 (44.78) (62.47) (27.43)
Note. Bracketed percentage is average of combined variables.
The programs designed for younger children (SS and BTL) were more likely than ZOOM to incorporate entertaining elements and seductive details such as: wacky characters, animation, puppets, or voice-overs. These programs also were more apt to repeat the lesson throughout an episode. Producers of ZOOM may believe, as many broadcasters do (Jordan & Sullivan, 1997), that older children will see these elements as an indication the program is aimed at younger children and will therefore shy away from viewing. Research has shown that some older children will indeed avoid prograrnrning they believe to be intended for a younger audience
(Calvert et al., 2001).
Music and voice-overs are entertaining devices that were incorporated throughout the content of both SS and BTL. The majority of the songs and voice-overs in SS used children, characters, or female voices, but this was not the case with BTL, which used slightly more male voices in these situations. The research has shown that young children (preschool aged) are 86 more likely to be drawn to child or female voices. Although the BTL audience is slightly older than preschool age, it is possible this use of male voices could be impeding the ability of these segments to teach. Although music was used throughout the ZOOM episodes screened, they were most often background tunes and were therefore not recorded as "lively and upbeat."
All three of these educational programs endeavoured to incorporate on-screen representations of a variety of children with socially diverse characteristics. SS and ZOOM were very balanced in their representation of a multicultural world. BTL was not. The on-camera characters ori BTL were predominantly White Caucasians. The remaining characters were
African American, with no other ethnicities represented. All three programs offered both male and female characters. Both SS and BTL offered more male characters than female. ZOOM, by nature .of its mixed race, seven-child cast, was very balanced in its representation of both gender and ethnicity. Since the research indicates that boys show a strong preference for television programs that feature male characters whereas girls are not as particular about character gender
(Calvert & Kotler, 2003), having more boys on-screen, as these programs do, may ensure more viewers overall. None of the programs had children with physical disabilities as recurring characters and the representations observed were scant across the 15 episodes. One arguable exception may be the recurring character of Baby Bear on SS. Baby Bear has a lisp similar to that of a young child learning to speak.
Overall, these series are incorporating the formal features of television found to appeal to child viewers (Campbell, Wright & Huston, 1987; Crawley et al., 1999). When children enjoy a program, their engagement with and learning from the content increases, as does their motivation
(Calvert & Kotler, 2003). These shows appear to be primed to foster a motivation to learn in the at-home viewer. 87
Part Two - Content Designed to Motivate Learning
Part Two of this chapter examines the motivational messages presented in the three subject series. This part is divided into four distinct sections. The first section examines the use of strategies teachers can implement that support a child's intrinsic motivation to learn. The second section considers the motivational climate of the learning environments offered on• screen. The third section describes the strategies learners can implement that were presented on- air. The fourth section examines whether and how learner attitudes towards academic lessons were portrayed: Part Two of this chapter concludes with a summary of the results regarding the on-air content designed to motivate learning.
Motivational Teaching Strategies
This first section of Part Two of the analysis addressed the research question:
Are these series using instructional techniques that promote a motivation-to-learn in the home viewer? And if so, how?
To answer this question, each series was examined for evidence of teaching strategies believed to encourage a child's motivation to learn. There were 17 questions addressing these strategies. Table 6 shows the percentage of total show content, and the percentage of academic lessons, which incorporated these strategies.
Modelling. As mentioned in Part One of this chapter, learners obtain valuable information about their own capabilities from witnessing how children similar to them perform
(Schunk, 1990). From a learner's point of view, modelling is a powerful tool for acquiring efficacy information, especially in the early years. It also is a teaching strategy that can easily be incorporated into on-air television content. Puppets or on-screen characters representing the child at home can convey to viewers that they too are capable. These characters can also motivate them to take on an academic task. Models who show intrinsic motivation or who can 88 motivate viewers may say things such as, "I can do it if I try hard," "I can do it if I use the right
strategy," or even "Everyone makes mistakes when they are learning." The first question coders
Table 6
Percentage of Series Incorporating Motivational Teaching Strategies SS BTL ZOOM % %of % %of % %of Variable Observation series lessons series lessons series lessons Academic task 65.01 - 92.73 - 21.42 -
Modelling Characters learning 22.58 34.73 23.35 25.18 14.92 69.65
Characters modelling 26.08 40.12 46.87 50.55 19.08 89.11 Struggle but complete 2.36 3.63 10.42 11.24 14.92 69.65 Failure at academic task 1.11 1.71 4.19 4.52 1.25 5.84 Failure linked to 0 - 0 - 0 - effort Failure linked to 0 - 0 - 100.00 - strategy use Success at academic task 4.47 6.88 6.16 6.64 8.92 41.63 (11.32) (18.20) (11.81)
Scaffolding Summary of lesson 11.68 17.97 9.56 10.31 15.67 73.15 the Lesson Steps for success given 1.11 1.17 6.92 7.46 . 29.08 100.00
Completion of each 0 - 50.00 - 30.67 - step a success Learners made aware of 4.36 6.71 4.98 5.37 10.92 50.98 what they've learned (5.72) (7.15) (18.56)
Meaningful Task meaningful to life 17.85 27.46 18.51 19.96 19.17 89.50 Task Learner reminded of 2.25 3.46 1.11 1.20 4.00 18.67 prior knowledge
Lesson connected to 0 0 6.10 6.58 3.33 15.55 future (6.70) (8.57) (8.83)
Feedback Supportive feedback 17.21 - 12.07 - 12.58 -
Praise for effort 5.61 - 1.33 - 0.00 - (11.41) (6.70) (6.29)
Attitude Positive attitude towards 49.76 76.54 71.29 76.88 21.08 98.41 learning
Note: Dashes indicate where no percentage was calculated. Bracketed percentages refer to the percentage of the variable as a whole. Italicized items and percentage relate to the associated observation only and not to the series as a whole. 89
answered about observed modelling was,
a) "Were characters seen to be learning? "
Although children may be seen learning other skills (e.g., prosocial lessons, games or i jokes), for this study only those instances where children were learning academic lessons were coded. For SS, fewer than half of the academic lessons (34.73%) included evidence of characters learning. BTL offered the most academic lessons per program time; they occurred in 92.73% of all segments. However, only one-quarter of these academic segments (25.18%) included on• screen modelling of learning. In fact, coders observed instances when characters could have modelled learning but did not. For example, in one episode Dr. Wordheimer showed a monkey how to sound out big words. The monkey could have, at the end of the segment, repeated what he had just learned by saying something like, "Oh! If I break down the word into smaller words, and sound them out, it's not so scary!" Although ZOOM had only 21.42% of all segments incorporating academic tasks, the characters were seen learning in most of these academic situations (69.65%).
Coders assessed other modelled behaviours as well, specifically,
b) "Were characters seen modelling the academic task? "
Modelling is stated in the SS curriculum as a key strategy for passing along information to its child viewers (Sesame Workshop, 2003, p. 6). While the modelling of prosocial skills was certainly evident, coders found only 26.08%> of all segments screened included a character modelling an academic task. In comparison, BTL focuses less on prosocial lessons, leaving more of its half-hour program time to segments with academic content. Still, fewer than half of all
BTL segments (46.87%) included characters modelling these tasks. More often the lesson was in a segment with no on-camera characters (e.g., letters and words on-screen with a voice-over or song). Again, in ZOOM we discovered that few segments had an academic focus, but when an 90 academic task was offered (in 21% of all segments) child actors modelled the task 89.11% of the time. ZOOM, by design, is a program of modelling. The on-screen children (the ZOcWers) are intended to represent the child at home. Therefore modelling the few academic tasks offered works naturally within the ZOOM format. Still, over the three series in the study, I judge that modelling of academic tasks was not used as often or as well as it could have been.
Given these general findings, it follows that the remaining questions regarding modelling also resulted in low percentages. For example, coders examined the types of models being used.
Coping models can be an excellent means of assisting learners to develop positive self-efficacy for challenging academic tasks (Margolis & McCabe, 2003). Coping models are characters who represent learners and show that tasks can be difficult but manageable if they persevere. Coders were asked to note characters modelling persistence in the face of difficulty who ultimately succeed. Specifically I asked,
c) "Did the segment show a character struggling but completing an academic task? "
When an academic task was offered, characters were seen struggling but completing that academic task in only 3.63% of all SS segments. A similar result was found in BTL. Far more academic tasks were presented in BTL (92.13% of the program content), but during these segments children were seen struggling with the task onlyl 1.24% of the time. This may suggest to home viewers that the on-screen children did not find these tasks very difficult. This could lead some child viewers (e.g., those who struggle to learn or who perceive they are not able) to think they are unable to keep up. Although ZOOM had less than one quarter of its on-air time offering academic tasks to the viewer at home, almost 70% of these segments showed children struggling but completing the challenge. From this, we can assume that children at home might also find these tasks challenging and therefore interesting to watch. We can also anticipate that the child viewer would recognize that tasks of this nature might be difficult but they can be 91 accomplished. Alternatively, the child viewer may be watching the on-camera child struggle and himself feel confident in his ability were he faced with that same problem. Either way, a child's positive self-efficacy would be fostered.
To further examine the messages offered by modelled learners, coders were asked to specify the outcome of the academic tasks attempted. Coders were instructed to look for evidence that characters attempted and completed, or attempted and were unable to complete, a task in order to code a behaviour as either a "success" or a "failure." In other words, if a child completes a task with ease but there is no discussion of his attempt and successful completion coders would not mark that as a "success." Similarly, with failure, if there was no discussion or real evidence of attempting and failing then the actual completion of the task was not coded as such. In particular, coders were looking for the response portrayed by both learners and instructors to any successes and failures. Coders were asked,
d) "Was there any evidence of failure at an academic task? "
and,
e) " Was there any evidence of success at an academic task? "
Failure at an academic task was almost non-existent in the episodes screened. SS showed characters failing at an academic task in only one segment (1.11%) over all five episodes. In this case the failure took place in a live-action video segment where a girl sitting at a computer keyboard answers a computer-generated question incorrectly. She tries again and gets the answer correct. There was no information, explicit or implicit, regarding the girl's thoughts or feelings associated with her failure and ultimate success. In BTL, only 4.19% of all segments included failure. There was only one example of failure seen in ZOOM, 1.25% of all segments.
None of the programs linked failure to a lack of or insufficient effort by the learner. In ZOOM, however, the failure witnessed was linked to poor strategy use. This allowed the on-screen 92 children to attribute their mistakes to something under their control and try new strategies.
Success was not much more prevalent than failure in these programs. SS showed a child successfully attempting and completing an academic task in only 4.47% of all segments. BTL and ZOOM showed success in 6.16% and 8.92% of segments respectively. It seems more often that tasks were simply done with no mention of the satisfaction that comes from successful completion, or of how to cope with the anxiety or frustration that results from failure.
Characters, when present, take on more of a teaching role than a learning one.
Scaffolded Lessons. Knowing the steps for completing a task is a key element in increased motivation (Guskey, 1990). Choosing to use the steps, scrutinizing how the steps are working, and ultimately ascribing the results to their use gives learners a feeling of control over the learning process and increases their motivation for the task (Paris & Paris, 2001). Another key to learning may be recognizing when the learning is happening. Understanding what we already know or bring to a challenge can help us face the challenge with less fear. When an academic task is summarized or made meaningful that lesson may be stored for better recall in the future (Pintrich & Shunk, 1996). Learners will only employ learning strategies, however, if they are aware of them and will only link present learning to future situations if they are aware of how to do so. A television program that scaffolds its lessons in this way could go far in supporting viewers' intrinsic motivation to learn. Coders were asked to assess the use of scaffolding techniques by answering the following questions:
a) "Was a summary of the lesson given? "
b) "Were the steps for completion of the task offered to learners? "
c) "Was the completion of each step seen as a success? "
and,
d) "Was there an attempt to make learners aware of what they learned? " 93
Summarizing may be one of the simplest techniques to incorporate into a lesson. For example, in BTL, Dr. Ruth Wordheimer said, "See, when you sound the word out it's not so scary after all!" However, this motivational strategy was rarely seen in the three programs- screened. Summarizing was coded as present in 11.68% of all SS segments, 9.56% of all BTL segments, and 15.67% of all ZOOM segments.
The steps for success were even more rare across the episodes. Of the three programs, SS offered steps for tackling a learning task the least, with only 1 segment incorporating this motivation to learn approach. This was a Journey to Ernie segment in which Big Bird offered the steps for recognizing triangles in a variety of other shapes. The results for BTL require a deeper investigation. While only 6.92% of all segments were coded as offering the steps for completing an academic task, it could be argued that the steps were offered visually and therefore should have been coded when they were not. For the purpose of this study, it was determined that the offering of steps should be clear and evident. A program should outline that steps exists and then explain what those steps might be (i.e., "first you do this, then you do that and here's what will result"). In BTL, this was not how the steps were given. The program did offer visually, and sometimes verbally, the strategies for building words and sounding words out but they never actually explained that these were steps or strategies. For example, graphics on• screen would show that, by changing the first and/or last letter of a word, the sound of the letter/letter combination stays the same but the meaning and word changes. For example, goat becomes boat, or ham becomes ram and ram becomes rap. Alternatively, they would show the sounding out of words (e.g., "pi, pi, pi... ay, ay, ay... play"). Certainly it encourages learners to focus on what they know and then decode new words as they come across them. One could argue that these are the steps for successfully learning to read and understand word building. 94
Indeed with the continuous repetition of the same lesson throughout the program, these steps may be seen as such by viewers.
While ZOOM presented the least number of academic lessons to viewers at home, in
100% of these segments the steps for successful completion also were offered.
There were many missed opportunities to make child viewers aware of what they were learning. On-camera characters could say something as simple as, "Now you know what a triangle is!" or "Now you know a little bit more about gravity!" However, in SS only 4.36% of all episodes included an attempt by characters or narrators to make learners (on-screen or in the viewing audience) aware of what they are learning. Similarly low results were found in BTL where this type of accentuation of learning took place in only 4.98% of all segments, and in
ZOOM where it was observed in only 10.92% of segments screened.
It should be mentioned that ZOOM did sometimes extrapolate on the lesson of its ZOOM- sci challenges. After the on-camera ZOOM children (the ZOOMers) worked through the scientific experiment, they made the viewer aware of the science with which they were dealing.
For example, following a segment where ZOOMers made door alarms for their bedroom doors
(to keep younger siblings out of their rooms), the children then explained how the electrical current was being conducted and how the alarms worked. Difficult words or words that might be new to the home viewer were also shown on-screen in a colourful graphic. Expanding on the lesson and using science for a project that could be useful at home is also an excellent example of making the academic task meaningful to the child's life.
Meaningful Tasks. Tasks that have personal relevance or are perceived to have value in the world outside school pique children's interest, encourage deeper processing and enhance self-efficacy (Gottfried, Fleming, & Gottfried, 2001; Malone, 1981; Sheifele, 1991). Programs 95 that include meaningful or authentic tasks may be supporting a child's intrinsic motivation for learning.
Coders were asked to tally these types of strategies:
a) "Was there an attempt at making the tasks meaningful to a child's life? "
Each series devoted less than one quarter of their on-air program time to meaningful tasks. Tasks were deemed meaningful in 17.85% of all SS on-air time, 18.51 % of all BTL content time, and 19.17% of all ZOOM program content time. When we look more specifically at the segments including academic tasks, 27.46% of all SS academic lessons were considered meaningful. BTL offered the most academic tasks during their on-air time, 92.73%, but only
19.96%o of these were coded as meaningful to a child's life. ZOOM, on the other hand, made their academic tasks meaningful to the lives of child viewers 89.50%> of the time. The bedroom door alarm was just one example of this technique. Another segment suggested that viewers go to the ZOOM website to find out which breakfast food can be used to launch a rocket.
Another way to make a task meaningful is to make learners aware of the learning that is occurring. This will help them to understand how the lesson can be applied to future situations.
Alerting learners to their existing knowledge when a new task is offered can further enhance this ability to transfer. Coders were asked,
c) "Were children reminded of what they know (prior knowledge)? "
and,
d) "Was there evidence of learning something for future use? "
Coders judged that opportunities to remind viewers of what they already know or have already learned in an earlier segment of the same program were often missed. Alerting viewers to prior knowledge was almost non-existent in SS; only 2.25% of all segments used this strategy.
Highlighting prior knowledge was observed in only 1.11% of all BTL segments. As was 96 mentioned in Part One of this chapter, BTL did repeat the same lesson many times during one half-hour episode. However, without specifically saying to the viewer, "This is what you've learned" or "You already know how to..." or "We've already seen how to..." the message could be lost. As mentioned in Part One of this chapter, there was one song in BTL in which the lyrics said, "if you can read ay, a-y, then you can read pay..." which accounts for the 1.11% of coded segments. Coders determined that without stopping and re-listening to these lyrics the message could be lost. Aside from this, there was little to no evidence of children being made aware of what they were learning currently or what they had already learned.
On one episode of ZOOM, viewers were reminded of a segment from a different episode in which the ZOOMers tried to figure out what things were lighter than water. In this episode, they attempted to float various items (peanuts, raisins, rice) in club soda, guessing first which would float and why and then testing those guesses. Later in the same episode, the ZOOMers tried to devise ways of making things float that normally sink. ZOOM used this reminding technique in only 4.00% of all episodes and for 18.67% of all academic tasks.
Coders found no evidence on SS of academic tasks being linked to future use (0%). The results were only slightly higher for BTL, with 6.58% of academic tasks being shown as important for the future. ZOOM linked tasks to future use in 15.55% of all academic segments.
The results of this section require consideration. Why would programs for younger viewers be falling short in linking their lessons to a child's real life? The answer may reflect the demographics of the individual programs. Producers and educational advisors of prograrnming for younger audiences may be stopping short of connecting the task to children's lives because they are concerned about cognitively overloading their viewers. Conversely, they might assume that child viewers can make the link on their own. Since the predominant academic activity on these programs is literacy, it behooves us to take note of the research in this area which suggests 97 that linking literacy activities to students' lives outside the classroom leads to increased learner motivation to read and write (Nolen, 2001). We can assume the same might be true for lessons in numeracy as well.
Feedback. Since these programs are created for the advancement of children academically and socially, we expected to find a significant amount of supportive feedback given to learners throughout the programs. Feedback (praise for a job well done and/or helpful comments on how to do better next time) encourages a learner's future efforts and promotes continuation of the task (Schunk, 1991). Coders were instructed to make specific notes on the types of feedback offered to determine whether feedback was supportive rather than informational, whether it was warranted, and whether it could be perceived as condescending or unwarranted. Coders were asked,
a) "Was supportive feedback given to learners? "
and,
b) "Were children praised for making an effort? "
Only 17.21% of the SS episodes incorporated feedback, and only 5.61% of all segments offered praise to children. Most of the feedback coded was supportive. For example, Elmo almost always said, "Good questions, Dorothy!" and "Great counting, everybody!" during the
Elmo's World modules. Coders never indicated that the feedback on SS would have been detrimental to learners. The findings are similar for BTL, where only 12.07% of all segments used feedback of any kind and a scant 1.33% offered praise for child learners. The feedback on
BTL was predominantly supportive. The main plot of one episode involved a writer trying to create a clever children's book. The lion family offered the writer informational feedback as well as supportive feedback. They would tell her that what she had written so far was terrific but then they would make suggestions for ways it could be better. The writer took the ideas offered 98 and continued writing until eventually she had created a book they all agreed was perfect. In
ZOOM, only 12.58% of total program time offered feedback. There were no examples of praise given. Since the on-air characters of ZOOM are all representative of the child at home, feedback came from peers rather than instructors. Peer feedback can be just as important in supporting a child's self-efficacy as feedback from an instructor (Stanulis & Manning, 2002). The feedback on ZOOM consisted primarily of the children congratulating each other for being part of a winning team or coming up with ideas. ZOOMers did not say to each other, "Hey, you tried really hard, way to go!" Comments like these might ring false to the viewer at home.
A Positive Implicit Attitude Toward the Lesson. Feedback is not always spoken. We often know how others feel about things we do or say simply through their body language and facial expressions. The same is true for teachers' opinions of the lessons they are providing.
Research has found an in-class or on-screen instructor's words and manner may be an important element in a child's attitude toward, and ultimate aptitude at, learning (Kawachi, 2003). Learner attitudes and opinions are equally important and I will discuss them in the next section of this chapter. Coders were asked to observe instructor attitudes by answering the question,
"Were there any implicit signals of attitudes or opinions towards learning? "
The results indicate that, overall, the programs offer a positive implicit attitude toward learning. In SS, more than three-quarters (76.54%) of the academic lessons offered were portrayed with a positive implicit attitude towards the task. These implicit signals included smiling faces, laughing, or general enthusiasm on the part of the on-screen characters. For example, whenever The Count sits at his organ preparing to discover The Number of the Day, his enthusiasm is clear. He can barely contain his excitement for discovering the number. Lessons presented on BTL conveyed a positive attitude towards learning 76.88% of the time. ZOOM'S academic tasks were accompanied by positive implicit messages in 98.41% of all academic 99 segments. These came in the form of inquisitive faces, cheers, hand slapping, smiles, and excitement.
A Supportive Learning Environment
Along with teaching techniques and attitude, the characteristics of the learning environment play an important role in cultivating motivation to learn. If an educator can offer a learning environment that encourages an intrinsic goal orientation in her students, these students are less likely to display a helpless response to failure. These same intrinsically motivated students are more likely to persist at challenging tasks and, ultimately, process the lesson on a deeper level (Elliot and Dweck, 1988). If instructors cultivate children's natural curiosity by welcoming questions, encouraging exploration, and promoting the belief that the learning is worthwhile, satisfying and fun, learners will consider the learning environment a safe place to try and a supportive place to fail. Seven variables used to assess the learning environment presented on the three subject programs are shown in Table 7.
Table 7
Percentage of Series Incorporating Elements of a Motivational Learning Environment SS BTL ZOOM % of series % of series % of series Variable Observation Overall safe environment 14.85 10.01 13.67
Questions encouraged 5.61 3.46 0.00
Rewards offered to 1.11 0.00 0.00 on-screen learners Rewards offered to 0.00 0.00 0.00 viewers at home Acceptance of learning 2.25 3.46 2.50 diversity Extending the Lesson Viewers directed to 0.00 0.00 24.67 website Ideas for continuing 0.00 2.76 30.33 lesson at home offered (3.40) (2.81) (10.17)
Note: Bracketed percentages refer to the percentage of the variable as a whole. 100
Coders were asked,
a) "Was a safe supportive learning environment offered?"
and,
b) "Were questions from learners encouraged? "
In general, the three programs presented a supportive learning environment. Children
were never berated for asking questions, and their questions were never said to be silly.
Curiosity was never discouraged. There were, however, very few examples of a supportive '
learning environment. Only 14.85% of the SS on-air content was coded as.supportive. BTL
offered a supportive learning environment in only 10.01% of all segments, and ZOOM in only
13.67% of the program content time. The results suggest that questions, while not discouraged,
were not elicited and, often, did not occur. In SS, questions were coded as encouraged in only
5.61%o of the episodes. The results were equally low in BTL with only 3.46% of all segments
including questions. There were no coded incidents of questions being asked in the five ZOOM
episodes (0%). The results for ZOOM should be examined more carefully. During the ZOOM-
Sci segments children often asked each other for their opinions and certainly these questions
were welcomed. However, there was no evidence of seeking answers from an expert source.
Unfortunately, we did not include this type of peer-opinion inquiry in our coding system so were
unable to document it in detail.
Another way for the mood of a learning environment to be supportive and intrinsically
"motivating is for all levels of ability to be accepted and respected. On television, this type of
acceptance would be shown through models displaying a diverse range of skill and by other on-
camera characters supporting those differences. Coders were asked,
c) " Was there evidence of acceptance of learning diversity? " 101
As mentioned, of the academic lessons offered, there were relatively few examples of children learning in the SS and BTL episodes screened. SS showed children learning in 34.73% of all academic segments. Learning was seen in 25.18% of all BTL academic segments. In
ZOOM, however, learning was seen in 69.65% of all academic segments. There were few examples of individual differences in learning in all three series. In SS, examples of learning diversity were seen in only 2.25% of all segments screened. These examples came in the Elmo's
World modules when a character named Mr. Noodle attempted to answer Elmo's questions but made many mistakes in doing so. When he was incorrect or silly, Elmo and other child voices encouraged him to keep trying. Mr. Noodle has less knowledge than the children and Elmo and because of this it is the children who are cheering him on. The difference between the knowledge levels is clearly accepted. BTL showed learning diversity in 3.46% of all segments, and ZOOM showed learning diversity in 2.50% of all segments screened.
Coders also were asked to look for elements of learning environments that would either foster or deter a mastery motivation in learners. Specifically, coders were to look for the offering of rewards. If extrinsic rewards are offered, the learner is more likely to develop a performance orientation towards learning. A learning environment that supports an intrinsic or mastery orientation towards learning will avoid the use of extrinsic rewards. On television, rewards could be offered to on-camera learners or to learners at home. Coders were asked,
d) "Were prizes offered for learners?"
and,
e) "Were prizes offered for viewers?"
None of these programs offered extrinsic rewards or "prizes" to the home viewer.
Similarly, rewards were rarely offered to learners on-screen. The one segment (1.11%) coded as offering a prize was on SS and showed a little girl working a computer word game. When the 102 little girl answered correctly the computer said, "That's right, you win 13 thing-a-ma-bobs!"
Both BTL and ZOOM showed no examples of offering tangible rewards. However, throughout the show, the ZOOMers ask the viewers at home to send in their ideas and tell the show how their experiments worked out. Although there were no instances coded where the on-screen characters said, "If you send in your ideas we might put your letters on-the-air," it was clear, since many letters were read on the air, that this was a possibility. Home viewers could construe this reading of ideas on-air as a reward. Although extrinsic rewards can promote competition, with this type of reward it is unlikely. In this case, rewarding viewer interaction with the program can promote the sharing of ideas, encourage children to try the on-air tasks themselves, and make viewers aware that their opinions are important.
Extending the Lesson. Jordan (2003) suggests that children's television programs, through the addition of associated web sites, books, music, games, CD-ROMs and toys, may stimulate a child's interest in activities beyond the television program, activities that could be potentially valuable to their development. These additional elements could encourage children to participate actively in the tasks offered on screen. This next section of the results answers the research question,
Do these programs promote a child's continued investigation of the lesson even after the program ends? And if so, how?
SS states in their curriculum documents that one of the goals is to challenge viewers to investigate further the lessons offered on-screen. Similarly, many tools have been developed by the BTL production company to allow teachers to incorporate the series into the school curriculum, or parents to use the series at home to extend the lessons being taught at school. The
ZOOM mission statement asserts that, "Each program is a call to action, asking kids to try activities at home and to send in their own ideas for future shows" (Goodman Research Group, 103
1999, p. 1). Clearly, extending the lesson is a goal for these three programs. For more evidence of these programs attempting this extension of the lesson, coders were asked,
a) "Were viewers directed to a website? "
and
b) "Were ideas for continuing the lesson at home offered? "
Opportunities to extend the boundaries of the televised lesson were rarely, if ever, used on-air. Although SS modelled Elmo using his computer and his television set to find out more information about the topic in which he was interested, he never suggested that home viewers could do the same (0%). At the end of every BTL episode, a character called Click The Mouse says to viewers, "There's more fun at the Between the Lions website!" However, since these segments fell after the closing credits, and closing credits often act as a cue to viewers that it is time to search for something else to do, these segments were not coded as program content. No segments (0%) within the program content time directed viewers to the web. ZOOM uses the internet, particularly email, as an integral part of their show design. According to the curriculum documents, 20% of the show's content is based on ideas sent in by viewers (Goodman Research
Group, 1999, p.l). Viewers were directed to the ZOOM website in 24.67% of all segments.
This directing usually came in the form of a song, "Send us Email," rather than as a suggestion of how learning might be continued through research on the internet.
We looked for examples of other ways to continue the lesson beyond the program time.
Coders found no evidence of extending the lesson in the SS episodes screened (0%), and examples of extending the lesson during BTL were limited to 2.76% of all screened segments.
Coders judged that BTL, a program focused on literacy and which takes place in a library, missed opportunities to suggest to home viewers they could read books once the program was over.
One episode screened was predominantly based on the Three Billy Goats Gruff fairy tale. At the 104 end of the episode, children could be encouraged to visit their own library to find a copy of this same book. They were not. ZOOM, on the other hand, did suggest that viewers attempt some of the games, cooking and science activities shown on-air in 30.33% of the segments coded.
Learner Strategies
Strategies used by teachers and the motivational design of the learning environment are only part of the equation for intrinsically motivating educational television. Self-regulated learners apply their own strategies to tasks to ensure success (Guskey, 1990). Learners who have a repertoire of strategies are more willing to try new, perhaps challenging, tasks and assess what went wrong in situations of failure. When learners attribute failure to poor strategy use, they are more likely to try again, to seek to determine the best strategies in future, and not to ascribe this failure to inability. Watching others use these learner strategies and being exposed to the self-regulated behaviour and attitudes of learners on-screen may not only help viewers develop intrinsic motivation, but also may make them aware of effective strategies they can use in their own learning situations. The next section examines learner strategies and attitudes portrayed in the three series. Table 8 summarizes the 16 observations aimed at answering the research question,
Are these series portraying the steps/strategies of successful learners? And if so, how?
Characters Learning and Enjoying Learning. As mentioned earlier, less than one quarter of the on-air content time of these programs included portrayals of characters learning.
Whenever characters were portrayed as learning, however, they were seen enjoying that learning experience 100% of the time on all programs.
Talk-alouds/Think-alouds. Research has found that comprehension of television is enhanced if the character on-screen carries out a mental activity for the viewer (Wright &
Huston, 1984). Talk-alouds/think-alouds have also been linked to a child's mastery orientation 105 and self-regulated learning. To examine the use of this on-screen learner strategy, coders were
asked,
"Were think-alouds/talk-alouds evident? Table 8
Percentage of series portraying learner's strategies & attitudes SS BTL ZOOM Variable Observation %of %of %of %of %of %of series lesson series lesson series lesson Academic lesson 65.01 - 92.73 21.42 Characters learning 22.58 34.73 23.35 25.18 14.92 69.65 Characters enjoying 22.58 34.73 23.35 25.18 14.92 69.65 learning
Learner Think-alouds evident 14.47 22.26 2.13 2.30 16.92 78.99 Strategies Success or failure compared to past 0.00 - 0.00 0.00
Success or failure 0.00 - 0.00 0.00 compared to others
Failure due to 0.00 - 1.11 0.00 inability
Effort most 0.00 - 0.00 0.00 important
Effort pays off 7.66 11.78 0.95 0.00 Learning/ability are 0.00 - 0.00 0.00 incremental skills (3.16) (0.44) (2.42) Attitudes Overall message to about academics 57.07 87.79 75.99 81.95 100.00 Learning positive 21.42
Message about 0.00 - 0.00 0.00 academics negative
Academics important 28.50 43.84 46.93 50.61 12.17 56.82 Academics "forfun" 33.32 51.25 44.68 48.18 9.25 43.18 Academics "a chore" 0.00 - 0.00 0.00 Academic "too risky" 0.00 - 0.00 0.00 Positive implicit 49.76 76.54 71.29 76.88 21.08 98.41 attitudes to learning (45.11) (64.74) (18.22)
Note: Dashes indicate where no percentage was calculated. Bracketed percentages refer to the percentage of the variable as a whole. Italicized items and percentages relate to the associated observation only and not to the series as a whole. 106
As there was very little evidence of on-screen learning, there were few opportunities for think-alouds or talk-alouds in these programs. SS states in its curriculum that one goal of the
Journey to Ernie module is to encourage children to think through their problems out loud
(Sesame Workshop, 2003). In fact, of the 14.47% of SS segments that included talk alouds, the majority were from Journey to Ernie segments. Some examples of think-alouds and talk-alouds were also seen in Elmo's World modules. During these segments characters would talk about what they were going to do before they did it (e.g., "Now Elmo's going to ask a baby how he plays music!"). Only 2.13% of all BTL segments included talk-alouds/think-alouds. The
ZOOM-Sci segments offered the majority of the talk-alouds in the ZOOM episodes.
Independently and in groups, children spoke aloud the steps they were going to take to complete their science challenges (e.g., "I think we need to attach something here to make it work"). In fact, 78.99% of all academic lessons offered on ZOOM included the learner strategy of talk- alouds. Since ZOOM is mainly improvisational, the children on-screen are simply talking out loud because this is how they solve problems when working in a group. For SS or BTL to incorporate this strategy the think-alouds would have to be scripted or they would need to create improvisational opportunities for characters to solve problems together.
Attribution for Successes & Failures. If competition in learning is promoted (i.e., the necessity of achieving high grades or outperforming other students), then educators are encouraging an extrinsic value for learning and may be fostering a performance goal orientation in students. Learners with a performance orientation have been found to put in less effort toward completing a task, to fail to persist when faced with a challenge, to spend less time on the task and ultimately to process the task less fully than do mastery-oriented learners (Elliot & Dweck,
1998). For a television program to promote more successful learning it should be avoiding performance-oriented lessons and should be portraying mastery-oriented learners. Coders 107 looked for evidence of mastery- versus performance-orientated on-screen learners, those who compare their successes and failures to their own past experience and to the effort they put in rather than to inability. Coders were asked,
a) "Were characters seen/heard comparing success or failure to their past experiences? "
b) "Were characters seen/heard comparing success or failure with others? "
and,
c) "If there was evidence of failure, was it due to inability? "
As mentioned earlier, there were few instances across the series where success or failure at an academic task was evident. Coders saw no evidence that these successes or failures were compared, either to past experience, to other students, or to learner inability (0% across all programs). In fact, no mention is made of success or failure at all. The results of attempted tasks were not discussed.
To further assess the portrayal of learner attributions, coders were asked,
d) "Was effort seen as more important than success?
e) "Was there evidence that effort pays off? "
and,
f) . "Was there evidence that learning and ability are incremental skills? "
Effort was never discussed on-camera and was never observed by coders to be an important element for success at academic tasks (0% of the three programs). There was evidence that effort pays off in 7.66% of the SS segments. BTL offered examples of the importance of effort in only one segment (0.95% of all program content time). Evidence that effort pays off was not seen (0%) in the ZOOM episodes screened. When effort was evident, its importance was implied but never discussed. 108
When learners understand that learning is a step-by-step process and that individuals progress at different rates they can focus on personal progress and avoid frustration when success is not the result of their first try. This message was absent from all programs screened
(0%).
Attitudes toward Learning
The attitudes or opinions children have regarding learning have an enormous impact on whether and how learners engage with learning tasks. This final section of Part Two answered the research question,
Are these series offering attitudes toward learning that support a learner's intrinsic motivation for learning? And if so, how?
To answer this question, coders examined the overall message regarding academic tasks and implicit messages regarding opinions of learning. There were seven observations that assessed the attitudes toward learning depicted in these educational television programs. These observations are shown in Table 8. Specifically, coders were asked,
a) "Was the overall message about academic activities positive or negative?
b) "Were academic activities portrayed as important (necessary for future life), just for fun, a chore (too difficult), or too risky (mistakes were made fun of)?
and,
c) "Were there any positive implicit signals/attitudes/opinions toward learning? "
Almost half of the SS academic lessons (43.84%) were presented as important and necessary for the future. Coders found an even higher number of lessons were portrayed as "just for fun, not for learning." This was observed in 51.25% of all SS segments. Does this result suggest that SS is telling children academics should not be taken seriously? Not necessarily. We do not know what message the viewer may be taking away from these segments. 109
Often the academic tasks portrayed on SS (and this is also true for BTL) were presented with no message regarding importance at all. Letters and numbers appeared on-screen, sounds were made, words were read, the lessons happened in the lives of these characters as a matter of every day life and importance was never assigned to them. For example, in each episode of SS,
Cookie Monster finds the Letter of the Day on a cookie. He tells the viewer the name of the letter, the sound of the letter, and perhaps a word or two that uses that letter. Then he tries not to eat the letter, but he ultimately fails because he is, after all, The Cookie Monster. Segments like these are fun, and may well be teaching, but they do not declare a value of the academic lesson for the learner. It may be that the child viewer recognizes the cookie as simply a device for offering information about the letter. Recent research comparing perceptions of learning as entertainment with learning as serious business found that children whose parents promote the entertainment aspects of reading spend more-time, and experience more enjoyment, with the reading process (Baker, Sher, & Mackler, 1997). As mentioned earlier, the entertaining elements may be what attract viewers, but it is important that there is a balance between the entertainment and the educational lessons. Entertaining features must not overwhelm the educational content.
BTL showed a pattern similar to that of SS. Academic lessons were portrayed as important in half (50.61%) of all the academic segments, but were portrayed as just for fun in almost the same amount. These "just for fun" academic lessons were seen in 48.18% of all segments. When BTL showed the importance of reading, they often used absurd and entertaining ways of doing it. For example, in each episode there was a segment called Cliff Hanger about a man hanging from a cliff. Each time we see Cliff he uses a book to find a way out of his predicament. He ends up in the same predicament again by the end of the segment, but the use of the book shows the importance of being able to read. When ZOOM presented academic tasks, 110 just over half (56.82%) were presented as important while the remainder (43.18%) were
presented as only for play.
Coders looked for examples of academic tasks not presented in a positive light. A
negative attitude towards lessons could influence the response viewers might have with a similar
experience. None of the programs screened presented academic lessons in a negative way. In
fact, coders found that the overall message regarding learning was positive. When academic
tasks were presented in SS they were presented positively 87.79% of the time, in BTL 81.95% of
the time, and in all ZOOM all academic segments were portrayed with a positive message
•(100%).
Finally, coders were looking for explicit signals by learners of their attitudes toward
learning (e.g., learners exclaiming their joy or disgust with the learning process or academic
task). Coders also observed any implicit signals regarding the learning experience in general
(e.g., happy voices or cheerful faces indicating enjoyment, angry scowls or frustrated sighs
indicating lack of enjoyment). A positive implicit attitude toward learning was presented in
76.54% of all SS academic segments, in 76.88% of all BTL academic segments, and in 98.41%
of all ZOOM academic segments.
Summary - Part Two
In Part Two of this study, I examined how the three educational programs incorporated
motivational teaching and learning strategies into their on-air content. The results indicate a
paucity of these motivational elements. As Table 9 shows, cumulatively less than one fifth of
each of the programs' on-air content included these approaches. These results are generally
consistent with the hypothesis of the study. Ill
Table 9
Total percentage of program incorporating intrinsically motivating elements % of Series Variable SS BTL ZOOM Modelling 11.32 18.20 11.81 Scaffolding the lesson 5.72 7.15 18.56 Making tasks meaningful 6.70 8.57 8.83 Feedback 11.41 6.70 6.29 Motivational learning environment 3.40 2.81 10.17 Portrayal of learner strategies 3.16 0.44 2.42 Positive attitude towards learning 45.11 64.74 18.22 (12.40) (15.56) (10.90)
The three programs differed in the degree to which they incorporated the motivation to learn techniques. In the programming for younger children (SS and BTL), more academic tasks were offered to the child viewer than in programming for older children (ZOOM). Rather than portraying these academic tasks through modelled behaviour (characters who struggled and completed an academic task or who failed but returned to try again) more often they were completed without difficulty, or no on-screen models were involved in the academic task whatsoever. Only half of all academic tasks offered on BTL were modelled; fewer still were modelled on SS.
Although ZOOM characters spent less than one-quarter of the on-air time engaged in
academic tasks, characters served as models in the majority of them. According to the ZOOM documents, ZOOM's science challenges are given to the ZOOM children with very little "before the cameras roll" preparation time. These children then work their way through the tasks on-air,
talking aloud as they detenrrine the appropriate approach for completion. Due to the
irnprovisational nature of these segments, children are seen struggling, failing, coping and
succeeding at the tasks provided. Following most of these segments a recap and summary of the 112 scientific principles often supported the lesson, highlighting for viewers what learning took place. Viewers may recognize themselves in the ZOOM characters and, as a result, develop a positive self-efficacy for similar tasks.
It could be said that offering viewers the steps for successful completion of an academic task may be even more important than modelling the results of the task. When learners know the steps for a successful completion, they can predict the end results of their own attempts and, as a result, be more motivated to give the task a try. In addition, learning the steps for success could be called "learning to learn" because these strategies offer the learner tools for understanding.
Scaffolding a lesson in this manner is a motivational technique that could be easily slipped into the content of broadcast television. However, these success strategies, or steps for successful completion of tasks, were not commonly given within the content of the programs screened.
Coders found that across the programs less than 10.00% of on-air segments included strategies that would link the on-screen lesson with the child's real life. Few segments included an attempt to make learners aware of what they are learning, make them aware that they are learning things that may be important in future situations, or to help them recognize the knowledge they already bring to academic tasks. In fact, making tasks meaningful to a child's life was not a well-used strategy across the programs.
Linking a lesson to a child's life outside school can help extend the lesson beyond the televised event. While the curriculum documents of the three series indicate that motivating life• long learning is a goal, the results suggest this extension of the lesson is not happening.
Moreover, neither of the programs for younger children directed viewers to the series' websites during program content time. The use of computers and television were modelled as ways to discover things during the Elmo's World module of SS, but Elmo never suggested that this was something viewers could do themselves. Following the closing credits of BTL the Click The 113
Mouse character suggests that viewers go to the BTL website, but this segment fell outside the . program content time. Only ZOOM, which is aimed at older elementary school children, directed viewers to its website within program content. The ZOOM children also suggested to viewers that they continue the lesson once the television program was over. In fact, in the opening theme song of ZOOM the lyrics tell children, "If you like what you see turn off your TV and do it!"
Few examples of learner strategies were offered on-air. In fact, examples of children using strategies, or coming to understand strategies they could use to self-regulate their learning, were seen in less that 5.00% of the segments in both SS and BTL. Since these programs are readying young children for a life of learning, it could benefit viewers to see these types of strategies in their educational television prograiriming.
The attitude an instructor or learner displays towards academics is a vital element in supporting intrinsic motivation. The results show that when these programs offered academic lessons, the lessons were always presented in a positive way with on-air characters portraying constructive attitudes towards the tasks. 114
CHAPTER FIVE - SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS
Often television and education are seen as enemies, with television accused of thwarting a child's academic achievement. Much research has been done, however, to show that television can, in fact, increase a child's school readiness, literacy skills and mathematical success (Wright et al., 2001; Zill, 2001) and programs created with the intention of being educational can teach
(Wright & Huston, 1995). Still, parents continue to fight with their children to turn off the television. This is because, more often than not, children choose entertainment television over prograrnming that has been created to further their scholastic abilities (Bransford, Brown &
Cocking, 1999). And most TV viewed by children is not intended for them, but for adults. In school, teachers have an equally difficult time trying to increase students' desire to seek knowledge both within and beyond the classroom walls. If only educational television programming could instruct and inspire viewers, extend the classroom into the home, and entertain while it informs. It could be just the tool to support a child's learning in school and beyond. This content analysis examined the motivational messages of three children's television programs designed with the aim of doing just that.
This study had two purposes: (1) to offer insights about how these programs use the formal features of television to increase a child's attention to the screen and comprehension of televised content, and (2) to determine how these programs incorporate the teacher and learner
e strategies that research demonstrates enhance intrinsic motivation for learning. Previously these two areas have been independent in focus. Research on educational television content has been limited to examining educational versus prosocial lessons, representation of gender and ethnicity, or acts of violence and aggression. Research into motivation to learn has looked at classroom learning, not learning through the medium of broadcast television. 115
The children's series included in this study were chosen from the PBS line-up because of their educational mandate and large viewing audiences. Five episodes of each program were sampled from broadcast weeks that offered the most up-to-date programming and avoided special themes or ratings periods. The unit of analysis for this research was an individual on-air segment. Multiple segments made up an entire episode.
This study adds needed information about the extent to which educational television might be supporting a child's motivation for learning. More importantly, it links the education system and our knowledge of intrinsic motivation with one of our most powerful media, the television.
Summary of Findings
As parents we turn on PBS for our children because we believe that the prograiriming they will watch will support their learning and development. Much research has been done on
PBS programming, both by the production companies themselves and also by independent researchers. The PBS programs included in this study all have been developed with a strong foothold in the world of research. These programs use educational advisory teams to develop their design and content and then follow up their broadcasts with summative research on the effects of their prograinming. Because of this strong link to education and the existing literature,
I expected the first part of my study to show these programs as having a solid base on which to build motivation for learning in viewers.
The results suggest that the formal features of the medium found to enhance learning from viewing are being used by these programs but to a lesser degree than was expected.
Programming for younger children was more apt to incorporate these formal features than was the series for older viewers. Consistent with the hypothesis of this study, which predicted that motivation to learn teaching and learning strategies are as difficult to incorporate into television 116 programs as they are to include in classroom content, there was very little evidence of the three programs incorporating these techniques. Less than one quarter of the program content of each series included these types of motivational strategies. There also was very little evidence, particularly in the prograrnming for younger children, of attempts during the on-air content to extend the lesson beyond the broadcast time.
Discussion
On-A ir A cademics
Perhaps not surprisingly, Jordan (2003) found that academic lessons were few and far between in shows offered to children on the commercial broadcasters. Since each of the programs analyzed in this study was created with the clear intention of educating viewers, I expected to see an academic lesson in each segment viewed. BTL offered the most academic lessons, an average of just less than 93% of the on-air time. This is reflective of their very focused academic goals. The SS curriculum, on the other hand, outlines very clearly that academics are only one part of the educational mandate of the show. In the episodes screened for this study, only 65% of SS's on-air content included academic tasks. ZOOM had the fewest academic lessons with just over 20% of all segments including academic tasks over the five episodes screened. This lower percentage is indicative of the more diverse design of the ZOOM
show content. It is important to note that whenever academic activities were presented on these programs they always were presented in a positive manner, with attitudes on the part of the
learner and the teacher suggesting that the lesson was important and often fun. Nevertheless, the
academic learning opportunities are limited in the programming for older children.
Appealing and Engaging Content
Jordan (2003) found that when children watched programs because they liked them, their
motivation, comprehension of explicit program content, and understanding of the program 117 format were higher than when they were watching programs in which they had little interest. All three programs, to a great degree, included in their content formal features of the medium found to appeal to child viewers. For example, brightly coloured graphics or characters and characters that spoke directly to the viewer at home were seen in all three series.
The programming for younger children (SS and BTL) was more consistent than the series for older children (ZOOM) in their use of lively music, wacky characters and repetition of content. This may reflect both the established style of programming for pre-schoolers and early elementary aged children as well as the more focused scope of their educational aims. Not only is the ZOOM target viewer older but the format of the program is also quite different in design (it is non-scripted) and in presentation (live action only) than the series for younger audiences.
Although I am not aware of the ZOOM producers' intentions regarding the use or avoidance of particular design characteristics, it seems logical to conclude that their objective was to create a style which sets them apart from programming aimed at a younger audience. We know that some older children prefer programming they believe is for adults and will shy away from prograrnrning they feel is too young for them (Calvert et al., 2001). This may be why the producers of ZOOM avoid these features. Looking at other programming designed for the
ZOOM age group, however, many of the purely entertainment programs for older elementary children are rife with sound effects, songs and animation. In fact, older elementary aged children prefer educational programs that are animated to those presented in a live-action format (Calvert
& Kotler, 2003). Escalating the use of animation in particular may add to ZOOM'S appeal with viewers. As well, the music of ZOOM was quite low-key, almost tuneless. Music more aligned with the tastes of today's ZOOM-aged children, Rap or Hip Hop perhaps, or even something slightly disco might be more engaging. Increasing and massaging the use of these formal 118 features could attract more viewers which could in turn enable ZOOM to increase its academic content and support an intrinsic motivation for learning in its child audience.
It was surprising to note the lack of representation of children with physical disabilities on the pre-school program SS. The now defunct Canadian version of SS, Sesame Park, had as one of its cast a Muppet in a wheelchair. I had expected to see a similar character in the
American program, but did not. In fact, representation of children with physical disabilities was scant across all three programs. The only representation of persons with disabilities came in the live-action inserts rather than main cast member sequences, and even these were rare. By failing to represent all children, those children who do not see themselves reflected on-screen may feel marginalized and the lessons offered may be lost to them.
The results did show a very balanced representation of our multicultural world on both
SS and ZOOM. This same balanced diversity was not seen on BTL. Most of the BTL characters were White Caucasian. The remaining characters were African American. No other ethnicities were represented. I had expected to find a very different result. A cursory scan of BTL leaves the viewer with the idea he has seen a show almost completely cast with African American characters, perhaps because the main characters are African lions. Whatever the reason, in the week screened, a more precise tallying of characters found this was not the case. A cast without a more diverse range of ethnicities (particularly one lacking in Asian and Latino characters) is non-representative of the North American viewing audience.
In spite of the weaknesses mentioned above, overall these programs offer content that would attract and engage child viewers and, therefore, they provide a stable foundation primed and ready to support viewers' motivation to learn. 119
Motivational Content
As was predicted, very little of the educational programs included in this study used strategies or techniques found to promote a child learner's intrinsic motivation. The motivation to learn strategy most used across the three series was the portrayal of positive attitudes towards learning. The least used motivation to learn technique was the portrayal of learner strategies, which were rarely offered. Encouragement for attempting academic tasks was weak across the programs.
Modelling. Modelling is the teaching strategy that seems most suited to the medium of television and has been found to support learning from viewing (Van Evra, 1998). We know that models of any type can go a long way toward increasing a learner's self-efficacy. Coping models suggest to learners that challenges can be overcome. Expert models, if they represent the child learner, support a child's belief that he or she also can accomplish a task. I expected to see a large number of examples of modelling in the episodes screened. While modelling was indeed the most used teaching strategy, it was not used to its full potential. In spite of being listed among the curriculum goals of SS, modelling was seen in only 40% of all academic situations on the show. It also was seen in only half of all BTL academic segments. ZOOM, while offering the fewest academic tasks, used modelling in the majority of them, allowing the child on-screen to work through the academic challenge just as a viewer might at home.
The outcome of an on-screen model's attempts at an academic lesson also offers a very important message to viewers at home. Whether the on-screen model is successful or unsuccessful at a task may influence learners' decisions whether or not to attempt a similar task when they themselves are faced with it (Schunk, 1991). Modelling failure is just as important as modelling success, as it allows child viewers to recognize that not everyone succeeds with their first try. Modelled failures also offer an opportunity to link failure to a lack of sufficient effort, 120 or to poor strategy use. These messages were not communicated in the programs for younger viewers. In fact, coders observed missed opportunities for characters to model constructive failure. The best opportunities for learning came in the Dr. Ruth Wordheimer segments of BTL.
Dr. Ruth helps "patients" deal with their fear of big words. The segments usually consisted of an animal puppet rushing into her office, explaining what he's worried about and then being walked through the steps for overcoming his fear. The learners in these situations could highlight for the viewer the lesson Dr. Ruth is offering if they simply reiterated it. For example, by saying "Oh! I understand! If I sound it out, or say it slowly, I can figure it out!" the viewer can recognize the steps for learning. This type of modelling never occurred and few academic lessons portrayed characters learning at all.
It is difficult to know why modelling was not used more often as a means of portraying academic lessons in the programs for younger viewers. I did note that BTL offered a large number of its academic tasks as animated graphic segments without on-screen characters whatsoever. This lack of on-screen characters may be one of the reasons the results show few examples of on-screen learning and modelling.
It seems apparent that the characters of both SS and BTL are meant to represent the child viewer. It might benefit these viewers to see the characters modelling the academic challenges, struggling, putting in effort and following the steps for ultimate success or failure just as viewers might when they face the same task. Research suggests that linking learning to real life and future situations is an important way to develop motivation for a task and to increase deeper processing of the lesson. This linking of academic tasks to real life occurred infrequently on the programming for younger viewers. Again, it is important to note that these results speak of academic tasks only, and not prosocial lessons, which may have been shown to be firmly 121 connected to a child's reality. The results suggest that the producers and educational advisors on
SS and BTL may be well advised to revisit their academic content.
While there were few or no examples of these programs supporting a performance goal orientation in their viewers (that is, a motivation for learning based upon the extrinsic rewards that might follow), equally absent in the three series were presentations of attitudes toward learning that either support a mastery goal orientation (learning for learning's sake or for the intrinsic rewards the learning offers), or that promoted the importance of effort for success at academic tasks. There was very little evidence of programs offering viewers the steps for successful learning or summarizing what had been learned.
Unfortunately, the strategy or steps for learning were rarely given across all three programs. On BTL, the steps were shown repeatedly throughout each episode but never spoken.
For example, we see the letters "pi" repeated on-screen "pi, pi, pi" and then the letters "ay" repeated "ay, ay, ay" and eventually they connect and the word is said, "play." Outside the scope of this study, but certainly an idea for future research, is an assessment of the child's response to the implicit presentation of a strategy (pi pi pi, ay ay ay... play). Do viewers, in fact, understand that what they are seeing are the steps for successfully learning to read?
Finally, SS and BTL made no attempts during content time to extend the lesson beyond the episode. This was particularly interesting in BTL, since many of the episodes are based on the reading of one particular book, and the book's name and author are clearly given. It would be a simple and logical next step to mention to child viewers that they can pick up this same book at their own library. In the case of the Three Billy Goats Gruff episode, and the subsequent pirate's treasure episode, on-air characters could have suggested to home viewers that other books by the same author or about the same topic can be found at the bookstore. The characters often refer to the viewer at home by looking and speaking directly at camera. This is 122 referred to, in the television industry, as "breaking the fourth wall." Taking this direct interaction one step further by candidly informing viewers of their own opportunities beyond watching television could only benefit the child viewer's motivation for learning.
The academic segments of ZOOM were the most exciting of all the segments offered with regard to their motivational possibilities. These segments involved: children of both genders and many ethnicities modelling all aspects of learning, such as devising strategies and working through challenges. They also provided an enlightening explanation of the science with which they were working at the end of the segment. Occasionally, an explicit link to the child's real life would be included in the science segments. Still, it would be interesting, and perhaps beneficial to viewers, for ZOOM to connect the academic lesson in their science segments with the game or skit segments, or even the cooking segments throughout the same episode. For example, they could link the science behind the building of a chain reaction machine to a game of balance. They could link the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar to a cooking segment, thereby increasing viewer awareness of the learning that is taking place. As well, this linking would extend the lesson from the academic situation into real life, and could ultimately increase the learner's interest in the topic and transfer the learned science to future situations.
Overall, I believe these programs are not using learning and teaching strategies known to be effective in motivating child viewers to learn beyond the television event. It may be that producers of educational programs are unaware.of motivational teaching and learning strategies.
Since this study analyzed the content of these programs only and not the impact these programs are having on children, I cannot say whether or not these programs are actually motivating their viewers. The results do suggest, however, that they may not be meeting their potential in this regard. 123
Limitations of this Present Study & Directions for Future Research
This study provides important information about the nature of the content of children's educational television programming, but is, nevertheless, limited in a number of respects. While research, like this study, that extends our understanding of the educational offerings available on television is necessary and important, there is still very little that is understood about how the child viewer actually responds to educational programming. There are several important avenues for future research in the area of children's television suggested by the results of this research.
First, this study considered only three children's programs, all broadcast on the same network. The results cannot, therefore, be generalized to other existing educational children's television programs and must be used cautiously when generalizing to other episodes of these three series. Although every attempt was made to get a representative sample of episodes from each program, choices were based on the focus of this study, which limit the generalizability of the results. While offering examples of quality programs with large audiences, these three series do not provide evidence of the motivational value of other educational programs. Research into the motivational qualities of the very popular animated series and educational programs on the commercial broadcasters would give an even more complete picture of the range of motivational messages presented on current children's educational and informational programming.
Assumptions made about programs other than those included within this research should be made with a degree of caution.
Future studies are needed with larger and more diverse educational program sample.
Calvert and Kotler (2003) found that very little academic prograrnrning is included in the educational offering on commercial broadcasters. Most prograrnrning with an educational/informational rating offer content that is prosocial in nature. With the results of this 124 study, we may conclude that the academic content offered on PBS is similarly limited, particularly in the demographic of older elementary aged children. We need, particularly at the grade school level, to work at increasing the academic content along with the appeal of educational programs. We know, because of past research, that the formal features included in this study appeal to child viewers in the preschool and early elementary age groups, but little is known about what attracts and appeals to older children. Future research that assesses the appeal of these elements (and others) to the older child would not only extend the existing knowledge about television's impact but would also enable producers of educational programming to create quality, successful, informational programming for a difficult to reach age group. Increasing the use of age appropriate formal features in the content of ZOOM, and other late elementary focused educational programming, could enhance program appeal, increase audiences, and ultimately boost the ability of these programs to teach and to motivate learning.
Second, despite efforts to create a valid and reliable coding instrument that included all possible variables in a precise and specific manner, the list of variables used in this study could be extended to include a deeper investigation in certain areas. For example, a broader range of ethnicities on the tally sheet would offer a more complete view of the diversity offered in children's programming and, ultimately, how representative a series is of child, viewers in particular areas of Canada versus the United States.
A deeper investigation of the different ways of offering the "steps for success" would also be beneficial. BTL often shows graphically how to successfully sound out words when learning to read, but the program does not explicitly state that these are strategies for success. A question raised in this study was whether or not viewers recognize these steps as a strategy they should try. Future studies could assess whether children recognize that the steps are being provided even when they are not being told these steps directly. 125
Finally, the data from this study were obtained through a content analysis methodology allowing a qualitative evaluation of the motivational possibilities of these programs. To more fully investigate the impact of television on children's learning, laboratory and naturalistic studies should be conducted in which children view specific programs and then complete measures of motivation and learning. The conclusions from such studies could inform educational television producers about how to develop prograrnrning that will support our education system and motivate children to learn. Similarly, such research can inform teachers and parents about how to use television to support learning at home and school.
Conclusion
There is little doubt that television will continue to be a vital part of a child's socialization and development. Even though today's society offers children a plethora of ways to spend their time, from playing with friends, reading books or playing video games to chatting on-line or surfing the internet, it is still television that dominates most of their leisure activities.
Continued efforts to develop and study television programs that can help students acquire the kinds of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that support their learning in school and beyond are crucial. Still, creating television programs that entertain and educate is no easy feat. Producers and programmers have a challenge on their hands. Ultimately, the whole process is fiscal not altruistic, no matter how honourable the intentions may start out to be. Research like this study can assist the developers of children's prograrnrning in their educational aims. Coupling this research with the skilled and creative development of prograrnrning content that will attract and hold viewers could mean that the dream of extending the formal education system through television is not completely without possibility. The time has come for the medium (television) and the message (education) to bury the hatchet. 126
REFERENCES
Ames, C.A. (1990). Motivation: What teachers need to know. Teachers College
Record, 91, 409-422.
Ames, C.A. (1992). Classrooms: Goals, structures, and student motivation. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 84, 261-271.
Andersen, R.E., Crespo, C.J., Bartlett, S.J., Cheskin, L.J., & Pratt, M. (1998).
Relationship of physical activity and television watching with body weight and
.level of fatness among children: Results from the third national health and nutrition
examination survey. Journal of the American Medical Association. 279, 938-942.
Anderson, D.R., (1998). Children and television: Educational television is not an oxymoron.
The annals of the American academy ofpolitical and social science. 557, 24-38.
Anderson, D.R., Bryant, J., Wilder, A., Santomero, A., Williams, M., & Crawley, A.M.
(2000). Researching Blue's Clues: Viewing behavior and impact. Media Psychology,
2, 179-194.
Anderson, D.R., & Burns, J. (1991). Paying attention to television. In J. Bryant, & D.
Zillmann (Eds.), Responding to the screen: Reception and reaction processes (pp. 3-25).
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Anderson, D.R., Huston, A.C., Schmitt, K.L., Linebarger, D.L., & Wright, J.C. (2001).
Early childhood television viewing and adolescent behavior. Monographs of the society
for research in child development. 66, (1, Serial No. 264).
Anderson, D.R., & Lorch, E.P. (1983). Looking at television: Action or reaction? In J.
Bryant & D.R. Anderson (Eds.), Children's understanding of television (pp. 1-33). New
York: Academic Press.
Armstrong, G.B., & Greenberg, B.S. (1990). Background television as an inhibitor of cognitive 127
processing. Human Communication Research. 16, 355-386.
Baker, L., Sher, D. & Mackler, K. (1997). Home and family influences on motivations for
literacy. Educational Psychology, 32, 69-82.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning.
Educational Psychologist, 28, 117-148.
Berk, L.E. (1986). Private speech: Learning out loud. Psychology Today, 20, 34-42.
Blumenfeld, P.C. (1992). Classroom learning and motivation: Clarifying and expanding
goal theory. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 272-281.
Bomia, L., Beluzo, L., Demeester, D., Elander, K., Johnson, M., & Sheldon, B. (1997).
The impact of teaching strategies on intrinsic motivation. Opinion Papers. EDRS
41B925.
Bordeaux, B. R. & Lange, G. (1991) Children's reported investment of mental effort
when viewing television. Communication Research, 18, 617-631.
Bouffard, T., Marcoux, M.F., Vezeau, C, & Bordeleau, L., (2003). Changes in self-
perceptions of competence and intrinsic motivation among elementary schoolchildren.
British Journal of Educational Psychology, 73, 171-186.
Bransford, J., Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind,
experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy of Science.
Butler, R., & Nisan, M. (1986). Effects of no feedback, task-related comments, and
grades on intrinsic motivation and performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78,
210-216.
Calvert, S.L. (2001). Impact of televised songs on children's and young adults' memory 128
of educational content. Media Psychology, 3, 325-342.
Calvert, S.L., & Kotler, J.A. (2003). Lessons from children's television: The impact of
the Children's Television Act on children's learning. Applied Developmental psychology,
24, 375-335.
Calvert, S.L., Kotler, J.A., Murray, W.F., Gonzales, E., Savoye. K., Hammack, P.,
et al. (2001). Children's online reports about educational and informational television
programs. Applied Developmental Psychology. 22, 103-117.
Campbell, T.A., Wright, J.C., & Huston, A.C. (1987). Form cues and content difficulty
as determinants of children's cognitive processing of televised educational messages.
Journal of experimental Child Psychology, 43, 311-327.
Children's Television Act of 1990 (1990). Publ. L. No. 101-437, 104 Stat. 996-1000,
codified at 47 USC Sections 303a, 303b, 394.
Chiu, S., & Alexander, P.A., (2000). The motivational function of preschoolers' private speech.
Discourses Processes, 30, 133-152.
Cornford, I.R. (2002). Learning-to-learn strategies as a basis for effective lifelong learning.
International Journal of Lifelong Education, 21, 337-368.
Covington, M.V. (2000). Goal theory, motivation, and school achievement: An integrative
review. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 171-200.
Crawley, A.M., Anderson, D.R., Wilder, A., Williams, M. & Santomero, A. (1999). Effects
of repeated exposures to a single episode of the television program Blue's Clues on the
viewing behaviours and comprehension of preschool children. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 91, 630-637.
Deci, E.L. & Ryan, R.M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human
behavior. London: Plenum. 129
Dietz, W. H., Gortmaker, S.L. (1985). Do we fatten our children at the television set?
Obesity and television viewing in children and adolescents. Pediatrics, 75, 807-812.
Danling, P. & Hong, J. (1995). Children's attention to and comprehension of explicit
versus implicit information on television. Journal of Educational Television, 21, 71-84.
Elliot, E.S., & Dweck, C.S. (1988). Goals: An approach to motivation and achievement.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 5-12.
Faith, M.S., Berman, N., Heo, M., Pietrobelli, A., Gallaher, D., Epstein, L.H., Eiden,
M.T., & Allison, D.B. (2001). The effects of contingent television on physical activity
and television viewing in obese children. Pediatrics, 107, 1043-1049.
Federal Communications Commission (1996). Policies and rules concerning children 's
television programming: Revision of programming policies for television broadcast
stations (MMDocket No. 93-48).
Fisch, S.M. (2000). A capacity model of children's comprehension of educational content
on television. Media Psychology, 2, 63-91.
Fisch, S.M. (2001). Transfer of learning from educational television: When and why does
it occur? Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the society for research in child
development. Minneapolis, MN.
Fisch, S.M., McCann Brown, S.K., Cohen, D.I. (2001). Young children's comprehension
of educational television: The role of visual information and intonation. Media
Psychology, 3, 365-378.
Fisch, S.M., McCann Brown, S.K., & Cohen, D.I. (2001). Young children's comprehension
of educational television: The role of visual information and intonation. Media
Psychology, 3, 365-378.
Fisch, S.M., Truglio, R.T., & Cole, C.F. (1999). The impact of Sesame Street on pre- 130
school children: A review and synthesis of 30 year' research. Media Psychology, 1, 165-
190.
Fowles, J. (1992). Why viewers watch: A reappraisal of television's effects. Newbury Park,
CA: Sage.
Gall, M.D., Borg, W.R., & Gall, J.P. (1996). Educational Research (6th ed.). White Plains,
NY: Longman.
Garner, R. (1992). Learning from school texts. Educational Psychologist, 21, 5-63.
Goodman Research Group, Inc. (1999). Executive summary season one summative evaluation
of Zoom. (WGBH, Public Broadcasting System, 125 Western Avenue, Boston, MA,
02134).
Gottfried, A.E., Fleming, J.S., & Gottfried, A.W. (2001). Continuity of academic intrinsic
motivation from childhood through late adolescence: A longitudinal study. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 93, 3-13.
Government of British Columbia, Ministry of Education, Curriculum Branch (1997). K-12
prescribed learning outcomes. Retrieved from - http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp_resources
/lr/resources/res_main.htm
Greenfield, P.M., (1984). Using television to overcome educational disadvantage. In J.P.
Murray and G. Salomon (Eds.). The future of children's television, (pp. 81-86). Boys
Town, NE: Father Flanagan's Boys Home.
Gunter, B., Furnham, A. & Griffiths, S. (2000). Children's memory for news: A comparison
of three presentation media. Media Psychology, 2, 93-118.
Guskey, T.R. (1990). Cooperative mastery learning strategies. The Elementary School
Journal, 91, 33-42.
Harp, S.F., & Mayer, R.E., (1998). How seductive details do their damage: A theory of 131
cognitive interest in science learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 3, 414-434.
Hawkins, R.P., Kim, P.H., & Pingree, S. (1991). The ups and downs of attention to television.
Communication Research, 19, 53-76.
Healy, J.M. (1999). Endangered minds: Why our children don't think. New York: Simon
and Schuster.
Hollenbeck, A.R., & Slaby, R.G., (1979). Infant Visual and Vocal Responses to television.
Child Development, 50, 41-45.
Huston, A.C., & Wright, J.C. (1989). The forms of television and the child viewer.
Public Communication and Behavior, Vol 2. New York: Academic Press.
Jordan, A.B. (2003). Children remember prosocial program lessons but how much are
they learning? Applied Developmental Psychology, 24, 341-345.
Jordan, A.B., Schmitt, K.L., & Woodard, E.H., IV (2001). Developmental implications of
commercial broadcasters' educational offering. Applied developmental psychology, 22,
87-101.
Jordan, A.B., & Sullivan, J.L. (1997). Children's educational television regulations and
the local broadcaster: Impact and implementation (Report No. 13). Philadelphia, PA:
The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania (June).
Joy, L.A., Kimball, M.M., Zabrack, M.L., (1986). Television and children's aggressive
behaviour. In Williams T.M. (ed.) The impact of television: A natural experiment in
three communities. Orlando, Florida: Academic Press
Jylha-Laide, J. (1994). Learning by viewing: Cartoons as foreign language learning material
for children - a case study. Journal of Educational Television, 20, 93-110.
Kawachi, P. (2003). Initiating intrinsic motivation in online education: Review of the current
state of the art. Interactive Learning Environments, 11, 59-81. 132
Kelley, P., & Gunter, B. (1996). Helping viewers learn from television: A new approach
to increasing the impact of the medium. Journal of Educational Media, 22, 23-40.
Landis, J.R., &Koch, G.G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical
data. Biometrics, 33, 159-174.
Lemish, D., & Rice, M.L., (1986). Television as a talking picture book: A prop for language
acquisition. Journal of Child Language, 13, 251-174.
Lesser, G.S. (1974). Children and television: Lessons from Sesame Street. New York:
Vintage Books/Random House.
Lesser, G.S., & Schneider, J. (2001). Creation and evolution of the Sesame Street
curriculum. In S.M. Fisch & R.T. Truglio (eds) G is for growing: Thirty years of
research on children and Sesame Street, (pp. 25-38). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Linebarger, D.L. (2000). Summative evaluation of "Between the Lions: "A final report to
WGBH educational foundation. Unpublished report: WGBH.
Linebarger, D.L., (2001). Learning to read from television: The effects of using captions
and narration. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 288-298.
Lorch, E. P., & Castle, V. J., (1997). Preschool children's attention to television: Visual
attention and probe response times. The Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 66,
111-127.
Luke, C. (1988). Television and your child: A guide for concerned parents. Toronto:
TV Ontario.
MacBeth, T.M., (1996). Indirect effects of television: Creativity, persistence, school
achievement, and participation in other activities. In T. M. MacBeth (ed.), Tuning in to
young viewers (pp. 149-219). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 133
Malone, T.W. (1981). Toward a theory of intrinsically motivating instruction. Cognitive
Science, 4, 333-369.
Mander, J. (1978). Four arguments for the elimination of television. New York: Quill.
Margolis, H., & McCabe, P.P. (2003). Self-efficacy: A key to improving the motivation
of struggling learners. Preventing School Failure, 47, 162-169.
Maslow, A. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper.
Mates, B.F., & Strommen, L. (1995). Why Ernie can't read: Sesame Street and literacy.
The Reading Teacher, 49, 300-306.
Mish, F.C. et al.(1986). Webster's ninth new collegiate dictionary. Markham, ON:
Merriam- Webster.
National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP), 2000.
Neuendorf, K.A. (2002). The Content Analysis Guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Neuman, S.B. (1988). The displacement effect: Assessing the relation between television
viewing and reading performance. Reading Research Quarterly, 23, 414-439.
Nielsen Television Index (2002, December). Total viewing sources. New York: Nielsen
Media Research.
Nolen, S. B. (2001). Constructing literacy in the kindergarten: Task structure, collaboration
and motivation. Cognition & Instruction, 19, 95-143.
Oliver, M.B., (1994). Portrayals of crime, race and aggression in "reality-based" police
shows: A content analysis. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 38, 179-193.
Palmer, E.L., & Fisch, S.M., (2001). The beginnings of Sesame Street research. In Fisch,
S.M., & Truglio, R.T. G is for Growing: Thirty years of research on children and Sesame
Street (pp. 3-23). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 134
Paris, S.G. & Paris, A.H. (2001). Classroom applications of research on self-regulated
learning. Educational Psychologist, 36, 89-101. •>
Paris, S.G., & Newman, R.S. (1990). Developmental aspects of self-regulated learning.
Educational Psychologist, 25, 87-102.
Perreault, W.D., Jr. & Leigh, L.E. (1989). Reliability of nominal data based on qualitative
judgments. Journal of Marketing Research, 26, 135-148.
Pintrich, P.R. (2003). A motivational science perspective on the role of student motivation
in learning and teaching contexts. Journal of Educational Psychology. 95, 667-686.
Pintrich, P.R., & Schunk, D.H. (1996). Motivation in education: Theory research, and
applications. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Pintrich, P.R., & Schunk, D.H. (2002). Motivation in education: Theory research, and
applications (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Postman, N. (1982). The Disappearance of Childhood. Delacorte Press: New York.
Renninger, K. A., Hidi, S., & Krapp, A. (1992). The role of interest in learning and
development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Rice, M.L., Huston, A.C., Truglio, R., & Wright, J. (1990). Words from "Sesame Street":
Learning vocabulary while viewing. Developmental Psychology, 26, 421-428.
Rice, M.L. & Woodsmall, L. (1988). Lessons from television: Children's word learning
when viewing. Child Development, 59, 420-429.
Ricci, CM., & Beal, C.R., (2002). The effect of interactive media on children's story
memory. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 138-144.
Rolandelli,'D.R., Wright, J.C., Huston, A.C., & Eakins, D. (1991). Children's auditory
and visual processing of narrated and non-narrated television prograrnrning. Journal of
Experimental Child Psychology, 51, 90-122. 135
Salomon, G., & Perkins, D.N. (1989). The rocky road to transfer: Rethinking mechanisms
of a neglected phenomenon. Educational Psychologist, 24, 113-142.
Sesame Workshop Education & Research (2003). Sesame Street Curriculum Document-
Season 35. (Sesame Workshop, 1 Lincoln Plaza, New York, NY, 10023)
Schunk, D.H. (1987). Peer models and children's behavioural change. Review of Educational
Research, 57, 149-174.
Schunk, D.H. (1990). Goal setting and self-efficacy during self-regulated learning. Educational
Psychologist, 25, 71-86.
Schunk, D.H. (2001). Enhancing self-efficacy and achievement through rewards and
goals: Motivational and information effects. Journal of Educational Research, 78, 29-34.
Schiefele, U. (1991). Interest, learning, and motivation. Educational Psychologist, 26,
299-323.
Signorielli, N., & McLeod, D. (1994). Gender stereotypes in MTV commercials: The beat
goes on. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 38, 91- 112.
Singer, J. (1980). The power and limitations of television: A cognitive-affective analysis.
In P. H. Tannenbaum, (Ed.), The entertainment functions of television (pp. 31-65).
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Skinner, B.F. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York: Free Press.
Stanulis, R.N., & Manning, B.H. (2002). The teacher's role in creating a positive verbal
and nonverbal environment in the early childhood classroom. Early Childhood Education
Journal, 30, 3-8.
Stipek, D.J. (1988). Motivation to learn from theory to practice. New Jersey: Prentice
Hall.
Van Evra, J. (1998). Television and child development. Mahway, NJ: Erlbaum. Walma van der Molen, J.H., & van der Voort, T.H.A. (1997). Children's recall of
television and print news: A media comparison study. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 89, 82-91.
Wartella, E., (1987). Television, cognition and learning. In M.E. Manley-Casimir & C.
Luke (Eds.) Children and television: A challenge for education. New York: Praeger.
Weber, R.P. (1985). Basic Content Analysis. In J.L. Sullivan & R.G. Niemi (Series Ed.),
Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Weiner, B. (1979). A theory of motivation for some classroom experiences. Journal of
Educational psychology, 71, 3 -25.
Weinstein, C.E., & Mayer, R.F. (1991). Cognitive learning strategies and college teaching.
New directions for teaching and learning, 45, 15-26.
WGBH Educational Foundation (2000). Between the Lions: Get wild about reading.
(WGBH Educational Foundations & Sirius Thinking, 125 Western Avenue, Boston, MA,
02134).
Wigfield, A., Eccles, J. S., Yoon, K. S., Harold, R. D., Arbreton, A., Freedman-Doan, K.,
& Blumenfeld, P. C. (1997). Changes in children's competence beliefs and subjective
task values across the elementary school years: A three-year study. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 89, 451-469.
Williams, T:M. (1986). The impact of television: A natural experiment in three communities.
Toronto: Academic Press.
Winn, M. (1985). The plug-in drug: Television, children, and the family. Viking Penguin:
New York.
Winne, P.H., & Perry, N. (1994). Educational Psychology. In V. Ramachandran (Ed.)
Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, Vol. 2 (pp. 213-223). US: Academic Press. 137
Woodard, E. (1999). The 1999 state of children's television report: Programming for
children over broadcast and cable television. Philadelphia, PA: The Annenberg Public
Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. (Report Series No. 28).
Woodworth, R.S. (1918). Dynamic psychology. New York: Columbia University Press
Wright, J.C., & Huston, A.C. (1984). The potentials of television for young viewers. In
J.P. Murray and G. Salomon (Eds.). The future of children's television, (pp. 65-80). Boys
Town, NE: Father Flanagan's Boys Home.
Wright, John C, Huston, Aletha C, (1995). Effects of educational TV viewing of lower
income preschoolers on academic skills, school readiness, and school adjustment one to
three years later. Lawrence, KS: Center for Research on the Influences of Television on
Children
Wright, J.C., Huston, A.C, Murphy, K.C., St. Peters, M., Pinon, M., Scantlin, R., &
Kotler, J. (2001). The relations of early television viewing to school readiness and
vocabulary of children from low-income families: The early window project. Child
Development, 72, 1347'-1366.
Zill, N. (2001). Does Sesame Street enhance school readiness?: Evidence from a national
survey of children. In S. Fisch & R. Truglio (Eds.), G is for Growing: Thirty years of
research on children and Sesame Street, (pp. 115-130). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Zimmerman, B J. (1990). Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: An overview.
Educational Psychologist, 25, 3-17.
Zwick, R. (1988). Another look at interrater agreement. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 374-378. 138
APPENDICES 139
Appendix A - Codebook
CODE BOOK: Definition of the strategies to be observed during content analysis.
There are 3 parts to this codebook - 1) the definitions and explanations of each variable, 2) the running record of each program segment, and 3) the tally sheet.
This codebook is designed to help you in the process of coding episodes of children's television programs. Each variable in this study is defined based on its use in this particular study. It is important that you refer to these definitions while coding each segment of an episode. Instructions This is a study of how children's educational television programs incorporate motivation-to-learn strategies within their content - strategies that may motivate child viewers to continue learning once the television program has ended, or strategies that foster in the child viewer an intrinsic motivation to learn. The study is looking for the use of particular types of motivational strategies as well as the incorporation of particular formal features (of the medium of television), which are known to enhance engagement with the television, and ultimately learning from it.
You will view 1 to 3 episodes of each series. Each series has been recorded to its own VHS videotape. There are five episodes of each program per VHS tape. The series and episodes will be coded as follows: • Sesame Street (SS) - episodes 1 through 5 starting with the first episode on the tape as episode 1 • Between the Lions (BTL) - episodes 1 through 5 starting with the first episode on the tape as episode 1 • ZOOM (Z) - episodes 1 through 5 starting with the first episode on the tape as episode 1
After viewing each episode - making note of the content of each individual segment - you will complete a coding form. The coding form will ask direct questions about the episode's content including the characters, the lesson, the plot and the message.
Below you will find a list of words and definitions. These words are the variables included in this study. It is important that you familiarize yourself with these variables and their definitions. If you do not understand the definitions or require further clarification, please ask questions.
Step-by-step instructions:
1. Watch each segment carefully, stopping at the end of each segment to make notes on the running record including number and type of characters, length of segment and plot. • Pay attention for the existence of the important variables and the many ways in which they may appear. As you notice elements, which relate to the variables important in this study, note them at this time. If you think of something particularly interesting about the segment, note it at this time.
2. Rewind and re-watch the segment if necessary.
3. Complete one line of the tally sheet for that segment answering all questions to the best of your ability. If you are unable to answer a question please refer to your running record notes to ensure an accurate completion of the tally sheet or rewind and re-watch the segment if necessary.
4. Continue watching each segment this way until you have completed a screening of the entire episode. 140
The explanations of7definitions of the variables are listed below. They are divided into two sections: 1) variables associated with comprehension of televised material, and 2) variables associated with motivation-to-learn strategies.
Comprehension of Televised Material Question(s) on Variable - explanation/definition running record associated with this variable 2 through 16 FAMILIARITY 28 Educational Principle: A viewer's familiarity with the characters/locations and format of the program activates his/her pre• existing schemas regarding what to expect while watching the show - making watching less threatening. For example, on Sesame Street viewers expect to learn about letters/numbers and to see Muppets (Bordeaux & Lang, 1991; Fisch & Truglio, 2000).
Example: A program offers familiarity when viewers can expect to see mostly the same characters from one episode to the next, or when the format of the program is a theme or has a storyline.
2 through 16 REPRESENTA TION OF HOME VIEWER 54 Educational Principle: It is important for children to see themselves represented on the air - if a learner can relate to the character on the air they may be more apt to believe they can master the same skills or take on a similar task Use these questions to determine percentage of men, women, children represented on-air, to determine if ethnic diversity and physical disability are represented and to determine if an acceptance of differences in learning ability, in race, gender is being fostered (Fisch, 2000).
Example: A program offers a representation of the home viewer if characters represent many levels of physical and mental ability as well as characters from many different cultural backgrounds. 29 DIRECT INSTRUCTION 37 Educational Principle:' A character speaking directly to the viewer at home can act as a guide through the steps to completion of the task and also act as a cue to return the child's attention to the television set if they have looked away (Anderson, 1998; Wright & Huston, 1984).
Example: A program offers direct instruction to the home viewer if a character (on-camera/voice-over) speaks or looks directly at the home viewer, particularly if the character guides that viewers behaviour or thought process, (e.g., "What did you get?" "Try this!" "Boys and girls at home, you can do it too!") 141
30 through 33 ENTERTAINMENT7APPEAL 38 Educational Principle: Entertaining content enhances the appeal of 46 educational content for the child viewer. Programs that incorporate the 47 formal features listed below have been found to engage children more completely, suggest to a child that this program is for them, cue them to look at the television when they have looked away and maintain their engagement when distracters exist (Calvert & Gersh, 1987; Lorch & Castle, 1997; Rolandelli et al., 1991). Also, programs that incorporate repetition have also been found to be appealing to young viewers (Roehler & Duffy, 1991). Making a lesson at a slightly higher level of challenge than may be expected has been found to increase a child's attention but only if this challenging content is presented in a child focused package. When the content is optimally or moderately challenging, children invest more cognitive effort in attempting to figure it out (Campbell, Wright & Huston, 1991; Pintrich & Schunk; 2002).
Example: A program that incorporates child-focused formal features -> bright colours, lively or child-focused music (sung by a child, female voice or goofy voice), goofy characters (strange colourful creatures alive, animated or puppet), voice-overs of female or child voices and sound effects, and which uses repetition and challenging educational content (a lesson beyond the age group's school level) is appealing to child viewers. 42 SEDUCTIVE DETAILS 43 Educational Principle: In order for a television program to capture a 44 child's attention it must be entertaining, but educational content can be lost in the entertaining (seductive) details. It is important that the "fun" doesn't overwhelm the "lesson" (Garner, 1992; Harp & Mayer, 1998; Schraw, 1998).
Example: When educational content is placed within an entertaining package the program appeals to the child viewer. If entertaining elements and educational elements are interwoven with one supporting another (integral to the plot or completion of the lesson/task), entertaining elements might not distract from the lesson - e.g., a character talks about a funny dream they had - if the dream highlights the main point of the lesson, the details will not be distracting. If the dream is told for entertainment alone, it might distract from the lesson. 17 EXTENDING THE LESSON 67 Educational Principle: By suggesting the use of the Internet, a website 68 and links, asking an adult, or taking a trip to the library to seek out 73 particular books, the program is promoting the continuation of learning after the program is over, learning for the sake of discovery. Ultimately by doing this, a program is fostering an intrinsic motivation for learning.
Example: A program, which suggests a way to extend the lesson past the program time (a visit to the library, ask an adult, visit a website). 142
Motivation-to-learn Strategies
Question(s) Variable - explanation/definition associated with this variable 18 MODELLING 25 Educational Principle: These questions seek to determine if the 48 teaching technique of modelling is being used. We are looking for 49 characters (adults, children, puppets or cartoons) that show viewers how 55 to complete a task, offer different ways of completing a task, and 59 different levels of ability (Covington, 2000). Watch for implicit signals of modelling - facial expressions, or body language.
Example: Modelling refers to learning through the observation of others (adults or children) who are attempting and ultimately completing the offered task or other tasks. These can be coping models (trying and failing and trying again), expert models (adults or children who have no difficulty with the task), or child models (representing the home viewer) 37 SUCCESS STRA TEGIES (the steps for success) 49 Educational Principle: Offering the steps for completion of the task to 50 the viewer (or on-camera child) enables the learners to see small 51 successes while developing useful strategies for attempting the task. 56 Knowing strategies or steps for completion helps a child recognize when they may not have used the most successful steps. This promotes a positive self-efficacy for this and similar tasks. Talk-alouds are a means of offering the steps for completion while modelling the appropriate steps. Narration may be a simple way to use this strategy (Ames, 1990; Covington, 2000)
Example : TallxVThink-alouds refer to the speaking or thinking of the steps for completion of a task. It is oneself aware of the steps he is taking, "e.g., "First I'll make a list, then..." "Maybe I'll try this..." or, and indication that practice now might mean success in the future. 45 SUMMARIZING 53 Educational Principle: Summarizing main ideas offers the learner an 66 awareness of what he/she has learned. This awareness is a small success. 67 Offering small successes helps to build new knowledge on old and 68 enables the learner to checks his/her learning so far. Suggesting ways the learning can be used in future, or how a task is meaningful, points out the learning so far but also promotes transfer and positive self-efficacy for attempting the task in the future (Ames, 1990; Guthrie & Wigfield, 1991; Schraw, 1998).
Example: Summarizing can come in the form of pointing out what a child has learned (e.g., "Now you know how to rhyme!" "Let's see what we know so far..."), pointing out how the task is meaningful (e.g., "Making a list helps you remember things") or suggesting ways to use the knowledge in the future (e.g., "You could write a letter, or a list..."). 143
52 FEEDBACK 63 Educational Principle: Feedback can be negative (e.g., "Oh no, that's 72 all wrong!") or it can be positive (e.g., "Great try!"). We are looking for feedback as a reward for effort on difficult tasks (rewarding very little effort or effort on simple tasks can undermine the positive objective). It is important that feedback be used to support the idea that the effort put in is more important than the ultimate success or completion of the task, this will foster an intrinsic motivation and positive self-efficacy (Ames, 1990; Winne & Perry, 1994). Negative feedback may be subtle - when success is attributed to luck or when failure is attributed to lack of ability. Watch for implicit signals of feedback - facial expressions or body language.
Example: Feedback is the commenting of one character on an action or observation by another. It can be used as a reward or a punishment. Characteristics of feedback that promote efficacy include comments that promote determination (e.g., "You are on the right track... stick with it!" 19 MASTERY ORIENTA TION 23 Educational Principle: By showing, in a positive manner, a diversity of 26 learning, a program is showing that learning and ability are acquired 54 skills (promoting a positive self-efficacy) (e.g., if the child feels she is 56 not able to complete the task now but she may be able to do it in the 61 through 65 future, she is more likely to attempt it) (Bandura, 1993). By comparing ones successes to ones past achievement a mastery orientation is being fostered - the desire to master a task, learn more, discover something new - comparison with oneself and not others (Ames, 1990). Fostering the idea that learning is fun, worthwhile or personally fulfilling through modelling, verbal expression of interest, support of the learning situation or learner promotes a mastery orientation - learning for learning's sake, for the intrinsic reward learning offers (Ames, 1992; Blumenfeld, 1992; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002).
Example: A mastery goal orientation is the motivation to learn for the sake of learning - for the challenge it offers, the new knowledge to be discovered or the improvement in oneself. 58 PERFORMANCE ORIENTATION 60 Educational Principle: By attributing failure to ones inability a program 69 is fostering a negative self-efficacy and promoting achievement goals - 70 if a child believes they are unable, or lack the talent, they may believe they can never succeed at the task. Offering extrinsic rewards and supporting competition or comparison between learners also promote achievement goal orientations (Ames, 1992; Blumenfeld, 1992; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002).
Example: A performance goal orientation is the motivation to learn in order to be better than someone else (or everyone else) or in order to receive the extrinsic reward, (e.g., "Write in your ideas and your idea could be read on-the-air!" "Not everyone is good at math." 144
48 EFFORT 57 Educational Principle: By promoting the opinion that effort can lead to 62 success a program can motivate a child to try hard and take pride in the 63 trying, additionally it supports the idea that ability is not a stable 64 construct. These questions focus on effort - trying, trying and failing, 65 not trying hard enough, trying and succeeding (Ames, 1990; Covington, 2000).
Example: Effort is the energy or "try" that a learner puts in to completing or attempting a task.
28 A SAFE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT 52 A safe learning environment is one in which adults/instructors and other 63 learners encourage the learning of others in a non-competitive way. 71 They may offer positive feedback or other encouragement including the 72 support of all types of questions and effort (Ames, 1990; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002) or non-threatening evaluation procedures. This type of environment promotes a view that errors are not failures they are opportunities to learn.
Example: A safe learning environment invites learners to attempt tasks, ask/answer questions and maintain a positive self-efficacy for a task (e.g., "Go ahead, give it a try!" "There's no such thing as a dumb question." "Way to go!" "Next time you'll get even further!") 145
Appendix B - Running Record
Episode: BTL # Dance in Smarty Pants Coder: Deb Date of Coding: October 7,2003 page 1 of 4 RUNNING RECORD
Segment #: 1 | Length (min/sec): 4:57 | #Adults: 4 #Children: 2 #9:3 #(-?:3 Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) Mom lion, Dad Lion, Boy lion.Girl lion Smarmy Marmy - adult, white, female Arty Smarty Pants - adult, white, male Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? Yes/ No If yes, explain: Little girl asks what a flashback is and she's told. Positive attitudes. Plot/Activity during this segment: The family is watching video that the kids are in. They decide to rewind and watch again. There's a song. It's a video about dancing in smarty pants. Words come on the screen. The girl asks what a flashback is and they explain it to her (in adult terms). Marmy reads a letter using her finger. Smarty wants parents to dance in the next video. The kids decide to teach their parents how to dance in smarty pants.
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes / No Which one(s)? Modelling.
Segment #: 2 Length (min/sec): : 31 #Adults: 3 #Children: #$: 1 #^:2 Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) Buster the bust Pigeon, man Pigeon, woman Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? ||||/ No If yes, explain: The birds were interested in learning but the Bust was frustrated that they keep forgetting and he has to keep reminding them. Plot/Activity during this segment: The birds are trying to dance and remember the song. The Bust keeps reminding them of words they forget. The words come on-screen.
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes / f|| Which one(s)?
Segment #: 3 Length (min/sec): :44 #Adults:5 #Children: #9:4 Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) Female v/o takes the "ah" sound to Martha, Male announcer Martha, black adult female and The vowelles, 3 black adult females (lips) Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? |§|§/ No If yes, explain: Happy to sing the "ah" sound.
Plot/Activity during this segment:
Martha and the Vowelles sing the "ah" sound and the word pan is on-screen to show the "ah" sound in a word.
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes / 111 Which one(s)? 146
Segment #: 4 [ Length (min/sec): :54 1 #Adults: 3 #Children: #9: # g: 3 Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) Gwain, male, adult (no ethnicity) Male knight, adult Male knight, adult Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? ||||/ No If yes, explain: Plot/Activity during this segment: The 2 knights run together making the word fan.
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes / No Which one(s)? Modelling
Segment #: 5 | Length (min/sec): : 19 | #Adults: 5 #Children: #g: # 3 Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) 5 black male singers <' Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? |il|/ No If yes, explain: They are happy about singing the "ah" sound Plot/Activity during this segment: 5 male acapella singers are singing "ramma lamma lama"
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes / No Which one(s)?
Segment #: 6 | Length (min/sec): :38 | #Adults: #Children: #9: #S Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) 2 White hands Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? Yes/ No If yes, explain: Happy and interested in learning the word Plot/Activity during this segment: Two hands see the letters h as well was nds written and try to figure out what it spells. They sound it out. They add an a. They celebrate when they've figured it out. Although they did show how to sound it out they don't ever say "this is what we're doing" - it's still showing the steps but?
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes / No Which one(s)? Steps/Strategies, Modelling
Segment #: 7 Length (min/sec): 0:58 #Adults:2 #Children: #9: 1 #S- 1 Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) Marmy - a white woman puppet Al Franken, white male adult
Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? Yes/ No If yes, explain:
Plot/Activity during this segment: He reads a poem about the word underpants. He's splitting them apart and then putting them together making a word that makes him laugh.
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes / |i| Which one(s)? 147
Segment #: 8 [ Length (min/sec): :36 | #Adults: 1 #Children: #$: # <3~\ Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) White man, adult (albino) Animated characters Female v/o reading the word Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? Yes/ No If yes, explain: Happy female voice reading words Plot/Activity during this segment: He sounds out the word slant. Then he acts out slant. Then animated words and animated gymnasts show that changing letters changes words. Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes /1|| Which one(s)? '
Segment #: 9 | Length (min/sec): 4:31 | #Adults: 3 #Children: 2 #9:2 # $\ 3 Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) Father Lion - m, a, nh & Mother lion - f, a, nh Boy lion - m, c, nh & Girl lion - f, c, nh Monkey - m, a, nh Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? Yes/ No If yes, explain: The parents were goofing around and didn't want to learn the dance properly. Plot/Activity during this segment: The kids decide to teach there parents. Nice line, "Mum, there's a how to everything." The boy reads the steps in the book. The girl says "You're a very good teacher." The parents put the pants on their heads. They do a "rubber stampy" dance. They goof around. The girl laughs. They go off to ask Arty Smarty Pants if it's okay that they are having fun while they work. Weird seg. There was environmental print and evidence of using a book to find something out but...?
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes / f§§ Which one(s)?
Segment #: 10 | Length (min/sec): :20 | #Adults: 1 #Children: #$: # c?: 1 Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) White, white haired man Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? |§|§/ No If yes, explain: He's his normal happy self. Plot/Activity during this segment: He sings a song called "zippity zap" get your mouth moving. The "ah" sound.
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes /1|| Which one(s)?
Segment #: 11 | Length (min/sec): 1:05 | #Adults: 2 #Children: #$: 1 #c?: 1 Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) White man White woman
Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? Yes/ No If yes, explain: Plot/Activity during this segment:
An animated story, plus live people, animated characters are white. The story is called the sad dad.
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes /1|| Which one(s)? 148
Segment #: 12 J Length (min/sec): :14 | #Adults: #Children: #g: # J Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) Female v/o reads words Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? Yes/ No If yes, explain: Plot/Activity during this segment:
Voice reads words as the letters change to make new words. Sad into stack.
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes /1|| Which one(s)?
Segment #: 13 | Length (min/sec): 1:36 | #Adults: #Children: #$: # $ Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) Male v/o Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? Yes/ No If yes, explain: The announcer and the crowd cheer the writer. Plot/Activity during this segment: Animated characters. They have to write and explains how to make the word stack. They "talk aloud" it out. Nicely done. He fails by writing the word stick and then he changes it to stack. Lots of feedback.
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes / No Which one(s)? Talk Alouds. Feedback.
Segment #: 14 | Length (min/sec): 1:29 ] #Adults: 2 #Children: 1 # 1 Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) Lady Lion Man Lion Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? Yes/ No If yes, explain: Plot/Activity during this segment: This is the what's cooking segment. They are making things with hamburger. They read the recipe and they have words on things they talk about. They eat it raw of course.
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes / f|| Which one(s)?
Segment #: 15 Length (min/sec): 3:15 #Adults: 4 #Children: 2 #$: 2 # c?: 4 Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) Mother & father lion, Boy and girl lion Nasty white animated king Arty Smarty pants - animated, white
Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? §§|§/ No If yes, explain: ' Plot/Activity during this segment:
They read a book by Arty Smarty pants. The story is animated. Arty shows the world the fun and they all have fun. The moral, everyone works harder and is more productive when they're having fun while they work. The basic academic task is learning to go for a book when you're looking for an answer.
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes / No Which one(s)? modelling 149
Segment #: 16 . | Length (min/sec): 1:37 1 #Adults: #Children: #$: # S Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) Arty Smarty Pants
Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? Yes/ No If yes, explain: Plot/Activity during this segment: Various people dancing in smarty pants - a bunch of famous people - it's basically a video about dancing in smarty pants but there's no academic lesson.
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes / Hi Which one(s)?
Segment #: 17 Length (min/sec): :43 #Adults: #Children: 2 #$: 1 # <$: 1 Characters: (Name, Gender, Adult/Child, Human/Non-Human) Boy lion Girl lion
Were there any implicit signals of attitudes/opinions towards learning? 1§|§/ No If yes, explain: Happy about writing. They show writing is a good thing. Plot/Activity during this segment: Boy lion is writing a thank you letter to Arty Smarty Pants. Boy explains what titanic means.
Did this seg. incorporate a motivation strategy: Yes / No Which one(s)? modelling. 150
Appendix C - Tally Sheet
SERIES DATE NAME: BTL SCREENED: 10/7/03 EPISODE: Dance in Smarty Pants CODER : Deb 0= No or n/a 1 = Yes
Question # 1 2 3 4 J5 6 7 8 9 10
were there were were ^ , were were characters #of #of #of Segment # length kids adults . .. females males of varying kids . ad jits females males present present present present physical ability?
1 0:04:57 1 2 1 I 1 3 1 3 0 2 0:00:31 0 0 1 :3 1 1 1 2 0 3 0:00:44 0 0 1 !5 1 4 1 1 0 4 0:00:54 0 0 1 :J 0 0 1 3 0 5 0:00:19 0 0 1 3 0 0 1 5 0 6 0:00:38 0 0 0 (D 0 0 0 0 0 7 0:00:58 0 0 1 2 1 1 1 1 0 8 0:00:36 0 :;i::::0P:; 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 9 0:04:31 1 1 3 .1 2 1 3 0 10 0:00:20 0 iyiiiiPliliP 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 11 0:01:05 0 1 iiiiliiii:2 T 1 1 1 0 12 0:00:14 0 0 (3 0 0 0 0 0 13 0:01:36 0 0 !!:!!!;!!(3 0 0 0 0 0 14 • 0:01:31 0 :!:::;idiii;j: 1 illilL2 1 1 1 1 0 15 0:03:15 1 ;;l2l:;;i: 1 llijiii:!'* 1 2 1 4 0 16 0:01:37 0 :;;ii;Qiii 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 17 0:00:43 1 llllIK 0 D 1 1 1 1 0 TOTALS 17 4 8 13 3 6 9 16 14 28 0 % of segs: 23.53% 76.47% 52.94% 82.35% 0.00% average length: 0:01:26 151
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
was there were were asian / were if so, were # asian / were an # white african # african latino or, viewers characters^ latino or characters academic Caucasian american american other ethnic directed enjoying the other seen to be lesson in characters characters characters characters , to learning characters learning? this present? present? website? experience? segment?
2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 0 i!:!iiii;;i!0¥ii:i;;i 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 JM:i=iE 0 0 0 0 0
: 0 l:!:=:HI=oM|:||||;|: E| 0 0 0 0 0 1 ;;:I;h:;2|;;i;:;;; 0 :;;:i:^yp::j:i;:::!;: 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 . 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 0 :::::::;^:0:E:::i::! 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 11 2 6 0 0 0 6 6 15 11.76% 0.00% 0.00% 35.29% 35.29% 88.24% 152
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
were were were were academic: were was the: was the was the academic:: academic academic:: activities did characters: overall overall location activities:: activities activities negative characters seen message: message: one presented presented positive (too risky, speak modelling about about children as work (a as play (just (important - were kids directly to the academic academic would be chore - for fun, not necessary made fun the home academic activities activities familiar too much for future/ of for viewer? EErimm task? positive? negative? with? effort)? learning)? life)? being wrong?) mmEm 1 0 m^mm mmiEEE |EE:|lll;|i:!|||;MM| P 1 1 0 0 0 E'-EOEE:. WEEOEEM 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 iii:i!.;:iO;:;:;iii;ii 1 0 0 1 0 EEEEE-^ EEEE&EEE EEO.^E 1 1 MM-EE 1 1 0 EEEfEEE 'EEE^MEEE :il!ii:i:ioii!;;:i::!: p 1 ME'QEE 0 1 0 •EEE\E\:E9E iii;:!:1;Q!!:iii;i!;! EEEEEE': 1 EE±$EE\ 0 0 EEEIEEE EEE^EEEE Ilipiiliiiii EMM\:E:. EMEE^E •EE-O-'^E 1 1 0 \EEEiEEvE EEEQEE^ lillhllllQlliiy EEEEEEE} EEMEE EE/QEEu 0 1 0 EME^EEE i!i;iii!:!oii;]i;!!!; E:E^OEEE EEQEEi 1 1 0 ;!i;;::ii:i;ii1.;i^:;:^: EEEVEm\ EEEMEEE WWm—EmmEM 0 1 0 EEEtEEEr EEEWEEii ET:ME: EEEQEEE EEJEE:. EMoEE. 1 1 0 EEE&EE,. E-ME^EE^. EE&~E EEVEM E.EWEE^ EE^EE\ 1 0 EEEE:m^ EEEVME EMVEM EEMMM =!!M IlliM li!!!! UlP:EEQME I 1 1 0 EEEQEEE. :EEEEEEE. E^EVEE wEEEEE. •!:::MM:;li:!-!-:!:i!! EE}Q:EE:. 1 1 0 '^EMQMM EWE^EE EE-WW: E'EEvEEE^EEEEEE EEWEE 1 0 0 EEEVEEE EEEQEEE mEmK WEMEE ii;i!;;Ql!;:;i; 0 0 0 0 ^EMEEEI EEWEE EEEEEE-: E^EMEE EEEIE:-:, 1 0 0 9 6 0 9 EMAIEE EEMEEi 10 12 0.00% 52.94% 35.29% 0.00% 52.94% 82.35% P.PP% 58.82% 70.59% 153
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38
were when a when a was a were lively were when a voice- brightly voice-over voice-over narration music or wacky, was a over wasused coloured was used was used used as was there sound goofy voice-over was it a child's graphics or was it a was it a guide to a song? effects characters used? or characters woman's man's the evident? evident? charactersvoice? evident? voice? voice? lesson?
1 1 1 0 i!;;h!j!0jjj!:jj;;j; 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 Jj;HJhJ; :0:JJ!J:J;l:: 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 ;;i::;:;ii;0i!i:i!ii;! 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 : 1 1 1 1 :::!:il!;;::0:;rii::!; ;;;;;:i;iuo;:::;;:;;;;;;-N: 0 0 1 0 1 0 lii^iiiOiilliJill!: 0 0 1 1 0 0 #l!!:!0:ij!:!:il: i;!i:!;:i:iiQ:jii:;i!:!i 0 1 1 0 1 1 l::!ii!Q!:;L!i:!i :^-:::;i::;:!:::r:! 0 0 1 0 0 1 .Lllilii;;;!!;;!:; 0 0 1 1 0 1 iiiiiiiiqi;:!;;; 1 0 1 1 1 0 ;::;::;:::;P!:::;;;;:; :i::i:iii:!:Qiiiii;i:i!; 0 0 * 1 0 1 0 ::;:!;N:iQjli!:l! 0 0 1 1 1 0 :: M M M : M 0iH H n; 0 1 0 0 ' 0 0 UiMMMno-;; M;;; i; 0 0 15 11 11 7 3 4 0 1 4 88.24% 64.71% 64.71% 41.18% 17.65% 23.53% 0.00% 5.88% 23.53% 154
39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 .. 47
when a was it when a were was a has this was the when a song song were difficult to song was academic summary lesson academic was used was academic distinguish used was lessons of the been seen learning was the used lessons the the singer interwoven academic in a task age singer a was the integral to academic a child or with story• lesson previous appropriate woman? singer story-line? lesson from character? line? given? segment? ? a man? the fun?
1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 !=i=:!!=il!ME:n 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 ;::-::p:i;::!:: 1 0 0 1 0 ::;-::Q:i:;:;!; 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1
0 no!;:!::: •-ipiP:::;:;::;;: 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 ::;::rP::;!i:: :i-i;0ii:!i!:!ih 1 0 1 0 1 1
0 i-r^Q:;:;:: :!;i;:;!;:;0i;i':i;!;;! 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 :::::;:Q;:;;::: 1 1 0 0 1 1 iiiNiNNiaiNiNiiiN 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 15 8 4 0 11 15 11.76% 11.76% 11.76% 88.24% 47.06% 23.53% 0.00% 64.71% 88.24% 155
48 49 50 . 51 52 53 54 55 56
did it show were was there if there was were were the a character was the was children was there any evidence of think- steps for struggling completion supportive reminded evidence of evidence failure, was alouds completion but of each step feedback of what acceptance of failure it due to or talk- of the task completing seen as a given to they know of learning at an poor alouds offered to academic success? learners? (prior diversity? academic strategy evident? learners? task? knowlge)? task? use?
0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 • 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 1 3 0 1 1 0 11.76% 5.88% 11.76% 5.88% ' 17.65% 0.00% 5.88% 5.88% 0.00% 156
57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64
were were if there was was there characters was effort if there was characters were evidence of evidence of seen/heard was there seen as evidence of seen/heard children failure, was success at comparing evidence more failure, was: comparing praised for it due to an success or that effort important it due to success or making an lack of academic failure with pays off? than inability?: failure with effort? effort? task? their past success? others? experiences?
ii;:;;;i:^o;:ii:;:i;:iii 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ;;ii!;;ii;:idli:;!!!!!i!;! 0 0 0 • 0 0 0 0 ;N;;;;H:;0;hM;;r;;h; 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 • 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
: : 0 ;l;^::0;;;:l :j; :: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 WMmi 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 WMw^.\ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ;;::;;::;;:r ;;:;:;:;;;;: 0 0 : 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 i!!ri;i;^b:i;!;;!::K: 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.00% 0.00% 11.76% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 157
65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74
was there was there was there were there were ideas evidence an attempt an attempt was there were was a any implicit were were for that to make at making evidence of prizes safe signals of prizes questions continuing learning the the tasks learning offered supportve positive offered from academic and ability learner meaning• something for • learning attitudes / for learner lesson at are aware of ful to for future child envirnmt opinions learners encraged home incremental what they child's use? viewer offered? towards suggested? skills? learned? life? learning?
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0> 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 1 4 0 12 0.00% 0.00% 11.76% 0.00% 5.88% 0.00% 5.88% 23.53% 0.00% 70.59%