“AS IF BY ACCIDENT.” NURTURING COGNITIVE SKILLS IN THE U.S. AND FINLAND: AN INTERCULTURAL EXPLORATION OF TWO TELEVISED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS By Jacqueline L. Jackson II. A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Educational Policy--Doctor of Philosophy 2015 ABSTRACT “AS IF BY ACCIDENT.” NURTURING COGNITIVE SKILLS IN THE U.S. AND FINLAND: AN INTERCULTURAL EXPLORATION OF TWO TELEVISED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS By Jacqueline L. Jackson II. This study is an intercultural exploration of programming for early learners in the televised learning environments in America and Finland. It aims to demonstrate that what is observable in schools and classrooms – pedagogical philosophy, instructional strategy, cognitive target and underlying cultural allowances and provisions which forward learning – is also evident in the brief space of the televised learning program. My thesis adheres to the broader theory of opportunity to learn (OTL), which suggests that formal learning is contingent upon student engagement, which is constrained by limited classroom and content coverage time (Schmidt et al., 2001, 2011; Schmidt & Maier, 2009). My interpretive approach demonstrates how OTL operates through cultural and social systems by example of the televised programs selected for study; and shows how these programs provide multiple encounters with cognitive content that reinforce and reproduce culturally preferred cognitive capabilities. I derive the proposed cognitive targets through qualitative analysis of problem-solving scenarios in one episode of each of the selected programs. The two programs present the occasion to 1) identify the cognitive skills targeted in the episodes studied; 2) to characterize the instructional strategies applied to reinforce the dominant cognitive task; 3) and to consider the underlying sociocultural assumptions in these two national settings that inform the pedagogical approach to shaping naturally developing, cognitive proclivities distinctively targeted in the two episodes. Findings suggest that Finnish play-based instructional strategies support the dynamics of children’s play space and heighten self-awareness, a central component of metacognition, by example of the problem-solving scenarios of the early learning program, Sana-Arkku. I suggest that the play-based deductive teaching strategies in these scenarios employ a challenge course intended to strengthen learners’ self-control. In contrast, the lesson from the problem-solving scenarios of the U.S. early learning program, Between the Lions, is cooperative work and cooperative inquiry. The teamwork approach in the problem-solving strategies of the characters Click, Cliff Hanger and Opposite Bunny emphasizes group projects in a K12 public education which expects prosocial skills, in particular, benevolence. While this pedagogical approach may have a strategic advantage in promoting democratic goals, it may present a strategic weakness for achieving academic excellence. The American focus in this comparative analysis raises the following vital question; what – in terms of cognitive development – the costs and benefits of this prosocial emphasis on group work may be to the individual learner. The implications for both the classroom and the televised learning spaces are clear: first is the need to design and test the effectiveness of metacognitively enriched exercises for classroom instruction aimed at enhancing individual cognitive development and, based on positive outcomes, to design, produce and test the effectiveness of metacognitively enriched children’s educational television programs across early learning student demographics. Positive outcomes would warrant policy revision in the recommended pedagogical approach in K12 classrooms, and a re-visitation of key legislation governing the level and type of cognitive content required in children’s educational television programming. This research has sought to find the missing element in the U.S. televised children’s learning experience, which could be helpful, specifically, to the academic achievement of low-income early learners; I believe that missing element is the effective promotion of metacognitive development. Copyright by JACQUELINE L. JACKSON II. 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work originates from me, the creative efforts are my own as are the thoughts, analyses and whatever mistakes remain; however, the origins and development of my intellectual process have been a lifelong communal enterprise. I would like to express heartfelt gratitude to the stellar faculty of my department and to my classmates, whose insightful discussions, sharp critique, arguments and debates and, at times, steely face-offs, all worked to extend my capabilities far beyond their former boundaries. The maturation of this document, however, and the fluidity with which it speaks is due to the incredible efforts of a cumulative editorial and critical process which involved professors, classmates and friends, as well as the results of three years of papers written for intensive course work in every area of educational scholarship relating to the historical and current processes of policy formation and implementation, and the assessment of pedagogical practices and student performance outcomes. Here at MSU, you re-write until you get it right; it is the Spartan spirit that rings as true within the classroom as it does on the football field and the basketball court. I would like to give special thanks to all the people I came to know at the Finnish National Broadcasting Company, the University of Helsinki, the University of Jyväskylä, and the Finnish arm of the International Reading Association, for their remarkable kindness and the extensive time they gave to my research. I must gratefully recognize the producer of Between the Lions and the authors of Sana-Arkku. These individuals were exceedingly willing and critically informative participants, and they are devout in their concern for the full development of young people. v I would also like to acknowledge the timely – in fact, life-saving – assistance of Geek Squad and Vertex Computer for heroically attempting – and usually succeeding – to salvage various stages of this work at times when user error made files disappear or mechanical failure or quantum fluctuations produced a computer crash: thanks again, guys. My pursuit of this educational distinction has entailed many missed birthdays, graduations, funerals, and births; all regretfully sacrificed in an attention divided between loved ones and a not- so-easily-explained obsession with a personal process and life pursuit. I acknowledge the loving forgiveness of my nieces and nephews, who have, for too many years, pardoned my absences. “Thank you” is too small a return to my parents for their investment in the development of my mind, spirit and person; perhaps most of all, though, I thank them for having the courage to be parents; and for their endurance: as my mother would say, parenting is not sometimes, it is all of the time; it is all of your life. I am grateful for the experience of having been loved and nurtured under multi-generational circumstances; for a home in which standards were energetically and often humorously tag-teamed by Mom and Dad, by maternal and paternal grand- and great-grand- parents, sister, brothers, and cousins; for a neighborhood where everyone knew each other’s children and reinforced household standards by a single glance, and attended each other’s children’s graduations; for the treasured memories of Mom wrapping hardboiled eggs in aluminum foil, and tucking them in the pockets of my snowsuit as hand warmers while I waited at the school bus stop holding the hand of my protective brother; for Mom’s ever watchful eyes, and steady, unwavering voice. For being lifted and propelled by the invincibility of Dad, round and around we-go to the sounds of his lips imitating helicopters; to our quiet porch-time, watching night-turn- day; to watching the pen of a legendary Daddy never sleep until the sight or voices of his children drew near, and then smiles, kisses, hugs, stories and explanations for the inquiring minds of all vi five; to the locket of advice worn close to my heart: you learn differently and so you must devote yourself to the clock more aggressively. For the honor of being loved, at times, in spite of myself; and for the privilege of being reminded to do the same for others. Indeed, I am grateful to have nursed on time-tested wisdoms and firsthand accounts; and, simply, for family time, homemade breakfasts, lunches and dinners. I thank each of my siblings for their steadfast guardianship; for their commitment to modeling what it means to be capital human beings. I am indebted to my Uncle Saint for more than I may even know, but here I thank him for his long encouragement of my completion of a process which began over ten years ago; to my Godmother, Mrs. Helen Anglin, now deceased, for her undying love and for her wisdom: Life is a rat race for your mind, and you must know when and how to say that you can’t have it!; to Mrs. Bettye Odom, without whom I might not have learned the most valuable lessons of all, which are that circumstances mustn’t define you, and that people, places and things have only the power and meaning that you give to them. I thank my dearest friends, B&JW, JG, JK, IS, BB, KC, BC, DM and JD for a quality of friendship I strive always to deserve. I owe special thanks to Mrs. Marva Collins and her inspired pedagogy, which ignited in me, as in so many other of her students, a fire and respect for all learning. I thank Dr. George Robinson, Chair of the Psychology Department at North Carolina A&T State University. I thank Dr. Terrence Johnson, Chair of Biological Sciences, and Dr. Anthony Ejiofor at Tennessee State University’s Department of Biological Sciences. I thank Dr. Laura Junker and Dr. John Monaghan at the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Department of Anthropology. And, again, I am moved to express profound thanks to MSU.