The Influence of Educational Television Programming on Preschoolers' Emergent Literacy
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Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education/ Volume 5, Issue 2 Revue canadienne des jeunes chercheures et chercheurs en éducation Summer, 2014 The influence of educational television programming on preschoolers’ emergent literacy: A review of the literature Erin A. Schryer, PhD University of New Brunswick [email protected] Abstract For over two decades educational researchers and practitioners have placed tremendous emphasis on ensuring children acquire a solid literacy foundation during the preschool years in order to successfully learn to read once in school (Pelletier, 2008). This focus is predicated on research that suggests children who enter school without a literacy-rich foundation on which to build rarely catch up to their peers who have acquired such a foundation, placing them at risk for a myriad of difficulties across subject areas (Desrochers & Glickman, 2008). The purpose of this systematic aggregative review was to summarize research reporting the effects of educational television viewing – an increasingly prevalent approach to promoting preschoolers’ cognitive development – on preschool viewers’ emergent literacy growth. Review findings may provide a range of educational partners, including early childhood educators, teachers and parents, further information on which to draw when planning activities for more fully supporting children’s early reading development. Introduction Meta-analysis of over 30 years of research on the popular children’s program Sesame Street indicates that children can learn various concepts and skills, including important language and literacy skills, from viewing educational television (Mares & Pan, 2013). In spite of this research, little has been done in Canada on a wide-scale to capitalize on the potential of television for teaching preschoolers literacy concepts that are related to later literacy success, however. This represents a missed educational opportunity for preschoolers as one in four Canadian children arrive at school without the literacy foundation they require for learning to read (Pelletier, 2008). Purcell-Gates (1996) proposes that the most influential cultural contexts impacting young children’s language and literacy learning are the home and community, with television and other screen-media increasingly forming a key part of these environments. Data aggregated from the Canadian Health Measures Survey (Statistics Canada, 2009, 2010, 2011) reporting on the activity levels of Canadian preschoolers, reveals that Canadian children aged 3-4 years spend an average of 2.2 hours in front of a screen each day (Active Healthy Kids Canada, 2013). A review conducted by Common Sense Media (CSM) (2011) in the United States specified that American children 0-8 years spend an average of 1 hour 44 minutes watching television in a typical day, and that television viewing continues to dominate their screen usage representing 74% of their media diet versus just 13% for the computer and 4% for cell phones, iPods, and iPads. Despite preschoolers’ continued preference for television, a limited number of empirical studies have explored the influence of contemporary educational programs on viewers’ cognitive development, including literacy. New research in this area is necessary to determine whether contemporary television programs, particularly those being promoted as educational, achieve their goals or claims of teaching various concepts and skills to young viewers. The amount of time preschoolers spend watching television underscores the importance of conducting this review as an exploratory first step in determining whether television can be used as a more deliberate and widely-scaled learning context for preschool children who may not otherwise receive the quality and quantity of emergent literacy exposure and stimulation necessary in the early years to prepare them adequately for formal schooling and learning to read. 21 Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education/ Volume 5, Issue 2 Revue canadienne des jeunes chercheures et chercheurs en éducation Summer, 2014 In the following section, the theoretical framework and research questions guiding this review’s approach and focus are described. Methods for conducting the review are then delineated followed by review results, which are organized into three main sections described in more detail below. The research literature examined indicates that an evidence-based foundation exists for exploring further the instructional and outreach potential of utilising educational television as an emergent literacy intervention context for young children. Theoretical Framework and Research Questions Emergent literacy theory as it relates to children’s reading development provides the conceptual frame for this literature review. Emergent literacy theorists believe that young children begin to acquire literacy from birth and that certain emergent literacy skills are foundational to children’s learning to read (Hammill, 2004; Justice, 2006; Lever & Sénéchal, 2010). Empirical and theoretical prediction studies have demonstrated that nearly every literacy behaviour children exhibit in the preschool years is linked to later literacy achievements (e.g. National Early Literacy Panel, 2008). Research indicates, for example, that a child’s knowledge of letter names and forms in kindergarten can be used to predict, with great accuracy, their ability to master the alphabetic principle – a critical skill that facilitates the encoding and decoding of text (Adams, 1990; Stahl & Murray, 1994). In fact, children’s emergent phonological awareness, print knowledge, and oral language development have all been causally associated with children’s success in learning to read (Storch & Whitehurst, 2002). To determine whether and to what extent preschoolers’ television viewing influences their literacy development, it was necessary to aggregate literature exploring the cognitive effects of children’s television viewing on various emergent literacy skills. Specifically, this literature review sought to summarize what researchers have demonstrated regarding the influence of contemporary television programs on preschoolers’ emergent literacy and the implications of this literature for policy and practice. This literature review is part of a larger research study exploring the educational merit of a screen-based intervention program for positively influencing preschoolers’ emergent literacy. As such, investigating the role of contemporary television programs on child emergent literacy skill acquisition was necessary. Method Search Strategy and Inclusion Criteria An aggregative approach to conducting a systematic review (Gough, Thomas, & Oliver, 2012) was followed for searching the Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC), the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and the Psychological Information Database (PsycInfo) for sources related to preschoolers’ emergent literacy and television exposure. The following search terms were used in various combinations: ‘emergent literacy’, ‘early literacy’, ‘literacy’, ‘reading’, ‘preschool’, ‘kindergarten’, ‘television’, ‘educational television’, and ‘media’. Date parameters were limited to 1999 to 2013 for conducting a recent review given the rapid pace with which media offerings for children, including television programs, change. Many television programs viewed by preschoolers more than 14 years ago are qualitatively different from those offered today. Contemporary educational television programs such as SuperWhy!, Between the Lions and Martha Speaks were also included as part of the search since these programs specifically target preschool audiences and children’s literacy development. Subsequently, relevant websites associated with Ready-to-Learn Television, a multi-million dollar public media initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, were reviewed to ascertain relevant research. Finally, reference lists of the identified sources were examined to identify additional sources not identified in the previously described database searches. To be included in this review, studies had to be publicly accessible and experimental or quasi-experimental in their design. The review includes international investigations published in English. Finally, included studies must have explored whether viewing a television program positively or significantly influenced one or more emergent literacy skills among a population of preschool children. For the purposes of this review, preschoolers were defined as 22 Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education/ Volume 5, Issue 2 Revue canadienne des jeunes chercheures et chercheurs en éducation Summer, 2014 children aged 2-6 years of age. Sources included were comprised of both research articles and research reports on the topic of emergent literacy development and television viewing. Table 1 summarizes included studies. Analysis Each source was examined through the lens of the two research questions described above. A matrix was developed to organize studies and to delineate the literacy skill or skills investigated, the stimulus television program viewed, mean age of participants, and main findings. The matrix was then reviewed to identify the emergent literacy skills investigated among the included sources. Quality assurance tests were not conducted on each identified source because concepts examined through an aggregative review process typically include predefined concepts (e.g. specific emergent literacy skills) that are investigated in a specific