A Strategy for Reviewing the Role of Educational Television in Infants’ Schools

Abstract

Minimal consideration has been given to the function of educational television in the education of young children. Teachers have to overcome habits adopted with children's home viewing, and rationalize how television can be part of the curriculum before efficacy materializes. This does not appear to be happening with many infants' school teachers. Educational television broadcasts do not seem to be used as an ongoing teaching element to stimulate experiences beyond children's normal school activities. The entire blame cannot be attributed to the teachers for they have been given little guidance on the use of educational television during initial training or in subsequent in-service provisions, and in curriculum theory. It is necessary therefore to collect and analyse carefully information about the effects of educational television on infants' school children and the conditions which appear to influence whether or not it is educationally effective, but this cannot be done until a satisfactory monitoring procedure is established.Most research into the effectiveness of educational television refers to secondary schools, and further and higher education. This is understandable as most people concerned with research and the theoretical aspects of educational television are involved in these fields of education. Very few primary school teachers are interested in theory or research, and not many academics have primary school teaching experience. Consequently, very little research has been carried out into the effectiveness of educational television in primary schools-particularly infants' schools. Yet just as much television is watched in primary schools as in other sectors of education. 95 per cent of primary schools now have a television set. Such a high percentage of schools committed to television justifies investigation into whether television is playing a useful function in the education of young children.As Bates (1981) states, the classical methodology to measure the effectiveness of educational television is to compare the performance of a group of children taught through television with the performance of a group of children taught in another way.The assumption behind the experiment is that television can teach. This may be possible with older pupils, but educational television has a different connotation for young children. It is an aid and not the source of learning with them. This implies that concern should be given to the psychology of learning and the role of educational television in the curriculum for young children.The viewer mentally analyses when television is used for direct teaching. He

Potentials and Limitations of Educational Videos on YouTube for Science Communication

“…Teachers have introduced educational videos and television in their classes more than forty years ago, which means that research on educational videos and television hits the same age (Choat, 1982;Choat, 1983;Forsslund 1991). This research already pointed out that educational television cannot replace real-life experience, but it can function as an aid for teachers and as a component of the school curriculum (Choat, 1982, 186).…”

“…Educational videos and educational television have a long tradition in explaining complex information in kindergartens, schools, and higher education (Choat, 1982;Choat, 1983;Forsslund, 1991;Kearney and Levine, 2019). Nowadays, online videos are also a tool for science communication.…”