The absence of a previous large-scale investigation into educational television and the curriculum for young children necessitated establishing appropriate research procedures. This paper describes the salient features of the pilot study phase. A descriptive methodology based on questionnaire replies and classroom observations was resolved, but the work highlighted the desirability for constant contact with the participating teachers and the need for in-service education. The alignment of in-service education with research is examined and accepted providing the in-service elements are taken into account and not allowed to bias the research findings.
The pilot studyThe lack of substantive research into educational television and young children necessitated the first year of our three-year project being spent on devising means to carry out a full-scale investigation.* It was necessary to identify the range of programmes of interest and establish research procedures to use with the full-scale inquiry. The research which has been undertaken is mainly American and orientated towards skill acquisition while the methods used do not fully acknowledge the function of the teacher in relation to educational television. This implies that efficacy in the potential of the medium cannot be gauged unless its role is recognized by a teacher. In other words, effectiveness has a prerequisite in the person of the teacher-how he or she incorporates educational television into the curriculum and how he abides by the psychology of learning to promote motivation and the fulfilment of children's needs and interests (Choat, Griffin and Hobart, 1984). The objective therefore was to devise strategies which would indicate the attitudes teachers have towards television, whether educational television programmes influence teaching methods, and the extent that educational television is recognized as part of the normal curriculum or treated as a separate entity (Choat, 1983a).Although procedures were needed which allowed data to be statistically analysed to measure how effectively teachers of young children were using television, further procedures were needed to complement the statistical evidence by indicating what happens in classrooms. Moreover, evaluation of the teachers' use of educational television was not the only consideration as an examination of the medium should also * The research is funded by the Leverhulme Trust assisted by donations from Thames Television and the Independent Broadcasting Authority.