Ninety-one percent of 227 surveyed teachers of children up to seven years of age (including 101 teachers who monitored educational television series for the Project), in 17 local education authorities in England and Wales, claimed to use educational television broadcasts to assist them with children's language development. However, apart from the nursery teachers, they appeared to put emphasis on language skill acquisition rather than language development, reinforcing the language policy of the schools. Two thirds of the teachers stated that they were catering for children individually when using educational television, although class viewing was the normal practice. The usual method was to watch a programme continuously from beginning to end (even when a video recorder was used) and then to discuss it with the children and to give written work on letter formation, sentence formation, initial sounds, etc., often by filling in worksheets. The teachers were encouraged in this practice by the television series, as these promoted the learning of language and reading skills rather than language development. There was no evidence to suggest that general interest series were used to any extent to enhance language development, in spite of overwhelming agreement by the teachers that television stories, songs and poems were valuable in this respect. A change of attitude by teachers towards language and educational television is desirable, involving the examination of current practices, the analysis of the material presented by broadcasters and the relating of developmental factors to the medium.

No abstract

No 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

No abstract