Incorporating educational television into the curriculum for children up to the age of seven years

Abstract

periods of 16-18 months was completed. The results of that pilot evaluation suggest that the scheme is practicable and realistic for implementation by parents and that the children involved achieved a good deal of success with the tasks that were set and showed evidence of language growth as measured on the Early Language Profile. However, when norm-referenced measures of language were used this progress was not any greater than that made by two comparison groups of childrenone of which was of school age and receiving no additional help to that provided at school and one which was of preschool age and receiving home based intervention using the Portage materials.The meaning of these findings is discussed (in the Research Report ) and their implications are explored. The practical value of the scheme is emphasized while the need for further evaluation is recognized.Most research into educational television has relied on the experimental control group methodology. It has assumed that television can teach. This may be the case with older pupils, but it is not so with younger children. With them, television is an aid, not a source of learning: consequently, its effectiveness depends on how it is used by teachers. The aims of the pilot study have been to identify the range of programmes of interest, and to establish and sharpen monitoring procedures. There were two lines of approach: (a) through pilot schools, which the research team would visit in order to observe how teachers were using educational television; and (b) through discussion groups of teachers in which various aspects of educational television formed the subjects of discussion.The areas of interest appeared to be confined to language, mathematics * Source of funds: The Leverhulme Trust Duration Pilot Study,