What Preschoolers Bring to the Show: The Relation Between Viewer Characteristics and Children’s Learning from Educational Television

Teaching With Televised Stories: A Story‐Focused Narrative Preview Supports Learning in Young Children

“…Given that most television programs tell stories, story schema theory can be appropriately applied to television viewing (Aladé & Nathanson, 2016; Meadowcroft & Reeves, 1989; Piotrowski, 2014a). Our findings verify the significant role of story schema in the context of televised narratives and, specifically, educational programs in which the story is intertwined with educational content.…”

“…Two versions of the educational comprehension test were created. For each participant, one version was selected at random to be administered at pretest, which was used as a control variable since prior knowledge can influence children's comprehension of television programs (e.g., Aladé & Nathanson, 2016). The other version was administered at post‐test, which was used as the dependent variable for educational comprehension.…”

“…An initial set of 28 questions were written by the lead author. Ten adult judges independently rated the question subtype after watching the episode, resulting in a final set of 17 questions (5 central, 5 incidental, 7 inferential) that received over 88.89% agreement among the judges (Aladé & Nathanson, 2016).…”

Preschoolers’ STEM Learning on a Haptic Enabled Tablet

“…Research from Piotrowski [56] provided the first empirical support of the Capacity Model, establishing that children with more advanced story schema skills were significantly more likely to demonstrate strong narrative and educational comprehension. Further evidence of the Capacity Model's application comes from Aladé and Nathanson [57]. The researchers found that viewer characteristics such as short-term memory, verbal ability, and prior knowledge about the narrative were related to increased narrative comprehension, while prior knowledge of the educational content was related to processing of the educational lesson.…”

Understanding the 3Cs: Child, Content, and Context in Children’s Educational Media

“…Developmentally-speaking with reference to age/level of understanding, what type of media content will the child be able to comprehend? Some researchers believe that children's prior knowledge related to the narrative, their verbal ability, and short-term memory, were significantly related to narrative comprehension (Aladé & Nathanson 2016). Studies have also shown that chilren learn better from media when they engage with others.…”