What year did Sesame Street start?
1969
What was the goal/target of Sesame Street?
-foster intellectual and cultural development in preschoolers -target academic skills and socio-emotional skills -for children from low-income and marginalized bgs
Why did Sesame Street mix the cartoon and muppets sections with human characters?
Research showed kids were most interested in cartoons and the Muppets -the human characters had tedious dialogue scenes
What did studies find in regards to Sesame Street?
Linked w/ academic skills –> school preparedness, cognitive skills, vocab -learning about the world, social reasoning & attitudes towards outgroups
- can persist for long time -higher hs grades in math, science, and english
- most impact for 3-5yr olds
- no difference across international
- little evidence on gender, but indication that bigger impact for girls
- significant impact for low & mid SES -& high
What population level effects did Sesame Street have?
-communities w/ SS had more kids in the right grade level (versus having kids behind a grade) -the presence of this 1 show effected academic level of children
What did the study with Super Why prove? And what was the study?
- effected literacy skills in children who watched it -improved -experimental study - randomly assigned kids of same level to watch SW or a science program - both went up but SW group went much higher
- can’t teach grammar
Can TV teach children?
- yes, but depends on processing the narrative -then edu content comprehension -& distance
- can teach literacy skills, socio-emotional skills, school preparedness -but can’t teach more complex skills such as grammar
Does media rot your brain? And where does this idea come from?
No it doesn’t necessarily
-comes from Reduction Hypothesis
What is the Reduction Hypothesis?
- consuming high amounts of media leads to poor academic achievement & will reduce academic abilities
- no evidence to support this
- there is a correlation *
What concepts are included in the Reduction Hypothesis?
- Time Displacement
- Mental effort
- Attention & impulsivity
What is the concept of Time Displacement (included in the Reduction Hypothesis)? & what are the findings? The exception?
- you only have X amount of time in the day and media takes away from intellectually beneficial activities
- but media actually displaces other media, not a reduction of intellectual activities
- the exception - replaces reading for young children -impacts reading acquisition
What is the concept of mental effort (included in the Reduction Hypothesis)?
media use is passive and causes passive thinking to become the norm
- no data to support this
- does not include the content, only the medium
What is the concept of attention and impulsivity (included in the Reduction Hypothesis)?
shortens attention span and increases impulsive behaviour - causing a kid to struggle in an academic setting
-no research to support this
Between Mental effort, attention & impulsivity, and time displacement, which have sufficient data?
- time displacement has limited data
- both mental effort and attention & impulsivity don’t have enough data
How can we explain the correlations btw amount of media use and academic achievement if there isn’t sufficient data?
a 3rd variable? -individuals who watch a high amount of media might be the type who struggles academically -or come from low socioeconomic households -parental involvement
What is the ‘Goldilocks’ theory when it comes to media use and academic achievement?
- just right amount of media use to increase academic achievement, but too much will put you over the curvilinear pattern and you’ll start to do worse -positive correlation then peak then negative w/ heavy use
- some say it’s 10hrs/wk others say 3hrs/wk -others say it varies by age
Does content matter? Who’s theories does this relate to?
Yes it does. Kirsch says this. Goes against Marshall McLuhan the medium is the message
What is educational media?
- Incorporates educational objectives -ex. math, sharing, social skills, morals, reading
- For all ages – often think young kids, but older kids too like Bill Nye
- Have goals – try and teach X
- Typically distinct from media used formally within schools to teach
- Very common – kids 2+ spend an hour a day w/ educational media
What is entertainment media?
-General content – general audience content
Give two examples of studies (not named) done in regards to educational and entertainment media.
- -study took 2 groups 2-3yr olds & 5-7yr olds -3 types of TV - child audience: informative/educational -child audience: cartoons -& general audience -measured for 3yrs -predictions related to media consumed -tested reading, math, vocab, school readiness skills -found informative had a positive relationship (strongest in youngest group) & general content had negative correlation -cartoons had a weak negative correlation
- -study -took 5yr olds -2 media types -informative & ‘violence action/adventure’ (didn’t code for violence) -measured 10yrs later -grades -informative had positive (mainly for boys) -violent had negative (mainly for girls)
What are some general facts about Sesame Street?
- first screened educational show
- founded and continues to be based on research
- has it’s own curriculum
- is now in 140 countries
- started as an experiment & a dramatization of kids inner thoughts
- 1/3 to 1/2 of preschoolers in US watched it
- demonstrates cultural tolerance
What is an empirical study?
observed and measure phenomena -actual experience not theory of belief -direct and indirect observation or experience -tend to control for individual differences in pursuit of universal effects
What were the limitations of Alade & Nathanson’s study?
-needed more economically diverse & nationally representative sample -validity for measures of prior knowledge and interest (kids self-reported) -if short term memory distinct from working memory? need more clarity
What was the overall conclusions of Alade and Nathanson’s paper?
-capacity model is a nuanced understanding of young children’s experience w/ edu TV -when guided by developmental theory and info processing theory -w/in context of individual differences
