Three case studies describe and analyze the events occurring in three classrooms in the St. Louis metropolitan area during the first year (1979-1980) of the use of ThinkAbout, a series of 60 15-minute programs designed to strengthen the reasoning skills of fifth and sixth graders, and to review and reinforce language arts, mathematics, and study…

Drawing on international studies concerning leisure attitudes, media consumption, and parental impact on the television viewing decisions of 4- to 14-year olds, this paper focuses on the importance of developing a coherent media education policy for pre- and primary-school children, parents, elementary school teachers, and television station…

A study examined whether television's stereotypical portrayals of men and women affected children's sex role preferences. The subjects, 105 fifth and 70 eighth grade students from a predominately black urban school in the southern United States, were assigned to see one of three versions of a videotape of a family drama in which male and female…

This study measured the effects on children's behavior of peer influence and prosocial and antisocial television messages. The subjects, 120 children in second, third, and fourth grades, were placed in three different situations: one in which no television was viewed, one in which an excerpt from a television program portraying violence was…

The Philadelphia City Schools engaged in a four-year program to develop and test dual audio television, a way to help children learn more from the massive amount of time they spend watching commercial television. The format consisted of an instructional radio broadcast that accompanied popular television shows and attempted to clarify and amplify…

In order to examine the relationship of audiovisual factors and reading ability to children's television viewing strategies, the eye movements of 30 boys, aged 8 to 10 years, were recorded while they watched a televised display in which audiovisual factors varied systematically. Selected segments of "The Electric Company" were used to…

The activities of the Children's Television Workshop (CTW) for the Fiscal Year 1973, which ended June 30, 1973, are reported. An open letter from the president of CTW summarizes the Workshop's previous successes, its goals, and its financial situation and difficulties. Following this, the major elements of CTW's research and development laboratory…

Third-grade children were studied to determine whether (1) children can apply a cognitive strategy learned in language arts to television programs, (2) training improves comprehension of videotaped material, and (3) these skills generalize to other settings. Thirteen references and descriptions of the 10 videotapes and film used are provided. (MER)

Reported are two studies considering factors affecting students' attitudes to science by using television programs. Describes the results on students' attitudes by sex and grades. Hypothesized that the use of space programs and other fantastic aspects of science could improve the attitudes of children towards science. (Author/YP)

Describes study conducted with Dutch preschool and elementary school students to determine their perception of reality when watching Sesame Street on television. Variables studied include age, communication skills, and socioeconomic backgrounds, and data are analyzed using factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. (13 references) (LRW)

This study of 26 children (ages 8-12) with hearing impairment found that the degree of hearing loss and spoken language competence independently affected the ability to understand the information presented on commercial and educational television programs. Language skills were a stronger predictor of comprehension than the degree of hearing loss.…

Assesses how quantity of television news viewing influenced Northern Irish children's perceptions of local political violence. Reports questionnaire results from 520 children, ages 8 and 11, approximately half females, from 5 Irish towns. Finds a correlation between viewing frequency and perceptions that matched social reality. Concludes that…

The effect that television programs have on the socialization of children is examined. As traditional sources of socialization have declined, and children's viewing of television has dramatically increased, it is important to consider just what children are learning from television programs about the world and their place in it. A study of the…

The influence of story schema development on children's attention to television and memory of program content was examined in a study that involved two separate testing sessions. The expectation was that maximum effort would be given to program elements most central to comprehension of a television story and that this allocation strategy would be…

This study investigated the effects of intraprogram synopses on children's comprehension of essential and peripheral content of an action-adventure television drama. The impact of these synopses on the comprehension of commercials also was investigated. A total of 30 second graders and 30 fifth graders participated. Synopses were presented to…