To provide information on the target audience for the Adult Learning Program Service (ALPS), a television series being developed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, interviews were conducted with a small national sample of potential viewers. The main focus of the study was an examination of the social-psychological aspects of a decision…

The operation of the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation is almost exclusively based upon "instructional television" programing and production. The corporation operates one of the two Swedish television channels and is state-sponsored; thus, its failure to develop high quality programing is particularly distressing. Reasons for dull and…

The Children's Television Workshop (CTW), responsible for the programs "Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company", conducted extensive research into the systematic use of television to promote the social, emotional, and intellectual growth of young children. Working without precedents in the field of formative research…

Two studies conducted at the University of London tested children's comprehension when viewing a continuous television program and compared their comprehension of stories read on television and by a classroom teacher, to discover whether comprehension is improved by appropriate teaching, and to obtain children's views on television and…

"Sesame Street," 30-years-old in 1999, is possibly the most influential program in children's educational television. This book collects and synthesizes key research studies since the program's inception, describing the processes by which educational content and research are integrated into production, reviewing major studies of the…

Intended for both childcare professionals and parents, this book lists activities from episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood television program, and can be used with or without watching the program. Each activity is assigned a number which corresponds to the television episode in which the activity is featured, and a national PBS Broadcast…

Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC) has its own cable television channel by lease agreement with Storer Communications, Inc., enabling the college to reach a potential viewership of more than 100,000 subscribers. The channel, which primarily broadcasts telecourses for long-distance learning and a "bulletin board" of campus activities and…

This volume is the first of 5 constituting the final research project report on the introduction, use, and impact of ThinkAbout, a series of 60 15-minute instructional television programs for fifth and sixth graders designed to strengthen reasoning skills and to review and to reinforce language arts, mathematics, and study skills. Background…

To determine the effectiveness of Sesame Street in imparting basic facts and skills to children aged 3-5, data from the first year study was reanalyzed and a second-year research study was undertaken. The second-year study included a new study of 283 disadvantaged children and a followup study of 283 disadvantaged children from the first year…

Reviews salient findings of media research involving young children and discusses implications of these findings for future research and applications in instructional computing. Effects of television viewing on attention and comprehension, achievement, development of mental skills, and behavior and socioemotional development, and comparative media…

Provides a theory-based examination of relations among aspects of preschool children's social environments and cognitive indices of their gender role development. Examines differences in the relations among social agents on cognitive indices of girls' and boys' gender role development. Significant sex differences are discussed. (JS)

A series of studies are underway at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Audience Research Facility to examine the impact of interactivity on informational and entertainment based television viewing. In order to examine the learning of spatial skills from videogames, the first study compared the learning of spatial content from interactive…

A foreword by Arthur M. Sullivan and an introduction by Jon P. Baggaley introduce the 12 conference papers included in this collection. The papers are as follows: (1) "Research on 'Sesame Street': Designing the Educational Context" (Rodney Dennis); (2) "'Sesame Street' in Labrador" (Graham Skanes and Lorne Taylor); (3)…

A study tested the effectiveness of ridicule as an educational and social corrective in children's educational television programs. Arbitrary activities involving a novel object were presented to 69 four-year-old and 83 six-year-old children via videotaped presentations and demonstrations. In each of three types of motivational message (ridicule,…

Research on incidental learning by children from television is both a cause and effect of the increasing attention being given by social and behavioral scientists to the influence of mass media. Laboratory-type experiments and data collected from everyday life are consistent in their findings, providing convincing evidence that television can…