educational radio
Educational radio refers to the use of radio for formal learning systems, particularly where the medium is used to broadcast course material. The emergence of educational radio arose from the widespread availability of inexpensive radio receivers, particularly in rural areas and developing countries, and the idea that using radio for education would increase the quality, effectiveness, and access of educational messages. Educational radio has been used in many countries for a wide range of subject areas including public health, rural development, literacy training, nutrition education, and in support of primary school education and instruction. Educational radio is sometimes also referred to as interactive radio instruction (IRI), particularly when used in a classroom context. While educational radio and community radio are two distinct concepts, the latter is usually the vehicle for the broadcast of educational radio content.
Educational radio has been used in a wide variety of ways and has served various purposes in instructional design contexts. Some projects have used educational radio together with printed materials, local discussion groups, or regional study centres. In some cases, the audience can call in to the radio station to raise questions and receive instant feedback from in-studio teachers or experts. Distance learning technologies such as educational radio are useful in areas where teachersā knowledge is limited, teachersā training levels are low, textbook content is limited, or there needs to be a large-scale improvement in the quality of teaching and learning.
This entry provides an overview of educational radio, including its history, its use in developing countries and in the West, its role in entertainment-education, and its limitations.
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Origins
Radio was first used for non-formal education when radio broadcasting began in the 1920s and the 1930s. Education was considered one of the mediumās three main services, together with information and entertainment. The British school broadcasting project began in Glasgow in 1924, when a series of talks was broadcast to schools. Similar school broadcasts began in the United States in the 1930s and in Canada in 1941 with the emergence of one of the most dominant examples of the use of educational radio, Farm Radio Forum, which began as a radio discussion program. This Farm Radio model was later adopted by a number of developing countries, as it was found to be a hugely successful vehicle for the transmission of knowledge. The Farm Radio project demonstrated that radio could play a role in contributing to the process of transforming agricultural tradition by providing agricultural information and by influencing social and economic attitudes.
After the Second World War, educational radio spread from Europe and North America to developing countries, which used radio for non-formal education primarily in the areas of agriculture and health. The development of FM radio transmission and the consequent growth of radio stations allowed for the increased scope and range of radio-related activities. In many areas of the world, radio is still the cheapest medium for simultaneously reaching a mass audience.
Educational Radio in Developing Countries
There are many examples of educational radio in developing countries. Consider a community radio station in rural Sri Lanka that was set up in order to broadcast to members of a community displaced by the building of a dam: Kothmale community radio broadcasts information found on the Internet, and when listeners call in with questions, staff browse the Internet to find and relay the answers. Other successful projects include the use of educational radio for secondary education in Mexico and Brazil, elementary mathematics education in Nicaragua, a teacher program in Kenya, and adult equivalency education in the Dominican Republic. The Nicaraguan mathematics project of the 1970s, known as the Radio Mathematics Projects, was created by a team from Stanford University and served as the basis for similar projects in neighbouring Bolivia as well as in several other countries including Thailand and Cape Verde.
Radio has also been widely used in India for primary, secondary, and higher education, with the Farm Radio Forums of the 1950s (which was based on the Canadian model) another key example. These programs broadcast information about agriculture, health, and literacy. India has also used radio for secondary and university education, combining radio programs with accompanying written texts, which has shown itself to be particularly valuable for topics that require visuals (e.g., geography).
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Radio is by far the most widespread and accessible medium in countries in Africa, making it ideally suited as a vehicle for education. IRI has been used to teach primary school learners. IRI was first used in Africa in the 1980s for a radio language program targeting first- to third-grade learners. Lessons are structured like conversations, leaving gaps for listener responses, and an in-class teacher facilitates student participation and follow-up activities. The emphasis is on active learning and the improvement of educational quality within existing structures by building on resources that are already available.
These kinds of programs have been shown to be very successful in increasing learning and improving test scores, particularly in rural areas, which are typically behind those of urban schools. IRI has been shown to lead to significant improvements in school achievement and to reduce both gender and ruralāurban equity gaps. IRI programs guide learners through a progression of activities related to measurable learning objectives, with educational content distributed across lessons. IRI programs are usually designed with the local context in mind and are heavily reliant on audience research, participation, feedback, and observation. With a low cost per student, IRI is particularly effective for children who do not have access to formal schooling.
A 2004 study in Honduras showed that when IRI programs were run alongside other educational interventions, such as the distribution of new textbooks, the effect on gains in learning was doubled. IRI has been researched in other areas with similar results. In Africa, another successful radio education project was the Ghana Functional Literacy Project of the 1990s, which motivated and raised functional literacy in adult learners primarily located in rural areas.
Educational Radio in the West
Besides developing countries, radio is also used for education in other, more developed regions. Education through radio is used in France in the primary and secondary grades, and Japan has used radio for education since the 1930s. Educational radio has a long history in the United States, but its most extensive use for education took place during the School of the Air (SOA) movement. From approximately 1929 to 1975, commercial broadcast networks, state universities and departments or colleges of education, and local school boards operated over a dozen SOAs; one continued broadcasting into the mid-1990s. At their peak, SOAs reached approximately 2.5 million students nationwide and involved tens of thousands of teachers and children directly in radio broadcasting. These included SOAs such as NBCās Music Appreciation Hour, the Wisconsin School of the Air, and the Portland School of the Air. During the 1960s, the National Educational Radio Network distributed radio programs to radio stations in the United States. In 1951 this project was called the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB) Tape Network. This later became part of the National Educational Radio Network in 1963 (which in turn became part of NPR in 1970). Some current programs on NPR in the United States might be considered educational radio. The growth of Internet radio globally has expanded the possibilities for educational radio, though those communities that might benefit most from it often do not have the required Internet access, so traditional radio remains successful in those contexts.
Radio for Entertainment-Education
Radio has also been used as part of the entertainment-education (E-E) strategy, most notably through educational radio dramas. E-E has been described as the process of purposely designing and implementing a media message to both entertain and educate, in order to increase audience membersā knowledge about an issue, create favourable attitudes, and change overt behaviours. Mexican television producer Miguel Sabido piloted a methodology for producing entertainment programs with embedded educational messages. Initially, the strategy was used for telenovelas but was later adapted for use in radio serial dramas.
There are numerous examples of radio serial dramas designed to have educational outcomes. An E-E radio soap opera on family planning, broadcast in Tanzania in 1993, was shown to have strong behavioural effects related to family planning. The show resulted in an increase in the number of listeners who took the initiative to adopt family planning methods and encouraged listeners to talk with spouses and peers about contraception. Another well-documented Tanzanian radio opera, Twende na Wakati (āLetās Go with the Timesā), was shown to reduce the number of sexual partners of men and women and to increase the use of condoms, through listener identification with, and role modeling of, the primary characters in the radio soap opera. Similarly, an E-E soap opera, Tinka Sukh (āHappiness Lies in Small Pleasuresā), broadcast from 1996 to 1997 in Hindi-speaking North India, promoted gender equality, womenās rights, and family planning. The Rwandan radio soap opera Urunana, which aired in the late 1990s, broadcast messages on sexual and reproductive health geared towards women and youth living in rural areas. In general, these types of radio soaps are usually well-researched during the development phase, taking into account the local context, pretesting storylines and scripts, and getting feedback from listener forums.
While the radio soap opera is one popular format, no particular format has been shown to work better than others in the effective use of radio for education. Story and drama formats can draw on local cultures, but other formats (e.g., talk shows, quiz shows) have also been found to be effective in increasing audience knowledge, affecting attitudes and behaviour, and promoting education in general.
Limitations of Educational Radio
Despite the overwhelming evidence in support of radio as a medium for education, there are also some limitations. These include the need for technical expertise and the fact that effective transmission and reception of radio signals is dependent on local infrastructure. In addition, many stations may be reluctant to broadcast educational material if they see themselves competing for audience share with commercial rivals. Community radio stations in some countries might also be unwilling to produce educational content due to costs or to broadcast material produced elsewhere without payment for airtime.
Radioās reliance on audio and the absence of visuals is another potential limitation, particularly when dealing with topics that have a strong visual component (e.g., cooking or machine operation). Moreover, listeners cannot control the pace of the medium, which might make it hard for them to follow broadcast material, and note-taking could be difficult. Other limitations might include the availability of funding to produce materials, the willingness of local radio stations to broadcast educational projects, limited instructor interaction, and limited opportunities for feedback and clarification.
While there has also been some discussion around the use of IRI material across countries, this remains a challenge. Even minor differences in curriculum or language and dialect can pose significant challenges and reduce the shareability of these programs. Sharing programs across countries could potentially save costs in an environment where donor or government funding for such projects is limited.
Conclusion
Radio is effective, inexpensive, and wide-reaching, making it an ideal resource for communicating educational messages, especially in rural areas and developing countries. While radio alone cannot be a primary tool for education, it can be a powerful and motivating medium, which can reach a mass audience. Radio has been demonstrated to be pedagogically efficient. The evaluation of educational radio projects has shown that radio has the potential to teach: It can present new concepts and information and can play an effective educational role either alone or together with print or group support. The convergence of radio with new technologies such as text messaging could enhance its use for educational purposes. However, for educational radio projects to be successful, adequate research into audience context and reception and ongoing monitoring and evaluation of such projects are needed.
The original version of this article was published by SAGE Publications in The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society.