educational television

Educational television, a popular form of mass media communication for didactic objectives, refers to the use of TV programs in order to teach the viewer. A distinction is usually made between educational television and instructional television. The first encompasses a vast latitude of broadcasting formats, and the latter gains its meaning from the specific and more formal use in teaching–learning situations (e.g., the classroom) as a part of an instructional program developed in an institutional context. This entry presents an overview of educational television history, including context, functions, and examples and then explores its impact.

Origins

In Europe, educational media content was already a part of the mission of the BBC when, in 1924, it started its national radio broadcasting to schools, allowing British citizens a way to access educational content. As such, education is closely linked to the emergence of the public service broadcasting model. Educational television is considered to have begun in the early 1950s, in the post–World War II era. Significant developments occurred in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. While in the United Kingdom, the connection between broadcasting stations and educational content was already in place; in the United States, the existing commercial radio model had to be expanded through the licensing of specific channels for nonprofit educational licenses.

The most established form of educational television programming was then transmitted by major public organizations such as the BBC (United Kingdom), the Public Broadcasting System (United States), and TV Ontario (Canada). In the United Kingdom, BBC and the Independent Television Authority started transmitting educational programs in 1957. They generally fell into two categories: (1) programs specially designed for schools and colleges and adult education, including BBC transmissions for the Open University and (2) programs on current affairs, science, medicine, and the arts, which though forming part of the general programming, were not specifically designed to teach but were educative in content. The first BBC schools program transmitted was the series Living in the Commonwealth (1957; e.g., Science Helps the Doctor, Young People at Work, all from 1957). Adult education programs were designed to help viewers toward progressive mastery or understanding of some skill or body of knowledge.

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Television in the United States: Educational TV

The Open University started its courses in 1971, using a combination of correspondence material, television, and radio broadcasts, and face-to-face tuition. They provided an opportunity to obtain a degree for people who had developed intellectual interests since leaving school and starting work and for those who would have liked to go to university or college but were unable to do so.

In the United States, educational television has been closely related with specialty channels (e.g., PBS Kids, Discovery Channel, History Channel), nonprofit organizations (e.g., Corporation for Public Broadcasting), and U.S. agencies (e.g., NASA TV). Several of the most popular educational productions result from coproductions between private broadcast companies and the public sector. Since 1997, TV stations are required by the Children’s Television Act (enforced by the Federal Communications Commission) to air at least 3 hours per week of programming specifically designed to serve educational and informational needs of children. These core programs need to be aired regularly and serve the needs of children 16 years of age and younger, be at least 30 minutes long, and aired between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Sesame Street, a program produced in the United States that has achieved worldwide distribution, was initially produced by the Children’s Television Workshop as a series on the National Educational Television (1969), moving later to its successor, Public Broadcasting Service. The show production team involved educational advisers, academic researchers, and audiovisual specialists aiming at pedagogical needs of children.

Following the developments in digital technology and electronics during the 1980s and the 1990s, educational electronic media content was progressively translated into CDs, DVDs, and, since the early 2000s, online media.

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Impact

The capacity of educational television to serve as an early literacy teacher for young children who may not otherwise receive the quality and quantity of early language and literacy instruction they require in their regular care and educational environments is widely reported. Different studies, including one by Erin A. Schryer in 2014, suggest that television programs can positively and significantly influence preschoolers’ emergent literacy development across a range of key early skills. These include, among others, preschoolers’ emergent vocabulary growth, narrative knowledge, and phonological awareness. Other studies also show positive effects of educational television on literacy, math, science, problem-solving, and prosocial behavior for children and adolescents who began viewing as preschoolers.

Nevertheless, there are also studies pointing to a possible negative impact. Some, including Ling-Yi Lin and colleagues, argue that young children exposed to too much television viewing before the age of 2 may suffer from an increased risk of delayed cognitive, language, and/or motor development. Others claim that time spent viewing as well as exposure to particular content and editing pace are associated with poor attention, lack of behavioral control, delayed language development, and deficits in executive functions in children.

Conclusions are contradictory and inconsistent, and the rise of digital television and new means of accessing educational television content add a new challenging layer to the field. For instance, regarding screen time, research suggests that harms are reduced and benefits greater if screen time is accompanied by direct parent–child interaction during or after screen time. Also, according to Lauren Hale and Stanford Guan, among school-aged children and adolescents, there is a significant association between excessive screen time and reduced sleep duration and increased sleep problems, across a range of screen types. Limiting children’s time spent watching screens to fewer than two hours a day—including phones, tablets, video consoles, and television—may improve their cognition.

Due to the vast number of available screens for educational audiovisual contents, early 21st-century research also addresses mobile media. In particular, tablet use is linked to both risks and opportunities. Studies demonstrate that children (aged 0–5) gained a range of digital skills such as being able, unassisted, to trace shapes with their fingers; tap the screen to operate commands or take photos; or show others, for example, siblings, how to use the device. On the other hand, there are concerns regarding the development of children’s internal mechanisms of self-regulation, if mobile devices become the predominant method to calm and distract them. The same concern relates their ability to develop empathy and problem-solving skills and elements of social interaction that are typically learned during unstructured play and communication with peers. Using a touch screen tablet extensively also might be disadvantageous for the fine motor development of preschool children.

The original version of this article was published by SAGE Publications in The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society.