Designing instructional television for concept learning in low‐achieving pupils in Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract

AbstractIn Trinidad and Tobago, educational television is developed for the general secondary school population and is not generally designed to address specific learner needs. In this study, an instructional video production was developed and targeted to low‐achieving students of the secondary school population, in the Junior Secondary sector. Content was drawn from the social studies curriculum and the focus of instruction was the acquisition of concepts and generalisations. There was sufficient evidence that the video production facilitated a moderate level of learning. It was also evident that there were areas of the production where instruction was not adequate. Two aspects were identified for further work. First, given the wide range of achievement levels noted in the current evaluation, there is need to identify more precisely the learning needs of the mainstream of the Junior Secondary population. Secondly, attention must also be paid to designing productions that could facilitate learner capability to link items of information and attain more complex levels of learning.