Effects of television utilization procedures on learning

Abstract

During the past decade, discussion of TV in education journals has revealed a prevailing confusion between utilization as method effectiveness and extent of use (Twyford & Doherty, 1961). In fact, all data on prior to 1960 concentrated solely on TV sets in classrooms. More recently, attention has been given to methodological implications of instructional TV (Guba & Snyder, 1965). Researchers have indicated that the systematic use of television requires some relinquishment of the teacher's curriculum autonomy and a redefinition of her instructional role to manager of learning situations and/or counselor of individual learners (Tyler, 1962). In recognition of the need for some form of inservice training in TV utilization, and as part of their evaluation of the first year of Peace Corps ETV in Colombia, Maccoby and Comstock (1965) designed an experiment which dealt with the kind of in-class methods the teacher should be encouraged to use with television. Peace Corps volunteers trained teachers in two types of preparation and follow-up for classroom television programs: Socratic and Teacher-Tell. The Socratic method involved question and answer discussions with the students; students were given immediate knowledge of cor-