“I wonder, what if, let’s try”: Sesame Street’s playful learning curriculum impacts children’s problem solving

Abstract

ABSTRACT To investigate whether educational television can enhance problem-solving process skills among preschool children, 116 three- to five-year-olds watched 12 episodes of Sesame Street – either engineering-based “playful problem solving” episodes, or episodes about social-emotional learning. Assessments were conducted on three levels: comprehension and delayed recall of educational content, parental observations of learning, and transfer of learning. Results indicated that 48–65% of children recalled problem-solving content after a 1–2 week delay, and 98% of parents reported examples of children’s real-life learning. Repeat viewing of playful problem solving episodes significantly predicted pretest-posttest gains in hands-on transfer tasks, with increases in both the variety of problem-solving heuristics used and the efficiency of children’s process. There were no significant effects on children’s solutions, suggesting children modeled process skills and did not simply learn right answers. Thus, data support Sesame Street’s educational impact on process skills, and demonstrate benefits of playful learning that can be obtained by viewing televised models.