The importance of perceived task and type of presentation in student response to instructional television

Abstract

Thus far, research in the area of instructional television has yielded two conclusions. First, as indicated in the reviews of ITV literature by Chu and Schramm (1967) and MacLennan and Reid (1967), there is no significant difference in learning between instructional television and conventional classroom instruction. Both Anderson (1972) and Moldstad (1974) have indicated that this conclusion has positive value for school administrators who can thus justify use of ITV to solve problems in the areas of personnel, scheduling and, to some degree, finance. Second, despite the intuitive, aesthetic beliefs of many ITV producers, there is no conclusive evidence to indicate that dynamic production techniques (animation, color, special effects, etc.) increase the amount of information gained by students. In fact, learning theorists such as Severin (1968) and McIntyre (1965) have argued that use of visualization should be restricted to instances in which relevant, nonredundant cues can be presented. For various methodological, theoretical, and aesthetic reasons, each of these conclusions has been challenged and