Sesame Workshop Research Articles

Entertainment-Education and Strategic Communication: A Case Study of Sesame Workshop's “Talk, Listen, Connect” Initiative for Military Families

The Sesame Street Talk, Listen, Connect (TLC) initiative is a multimedia example of Entertainment-Education that leveraged the popular Sesame Street platform to deliver key information to military families about how to communicate with children about feelings related to deployment and homecomings, and other tough issues related to military life. This paper is organized as an in-depth case study of the TLC initiative, including interviews with key program developers. The research analyzes the TLC initiative as an exemplar of Entertainment-Education, and compares this example of Entertainment-Education to a strategic communication model. Known and accepted models of strategic communication that appear widely in the literature were referenced. To develop an Entertainment-Education model, a review of the relevant literature was conducted and social cognitive theory, elaboration likelihood model and diffusion of innovation theory were employed as foundational theoretical frameworks. Recommendations for future research on Entertainment-Education as a type of strategic communication are included.

All About Asthma: Top Resources for Children, Adolescents, and Their Families

All About Asthma: Top Resources for Children, Adolescents, and Their Families

Building Communities for Change: An Experience in Mumbai

Abstract This paper documents Sesame Workshop India Trust’s work in impoverished communities in Mumbai with regard to the provision of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) services. The model works with children aged birth to six who are served by the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), sponsored by the ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD), India. The model focuses on augmenting the capacities of the anganwadi (child care center) worker vis-à-vis pedagogy and access to material, and also works with caregivers advocating for a better ECCE environment. Integrating innovative technology as well as traditional Teaching Learning Materials (TLM) and operating at a scale of five thousand plus centers, the model demonstrates how programmes can be designed from ground-up, to be inclusive, scalable and successful in improving children’s learning outcomes.

Psychiatrist-Military Leader Ready for New Mission

Psychiatrist-Military Leader Ready for New Mission

Cultural Impacts of Sisimpur, Sesame Street, in Rural Bangladesh: Views of Family Members and Teachers

Sisimpur is an educational children’s television program in Bangladesh that is co-produced by Sesame Workshop, the makers of Sesame. Street. Sisimpur’s goals include the support of Early Childhood Development (ECD) objectives in Bangladesh, such as the teaching of pre-academic skills to young children. In this paper we draw on qualitative research to explore how Sisimpur and its benefits are viewed by the family inembers and teachers of children in rural Bangladesh. Our results suggest that Sisimpur is valued by these caregivers as a source of ideas and information about how best to raise children. We argue that Sisimpur’s favorable reception is related to the success with which it has portrayed children on the show as both connected to Bangali traditions and able to take advantage of the opportunities for modern education available to them.

Begin with the children: What research on Sesame Street's international coproductions reveals about using media to promote a new more peaceful world

For nearly four decades, Sesame Workshop has brought the joy of learning to the world's youngest citizens through the introduction of locally-produced coproductions of the preschool television series, Sesame Street. Many of these television shows have been specifically designed to forward important prosocial messages directly linked to the complex socio-political backdrop in which they are created. Focusing on recent projects in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Kosovo, this article reviews research on the educational effectiveness of these initiatives and highlights the ways in which study results provide information on best practices for media projects designed for children living in regions of conflict. The paper also reviews the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches and provides practical information on how difficult issues have been presented in an age-appropriate and culturally-relevant manner. By acknowledging the challenges inherent to producing media designed to effect attitudinal and behavior changes in places mired in ongoing conflict, these studies, when examined as a group, provide emerging evidence of the need for increasingly direct and specific media intervention efforts. Presenting these studies in light of the projects that they evaluate and the related socio-political circumstances offers a body of evidence suggesting the educational value of these media efforts and indicating a need for further study in this field.

The global expansion of children’s television: a case study of the adaptation of Sesame Street in Spain

The landscape of children’s programming is changing because of the increased exportation of children’s television programs created in the USA. Networks have been aggressively marketing programs to an international audience through individual program sales and satellite network expansion. Some see problems as a result of the potential shift in cultural norms and values in areas where these programs are broadcast. An important alternative to this exportation is the co‐production process pioneered by Sesame Workshop. The results of a case study into the localization process of Sesame Street in Spain indicate that the production of Barrio Sésamo/Barri Sésam can be looked to as an example of not only the co‐production process, but also as exemplifying a process of ‘glocalization’ whereby a Spanish program has been influenced by both global and local realities imbedded in the program. The negotiation of what it means to be Spanish is constantly pushed against a global template, even in a program for preschool‐age children.

Educating via entertainment media

Sesame Workshop was founded 35 years ago to investigate whether entertainment media could be used to educate children. At that time the medium in question was television. As the Sesame Street television show prepares to celebrate its 35th year on the air, the television programming schedule now includes a wide variety of other educational programming for young children, and researchers are in almost universal agreement that television can be used successfully for educational purposes. In recent years, the Workshop has faced the same challenge with a variety of interactive entertainment media (including videogames, DVD, and interactive television); i.e., these media all might have potential for educating children, but neither the platforms themselves nor the typical programming for these media are being planned with any particular thought toward education. This paper describes how the Sesame Street "experiment" has been continued and extended, by adapting interactive media platforms designed for entertainment so that they can be used to deliver educational experiences to young children. The paper also outlines Sesame Workshop's educational philosophy and approach, as applied in the interactive arena, and identifies some of the challenges and solutions in designing interfaces and interactive educational experiences that can be used and enjoyed by preschool-age children. Two specific research projects are described as examples of this approach: one details the development of an adapted software interface to make console videogame systems accessible to young children and the other evaluates a new approach to creating interactive television programming for young children on a DVD platform.

Learning from Moshe, Hu Hu Zhu and Khokha: Insights into the Global Application of the Formative Research Component of the Sesame Workshop Model

For over three decades, Sesame Workshop has produced high quality educational media for young children throughout the world. The success of these productions can be attributed in large measure to the application of a systematic production model that brings together professionals from a range of backgrounds. Using examples from the six studies presented in this special issue, this paper illustrates ways in which one element of the production process - formative research - has been used to create effective educational media in the United States, South Africa, Egypt and China. Beyond the value to the production process, lessons learned from formative studies provide insights into the development of new research methodologies. In addition, such studies, when looked at in a global context, offer perspective on the knowledge and learning of children of different cultures.

"The Tower in Red and Yellow": Using Children's Drawings in Formative Research for Alum Simsim, an Educational Television Series for Egyptian Children

Formative Research is an integral part of the development of Sesame Workshop's productions worldwide. It is used to bring children into the television production process and give producers insights into what children like and learn from material as it is being produced. Using examples from a study of six test segments of the television series Alam Simsim, the Egyptian Sesame Street, this paper illustrates how one non-conventional research method-systematic analysis of children's artwork-can be used, in conjunction with other research tools, to gain supplemental feedback from children during formative research of educational television.

Children’s television programming

Describes how educational media company Sesame Workshop has applied research to the development and evaluation of children’s TV programming; Sesame Workshop was the creator in 1969 of the “Sesame Street” TV series, which intentionally blended entertainment and education, and it has now teamed up with Applied Research and Consulting LLC (ARC). Explains the historical background to television research, and the development by Sesame Workshop and ARC of New Kid City, a prototype media environment for children, and later of Noggin, an interactive “place to go” with a website and children’s TV channel. Illustrates the application of the Sesame Workshop approach in one of its programmes, “Rechov Sumsum/Shara’a Simsim”, which is aimed at Israeli and Arab/Palestinian children.

Second SESAME workshop on structural molecular biology

Second SESAME workshop on structural molecular biology

Sesame workshop on materials research

Sesame workshop on materials research