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Instructional Television and Student Attitudes Toward Teacher, Course, and Medium BRUCE H. WESTLEY and HARVEY K. JACOBSON Bruce H. Westley is associate professor of journalism and research coor- dinator of the Division of Radio-Television Education at the University of Wisconsin. Harvey K. Jacobson, director of news and public informa- tion at the University of North Dakota, is a candidate for the Ph.D. at Wisconsin. This is their third report of a study of the effects on teachers and pupils oJ participation in experimental mathematics courses broad- cast to fourth and ninth grades. THE EVALUATION of the effectiveness of a particular use of television in the class- room usually includes some effort to measure its impact on the attitudes of the student. For example, the 1959 sum- mary by Holmes reports 15 studies which made some such effort (1). Schramm's more recent review cites even more studies (6). Yet the burden of these summaries is simply that the re- sults are contradictory, even where rea- sonably comparable. It is probable that a large part of the difficulty lies in the variation found in such things as the quality of the teach- ing performance, the adaptability of par- ticular courses to television, and the relative novelty of classroom television. Nevertheless some generalizations should have emerged from all this activity. Why have they not? It appears to us that the most im- portant reason is that the question is too often viewed in global, black-white terms: Do you prefer television to con- ventional instruction? Do you feel you are learning more, as much as, or less from television? Would you prefer to have your next class taught by television? We pointed out in the first article in this series that the situation is highly complex (8). In the typical elementary or secondary school classroom environ- ment, the intervention of the television teacher, the television apparatus, and the institutional structure behind them would appear to pose subtle and complicated effects on teacher and pupil. These re- quire investigation if we are to get max- imum effectiveness out of television as a teaching tool. [473

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Page 1: Instructional television and student attitudes toward teacher, course, and medium

Instructional Television and Student Attitudes Toward Teacher, Course, and Medium

BRUCE H. WESTLEY and HARVEY K. JACOBSON

Bruce H. Westley is associate professor of journalism and research coor- dinator of the Division of Radio-Television Education at the University of Wisconsin. Harvey K. Jacobson, director of news and public informa- tion at the University of North Dakota, is a candidate for the Ph.D. at Wisconsin. This is their third report of a study of the effects on teachers and pupils oJ participation in experimental mathematics courses broad- cast to fourth and ninth grades.

THE EVALUATION of the effectiveness of a particular use of television in the class- room usually includes some effort to measure its impact on the attitudes of the student. For example, the 1959 sum- mary by Holmes reports 15 studies which made some such effort (1). Schramm's more recent review cites even more studies (6). Yet the burden of these summaries is simply that the re- sults are contradictory, even where rea- sonably comparable.

It is probable that a large part of the difficulty lies in the variation found in such things as the quality of the teach- ing performance, the adaptability of par- ticular courses to television, and the relative novelty of classroom television. Nevertheless some generalizations should have emerged from all this activity. Why have they not?

It appears to us that the most im- portant reason is that the question is too often viewed in global, black-white terms: Do you prefer television to con- ventional instruction? Do you feel you are learning more, as much as, or less from television? Would you prefer to have your next class taught by television?

We pointed out in the first article in this series that the situation is highly complex (8). In the typical elementary or secondary school classroom environ- ment, the intervention of the television teacher, the television apparatus, and the institutional structure behind them would appear to pose subtle and complicated effects on teacher and pupil. These re- quire investigation if we are to get max- imum effectiveness out of television as a teaching tool.

[473

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But most studies not only ignore the effects of television on the classroom atmosphere; they also largely ignore the question of what happens to the course of study itself, other than in terms of achievement. 1 Does the interposition of the machine filter out some dimension of the subject matter itself or does it add dimensionality? Do concepts taught by television have the same meaning? Does television dilute or energize concepts central to the course?

Our first two reports in this series dealt with attitudes of classroom teach- ers (8, 9) . The present report focuses on students, treating the measurement and evaluation of some of the more subtle attitudinal effects of an experi- mental mathematics course for ninth graders with respect to the classroom teacher, the television teacher, the sub- ject matter, the textbook and other materials used, and the medium itself.

METHOD

Data were obtained from 503 ninth grade pupils in the public schools of Madison, Wisconsin, at the end of the 1961 spring semester. Of these, 234 had viewed a year-long course entitled "Patterns in Mathematics," broadcast by WHA-TV for the Wisconsin Im- provement Program. 2 The remaining

1 A striking exception to these generaliza- tions is a study reported by Kumata (2), an abbreviated report of which is given by Schramm (5).

2 The instructional program was developed by Henry Van Engen with the support of the Wisconsin Improvement Program. The broad- casts were produced for WHA-TV by the Wisconsin School of the Air. Detailed ac- knowledgments are given in the first article (8). The University Research Committee made available the computational facilities of the Numerical Analysis Laboratory, which is supported in part by the National Science Foundation and the Wisconsin Alumni Re- search Foundation.

269 were taught algebra without the televised course. There were 10 TV and 10 non-TV classrooms.

The instrument employed was the Semantic Differential. 3 The pupils all responded to 12 concepts chosen to rep- resent various aspects of the experience that might be subject to influence by exposure to the TV course. In addition two concepts were administered to the TV group alone.

Seven concepts were chosen to repre- sent aspects of the course and its mate- rials and requirements: ALGEBRA, MOD- ERN ALGEBRA, THIS CLASS, MY MATH

TEACHER, MR. T . . . (the TV teacher), A L G E B R A T E S T S , and TV E X E R C I S E

SHEETS. Only the TV groups responded to MR. T and TV EXERCISE SHEETS.

Five concepts concerned aspects of the course content: NUMBERS, PROOF,

LINEAR PROGRAMMING, POSTULATES,

and PROPERTIES.

Two concepts concemed the medium of instruction: MATHEMATICS ON TELE-

VISION a n d MY ALGEBRA BOOK.

It should be stressed that "Patterns in Mathematics" presents a distinctive way of teaching ninth grade mathematics. The differences obtained, therefore, per- tain not only to differences in the med- ium of instruction but also differences in content and approach. For this reason we chose concepts like NUMBERS and PROOF as typical of the subject matter

of any ninth grade algebra course but also included PROPERTIES and LINEAR PROGRAMMING as characteristic of con-

3 The Semantic Differential is a general measurement strategy which deals with the connotative meaning of concepts in multidi- mensional terms. The data are obtained by asking respondents to rate each concept on a seven-point scale the limits of which are de- fined by a pair of opposed adjectives. For validity data and the derivation of dimensions (factors), consult Osgood and others (4).

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ITV AND STUDENT ATTITUDES 49

cepts more nearly unique to the TV course.

The adjective pairs employed were chosen to include at least five scales which fall in each of the three factors that have been most frequently found when the Semantic Differential is em- ployed: The evaluative scales good-bad, interesting-uninteresting, expert-inexpert, wise-foolish, kind-cruel, meaningful- meaningless, and useful-useless; the po- tency scales strong-weak, hard-soft, deep-shallow, large-small, and sharp- dull; and the activity scales active-pas- sive, complex-simple, fast-slow, exciting- calming, and tense-relaxed. In addition four pairs were added in which we had a special interest: new-old, easy-difficult, organized-disorganized, and frightening- reassuring. Certain of the scales men- tioned above held a special interest for us as well, especially interesting-unin- teresting, expert-inexpert, meaningful- meaningless, deep-shallow, calming- exciting, and tense-relaxed.

The task was administered by the classroom teachers under specific in- structions from the research team.

R E S U L T S

In all three dimensions of the Semantic Differential, the TV participants showed more favorable attitudes than did non- TV pupils, considering all concepts com-

bined. These concepts tended to be rated more highly on the evaluative (good- bad), potency (strong-weak), and activity (active-passive) scales. Table 1 shows a test of the consistency of this tendency for each of the three dimensions, using a simple sign test? What is shown is the frequency with which the TV group's means exceeded those of the non-TV group for each of the 17 scales on each of the 10 concepts. Each comparison is based on means for 234 TV and 269 non-TV pupils.

The most consistent differences were shown in the case of the evaluative and potency dimensions; but the TV pupils gave higher scores consistently to scales in all three dimensions, and all were highly significant.

Course-Content Concepts

Generally speaking the TV group as- signed more favorable values to all the concepts pertaining to the subject matter of the course. The differences were greatest, as expected, among the con- cepts emphasized in the TV course. This difference is illustrated in the profiles shown in Figures 1 and 2. The conven- tional concept PROOF was seen as

4 This test is given by Siegel (7) . A more powerful test, such as F, may be used when greater precision is required. In this case our interest is chiefly in the individual scales.

TABLE 1--Sign Tests, TV vs. Non-TV Means for 17 Semantic Differential Scales Combined by Dimensions (N--503)

No. of TV Means > Dimensions Scales Non-TV Means Reversals Ties Z p<

Evaluative 7 61 2 7 7.3 .0001 Potency 5 41 3 6 5.6 .0001 Activity 5 34 6 8 2.14 .02

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slightly more complex, expert, and deep by the TV group, but the concept LIN- EAR PROGRAMMING w a s given higher ratings in all dimensions, especially the evaluative dimension, where the results were especially consistent.

These profiles and others which follow are based on the computation of means for each adjective pair for each con- cept. As an aid to interpretation these are arranged by dimension (e.g. the evaluative dimension), although they were administered in a different order. The statistical significance shown is based on the computation of a t-test in each case (3).

Among other concepts in this group, PROPERTIES were seen by the TV group as more meaningful, organized, and use- ful (p .0001); more active (.001); more wise, good, and sharp (.01); and more large, deep, new, and reassuring (.05) than they were by the non-TV group. The TV group saw POSTULATES as more organized and useful (.01) and more new (.05). It saw NUMBERS as more organized (.001) and more inter- esting, meaningful, and useful (.05).'~

Course, Materials, and Requirements

Perhaps the most striking result in this phase of the study was found in the analysis of three concepts falling in this group: MY MATH TEACHER, MR. T . . .

(the TV teacher), and MY ALGEBRA BOOK.

We had been particularly interested in testing for effects on attitudes toward the classroom teacher. Our working hypoth- esis had necessarily been that the TV groups would tend to rate their class-

In the interest of brevi ty this repor t mere ly presents significance o f differences. Fu l l sta- tistical da ta are given in the f o r t h c o m i n g Bullet in No. 15 (10 ) .

room teachers less favorably than the non-TV groups, the assumption being that the comparison with the "master teacher" on television would tend to have a negative influence on attitudes toward the classroom teacher. The same was expected to apply to the concept MY ALGEBRA BOOK.

The data strongly reject the first hy- pothesis and strongly support the sec- ond. The results are shown in Figures 3 and 4. The classroom teacher proved to be more highly rated by the TV partici- pants than by the non-TV groups. In this connection it should be remembered that numerous different classroom teachers are combined into this com- parison, 20 in all.

In order to relate attitudes toward the television and classroom teachers within the TV groups, the profile shown in Figure 5 was analyzed. Our TV pupils rated their own classroom teachers more favorably than they did the TV teacher on nearly all scales.

The result for the concept MY ALGE- BRA BOOK (see Figure 4) shows the op- posite result. The TV groups consistently rated the textbook less favorably than did the non-TV groups, and many of the differences are highly significant.

Again a comparison was possible within the TV groups. The TV course had provided its own homework exer- cise sheets. Figure 6 shows the compar- ison between MY ALGEBRA BOOK and TV EXERCISE SI-IEETS for the TV groups only. This also reversed the result shown in the teacher comparison. The TV pupils in this case rated the TV mate- rials more favorably than the familiar algebra textbook.

Among the remaining concepts in this group, THIS CLASS yielded only a few

(Text cont'd, on page 55.)

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ITV AND STUDENT ATTITUDES 51

FIGURE 1NConcept PROOF

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FIGURE 2--Concept LINEAR PROGRAMMING

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FIGURE 3--Concept MY MATH TEACHER

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FIGURE 4--Concept MY ALGEBRA BOOK

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ITV AND STUDENT ATTITUDES 55

significant differences, but they are espe- cially interesting. The TV group rated THIS CLASS more fast (.001), complex, and hard (.01) and more expert and deep (.02) than did the non-TV group.

On the whole we were unsuccessful in picking up differences between the con- cepts ALGEBRA a n d MODERN ALGEBRA.

The two profiles look quite similar, but the latter yielded a few more differences and in general larger differences. The TV group rated ALGEBRA m o r e complex and deep (.001), more large and active (.01), and more organized (.05) than did the non-TV group. The TV group's ratings of MODERN ALGEBRA were higher on complex, deep, and new (.001); or- ganized (.01); and fast and useJul (.05). However, when we compared TV participants alone for the two concepts, only two differences emerged. Under- standably, MODERN ALGEBRA was rated newer (.001) than ALGEBRA. Less un- derstandably, ALGEBRA was rated more exciting (.05) than MODERN ALGEBRA.

ALGEBRA TESTS were also rated more favorably by the TV group, which saw them as larger (.001), newer, more or- ganized, and deeper (.01) and more meaning[M, complex, and last (.05) than did. the non-TV group.

The medium. TV participant groups consistently rated MATHEMATICS ON TELEVISION more favorably than did the nonparticipants, and 10 of the 21 dif- ferences were significant. Most sensitive to the difference were the scales new, meaningful, organized, and use[ul (all .0001). The profiles are shown in Fig- ure 7.

It is interesting to compare the profile in Figure 7 with that for MY ALGEBRA BOOK in Figure 4. Here we see some of the subtleties of the interaction between instructional media that results from the introduction of television into the class-

room, especially when, as in this case, television comes bearing something radi- cally new in content. The old medium suffers at the hands of the new, even though, in this case, the classroom teacher does not suffer a similar fate.

DISCUSSION

In interpreting the data presented here, certain limitations in design must be borne in mind. As the previous arti- cles pointed out, this is an "after-only" study. Furthermore, rigorous matching of experimental and control groups was not possible. The differences observed here may be owing to the fact that some of the TV teachers volunteered to try the TV course. (However, we have shown that the teacher attitudes were unrelated to longevity and educational attainment.)

The persistent tendency of the TV pupils to rate nearly all concepts more favorably on nearly all scales may reflect such a bias. The sharp reversal in the ratings given MY ALGEBRA BOOK argues against this possibility, however. 6

Although we must be chary of imply- ing that the TV course caused the differ- ences observed here, at least we can make a case for the usefulness of these methods by comparison with the usual attitude measures. The subtlety of the Semantic Differential in exploring this experience diagnostically has been dem- onstrated in various ways. For example, we found that attitudes toward the sub- ject matter itself were sharply different in the TV group after exposure to the experimental course. Algebra was more

(Text cont'd, on page 59.)

6 The same may be said of the possibility that these differences are due to "Hawthorne effect."

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FIGURE 5--MY MATH TEACHER VS. TV TEACHER (TV Group Only)

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FIGURE 6----MY ALGEBRA BOOK VS. TV EXERCISE SHEETS ( T V Group Only)

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FIGURE 7--Concept MATHEMATICS ON TELEVISION

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ITV AND STUDENT ATTITUDES 59

complex, deep, large, active, organized, and exciting for the TV participants. His class was seen as less easy, but more fast, complex, expert, and deep. The course, as taught on television, is seen as more new, meaningful, organized, useful, complex, deep, and good.

Yet we see that the classroom teacher does not suffer by comparison. The TV pupils see him as more new, reassuring, deep, complex, and kind in comparison with the image the non-TV pupils have of their teachers. On the other hand the traditional medium--the textbook---did seem to suffer in comparison, being seen as less hard, smaller, more passive, un- interesting, and slow, but more reassur- ing.

These are much more revealing an- swers than we can usually get from less subtle measures. Furthermore, this part of the study may have prevented us from being misled by other data obtained from the same subjects. For example, we asked the TV participants whetfier they would prefer to take their next math course on television. A substan- tial majority voted "no" (10).

Had we stopped here we would have had to consider the course at least a partial failure from the standpoint of its impact on its intended audience. The present data suggest a very different con- clusion.

Some of the subtlety in the instru- ment may be seen when we array con- cepts by scales, rather than scales by concepts. For example, in this study the scale new-old arrayed the concepts in the following order, new to old: MATHE- MATICS ON TELEVISION, MODERN ALGE-

BRA, TV EXERCISE SHEETS, THIS CLASS,

LINEAR PROGRAMMING, ALGEBRA TESTS,

MY MATH TEACHER, ALGEBRA, PROP-

ERTIES, POSTULATES, MR. T . . . , PROOF,

NUMBERS, MY ALGEBRA BOOK. Similarly, the crucial scale interesting-uninteresting ordered the concepts as follows: MY MATH TEACHER, NUMBERS, MODERN AL-

GEBRA, and ALGEBRA at the upper end; MATHEMATICS ON TELEVISION, MY AL-

GEBRA BOOK, and MR. T . . . a t the lower end.

Various comparisons between profiles have also had considerable diagnostic value, as illustrated by Figures 5 and 6. The method also lends itself to rigorous experimental investigation as the Ku- mata study, among others, has shown (2).

S U M M A R Y A N D C O N C L U S I O N S

Semantic Differential data were ob- tained from 234 ninth graders who had just completed an algebra course which included a televised lecture presenting a new approach to the subject matter, and from 269 pupils who had had algebra taught in the usual way.

The most striking result was the in- dication that the TV-taught pupils tended to rate their own teacher more highly than did the non-TV group. The TV group also rated their own teachers much more favorably than they did the TV teacher. However, the TV group rated their textbooks less favorably than did the non-TV group, and the TV group rated the TV exercise sheets more highly than they did their regular text- books.

In the discussion of instructional tele- vision, the point is often made that TV poses a threat to the teacher in various ways, among them the threat of being held up to comparison with the "master teacher." Our earlier report on teacher attitudes isolated "challenge-threat" as a unique factor in teacher's attitudes to-

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ward classroom television, although not many of our teachers appeared to be very much threatened. The data reported here suggest that the presence of the TV teacher may actually tend to improve the position of the classroom teacher in the eyes of his pupils.

The TV group showed more favorable attitudes in all three dimensions of meaning as measured by the Semantic Differential (evaluation, potency, activ- ity), and the TV group tended to give more favorable responses to the course concepts, the course itself, and its mate- rials and requirements. They also rated the medium of television more favorably than did the non-TV group as a vehicle for the course, although they rated the regular textbook less favorably.

It is argued that this instrument per- mits the exploration of dimensions of the problem that usually escape us when we use the conventional, straightforward test of "preference," which may even mislead us as to the "success" of the course.

REFERENCES

1. Holmes, Presley D. Television in the Teaching-Learning Process. Detroit: Wayne State University Division of Broadcasting, July 1959. (Mimeo.)

2. Kumata, Hideya. Attitude Change and Learning as a Function o/ Pres- entation and Prestige o/ Instructor. East Lansing: Michigan State Univer- sity Communications Research Center, 1958. (Mimeo.)

3. McNemar, Quinn. Psychological Sta- tistics. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1949.

4. Osgood, Charles E.; Suci, George J.; and Tannenbaum, Percy. The Meas- urement o /Meaning. Urbana: Univer- sity of Illinois Press, 1957.

5. Schramm, Wilbur. The Impact o /Edu- cational Television. Urbana: Univer- sity of Illinois Press, 1960.

6. .. Educational Television." The Next Ten Years. Stanford, Calif.: Institute for Communications Re- search, 1962.

7. Siegel, Sidney. Nonparametric Sta- tistics. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1956.

8. Westley, Bruce H., and Jacobson, Harvey K. "Dimensions of Teachers'

Attitudes Toward Instructional Tele- vision." A V Communication Review I0: 179-85; May-June 1962.

9. "Teacher Par- ticipation and Attitudes Toward Instructional Television." A V Com- munication Review 10: 328-33; No- vember-December 1962.

10. Modern Math on TV: lts Impact on Pupils and Teachers. Research Bulletin No. 15. Madison: University of Wisconsin Television Laboratory. (In press)