prospects

quarterly review of education

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Contents Vol. XII, No . 3> 1982

VIEWPOINTS/CCWr^O

Interdisciplinarity: a concept still unclear Giovanni

Higher education in advanced developing countries Philip G. Altbach

OPEN FILE Educational technology: myth and reality

Technology in education or educational technology? Michael Clarke 313

Educational technology, present and future David G. Hawkridge 325

Making good use of educational technology Joäo Batista Araújo e Oliveira 335

A n overview of educational technology in Latin America Clifton Chadwick 347

Television for young children in Japan Takashi Sakamoto 357

A n experiment in radiophonie education: Acción Cultural Popular Liliana Muhlmann de Masoner, Paul H. Masoner and Hernando Bernai 365

Multimedia teaching packages in Hungary A. Nddasi, I. Suba and K. Tompa 375

T h e rise and fall of educational technology in Sweden Christer Brusling 381

TRENDS AND CASES

Introducing students to mass media: Radio Victoria de Girón Renaldo Infante Urivazo 387

Reviews

Profiles: Friedrich Froebel

Book reviews 395

399

ISSN 0033-1538

VIEWPOINTS

CONTROVERSIES

I titer dis ciplinar îty : a concept still unclear

Giovanni Gozzer

A n innovation in school curricula

For the first time, I believe, in the history of the organization of teaching in the state school system at the lower secondary level (from the sixth to the ninth year of schooling), the curricula prepared by the Italian Ministry of Education in 1979 introduced, as one of the guide­lines to curriculum planning, a section on 'interdisciplinarity'. Having stated as a premise that the 'various branches of education express, according to various subdivisions of knowledge, approaches to reality and ways of mastering it, the organization and transformation of the real world, and to this end they use specific vocabularies that converge towards a single educational end', the instructions continue:

It will therefore prove worthwhile from the standpoint of both the theory and the practice of education, to make provision in the curriculum for the inter­linking of the various disciplines with a view to a more relevant and down-to-earth cultural approach to reality, aimed at the acquisition of knowledge that has unity in its interconnected diversity (one may consider, for example, the contribution that language teaching can make to the under­standing of scientific or mathematical terms; not to mention the benefits in clarity of thought and capacity for self-expression achieved by the teaching of art and music through the non-verbal languages specific to each of these disciplines).

In fact, this formulation, although entitled 'Unity of Knowledge: Interdisciplinarity', does not appear to be an accurate description in terms of teaching methods (for the compulsory, c o m m o n - c o r e schooling at lower-secondary level) of that principle of interdisci-

Giovanni Gozzer (Italy). Former director of the European Education Centre in Frascati

(1959 to 1974), he was administrator of the Italian educational reform project from 1948

to 1953. He was a member of the Unesco committee for the evaluation of the results of

the 'Major Project' in Latin America (196s) and of the HEP committee to evaluate

the French education system (1969). His published work includes Report on Secondary

Education and Invisible Capitalj National and International Relations in Education

(three volumes to date).

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 3, 1982

Giovanni Gozzer

plinarity that has been formulated in the mainly epistemológica! studies carried out in the past ten or fifteen years at university level and in the context of scientific research in general. Finally, this document does no more than acknowledge, through the fine-sounding term 'interdisciplinarity', the simple fact that no discipline is totally autonomous and isolated. It would be difficult to deny that there is a connection, if only a linguistic and semantic one, between the teaching of language as a means of self-expression, and any other discipline; or the implications which non-verbal languages—graphics, for example—may have, either in the sphere of visual transmission and communication or in that of the representation/identification of technical processes. But is this enough to justify talk of interdisci-plinarity? A n d , above all, in what particular way should one under­stand the interdisciplinarity that became widespread after the educational disruptions of 1968 (when a kind of epidemic of icono­clastic rage broke out against educational disciplines, with consequent total rejection of old-style school subjects)?

In the years before and after the 1970s, controversial experiments were carried out in m a n y places, and a great amount of pedagogical-political-revolutionary writing has been devoted to this 'formal acceptance' of the principle of interdisciplinarity in school curricula: improvised applications of this principle were frequently introduced at all levels—primary, lower secondary and upper secondary. T h e idea of 'abolishing' subjects and replacing them by 'discipline-based aggregates' was not new: in the 1960s it had w o n m a n y supporters. Attempts were constantly being m a d e to group together 'activities' (rather than educational content) in broad categories: the rise of the Piaget school of psychology and of Bruner's structural cognitivism had, moreover, paved the way for this change, towards which the most advanced modern educational trends were pointing. Above all, the major experiment in mass schooling was in keeping with these n e w departures.

T w o examples

T h e two most recent attempts to modernize curricula (obviously, in countries where their form and content are considered to be the concern of state) have taken place in Spain (1971) and in France (1977-79). Neither of these curricula, although they are very advanced, contains any hint of interdisciplinarity. They do however, seem to accept what might be considered a simplified and convenient version of the interdisciplinary principle, which moreover, was anticipated

Interdisciplitiarity: a concept still unclear > ¿v> ift\aVion

several decades earlier b y so-called progressive educational ihaervTi

!CO\ composite structures in w h i c h are brought together u n d e V a, heading subjects that previously h a d simply b e e n listed i ^ l m e « L _ _ _ ^ - x T ^ K succession. T h u s , for e x a m p l e , the recent F r e n c h currianurhv^wf de ^ ^ primary age-groups 1 incorporates all educational activities (or content, as these are often t e r m e d n o w a d a y s ) a n d divides t h e m into four groups: F r e n c h language; mathemat ics ; cultural stimulation activities (éveil); physical education a n d sport. R e g r o u p i n g , h o w e v e r , is not e n o u g h . T o take a n e x a m p l e : the composite entity labelled 'cultural stimulation activities' has n o sooner b e e n classified in the ' c o m p r e ­hensive' g r o u p , then it once again stands revealed, w h e n its contents are listed, as consisting of the s a m e old n a m e s a n d subdivisions into subjects: history a n d geography , experimental sciences (physics, technology a n d biology); m u s i c , art a n d handicrafts. T h e n e w n a m e s for the old subjects certainly s o u n d m o r e impressive than the traditional ones: singing, drawing , h a n d w o r k , etc. B u t fundamentally, there is a return to the 'specialized' subject, detectable through the haze of m o r e or less contingent activities.

T h e curriculum for so-called basic schooling in Spain, i.e. the eight years of compulsory schooling with a c o m m o n curriculum at pr imary a n d secondary levels, also deals with the p r o b l e m of the n e w arrange­m e n t of educational content2 b y devising a pattern subdivided into 'areas': linguistics; mathemat ics ; social a n d natural sciences; expression in the plastic arts (draughtsmanship a n d basic technology); d y n a m i c self-expression (music, physical education); religion. It is primarily the so-called 'social a n d natural sciences' area that achieves a truly 'composite' structure, b y c o m b i n i n g traditional subjects such as history, geography a n d civics, with ' n e w aspects of economics , sociology, politics a n d anthropology', a sort of introduction to the social sciences, as the official instructions put it.

A s for the area of the natural sciences, in terms of general grouping at the first stage (primary school) a n d specialization at the second (lower secondary), this too ends u p as separate 'subjects' (natural sciences, biology, physics), either because of overlapping subject-matter or because of parallel formulation. I n s o m e respects, it w o u l d b e m o r e accurate to talk of the unification or co-ordination of disciplines rather than interdisciplinarity in the strict, epistemological sense of the term.

Giovanni Gozzer

The Italian model

A slightly different path was taken by those w h o prepared the lower secondary curriculum in Italy (from the sixth to the eighth year of schooling), which was approved in 1979 and came into force the following year.3 T h e Italian model runs along two parallel tracks, so to speak. In the specific formulation of curriculum content, it retains the traditional distinction between subjects (Italian language, mathematics, history, geography, etc.). However, in the gen­eral instructions that precede this classification of content, indi­cating 'theoretical and practical educational planning' as the line of approach, the various disciplines are to some extent 'unified' under the c o m m o n heading 'branches of education', these branches being: language, history, civics and geography, mathematics, science and health, technical skills, art, music, physical education and religious instruction. In this case, rather than expressing an interdisciplinary approach, however vague, as was mentioned earlier, the same set of instructions justifies terminology that unifies the subjects while separating them into branches of education, stating: 'In their various specialized branches, the disciplines provide the means and the opportunity for the united, integrated and complex development of functions, knowledge, abilities and tendencies that are indispensable to the growth to maturity of responsible h u m a n beings w h o are capable of making choices.' T h e aim is clearly, therefore, a relative 'weeding out', or at least a pruning of the autonomy of the subject as such, so as to replace their straightforward juxtaposition by a plan, design or project that should predetermine what is finally achieved, imposing overall unity at an early stage.

O n e might, to use a slightly facetious example, say that according to the traditional scheme the subjects' positions relative to one another constituted a sort of federation with acknowledged autonomy: whereas under the n e w régime, the subjects become merely 'prov­inces' of a single unitary state that subordinates them to its o w n logic. At one time, associations of teachers of specialized subjects carried more weight, in curriculum planning, than did administrative bureaucracy. Nowadays , the bureaucrats of the administration, strongly influenced by political factors, enjoy all the power that is claimed and exercised by the centralized state.

Not that the nouveau régime appears in any way despotic: on the contrary, once it has laid d o w n its objectives, and principles, it delegates to bodies that are compatible with one another, and in sympathy with its aims, responsibility for putting them into practice.

T h e curriculum and the class council, to which the general rules

Interdisciplinarity: a concept still unclear

give responsibility for educational and pedagogical planning, there­fore divests individual subjects and the teachers of those subjects of their relatively autonomous roles and characteristic lines of approach. T h e uniqueness of each subject is not explicitly denied: rather, it is dissolved in the melting-pot of the 'overall educational plan'. T h e Italian curriculum instructions state, for example, that each discipline should 'seek out and strengthen its o w n specific contribution to the general educational plan, formulated as a single unit by the class council'.

Disciplines, interdisciplines, multidisciplines

T h e three cases just described are useful illustrations of our thesis by virtue of their similarities and their differences. But, before proceeding further, w e should first establish a n u m b e r of fairly precise defi­nitions, so as to ensure that the words used have consistent meanings.

A point I have noted is that nearly all writing on interdisciplinarity, although the term is interpreted in various ways, is rather vague w h e n it comes to giving an explicit definition of the terms 'discipline', 'subject', 'materia' or 'asignatura'', as these are variously used in some of the widely k n o w n languages to denote a specific area of knowledge. T h e largest Italian dictionary (Battaglia, twenty heavy volumes) gives at least a score of different uses of the term'discipline', with very wide variations; encyclopedias and lesser dictionaries define discipline generically as 'subject or content of teaching'. T h e key document in the debate on the problems of interdisciplinarity is the volume on the subject published in 1972 by O E C D ' s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation ( C E R I ) , 4 to which w e shall have occasion to refer in what follows.

In the Introduction by G u y Berger, a discipline is defined as 'a specific body of teachable knowledge with its o w n background of education, training, procedures, methods and content areas'. This definition is both too narrow and too wide. T o o narrow because, in defining a discipline as 'body of knowledge', it stresses primarily its static depository character as contrasted with the dynamic, develop-ment-and-production oriented nature of the 'specific knowledge' that it encompasses; too wide because it incorporates in the discipline concept components (procedures, methods and content) that are in fact c o m m o n to any discipline whatsoever, and indeed to any cognitive process.

Etymologically, the term 'discipline' is derived from the Latin verb discere, to learn, and from its substantive, discipulus, one w h o learns;

Giovanni Gozzer

there is a perfect parallel with the Greek term máthesis, the discipline as the object of learning, and mathetés, he w h o learns. So the original concept of discipline is bound up with the very principle of learning; in classical Greek or R o m a n history, learning, and hence knowledge, relatively non-specialized into different cognitive sectors, is connected with sofia, i.e. the will to know. This stands for a relatively unitary process of verbal, formal and representative acquisitions that come together under the Greek term paideia, which means growth, a 'rising up' to the life of the mind.

T h e subsequent division into specialized branches of the general apprendere-paideia phenomenon began to develop more coherently in the late Latin era. T h e beginnings of medieval culture saw the first systematic forms of academic curriculum planning, which gave rise to the category of the arts, or cognitive techniques, as opposed to the trivium (grammar, rhetoric and logic) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy): this indicates an incipient distinction between ' h u m a n ' and 'natural' knowledge.

F r o m these gradually consolidated foundations there grew u p the disciplinary organizations that were to form the basis for the medieval schools and studio, from which in turn developed the universities, the highest seat of systematic professional learning (medicine, theology and law).

T h e ratio studiorum of the Jesuits, which in essence foreshadows the first coherent model of a secondary school system in the West (a genuine primary system was to come into being only later, and on a variety of patterns) already entrusted the paideia-education process to a regular corpus of teachers (the use of this term began, in fact, during the above-mentioned phase) specializing in philosophy, mathematics, Holy Scripture, Hebrew, grammar, the humanities, rhetoric, etc. They were supervised by a director of studies and obliged to conform to the rules of a specific programme that shared out tasks and determined content, procedures and forms of pro­fessional conduct.

T h e term 'discipline', understood as a process in which learning finds expression, therefore encompasses the phenomenon of the division of knowledge into various branches, on the basis of historical analysis; as every problem is gradually investigated more thoroughly, it leads to a division of work in accordance with different skills. Disciplinarity appears to be a compartmentalization determined by the need to gain thorough knowledge of the various aspects of each cognitive area: thus, criteria of reflection and study appropriate to each sector are determined, and there is a certain crystallization of the various fields of inquiry, defined by their characteristics of observ­ability, method and application.

Interdisciplinarity: a concept still unclear 287

T h e compartmentalization of k n o w l e d g e

T h e principle of the interconnection of various disciplines and of the establishment of links or bonds between areas that were originally distinct and juxtaposed in parallel, although not unrelated to the law of communicating vessels, becomes an absolute rule w h e n the increasing specialization of technical and scientific knowledge breaks d o w n the old partitions belonging to the order of juxtaposed disci­plines and makes it necessary to identify n e w interdisciplinary links. F r o m this process, which is therefore the main aspect of the research being carried out by present-day students of epistemology, n e w requirements arise, concerning both changes in the content of university curricula and the formulation of n e w criteria for defining areas of specialization and research. T h e principle of disciplinary integration on the basis of overlapping, structural relationships and interdisciplinary links takes on particular importance, especially in the field of scientific research: integration takes place not only at the level of disciplines, but also in the activities of researchers, w h o work in groups, homogenous or otherwise, thereby ensuring that the progress of research work is helped along by complementary skills.

F r o m the scientific domain, the principle of complementary relations a m o n g disciplines spills over into the traditional, and probably less clear-cut, realm of the humanities, which, having acquired n e w tools and methods of research, n o w style themselves ' h u m a n sciences' (a title that contains an implicit recognition of the reciprocal links and relations with the more advanced methodologies of scientific research). Subjects that formerly gravitated only about their o w n axis of specialization, such as history, philosophy, geography and even literature, are establishing n e w connections, widening the scope and horizons of their 'focus', and using scientific, analytical and quantitative procedures. Side by side with the old humanistic disciplines, the term being used here in the strict sense, there are emerging the n e w 'sciences of m a n ' , somewhere between scientific division into disciplines and the legacy of the traditional humanities.

It is beyond doubt that in this situation the principle of interdisci­plinarity in advanced studies and research is essential if n e w ground is to be broken and fresh discoveries are to be m a d e . T h e seminar held in Nice (1970) and publication of the O E C D - C E R I volume emphasize a state of affairs that is already well established.

288 Giovanni Gozzer

Discipline a n d scientific thought

T h e papers submitted at the seminar in Nice include one that I regard as rather significant: the study by Marcel H . Boisot, which sets out to define disciplinarity (and interdisciplinarity) in relation to scientific thought. Every discipline, he argues, presupposes three conditions: a set of observable objects that can be formally represented; a set of identifiable, reproducible and coherently interpretable phenomena; and a set of laws or rules that give that formal expression to the relations a m o n g the objects observed or the symbols that represent them. A distinction is drawn, therefore, between raw phenomena, for which no explanatory scientific theory has been found, and authenticated phenomena, which can be brought under formal laws or principles that m a k e provision for predictable effects. Science would appear to be a historical attempt to transform raw phenomena into authenticated phenomena: the transition, in other words, from what Herodotus called apodeixis or narration, based on personal experience, to real, genuine episteme. It should be stressed that, whereas for some disciplines episteme is the necessary outcome, for others it represents a methodology of research that makes the identification of its content more precise, but cannot in any way weaken the connecting links with the original axiomatic structure.

It is, however, on the strength of these considerations that certain epistemologists (but, mainly, some impetuous educationists) have seen fit to demolish the very idea of a discipline, acknowledging at most that it has a 'heuristic' function, owing to our inability to grasp knowledge as a single whole. A discipline, therefore, would appear to have the status of a 'fragmentary snippet', and be designed to break up reality into increasingly narrow fields and to define specific areas of activity in which 'styles of thought, methods and procedures' are developed.

This thesis, dear to the hearts of supporters of interdisciplinarity, presupposes, however, a sort of arbitrarily controlled development of these découpages; in other words, a gradual and conscious rationality, working from the bottom upwards chronologically and causing a counter-thrust from the top downwards, which makes the process respectable in terms of scientific explanation. But while this procedure m a y yield promising results that satisfy the epistemological researcher, it certainly does not help to solve the somewhat more m u n d a n e problems that preoccupy the teacher. A student of linguistics can undoubtedly come up with impeccable models for the interpretation of language: but it is less certain that he would be capable of teaching a child to talk, as its mother does, or teaching it to write, as a teacher

Interdisciplinarity: a concept still unclear

of the alphabet is able to do. Both of these follow paths which diverge from that of the linguist.

T h e discipline as the basis of learning: three levels

At the school level, the discipline is therefore the natural m e d i u m , indispensable and gradually becoming more integrated and complex, that underlies the pupil's intellectual growth in the course of his paideia. A s such, every discipline has its o w n pattern of development: from non-specific sensory emotive learning (nursery school), to the earliest experience of symbols, to representation, to formal recog-nizability (primary school). At this level, the various disciplines emerge in their initial organized form, characterized by the presence of a single vector (the teacher) and syllabuses and content that do not differ according to the target population.

T h e first qualitative j u m p occurs at the level of lower secondary schooling: the disciplines are already defined as such, although they are grouped together according to affinities, or in accordance with the abilities required. T h e y already imply the assessment of varying individual skills. At this stage, subjects become the first tools exer­cising specific abilities (arithmetic, drawing, music and manual work) or for reflecting about communication, relationships, and the patterns to be seen in historical events and in the geographical and h u m a n environment.

At the third, or upper secondary, level, the subjects are divided on a scientific and technical methodological grid. In each discipline one m a y find not only its characteristic content, but also methodologies for achieving greater sophistication and development, links of contiguity, pupils' preferences for certain lines of advance rather than others, and individual departures from the institutional guidelines formally laid d o w n in the curricula. At this level, the teachers show a higher standard of skill and apply more rigorous criteria of selection. Finally, at university level, the highest degree of integration and complexity is reached. There is no longer a discipline called 'history': there are countless lines of approach to history, through diachronic development, synchronic patterns, disciplinary connections, geo­graphical and political areas (single countries and nations), major civilizations, etc. T h e one constant factor is the component 'history'; there is a c o m m o n basis for research through neighbouring disci­plines; there is a series of interconnections, due to the use of c o m m o n analytical or methodological tools. A n d this seems to be the true

290 Giovanni Gozzer

domain of interdisciplinarity, defined as interaction between two or more disciplines, ranging from straightforward communication of ideas to reciprocal integration of key concepts, vocabulary, methods and procedures—in short, the integration of research and education. However, although the question of interdisciplinary connections arises at the level of the university, this fact does not warrant exclusion or rejection of the 'discipline' concept at the lower levels. Admittedly, there is the oft-repeated assertion, originally m a d e by Popper, that problems exist whereas subjects do not. But problems do not exist in their o w n right; disciplines then become tools that m a y be used to formulate problems.

Getting rid of subjects

In the early 1970s, there was a tendency to 'do away with' subjects: the 'subject abolishers' have been identified with those w h o called for the elimination of academic competition, applying the radical Marxist principle of struggle against the 'ownership'-based order of the tra­ditional discipline areas. That the decision-makers were not indif­ferent to this d e m a n d w h e n drawing up the n e w school curricula has been mentioned earlier: and there is no lack of evidence for the wave of experiments, which, in the n a m e of interdisciplinarity, proclaimed that separate subjects no longer held sway.

T o mention one example a m o n g m a n y : a weighty tome on the results of putting interdisciplinarity into practice in a lower secondary school (an experiment which, in fact, has never taken place, but only 'theorized'), uses as datum the following assertion: 'the official curricula, with their destructive logic, based on separate contents, on division into subjects and on the different names given to those subjects, are the scourge of the authoritarian school'. There would probably be no need to dwell on the inconsistency and superficiality of such claims, which place the organization of knowledge on a par with economic and political organization, were it not for the fact that quite a number of educationists have taken statements of this kind quite seriously; the list of books inclining towards this thesis which have been published in Italy and elsewhere in the past ten years is almost endless.

There has also been a certain amount of recognition by state edu­cation authorities and justification of this sudden allergy to disciplines and this infatuation with the n e w forms of an interdisciplinarity that is improperly understood and even less properly applied.

Interdisciplinarity: a concept still unclear

Interdisciplinarity a n d pedagogy

I would take as an example a treatise on educational interdisciplinarity that was published in 1975. T h e author acknowledges that 'only interdisciplinary education seems worthy of consideration as suited to the intimate nature of the individual as a single consciousness capable of making sense of cultural analysis'. A n d he continues: 'Interrelations are the key to the purpose of every educational undertaking. Interdisciplinarity is today's context for the relational character of individual development whereby the individual acquires his cultural equipment.'

Essentially, this kind of research seems always to leave the real situation out of account. In other words, there is no practical and experimental analysis of the way in which the introduction of education based on interdisciplinarity might aifect the h u m a n learning process in schools. Even a list of the various forms of interdisci­plinarity (heterogeneous, arbitrary, auxiliary, composite, complemen­tary, unifying, etc.) suggests a system of classification rather than a realistic working framework for use in an educational setting. T h e conclusion is fairly obvious, and w e shall attempt to formulate it as clearly as possible.

N o learning without a disciplinary f r a m e w o r k

It is clear that, as every discipline becomes increasingly differentiated in its special field, so it automatically becomes necessary to establish links, connections and relations. But it is not through artificial manipulation, or, worse still, through a distortion of the specific nature of the disciplinary field itself, that w e shall either achieve the aims of learning or construct the broader scheme of relations that underlies interdisciplinarity in the true sense of the word.

There can be no concept of the 'international' without the basic principle of the 'nation'; an orchestra can function only if its m e m b e r s possess specific skills in playing the instruments that together pro­duce the concert; an orchestra, too, is something 'intermusical'; the playing of an orchestra, moreover, depends on respect for the specificity of every instrument, although the basic language of music is something that is shared.

T h e debate on disciplines has been thrown wide open, and there are n e w discoveries still to be m a d e : there is room for reductions, innovations, abolitions and re-introductions: their diversity resides

Giovanni Gozzer

mainly in the link between their highly specialized individuality and the continuing expansion and development of h u m a n knowledge, as well as of the techniques derived from science: every secondary establishment is familiar with the continual mushrooming of n e w 'disciplines' that either become incorporated into the earlier frame­work or else replace it; the natural m o m e n t u m of the growth of h u m a n culture makes this inevitable.

Less subject to rapid changes, perhaps, are the organization and definition of disciplinary areas at the primary and lower secondary levels. But probably it is only by drawing more and more distinctions a m o n g subjects as these gradually become more specialized that the individual is helped to master the meaning of things and is given equipment for his 'journey through society and through history'.

Unfortunately, our Western societies have two hidden vices: the first is misuse of the concept of innovation and overly hasty implementation of reforms without preliminary verification of their implications and consequences. T h e second vice is that of offering to the least developed countries the latest and most sophisticated n e w theories, in the belief that it is easier to inscribe n e w educational patterns on a tabula rasa, whereas structures built up over centuries have a natural defence mechanism that rejects such innovations. This second fault, in particular, is a more or less acknowledged hindrance in relations with countries that are laboriously constructing their o w n education systems. •

Notes 1. Ministère de l'Éducation—Contenus de formation à l'école élémentaire—Cycle préparatoire,

élémentaire, moyen; horaires, objectifs, programmes, instructions, Paris, Centre National de

Documentation Pédagogique, 1977-79.

2 . Nuevas orientaciones pedagógicas; educación general básica, ioth ed.a Madrid, Editorial

Escuela Española S A , 1981.

3. / nuoviprogrammi della scuola media: presentazione e commento, Florence, Edizioni Giunti

Marzocco, 1979.

4 . OECD-CERI Interdisciplinarity—Problems of Teaching and Research in Universities, report

based on the results of a Seminar on Interdisciplinarity in Universities, which was organized

by C E R I in collaboration with the French Ministry of Education at the University of Nice

from 7 to 12 September 1970.

Higher education in advanced developing

countries* Philip G . Altbach

Discussions of higher education in the Third World are often predicated on assumptions of low literacy rates, fiscal problems, lack of needed infrastructures, and in general a low efficiency level of the educational system. Problems of graduate unemployment, the brain drain and shortages of trained academic personnel are held to be c o m m o n realities. This articles focuses on the growing number of developing countries that are n o w building their academic systems based on a fairly firm educational and economic situation. These countries face quite different realities than have been commonly understood in m u c h of the literature and have the possibility of building impressive academic structures fairly quickly. D u e in part to changing fashions in development policies, less attention is cur­rently being paid to university development by scholars and by international agencies although in fact Third World nations remain committed to higher education as an important part of the process of modernization.1 University development is seen as an important priority in virtually every Third World nation regardless of ideological persuasion or economic status. It is therefore important to consider the problems and prospects of academic development in the Third World.

Philip G . Altbach (United States of America). Director of the Comparative Education Center and Professor of Higher Education and Foundations of Education at the State University of New York at Buffalo, he is editor of the Comparative Education Review. Among his books are University Reform: A n International Perspective, Student Politics in America3 Higher Education in American Societys and Comparative Higher Education.

* I a m indebted to S. Gopinathan for comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Prospects, Vol. XIIj N o . 3, 1982

Philip G. Altbach

T h e advanced developing countries

This discussion focuses on the growing number of Third World nations that are n o w devoting substantial attention and resources to higher education development, that have a high rate of economic growth, relatively substantial financial resources and in general have been successfully involved in the modernization process. Such countries as Singapore and Malaysia in South-East Asia, Taiwan and the Republic of Korea in East Asia, Z i m b a b w e and several of the smaller states in southern Africa, and the oil-rich nations of the Middle East are all in this category. Their populations tend to be relatively small, rates of economic growth have been high and in general there has been a degree of economic and political stability and government efficiency that has permitted development plans to achieve a measure of success. These countries, and a number of others, have different ideological perspectives and certainly have their share of socio-economic problems, but they are none the less in a relatively favoured position in terms of the development of an aca­demic system.

T h e advanced developing countries also have some distinct advan­tages in educational terms. Their relative economic prosperity has permitted them to provide funds sufficient to build and to maintain educational institutions at all levels. Their well-developed societal infrastructures have given needed support for the growth of edu­cational institutions. W h e r e established structures did not exist, it was possible to import appropriate technology or personnel. For example, most of the advanced developing countries have access to computer-based technologies for use in education as well as in government or commerce. T h e growth of educational institutions has been relatively slow and this has permitted those responsible for educational develop­ment to ensure that quality was maintained, although of course expansion inevitably causes strains. Planning has been deliberate and the relationship between the process of planning and the implemen­tation of educational programmes has been reasonably close.

T h e advanced developing countries constitute a successful example of educational development at the post-secondary level. This dis­cussion focuses both on some of the achievements and on the chal­lenges that face universities in this n e w category of Third World nation. T h e process of academic development is complex and relates to the internal realities of a country, to the international knowledge network, and to historical traditions. T h e 'advanced' Third World nations constitute a special category of country and face special problems—but they have achieved a good measure of success and

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have the potential for especially impressive development. It m a y be possible, in these countries, for academic institutions to m o v e rapidly into the ranks of internationally recognized academic institutions.

O n m a n y dimensions, the universities in the advanced Third World nations compare favourably on international standards. While detailed statistics are difficult to obtain, student-teacher ratios, library facili­ties, the basic amenities, teaching loads and in some countries even salaries are very m u c h in accord with international standards. In a sense, as universities in such countries as the United K i n g d o m , Canada, the United States and Australia experience severe fiscal and other problems, some of the academic institutions discussed in this article m a y provide the best models for advancement in the contem­porary world. Because the major research facilities are in the Western universities and the major journal and book publishers are located in North America and Europe, research productivity and dissemination remains centred in the West. But as Third World universities are able to build up capabilities in these areas and as they m a k e a commitment to research as part of their academic systems, the level of research productivity will also increase.

Academic institutions in the advanced Third World nations are all based on Western, often colonial, institutional models and tend to be small and to serve a limited urban clientele (often less than i per cent of the relevant age cohort). T h e colonial bias in favour of the liberal arts and legal education dominates the established institutions and this orientation also reflects economic realities that are n o w changing. Western languages play a very important role, in m a n y institutions serving as the key m e d i u m of instruction. But even where indigenous languages are used (such as in Malaysia and Taiwan), books in European languages dominate at least the advanced cur­riculum and most students must be bilingual. There is generally a high demand for university graduates in all fields, with a special need for skilled manpower in technological areas. There are strong pressures from the educated and growing middle classes and from government to ensure the expansion of post-secondary education.

It is m y hypothesis that universities in the more prosperous Third World nations have some important decisions to make in order to ensure continued progress in higher education. T h e experience, both positive and negative, of other Third World nations is useful as a background. T h e policies and practices of the industrialized nations will also have a considerable influence on future developments. But the realities of this n e w category of nation are sufficiently unique that n e w and original patterns m a y develop.

Philip G. Altbach

Lessons of the past

Higher education development has suffered from shifting expec­tations. It was first considered the key to socio-economic develop­ment and more recently has been as irrelevant and perhaps even harmful. Dore (1976), for example, has argued that the stress on university education and particularly on academic credentials does not contribute to progress and only exacerbates class and ethnic divisions. Earlier expectations were unreasonably high, were imposs­ible to fulfil and disillusionment soon followed. However, higher education did achieve some notable results in the Third World. It succeeded in fairly quickly training a basic cadre with the expertise to administer the newly emerging states. It expanded to provide some education in scientific and technical fields. It provided a means of social mobility for the urban middle classes and in some countries for lower economic strata as well. With some tension and lowering of academic standards, universities expanded rapidly to meet the manifold demands placed on them.

It m a n y countries, however, universities overexpanded (Kaul, 1974). Governments found it easier to build up educational insti­tutions to meet some of the needs of newly articulate segments of the population than to rapidly develop the economy. T h e emphasis of higher education remained on the humanities and law, in part because of academic traditions, in part because it was less expensive to expand enrolments in these areas and in part because the economy at that early stage did not require highly qualified scientists or tech­nologists. A s a result, infrastructures in the sciences were not built and the employment opportunities m a d e available by independence in government and in commerce were quickly filled. T h e social sciences were expanded, and these subjects were useful in coping with some of the problems of modernization. A s a result of a combination of economic factors, overexpansion and an inability to alter both resource allocation and student flows into the social sciences and emerging scientific fields as opposed to the traditional fields, problems of graduate unemployment grew.

Virtually no formerly colonial academic system has diverged from the basic administrative and curricular structure that was implanted by the colonial power (Ashby, 1966). Further, none of the m a n y efforts at higher education reform have dislodged those basically external models (Altbach, 1980). Even those countries that attempted to radically alter aspects of higher education to keep in tune with radical political change have not succeeded in developing successful indigenous patterns of curriculum, administration or function (Shirk,

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1979). It is clear that the reform of higher education is a very complex and difficult process and it is thus not surprising that few academic systems have managed to break significantly with the past or to serve entirely n e w functions in the Third World.

There has been an over-reliance on higher education as a means—some would say a panacea—to assist in rapid social and economic development. Certainly, universities can and indeed must play an important role in the development process (Thompson and Fogelj 1977). But they are not the key to rapid growth nor to political stability. M a n y countries, and a large number of scholars and policy­makers in the industrialized nations, stressed the importance of university development as a key to broader progress in the 1950s and 1960s. A s a result, massive investments were m a d e in higher education, by newly independent Third World nations and by aid agencies. This investment was effective in stimulating the rapid growth of higher education, but it did not pay off in socio-economic development. Basic literacy grew only modestly and some societal dislocations were caused by the overly rapid expansion of higher education. Because higher education is so costly, it consumed large proportions of education budgets, skewing priorities in countries with limited resources. Further, higher education served only a small part of populations that are largely rural and without access to post-secondary institutions. But this small minority proved to be highly articulate and politically powerful and once expansion was undertaken and access provided to a small but growing group, it was difficult, if not impossible, to halt expansion.

While most Third World nations began university development programmes with a clearly articulated plan, growth took place with­out regard to careful planning in m a n y instances {Comparative Education Review, 1972). In a few countries, private interests started educational institutions, while in others different levels of government competed in the education arena. Generally, projections for expansion were exceeded and expenditures grew out of proportion.

M u c h has been written about the interrelationships of higher education and particularly about h o w Third World and industri­alized nations interact (Altbach, 1977, 1981; Mazrui, 1975). T h e basic reality is that virtually all Third World universities are at the periphery of an international knowledge system that is dominated by the major industrialized nations (Shils, 1972; Spitzberg, 1980). T h e domination of the world's research system, of publishing houses, the use of the major metropolitan languages, and the sheer size and wealth of the academic systems in the industrialized nations have contributed to their continuing domination of the knowledge system. M a n y have argued that foreign assistance programmes, with some exceptions,

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have contributed to the continuing peripheral status of the Third World (Mende, 1973). T h e realities of the international relationships of universities are complex and must be recognized as higher edu­cation systems plan for the future. A m o n g these realities is a basic element of inequality that has placed Third World universities at continuing disadvantage.

T h e above characterizations and limitations are not valid for all Third World nations nor is the post-independence picture completely bleak. Indeed, academic institutions have often helped to define newly emerging nations, have provided training for skilled manpower, and faculty have advised governments. Most colonial powers spent little on education, and the building of n e w universities and the expansion of access was a necessary step. T h e point of these comments is to indicate that the experiences, positive and negative, of a decade or more of academic development in the Third World can help to guide the planning and implementation of higher education in nations that are still in a pattern of growth. M a n y of these nations are in the fortunate position not only of being able to avoid the errors of others but also of having the financial resources necessary to build high quality higher education.

T h e elements of growth

T h e advanced Third World nations have academic traditions that do not differ dramatically from those described above. But they differ sharply in their contemporary socio-economic circumstances, and as a result they have the opportunity to develop complex academic sys­tems on a m u c h firmer base. T h e following issues, which are by no means exhaustive, indicate some of the challenges that face this n e w category of developing nation.

Government-university relations. T h e appropriate relationship between government, which most often provides funding for education, and academic institutions is a matter of controversy in almost all Third World nations. In the United States and other industrialized nations, similar debates concerning 'accountability', the desire of government to have information about all aspects of academic institutions and programmes and to exercise significant control over them, and 'autonomy', the traditional concept of institutional self-government and the ideal that universities should set their o w n goals, is a hotly debated issue (McConnell, 1981). In the Third World, where higher education is often one of the most costly items in the national budget

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and where academic institutions are expected to perform direct service to society, a significant portion of government involvement is accepted. Further, the academic tradition of colonialism in some countries and the relative newness of institutions all m a k e the develop­ment of autonomy difficult.

Yet, even if academic institutions have become virtual departments of government, the issue of university autonomy remains an important one. T h e basic elements of academic autonomy at the level of the individual teacher are important to preserve, for it is under conditions of relative autonomy and academic freedom that the best teaching and research occurs. T h e best universities in the world have preserved a substantial degree of autonomy, both for the institution and for the individual. While m a n y of the traditions of universities are archaic, they have protected academic institutions from too rapid change. Further, academic communities seem to function most effectively when they have a degree of self-respect and autonomy.

There is no easy formula to provide for all countries a guide to the appropriate relationship between higher education and government. Clearly, government must exercise some control over the direction of an institution which provides manpower , expertise and which has considerable cultural influence. There must be accountability for the very substantial budgets provided to higher education. At the same time, academic institutions must have a degree of autonomy in order to function with the m a x i m u m of creativity. Morale, an elusive commodity, is very important. A u t o n o m y is difficult to quantify and more difficult to maintain with all of the pressures inevitably buffeting academic institutions—political, economic and demographic. Institutional autonomy also requires a degree of self-restraint and responsibility in the Third World. Universities are inevitably politically important institutions and are often centres for dissent and intellectual ferment. While the right of individual aca­demic staff to express opinions should be protected, academic institutions have a responsibility to remain neutral on political matters in most contexts. T h e internal balance between self-expression and academic freedom on the one hand and responsibility and sensitivity to the often sensitive role of the university in the Third World is often difficult to determine.

W h a t m a y be an appropriate level of autonomy in Switzerland m a y not be relevant in Singapore because of different social and edu­cational conditions. T h e point of this discussion is to indicate that the c o m m o n tendency to virtually eliminate institutional and in some cases individual autonomy is probably a mistake and a constructive dialogue between academic institutions and government is very m u c h needed.

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Language. T h e m e d i u m of instruction, research and academic dis­course is often a matter of considerable controversy within universities as well as in society (Noss, 1967). T h e choice of the language of instruction is a matter of great sensitivity and also of immense consequence for the university. It is inevitably involved in broader issues of politics, public policy and cultural contestation. Typically, academic institutions in the Third World functioned in a European language under colonialism, and most academic systems have been slow to shift to indigenous languages. S o m e academic systems continue to function in European languages and have no plans to change. This is the case in countries with no clearly dominant indigenous language or in which a European language has been deeply entrenched.

Nigeria, with its multiplicity of languages, has been content to continue its university system in English although there has been considerable debate concerning the language issue. India long ago m a d e a commitment to function in the various regional languages of the country and some universities have shifted to instruction in these languages. M a n y , however, continue to teach in English, particularly in the more prestigious sector of the system. Singapore, which until recently had instruction in both Chinese and English, has shifted to English as the sole m e d i u m of higher education. Malaysia, on the other hand, has moved its entire academic system to Bahasa Malaysia. While all of the Arab countries are committed to Arabic as the m e d i u m of instruction, a number use English in part of their academic systems. Kuwait, for example, has English in its science faculties and in medical education while Arabic serves the rest of the university (Al-Ebraheem and Stevens, 1980).

Language choices have m a n y ramifications. T h e continued use of a European language in higher education typically eliminates a signifi­cant part of the population from access to higher education. It is often said that the use of a European language insulates a university from its society. Privileged strata of the population, largely in the cities, w h o have had access to education in the metropolitan language, will dominate the higher education system and thereby the upper reaches of the society. T h e use of indigenous languages will broaden the influence of higher education and of the research and analysis done in universities by communicating in a widely understood med ium. Access will be m u c h wider and ethnic and economic inte­gration will have the opportunity of taking place in higher education. M o d e r n ideas will be more readily communicated to the society and the indigenous culture. T h e intellectuals in the universities will, at least, speak the same language. Nation building m a y be enhanced through the use of indigenous languages throughout the education system.

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O n the other hand, use of an indigenous med ium cuts an academic system off from the international knowledge network to some extent. Academic staff in many countries are not immediately prepared to teach in an indigenous language and, more important, textbooks and other instructional materials are often unavailable and are expensive and difficult to produce. It is a c o m m o n complaint in countries that use an indigenous language that they still depend on books in European languages and thus, students must learn a foreign language in any case. Advanced training at the post-baccalaureate level is almost inevitably linked to the international academic system and hence to a European language. Even in countries that have shifted undergraduate edu­cation to indigenous languages, post-baccalaureate education has often remained in a European language.

Despite these problems, m u c h progress has been made in using non-European languages in higher education. Japan pioneered the use of an indigenous language as the sole means of higher education at the end of the last century and Japanese has been successfully adapted for use as a scientific medium. Although Japan still depends on translations from European languages and there is considerable stress in Japanese schools on learning foreign languages, Japanese is the med ium of higher education at all levels. Taiwan, and of course the People's Republic of China, successfully use Chinese as the sole medium of instruction. Indonesia changed from the use of Dutch to Bahasa Indonesia immediately after independence, and, although there are still problems of the availability of textbooks and curricular materials, there has been overall success. Malaysia is n o w in the process of change, and although there is a lack of text materials, agencies like the D e w a n Bahasa dan Pustaka are producing trans­lations and original materials for use in higher education.

Other countries have moved more slowly with language change and many have chosen, for a variety of reasons, to retain a European language as the main medium of higher education. Zimbabwe, like m a n y African nations, has difficulty in choosing among several indigenous languages, none of which have ever been used for academic or research purposes. As a result, English continues as the sole medium in higher education. It should also be noted that in many Third World nations, most students are effectively bilingual in any case and the combi­nation of instruction in an indigenous language combined with the use of books and text materials in a European language is by no means impossible.

T h e point of this discussion is to indicate that there are difficult choices to be made and whatever the choice, there are inevitable consequences, many of them unanticipated. In addition, when choices are made , mechanisms must be set up to ensure as m u c h

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success as possible. For example, when Malaysia decided to shift to Bahasa Malaysia, it enlarged its textbook production and translation facilities. T h e wealthier Third World nations have the capability to develop the infrastructures, including journal and book publishing in indigenous languages, if they decide to change the m e d i u m of instruction.

In the past, emerging academic systems often did not confront the language situation and simply continued to use the colonial language. Recently, academic planners have considered the ramifications of language use and have m a d e more rational decisions. Whatever the choice, however, consequences follow and countries need to consider all of the ramifications and provide the needed infrastructure for language development.

Curriculum and the organization of study. Most Third World academic systems inherited a curriculum heavily weighted toward the humani­ties and organized in a classical European manner. Students were assumed to come from a highly educated élite and were propelled toward prestigious positions in the civil service, religion or the independent professions. Realities in the Third World m a d e m a n y of the basic assumptions of higher education false. T h e clientele for higher education did not have a Western cultural background. T h e need for educated manpower was quite different—as Third World universities were providing personnel for emerging technological societies. T h e other educational infrastructures (such as polytechnics and apprenticeship programmes) were missing and thus the univer­sities were given added burdens. T h e traditional curriculum, based on humanistic studies and a few professional specializations, was not entirely relevant. A n d the traditional management of studies, with infrequent examinations, was not appropriate for a student body that was, on average, younger and certainly less experienced with higher education.

Despite widely recognized deficiencies in the traditional curriculum and organization of study, change has been slow. Third World nations felt the pressure to offer university studies to a growing population and the pressure to expand proved stronger than the necessity for reform. A s a result, universities continued to offer a traditional European curriculum and to organize programmes of study in a traditional manner. This produced alienation, contributed to an oversupply of graduates in the humanities in some countries and contributed to the decline in academic standards. Since the traditional models were entrenched and did not change with the coming of independence, they became even more difficult to dislodge later.

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In order to avoid the conservatism of the traditional universities, m a n y developing countries, at great expense, established entirely n e w institutions of higher education to provide different auricular and organizational models. In some countries, private institutions were founded to reflect the demands of the marketplace for professional training. In others, non-university research and training institutes, such as the institutes of technology in India, provided high quality academic work in areas of national need. In still other places, n e w universities based on different organizational patterns were set up , often with the assistance of the aid programmes of industrialized nations and with foreign technical help. T h e experience of these efforts is important in planning for academic development in the advanced Third World nations (Thompson and Fogel, 1977).

A number of trends can be seen in the Third World, however, which have redirected the focus of higher education. While dramatic changes in academic organization has been rare and the basic cur­riculum remains similar to what is offered in the industrialized nations, there have been some important shifts in emphasis. T h e traditional concentration on the humanities has gradually been lessened, first by a stress on the social sciences and later on natural scientific fields and applied technology. Fields such as engineering, management studies and others have become prominent. In some countries, it has been difficult to build up high-quality laboratory and research facilities but significant experiments in medical edu­cation (in China) and in rethinking agricultural technology have been attempted with some success. Third World academic institutions have been thinking about the appropriate levels of training and tech­nology relevant for particular needs. Further, there is m u c h more variety in academic specialities and programmes than was the case a decade ago. Tropical agriculture is n o w widely studied in colleges of agriculture and management studies is a popular field. Malaysian higher education has specializations that focus on the local economy, for example, and this is increasingly c o m m o n in Third World higher education. There needs to be closer links between industrial and agricultural producers and higher education and perhaps financial support from these concerns, but there has been considerable progress in making higher education more responsive to the direct needs of local economies.

In most fields, including the newly established applied specialities, the curriculum remains closely tied to Western models. Textbooks tend to be imported or adapted from those used in the industrialized nations. Those teaching are very often trained in Europe or North America and often do not adapt their academic experiences to suit local circumstances. In some countries, expatriates constitute a

Philip G. Altbach

significant part of the teaching staff, especially in the newer applied and scientific fields. T h e proportion of expatriates varies by country, and a number of the advanced Third World nations have substantially indigenized their teaching staffs. Curricula in fields of economics, sociology, education and other specialities have been partly adapted to indigenous needs, but significantly more thought needs to be given to the details of curriculum reform. Concern not only for broader curricular innovations but also for the less dramatic but quite crucial smaller supporting elements is also required.

There have been widespread efforts to modify the classical organ­ization of studies. In general, academic systems have moved from the European to the American pattern of organization. 'Continuous assessment' of academic work has been substituted for widely spaced examinations. Courses are shorter and specific marks are assigned frequently so that students are monitored more closely. This arrange­ment permits the teaching staff to be in more direct touch with the learning process and provides 'feedback' for students. S o m e univer­sities, such as the University of Kuwait, implemented a major shift from a British model to an American-style 'course-credit' system. Other institutions have been less dramatic in the nature of their changes. M a n y academic systems, such as the bulk of India's univer­sities, have retained the traditional system despite widespread recog­nition that it is not well suited for Indian realities.

There is no single model for the nature or the organization of the curriculum that will work well in all developing countries. Indeed, what m a y be effective for a faculty of management m a y not be well suited for a school of agriculture within the same university. W h a t is very clear is that the traditional European curricular and organ­izational pattern inherited from colonialism or copied without serious consideration is not well suited to the Third World. Neither the needs of a developing economy nor the realities of larger and more heterogenous universities are suited to the European elitist cur­riculum. M a n y of the alterations attempted have been pioneered in the United States, largely because American higher education moved from an elitist to a mass base m a n y years ago and the university system has long allowed a wider range of applied fields.

Coping with expansion. While the major higher education systems in Europe and North America have ceased to expand in the 1970s and 1980s, Third World higher education is still growing at a rapid rate. There is a particular need for academic growth in those countries with a high rate of economic expansion and which have a small university system. For example, m a n y developing countries send as m a n y students out of the country for higher education as study

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within the nation, always at great expense (Spaulding and Flack, 1976). There are, of course, m a n y strategies for coping with expan­sion. In the United States, the trend in public higher education has been to build university systems that have a centralized administration and m a n y campuses. In addition, m a n y American university cam­puses have grown quite large, with as m a n y as 40,000 students. India has continued to use the British 'affiliating' university model, with a single university-based administration and examining body for a large number of semi-independent colleges in a defined geographical area. Most nations do not have academic systems as large as those of the United States or India, and so the problems of scale are not so great. T h e British, during the period of expansion engendered by the Robbins report in 1963, chose to build n e w universities very m u c h along traditional lines and with small enrolments rather than to expand existing institutions. T h e French, prior to the 1968 reforms, permitted existing institutions to expand until the University of Paris had more than 100,000 students. In m a n y countries, expansion took place without a clearly planned agenda and university systems simply dealt with increased numbers as best they could. This ad hoc policy in most cases created m a n y difficulties and contributed to the student unrest of the 1960s in many nations.

A growing number of countries have decided that clear limits have to be placed on the expansion of higher education. T h e experience of India in permitting virtually unbridled expansion and the negative consequences of this expansion have become clear to m a n y nations (Kaul, 1974). In general, a more balanced view of educational develop­ment has been evident, stimulated in part by the criticisms of over-expansion and too great expenditures on higher education in the past. But expansion is nevertheless very m u c h part of higher education policy, since most of the wealthier Third World nations have critical needs for highly trained personnel and currently are educating only a tiny proportion of the relevant age-groups.

A number of strategies have been used to plan for and implement expansion. Recognizing past failures, it seems that growth is taking place more slowly than in the past and there has been considerable concern for maintaining quality. But the problems are substantial. Smaller nations have a distinct advantage in dealing with expansion since it is possible to provide effective centralized control over the nature of expansion. T h e links between planning and implementation seem to be closer where very large numbers of institutions are not involved. In general, the new institutions that are being created do not differ dramatically from those that already exist. It is not clear whether quality can be maintained while enrolments are doubled in a few years. S o m e countries, such as Singapore, have been very

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careful to maintain academic quality and to provide for adequate facilities while expanding enrolments. Others, such as Zimbabwe , have greater pressures for expansion and fewer resources.

While there is no c o m m o n model for expansion, most countries rely on centralized planning to determine the nature and scope of the growth of academic institutions. Since funding is crucial, and vir­tually all m o n e y comes from central government authorities, minis­terial control of planning is not surprising. T o o often, however, the universities have been left out of the process. There is little doubt that in the immediate agenda of Third World higher-education development management and control of expansion ranks at the top of key issues.

External influences. That universities everywhere are part of an international intellectual network is clear. Historical origins are c o m m o n and the various academic disciplines are linked by c o m m o n research paradigms, journals and organizations. It is also clear that this network is dominated by major universities in the large indus­trialized nations. These institutions are at the centre of the system, while academic institutions elsewhere are to some extent peripheral (Altbach, 1981). T h e problem for Third World universities is to come to grips with elements of peripherality and to devise policies aimed at maximizing independence. Language policies are important in this regard and, as pointed out earlier, have m a n y implications. T h e use of an indigenous language can create a more accessible university but can also cut off the intellectual community from the international network. Even the Japanese, w h o have developed an efficient translation system, often feel cut off from the mainstream of international intellectual and scholarly life because of the limitations of language.

A number of newly emerging universities have tried to instil a concern for research as part of the development of the academic system. Further, scholarly journals and in a few cases publishing enterprises have been established to help with the dissemination of local scholarship. Such emphases and the creation of the infra­structures of knowledge distribution can help to build a self-conscious academic community able to participate on more equal terms in the international system.

T h e role of expatriates and of foreign advisers is, of course, a key part of academic policy. A n u m b e r of the newly emerging Third World universities have relied heavily on expatriate staff during the colonial era and into the present. It m a y be necessary to hire expatri­ates in order to staff rapidly growing universities and to provide training in fields in which local scholars are not available. Yet, the cost

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of expatriate talent goes beyond their often rather high monetary salaries. Expatriates almost inevitably reflect the academic values and training of another academic system and most represent the metro­politan values of the major Western European or North American universities. Instilling these values, and also the methodological and substantive academic orientations m a y be useful to some extent in new universities. But an orientation toward foreign norms and values can also be a dangerous precedent. Expatriate staff seldom have deep institutional loyalties nor an overwhelming concern for national development. They often find themselves in positions of considerable academic power, as senior professors or even administrators and thus often help to shape institutional values at the crucial early stage of development.

Foreign advisers are often an integral part of the academic planning process. Such advisers are often necessary to provide expertise in m a n y areas. In addition, where academic development is part of a foreign assistance scheme, advisers are often an integral part of the aid process. Advisers necessarily reflect the values and norms of their o w n academic systems (Adams, 1969). This is not an argument against the use of expatriate staff or advisers as parts of an academic development scheme, but it is important for Third World countries to consider carefully the implications of the use of different staffing arrangements.

A n often ignored element of the external impact on Third World higher education is the foreign-educated student w h o returns to assume an important role in the academic hierarchy. T h e 'brain drain' is not a serious problem in the wealthier Third World nations as most overseas graduates return to remunerative positions. Further, a very large proportion of the most highly educated segment of the population is trained overseas without any concern about the impact of foreign training and orientations on these graduates. In m a n y Third World nations, the top indigenous academic leadership will be foreign educated for a generation to come. Without question, the values, methodological orientations, attitudes toward the role and nature of higher education and perhaps political and social mores as well are strongly influenced by overseas training. T h u s , the influence of the major academic systems of the United States, the United K i n g d o m , France and to a lesser extent the Federal Republic of Germany , where the bulk of Third World academics w h o are trained abroad have obtained their advanced degrees, will continue to be strong.

Policies concerning overseas study and concern about the impact of foreign study need to be an integral part of academic planning in the Third World. This is a particularly important issue in countries where close to half of those pursuing post-secondary education are studying outside the country. For example, more than half of the

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Malaysian students in post-secondary education study outside Malaysia. Statistics are similar for H o n g K o n g . Taiwan and the Republic of Korea send large numbers abroad for training, as does Z imbabwe , Nigeria and most of the countries of the Arabian Gulf. Even where the proportion of students abroad is not as high, the choice of countries to which to send students and the academic specializations of these students remains an issue of significance.

Finally, the importance of regional collaboration as an aspect of the international relationships of universities in the Third World needs to be stressed. Agencies like the Regional Institute for Higher Education and Development in South-East Asia, Unesco's Regional Center for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Association of African Universities can all play a more active role in providing links a m o n g universities, centralizing some aspects of academic planning and research and in other areas. Regional co-operation is already pursued in some areas. For example, a signifi­cant proportion of the students at the University of Singapore are from other countries in South-East Asia and large numbers of Third World students obtain degrees in Indian universities. It would seem that further pooling of resources, differential specialization and other aspects of regional co-operation can assist in building a sense of academic interdependence a m o n g countries with similar problems.

Conclusion

T h e gross generalizations applied to universities in the Third World do not reflect a complex reality. A significant number of Third World nations n o w in the process of expanding their higher education sys­tems do not fit into the usual stereotypes of poverty and lack of resources. Further, these countries have the benefit of carefully examining the experience of other Third World nations which earlier m a d e efforts to build their academic systems. Countries that have benefited from the recent changes in, for example, the price of oil also have the opportunity to rethink and perhaps reform their universities.

While higher education has received less emphasis from experts in the industrialized nations in recent years, universities continue to be established and to grow in the Third World. T h e choices being m a d e about the nature of this expansion is of crucial importance to the countries involved and in the long run to the international knowledge network throughout the world. Issues of accountability and autonomy, of the role of planning, of the choice and implementation of curricular

Higher education in advanced developing countries 309

specialities and of the adaptation and development of n e w institutional models remain matters of importance and debate.

Post-secondary education in the advanced developing nations not only has the potential for impressive achievement, but it has already accomplished a great deal. Recognition of these accomplishments and careful analysis of future directions will yield impressive results. A first step is to recognize the n e w analytic category of Third World nations that are at a high level of economic development and of education. Without doubt, these nations face a myriad of problems, but they have the considerable advantage for the development of post-secondary education. •

Note 1. Stress on non-formal education, on the importance of building up basic literacy and

critiques of the role of universities in development have all contributed to decreasing emphasis on higher education by planners and analysts. The current criticisms of higher education in the industrial nations (including questioning the economic benefits of higher education) combined with declining enrolments in a number of countries have further diminished concern about higher education.

References A D A M S , R . N . (ed.). 1969. Responsibilities oftheForeign Scholar to the Local Scholarly Community.

N e w York, Education and World Affairs. A L - E B R A H E E M , H . A . ; S T E V E N S , R . S. 1980. Organization, Management and Academic

Problems of an Arab University: The Kuwait University Experience. Higher Education,

Vol. 9, N o . 2, pp. 203-18. A L T B A C H , P . G . 1977. Servitude of the Mind?: Education, Dependency and Neocolonialism.

Teachers College Record, Vol. 79, N o . 2, pp. 188-204. . 1980. University Reform: An International Perspective. Washington, D . C . , American

Association for Higher Education. . 1981. The University as Center and Periphery. Teachers College Record, Vol. 82,

N o . 4, pp. 601-21. A S H B Y , E . 1966. Universities: British, Indian, African. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University

Press. Comparative Education Review. 1972. Vol. 16, N o . 2, pp. 229-351. (Special issue on

'University Reform'.) D O R E , R . P. 1976. The Diploma Disease: Education, Qualification and Development. Berkeley,

University of California Press. K A U L , J. N . 1974. Higher Education in India, 19SI-1971: Two Decades of Planned Drift.

Simla, India, Indian Institute of Advanced Study. M C C O N N E L L , T . R . 1981. Autonomy and Accountability: Some Fundamental Issues. In:

P. Altbach and R . Berdahl (eds.), Higher Education in American Society, pp. 35-53. Buffalo, N . Y . , Prometheus.

M A Z R U I , A . A . 1975. The African University as a Multinational Corporation: Problems of Penetration and Dependency. Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 45, N o . 2, pp. 191-210.

M E N D E , T . 1973. From Aid to Recolonization: Lessons of a Failure. N e w York, Pentheon. MONTEFIORE, A . (ed.). 1975. Neutrality and Impartiality: The University and Political

Commitment. Cambridge, United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press.

310 Philip G. Altbach

Noss, R . 1967. Higher Education and Development in Southeast Asia: Language Policy, Vol. 3, Fart 2. Paris, Unesco and International Association of Universities.

SHILS, E . 1972. Metropolis and Province in the Intellectual Community. In: E . Shils (ed.), The Intellectuals and the Powers and Other Essays, pp. 355^71. Chicago, 111., University of Chicago Press.

S H I R K , S. 1979. Educational Reform and Political Backlash: Recent Changes in Chinese Educational Policy, Comparative Education Review, Vol. 23, N o . 2, pp. 183-217.

S P A U L D I N G , S.; F L A C K , M . 1976. The World's Students in the United States—A Review and Evaluation of Research on Foreign Students. N e w York, Praeger.

SPITZBERG, I. (ed.). 1980. Universities and the International Distribution of Knowledge. N e w York, Praeger.

T H O M P S O N , K . J F O G E L , B . 1977. Higher Education and Social Change. N e w York, Praeger. 2 vols.

Educational technology: myth and reality

Technology in education or educational

technology? Michael Clarke

N e w techniques, new theories

T h e ball-pen, when first sold in the United Kingdom shortly after the end of the Second World W a r , was a precious object: it cost 70 per cent of an agricultural worker's m i n i m u m wage. Nowadays it costs one-third of one per cent of his wage, it is a commonplace object, and the graphite pencil introduced a century earlier is obsolescent. Dozens of other items used by pupil and teacher are no longer m a d e mechan­ically from wood or metal but are moulded or vacuum-formed from plastic at the rate of hundreds an hour. N e w methods of building construction have changed the design of schools and, in some cases, as with the open-plan classroom for infants, have enlarged our under­standing of the psychology of learning and teaching.

These and a hundred other examples reflect the obvious truth that n e w inventions and devices have always been adopted by teachers or students as soon as they prove themselves appropriate in function and price. Technology is not n e w in education: it becomes interesting

Michael Clarke (United Kingdom). Director of the University of London Audio-Visual Centre. Has di­rected and produced documentary and scientific films in many parts of the world. Author of many articles on aspects of educational media, and of a number of broadcast television documentaries and radio pro­grammes.

when its products facilitate new ways of learn­ing. Today it is sometimes students, rather than teachers, w h o are the innovators. In the indus­trialized countries, where the price of electronic devices has been steadily falling, it is often the child w h o is the first to bring a four-function calculator into the classroom and pose the teacher n e w educational problems. Indeed the cheap calculator typified the deluge of new processes and devices that have poured out from the factories of an increasingly industrialized world in the last three decades.

A s long ago as the 1950s teachers were c o m ­menting on the growing impact of various kinds of technology on education. B y a contraction natural to the English language, the phenom­enon was soon called 'educational technology', a phrase which has become steadily more ambiguous. O n e the one hand it continues to carry its literal meaning: the use for education of inventions, manufactures and processes, which are part of the technology of our time. O n the other hand, a logical confusion has given rise to the notion that, because so m a n y electronic and audio-visual devices are techno­logical in origin, there can exist ca technology of education', like the technologies of air-conditioning, paper-making, and so on. T o this writer the former sense is the reality: the latter, with its wish-fulfilling implications of precision and control, a phantom.

If w e look chronologically at the evolution of new educational methods over the last three decades w e can see that specialist techniques

Prospects, Vol. X 1 :iI,No. 3, 1982

Michael

have become simplified and demystified, as sophistication of internal design makes equip­ment increasingly what American salesmen love to call 'user-friendly'. W e can also observe the parallel evolution of theories of instruction and of evaluation that were sometimes provoked by, but are not in principle related to, the techno­logical developments of the period. It was this parallel growth, of techniques and of theories, which allowed some of the latter to masquerade under cover of the former as ca technology of education'.

At the start of the 1950s all the technical possibilities that were to develop at great speed were already in being and the so-called techno­logical revolution in education in the richer countries was based upon them. It was a rev­olution in four areas: in methods of printing, whether of the written word or of illustration; in mechanical and electronic methods of sound reproduction; in photographic, electromechan­ical and electronic methods of recording static and moving images; and in the design and use of logical machines to compute, to sort infor­mation and to control machinery. In all these areas, of which the last-named m a y prove the most potent and versatile, there has been con­tinuous improvement in the quality of the n e w devices and in their ease of use. T h e effect of technology on educación in the mid-twentieth century, history will declare, was to put soph­isticated ways of reporting, recording and m a ­nipulating the external world into the hands not only of the teacher but, increasingly, of the learner. T o put it another way, industrial development has offered the world of learning n e w forms of communication, n e w types of evidence and n e w ways of coding and solving physical and abstract problems.

These developments can do m u c h to change the role of the teacher, from an authoritarian transmitter of received ideas into an animateur of the student's intellectual and creative poten­tial. Those w h o learn, as children or adults, are no longer a subject race, and the invasion of modern technology into education is helping them define and secure their individuality. N e w technology can m a k e their search for infor-

Clarke

mation less dependent on a possibly fallible tutor, though it will not lessen the importance of the person-to-person relationship from which all good teaching springs.

In the brief review that follows w e shall consider those innovations which are, in the writer's view, the most powerful and durable and which seem to him to have the most to offer, not merely in the industrialized countries, but to developing educational systems else­where.

Printing and reprography

Movable type, six centuries ago, m a d e possible the rapid spread of h u m a n knowledge, and the printed word is not likely to lose its place as the prime force in education. But it need no longer rely exclusively on cumbersome mechanical methods. T h e principles of lithography have been k n o w n to artists for nearly two centuries, but their use in semi-mechanical form for letterpress printing is far more recent. T h e lithographic process will accommodate a photo­graph or a drawing as easily as a block of text, and this has greatly increased the effectiveness of the illustrated book or journal. In the past, illustrations had to be reproduced by expensive block-making techniques, which often called for a special type of paper, which then had to be bound into the pages of text at more or less arbitrary points in the volume. Today, litho­graphy allows illustrations to appear on the same page as text, so that related verbal and visual matter can be studied together. A s well as making the design of publications more flexible, these techniques have reduced the cost of illustration and are largely responsible for the increase in the number of pictorial books and journals n o w available.

A widely used low-cost variant of lithography is beginning to be used by colleges and larger schools. Using a disposable paper plate (replac­ing the lithos, or stone, which gave lithography its name) the technique makes possible in-house production of high-quality print from 'camera-ready artwork'—that is, from a clean and fault-

Technology in education or educational technology? 315

free typescript. It turns every institution with a typewriter into a potential publisher, and the appearance of the text can be m a d e to look more 'professional' if a composing typewriter or a computer-controlled cword processor' is used. These machines hold the typewritten text in a magnetic m e m o r y that can be corrected at will, space out the letters and words, regulate the margins, and type out the entire text at the touch of a single key.

T o these developments w e must add the evolution of press-on lettering in hundreds of typefaces and sizes, with its potential for titling and display and the relief it brings from the constraints of the printer's forme. All these innovations have put into the hands of the educator techniques of information and atten­tion-directing that formerly required the inter­vention of professionals and of commercial firms. Today any school or college can print and publish.

Photography

Photographic illustration has long been avail­able, at a price, to the commercial publishers of textbooks. T h e importance of photography to education is that it introduced the concept of a fnon-verbal record': without the need for the artist's vision or dexterity a camera can produce visual evidence of a chosen aspect of the world. M o r e philosophically and more accurately one should perhaps say that a camera records what appears to it to be the case; that appearance can be varied by control of light, distance and chemistry, and is thus not quite as objective as its first proponents claimed. Photography has also the sometimes unhelpful property of re­cording more visual information than the pur­pose m a y require. Drawing, given the skill, has the advantage that one can include that which demands attention and omit everything else: photography requires stratagems of lighting, focus and composition in order to direct the attention of the viewer.

A photographic revolution has accompanied the reprographic: the 3 5 - m m reflex camera

with its interchangeable lenses and the success­ive innovations of built-in exposure measure­ment, automatic exposure and even automatic focus, has taken photography out of the sole control of specialists and m a d e it an increas­ingly ordinary activity. T h e price of cameras and film has fallen sharply in the last thirty years, and modern processing laboratories pro­duce prints and transparencies of remarkable acutance and chromatic fidelity. Practice and judgement are required to take advantage of modern photographic developments, but only in moderate degree, so that the dedicated teacher can make full use of the automatic slide projectors that are becoming normal items of equipment in m a n y schools and colleges. At a cost for film and processing of perhaps $0.30 per transparency, the price of building up a picture collection in science classes of secondary schools is not impossibly high: the difficulty is more likely to be that of diverting funds from the traditional expenditure on books—a problem that arises in greater measure with the other innovations discussed below.

Cinematography

T h e technology of the moving image came to fruition in the physiological laboratories of the late nineteenth century, and cinematography has never ceased since then to be a tool of the research scientist, source of a unique type of record that was wholly unknown before. T o the concept of the static photographic record was added that of a record cin time'. T o cinematic observation of the behaviour of living things (in­cluding records in slow-motion or in speeded-up time) were soon added filmed demonstrations, of research techniques shown to colleagues or of laboratory practice to students. But more c o m ­plex communications embodying the grammar and syntax of the motion-picture were for long the expensive products of professional film­makers, and educational films, though well-k n o w n in more prosperous countries since the 1930s, have always been something of a luxury. In some countries such as India, Canada and

316 Michael Clarke

the U S S R government-financed production of teaching films became established, but in the commercial economies of Western Europe and the United States the development of film for education depended largely on those few indus­trial firms that sponsored them as a public-relations gesture and on the sporadic goodwill of charitable foundations. While some en­lightened sponsors contributed significantly to the evolution of the well-turned educational or documentary film, the subject coverage was usually uneven and continuity of production depended on the whims of commercial policy.

But its sheer power has always made film a respected and envied technique in education. T h e popularity of natural history, the obser­vation of the plant and animal kingdoms, kept photography and cinematography in the public eye, and it was the availability of 'nature films' that m a d e the i 6 - m m cine-projector one of the earliest audio-visual devices to be found in schools, displacing in some cases the episcope and the 'magic lantern' (projector of 7 5 - m m glass-mounted slides). T h e potential of cine­matography was not in doubt: the difficulty was the complexity of the equipment, the high cost of film and processing and, not least, the mystique in which most film technicians wrapped their highly paid craft. Most professional production was in the costly 3 5 - m m gauge, 16 m m being reserved for scientific research and rich amateurs, and as the gauge for release prints of educational films.

Thus it was until the 1960s, when the techno­logy of film-making changed. N e w colour nega­tive emulsions were produced of remarkably high definition and fidelity, using a single strip of 1 6 - m m film compared with the three c u m ­bersome 3 5 - m m negatives, which, until then, had to be simultaneously exposed to produce an acceptable colour rendering by an enormously expensive laboratory process. Simultaneously, light-weight and precise 1 6 - m m cameras ap­peared and advanced editing equipment. T h e worldwide spread of television broadcasting encouraged this, since a great deal of the m a ­terial broadcast on television was and is recorded on cinema film to begin with. Towards the end

of the decade m a n y universities in north-west Europe emulated the example of their United States counterparts and set up audio-visual production units, in which the new 1 6 - m m film technology was to play an important part for several years. Its precision and ease of editing maintain the importance of film in educational production, and it will be some time yet before it is ousted by the electronic techniques discussed below. T h e latter however are likely to become significantly cheaper.

Broadcasting

'Distance education' is modern jargon for a process that has been going on ever since the first book was transported from one place to another, and every textbook is an example of it. Radio broadcasting, which gave rise to the phrase, nevertheless offers a learning experience of a quality different from that of reading or classroom teaching: lacking direct interaction it changed the role of both teacher and learner and encouraged the growth of evaluation tech­niques. It also brought to education the notion that a distant specialist or public figure could 'enter' the h o m e or the classroom, back in the days when there was no sound-recording and all broadcasts were live. Radio accustomed people to the notion that experts, politicians, authors and teachers could be in some sense personally accessible through the sound of their voice and the style of their utterance, with an individual presence different from that conveyed by the printed page. It was a notion that would not be limited to broadcasting and would bring a n e w component into m a n y kinds of teaching.

A broadcasting contribution to the public education system is n o w familiar in most countries, and it was the broadcasters w h o first recognized that print and 'non-book media' often work well in harness, the printed page providing information complementary to the broadcast and summarizing its content for re­vision. S o m e broadcasting authorities have be­come large-scale publishers, producing hun-

Technology in education or educational technology? 317

dreds of books and booklets annually related not only to the official schools transmissions but to other programmes, and they were the first 'multimedia' publishers.

Radio broadcasting remains an important educational method even in the era of television, not least because it is possible to listen and learn while also doing something else. But the innovative effect of broadcasting was to gain real force with the growth of television. Tele­vision brought to the screen all the k n o w n potential of the educational film; it brought into the living-room or the classroom the ex­perts and public figures w h o m one had only heard on radio. N o w one had the satisfaction of putting a face to a n a m e . Broadcast television was educative in the widest sense and it d e m ­onstrated all the different ways in which it could educate and instruct across a range of homely and academic subjects. In the process, the non-fiction producers of the world's tele­vision stations learned m a n y lessons about audio-visual communication, some of them already k n o w n to film-makers: that to show a skill being performed is not necessarily to teach the viewer that skill; that spoken words m a y increase the efficacy of images, but that not every image needs a word; that the visual image m a y not always be the best way of stating a concept but m a y nevertheless m a k e it more memorable—and a hundred other revelations that audio-visual communication is even more subtle than either of its components.

Another contribution by broadcasting to education is often forgotten because it is in­direct. T h e cheap radio set, and later the spread of television in m a n y countries, have created societies vastly better informed than heretofore: broadcasting has created an appetite for k n o w ­ledge, and indeed its future role is likely to remain in the area of broad adult education. T h e broadcasters have always been limited by the fixed timetable within which they and the listeners or viewers must operate, and broad­casts have therefore been the electronic equiv­alent of the chained book. T h e advent of record­ing, however, as discussed below, turns the radio or television transmitter into a pipeline,

as it were, for programmes which can be recorded and re-played at will. In m a n y countries the obvious utility of this arrangement is con­strained by the fact that it is contrary to copy­right laws: where such laws do not yet exist, governments would do better to ensure that the programme-makers are decently paid for their work than to emulate the restrictive copyright provisions found in societies based on a c o m ­mercial economy.

Because of the constraints of fixed-time broadcasting, some of the larger educational bodies in the United States decided in the 1960s to set up their o w n production and distribution systems, first for radio and then for closed-circuit television, there being at the time no easy way of recording the programmes. These expensive developments were based on some simplistic assumptions, notably that a television camera pointed at a lecturer giving his ordinary performance would result auto­matically in effective teaching of those w h o viewed him on the television set. M a n y people seemed to think that such a closed-circuit system was a duplicator of reality, and it took some time for academic administrators to come to terms with the facts of audio-visual life: in particular, to recognize that a television camera seems to emphasize the faults in an ill-prepared or hesitant lecture, that m a n y blackboard scrawls or slides copied from books were often even more indecipherable on television than in the lecture hall, and that the general methods used by film-makers to emphasize the important and reduce the irrelevant m a d e semantic sense. Eventually, m a n y universities fell into the op­posite trap, and educational productions tended to mimic not merely the grammar but the styles of broadcast television, even though the objec­tives of the two were different.

In the early days of these educational tele­vision stations, the value was limited by the fact that all transmissions were 'live', so that mistakes by teacher, cameraman or producer were irretrievable, and thus m u c h rehearsal was required. But broadcasting had shown that education could acquire a n e w dimension: but it was magnetic recording, first of sound and

3i8 Michael Clarke

then of television, which began to liberate edu­cation from direct dependence on commercial publishers, public broadcasters or industrial-scale techniques.

Magnetic recording

Radio broadcasting had introduced millions to international news and current affairs and to the aural arts, but the listeners had no control over editorial policy or transmission times. T h e long-playing record was to offer a limited lib­eration, at least in respect of music and the arts of the spoken word, but it was produced by an expensive industrial technique, economic only if thousands of copies could be sold: thus it remained the product of large-scale publish­ing, and its techniques were not available to the public at large.

T h e magnetic audio-tape recorder reversed this, w h e n it became generally accessible in the 1950s. Here was a n e w technique that could be used to record music or speech oneself or to re-record them from phonograph discs. T h e raw material, the magnetic tape, was relatively cheap and within reason could be erased and used again. It was the visual m e d i u m , cinema­tography, which had introduced the concept of a record in time, but magnetic sound-recording was the first to m a k e it freely available to the non-professional. T h e rapid development in the 1960s and 1970s of good-quality audio-cassette systems, including very cheap battery-driven versions, m a d e instructional sound recording an important supplement to existing forms of communication in m a n y areas of education. In the writer's o w n university, sets of audio-cassettes, sometimes combined with printed notes, are m a d e available to students, in lieu of conventional lectures, in such widely differing subjects as obstetrics and gynaecology and African history. T h e battery-driven cassette machine has been pioneered by the World Health Organization for instruction in paed-iatric health care, while in Australia the Family Medicine Programme has used the same type of cassettes, distributed by mail,

for the continuing education of general prac­titioners.

Perhaps the most enduring contribution of magnetic sound-recording to education will be in the teaching of languages. T h e combination of recording with electronic logic systems to control a so-called language laboratory has produced one of the most potent ways of creating linguistic competence that one could conceive. Like any other programmed system, the design of the teaching programmes them­selves and the linguistic quality of the record­ings are paramount and no machine can replace them. This said, there is no doubt that, in the limited but vital area of teaching foreign languages, the language laboratory is one of the most effective technological devices ever intro­duced into education.

T h e ease and speed of audio-recording pointed the way towards another major use of magnetic recording: the study of behaviour and performance, including one's o w n . In analysis of the linguistics and psychology of group discussion, in personal interaction of other kinds such as interviewing and counselling, and in the criticism of musical, dramatic or rhe­torical performance, the audio-recorder was to prove a potent force. But for educational pur­poses it was to prove only the precursor of a far more versatile technique, that of magnetic video-recording.

Video or recorded television

Despite its n a m e , the videotape-machine or video-recorder registers not only the image viewed by a television camera but also, synchron­ously, any related sound. In other words, the television camera and recorder perform the electronic equivalent of synchronized filming, which has always been the most expensive and elaborate technique of cinematography. Video-recorders were developed in the 1950s as a tool of broadcast television, and their high-quality versions were and are formidably expensive in price and in the specialized staff they require. But by 1964 cheaper video-tape machines were

Technology in education or educational technology? 319

in production in North America, Europe and Japan, with an eye to a potential market in education and training. Despite a rash of differ­ent and incompatible types (there is no inter­national standard for video-recorders outside the field of broadcasting) the cheaper video­tape machines were soon selling well to edu­cational bodies at all levels in the industrialized countries, and later more widely. Even more powerfully than the audio-recorder a few years earlier, and following the stimulating models of broadcasting, they precipitated m a n y n e w ap­proaches to teaching, from the infant school to postgraduate and continuing education.

Once granted that it is not a magical device or instant solution to educational problems, it is difficult to imagine an invention more widely useful in almost every branch of learning and teaching than video—the n a m e n o w widely given to the use of recorded television, to distinguish it from broadcast television. Dif­ferent grades of cameras and recorders are n o w manufactured, so that the use of video within the classroom to magnify or to record perform­ance is n o w becoming practicable, with equip­ment costs in the same order as those of physics, electronics or chemistry teaching. T h e technol­ogy at this level is not always suitable for editing or duplicating, and thus for complex visual syntax or for publishing a m o n g a group of schools or colleges: but a somewhat higher grade is available for use by such bodies in video or audio-visual production centres, with­out vast sums having to be spent on the superlative equipment used by television broad­casters. Where school or university centres were set up to broadcast by cable, they n o w tend to become centres for the production of master recordings, which can be copied for use in classroom or library.

There is probably no aspect of education, no subject in the curriculum or topic in teacher training where recorded television could not find a use and add to the depth, breadth or forms of learning. All the acknowledged power of film is available in video and it does some types of image manipulation better. Broadcast television pointed the way, and magnetic record­

ing m a d e it possible not only to show but to preserve the images and sounds of the otherwise inaccessible, unrepeatable or almost invisible event. Recorded video can bring the dis­tinguished practitioner into the classroom or the library, preserving not only his technique but his views and his experiences as he narrates them. It can use the television camera to demonstrate physical techniques in engineering, crafts, medicine and the sciences, and copies of the recordings can be used not only by the teacher but afterwards, in the library, for re­vision by the learner. In such a case, video as magnifier combines with video as recorded teaching. Compile a systematic series of such recordings and put them in the library and you have a powerful reinforcement to the learning gained in the practical class. A d d printed notes or a booklet to the series and then, if the programmes and notes have been designed with this purpose in mind from the outset, you have a kit for study at h o m e .

T h e various forms of learning that education­ists love to differentiate—resource-based learn­ing, self-instruction, distance education—are n e w phrases for h u m a n activities that have long been familiar; and they have come into promi­nence because the audio- and video-recording n o w enable the learner to use a number of different communication media, for himself, just as he does a book. T h u s modern technology, continually falling in price thus far and be­coming available to education in those countries still at an early stage of economic growth, gives the learner not only a broader and deeper range of information but also offers him more personal control of his o w n pace and progress. Indeed it could be argued that, for this reason, modern communications methods allow the learner to continue his studies in the natural, exploratory way which characterizes every h u m a n being's first self-taught lessons about the nature of the world around him.

If proof were needed that video is becoming an accepted tool of the educator, it is found in the rapid spread of its use, and this is reinforced in the industrialized countries during the last three years by a sudden rise in the number of

320 Michael Clarke

domestically owned video-cassette recorders. M a n y millions of homes n o w possess such a machine, often acquired to record broadcast programmes for viewing at a more convenient time: but 1980 saw a rapid rise in video-cassette publication. In the past, old feature films or television series were sold in cassette form, but n o w original productions are being m a d e for the m e d i u m , and they include edu­cational subjects. T h e video equivalent of the textbook, once confined to schools and colleges, is n o w publicly available. This development will not long be confined to the industrialized nations, and indeed low-cost video is already widely in use in schools elsewhere, despite the unconvincing protests of a few paternalists that it is not 'appropriate'. Often the equipment is first acquired for self-criticism in teacher-training, since one of the prime virtues of video is for what the French call autoscopie—a word which used to denote the illusion or halluci­nation of seeing oneself but n o w has the literal meaning of observing, in video, one's o w n performance. Autoscopy can of course be ex­tended from teaching to acting, playing a musical instrument, interviewing and other interactive contexts—and it has the great virtue, compared with sound-recording, of showing non-verbal information, the so-called body language of gesture, pose and proximity.

T o its power to report and document pro­cesses and events, video adds another potent force, the stimulus and even the pleasure of images themselves. But it is important to remember that no image can be entirely ob­jective: like the written or spoken word, it contains elements of choice which make every film or television recording, even a piece of news-film, to some extent a work not of fact but of authorship. Every scene is only one of a number of possible viewpoints. In addition there are physical constraints, as in photography, of optical contrast, resolution and colour repro­duction. So the use of video, like any other med ium, needs practice and an awareness of a few m i n i m u m limitations and conventions. It is not difficult to train teachers or students to meet the basic physical requirements, while the visual

conventions that make for clarity or avoid a m ­biguity can be simply demonstrated. Most of these semantic conventions involve selecting a viewpoint, lighting plan or point of focus that will reduce irrelevant information and thus direct the attention of the viewer, and they re­quire the communicator to make allowance for his o w n foreknowledge and egocentricity—the most c o m m o n barriers to clear exposition in any med ium.

Logical machines

T h e technologies so far discussed—of printing, photography, sound-recording and video—offer improved and potent forms of one-way c o m ­munication. They make it easier for the teacher or instructor to show as well as to say, they provide a richer store of material for the learner to study. There are other techniques which seek to compete with those w e have considered, such as Super-8 film, the slide mount with its o w n magnetic sound, the synchronized tape-slide sequence: but all seem unlikely to endure, as far as education is concerned, in face of the sheer flexibility and convenience of magnetic recording. Illustrated print in its newer forms, slides for high visual quality or personal teaching collections, audio-cassettes and video-cassettes —all these are ways of storing and distributing information so convenient that they are unlikely to be superseded except by techniques that are even cheaper and more adaptable. T h e m u c h -heralded video disc seems uncertain: it is a high-technology device requiring a special play­back machine and, like the long-playing phono­graph record, it is geared to mass commercial or official publishing. In education it could become a n e w form of publication well adapted to subjects with a stable curriculum and large numbers of students; it is also a good way of storing large numbers of static images and m a y well find a use in art, social history and medical collections. But it will not, in the foreseeable future, allow teachers or stu­dents to make their o w n recordings or be suitable for in-house publication in low

Technology in education or educational technology? 321

volume by universities or education authorities. A quite different technology is based on the

properties of semi-conducting materials: the development of electronic logical machines of ever-increasing complexity, capacity and small-ness. T h e logic of the Jacquard loom, one might say, had been adapted in the 1890s to the storage and sorting of information and punched cards; in the 1940s these were (and still are) used to drive electronic logical devices. But the real advance came w h e n the thermionic valve on which these 'automatic data-processing systems' were based was replaced, initially by germanium or silicon transistors and other components and latterly by miniature integrated circuits and microcircuitry encased in a silicon chip, while storage of data tended to m o v e from punched card or punched paper-tape to magnetic m a ­terials. Computers can not only perform arith­metic computations at high speed; their im­portance lies at least as m u c h in their other powers, to store, sort and compare information, to print, to produce graphical displays on a television screen, to control drafting machines and mechanical devices of almost any kind.

T h e potential of this n e w technology in education and public life, and especially of the ways of thought which it stimulates, is only just beginning to be understood, as micro­computers with quite large capacities, based upon the mass-produced silicon chip, start to be produced in tens of thousands. Computing is already indispensable to m a n y branches of science and engineering, and thus to education in those areas: in m a n y countries computer programming is taught in secondary school, often to far wider groups than those in science courses. T h e microcomputer will m a k e the teaching of programming (a painfully repetitive task for the expert) a great deal easier, especially if reinforced by the video-taped programming courses that have already proved their efficacy. Wherever part of a subject can be taught or tested with a branching learning programme, the microcomputer with its visual display unit and keyboard n o w offers the quickest and pleasantest way of using the programme. C o m ­pared with the cumbersome and unresponsive

teaching-machines of twenty years ago, which brought so m a n y disappointments, the c o m ­puter is a highly efficient vehicle for programmed learning, not simply because of its speed but because of its interactive potential. Since c o m ­puter systems hold information in an econ­omical digital form, the student can use them not only to respond to branching teaching programmes but to seek information from which he can derive correct answers, and by a further step the computer can provide built-in criticism of the learner's performance and explanation of the cause of mistakes. In several countries there have been extensive studies of the potential of computer-aided instruction, which must be theoretically limitless. T h e constraints are likely to lie partly in the psychological aspects of learning in this way , but even more in the economics of providing large numbers of pro­grammes in specialized subjects.

Computers can be linked by cable or radio to 'remote terminals' and major libraries in m a n y parts of the globe are n o w able to search the data bases of the scholarly world for bib­liographic information. Medicine was the first subject to develop an automatic retrieval net­work of this kind, followed by other physical and biological sciences. In these fields, for any specific topic, a list of two dozen or so journal articles of the last three years, culled from library information in several continents, can be displayed on the inquirer's screen in a few seconds and printed out on paper. At present this type of activity is limited to in­dexing of publications or similar brief data: but these are early days and there is nothing in principle to prevent not merely the titles but the entire texts of books and journals being stored and retrieved by computer. T h e sheer size and cost of such stores is currently daunting but m a y not remain so.

Since computers use television screens as display units, it is natural to look for a link between computing and the domestic television set. In the United K i n g d o m and a few other countries this has already begun, in association with the telephone system. T h e Prestel tech­nique uses the telephone to link a specially

322 Michael Clarke

adapted television set and a keyboard to a central computer and information store contain­ing large quantities of commercial and other data, as well as teaching programmes. This system is being used experimentally in the United K i n g d o m for continuing education of general medical practitioners. But the tech­nique is limited to alpha-numerical information and simple graphic diagrams.

T h e analogue principle of current television technology will soon be replaced by digital encoding and transmission of picture and sound. T h e n , in principle, there will be no difference be­tween the alpha-numerical data already handled in digital form by computers and the visual/ aural data of television: it will all be digital in­formation. Unfortunately, pictorial information is far more cdense' than is verbal, and the band­width needed for computers to handle pictorial material as part of teaching algorithms is too great for illustrated computerized programmed learning to be an early prospect. But computers can already be programmed to trigger video­tape or video-disc machines and eventually the latter will doubtless become the principal ve­hicle for computer-aided instruction.

Technology in education v. educational technology

If some have been disappointed as three decades of n e w inventions flooded the schools and colleges, they have been a m o n g the credu­lous, those w h o believed that 'educational tech­nology' was really a system of control, resem­bling automotive or aeronautical technology, so that for a given input and a given design, a given output could be predicted. T h e claims of some w h o styled themselves educational technologists and boasted of their truly scien­tific approach to teaching were based on a mixture of programmed learning, behavioural psychology and cybernetics, and for a few years were well received. But a note of arrogance and increasingly strident implications that all existing teachers and educationists were on the wrong track and illogical thinkers to boot m a d e

the movement lose some credibility. Its effort to urge the so-called systems approach on all teachers of all subjects, in an attempt at a coherent theory, seemed to m a n y to mix the theological with the obvious. T h e insistence, for example, on behavioural objectives ignored the real difficulties of teaching those subjects where the objectives might be general in nature or not achieved until months or years after the course.

For reasons like these, in the anglophone educational culture at least, the claims of edu­cational technology in the theoretical sense have lost m u c h of their credibility, for they went too far. If the value of the systems approach and the insistence on logical development of courses had been limited to 'instruction', in the British-English sense of the imparting of a testable manual or mental skill, m u c h good thinking would not have been scorned. Similarly, the development of techniques of evaluation seems to have been used by some educational tech­nologists as a way of scoring off their tradition­alist teacher colleagues; but there was real merit in looking afresh not only at the assessment of students' performance but at ways of evalu­ating the efficacy and faults of a course. With the growth of distance education and open-learning systems, the 'evaluation industry', as its critics call it, has become respectable again in orthodox eyes.

Appropriate technology?

T h e decision to introduce an innovation, in education or anything else, is correct if it is consonant and in sequence with the long-term aims of a community. 'Appropriate technology' is that choice of methods that accords with public policy, but the phrase also reminds us of the dangers of installing some seductive process out of phase, or yielding to sales-talk or falling into economic or political dependence. T h e educational techniques described in this article are unlikely to carry these dangers. Indeed if a nation wishes to lead the life of a m o d e m science-based industrial society (and some do

Technology in education or educational technology?

not), they will sooner or later be indispensable to its growth, for they create skill and knowledge in the population.

Sometimes a n e w technology can actually stimulate the educational developments which, a cautious adviser might say, should precede its introduction. Decisions on the sequence of educational investment are never easy and this article has not attempted to cost the benefits of savings that the n e w techniques of c o m m u n i ­cation can bring, if only because m a n y of them are unquantifiable. But it is certain that they cannot only enrich general education but can also be effectively used in training and in­struction: there are m a n y successful examples of mental and manipulative skills being taught by video, for instance. These results are not automatic however, and planners must allow for the academic time and effort needed to design and produce teaching programmes, the need to ensure that equipment suppliers can offer technical training, repair centres and ad­equate stocks of spares, and the time and cost of training academic staff to communicate effec­tively in media that are n e w to them. For this, people m a y have to be sent abroad, and they will have to distinguish between those parts of foreign instruction that are purely technical and others which, under the guise of teaching conventions of grammar or style, actually en­courage underlying cultural or political attitudes. Computers, cameras, microphones and printing-presses are neutral: their use is not.

Investment in the n e w technologies involves nothing inherently detrimental, if one can ac­cept the existence of the science-based indus­tries that gave them birth, and in the end the decisions will be a matter of setting one cost against another. It is worth asking whether, in that process, the printed word (which will probably remain the supreme vehicle of k n o w ­ledge) should be given primacy, or should be encouraged in parallel with the newer, non­verbal media. Experience suggests that the latter always find far wider uses than those for which they are acquired. •

Educational technology, present and future

David G . Hawkridge

W e live in the twentieth century, the century of technology. Our everyday existence depends on technology. Even in remote parts of the world, technology has come to stay.

W h a t has technology done for education? In 1982, what can w e say about its impact on learners' learning or on teachers' teaching? T o what extent have early hopes for technology in education been fulfilled? Where is technology n o w most useful? A n d is it going to be vastly more useful in the near future? Are there danger signals w e should heed in seeking new applications of technology in education? These are the questions before us. They are not easy to answer. T h e answers certainly vary according to the national context: some countries claim m u c h greater success than others, and some countries have clear advantages over others as they exploit technology for education.

If w e define technology as consisting of materials, tools, systems and techniques, edu­cational technology takes on a rather broad aspect. It encompasses almost everything in education, in fact, from curriculum develop­ment to students' learning styles to com­puterized class scheduling to slates in bush classrooms. Here w e focus on 'technological means' in the educational process, such as

David G . Hawkridge (United Kingdom). Professor

of Applied Educational Sciences and Director of the

Institute of Educational Technology at the Open

University of the United Kingdom, Milton Keynes.

Has been a consultant for Unesco, the World Bank

and the Council of Europe; former Visiting Scholar

at Stanford University's Institute for Communication

Research and at Syracuse University's Center for

Information Technology in Education.

radio, television, film, computers, satellites and tape-recorders, as well as the techniques as­sociated with them when they are used for education. Even then, the field is very broad, and although appropriate for this particular issue of Prospects, the scope is of course in another sense too narrow. Educational tech­nology is as m u c h concerned with 'ends', and with the educational process itself (Hawkridge, 1981).

W h a t were the early hopes for technology in education?

It is c o m m o n knowledge that in many developed countries, particularly in North America and Western Europe, broadcasting held out high hopes for education. Educational radio rose to prominence in the years between the two world wars, and educational television has blossomed in the years since the Second World W a r . Both media spread soon to developing countries, encouraged by international agencies such as Unesco. N o w almost every country claims to use either educational radio or educational television or both. In some countries, total pro­vision m a y amount to no more than an hour or two a week, but elsewhere it m a y add up to more than a hundred hours in the same week, beamed at a variety of audiences. Tens or hundreds of thousands, even millions, follow educational broadcasts, which have become instruments of mass education. Film, audio and video tape-recorders and other technological teaching aids have been used widely in the developed world but less so in most developing countries.

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326 David G. Hawkridge

If w e take broadcasting as a typical example, what did educators and politicians expect from this application of technology in education? S c h r a m m et al. (1967) put it well in the intro­duction to their book, The New Media: Memo to Educational Planners, published by Unesco/ H E P : 'This m e m o r a n d u m is for a m a n w h o is concerned with helping education do more than it has done, and be better than it has been.' Broadcasting would bring education to more learners, and would improve that education. T h e general claim staked out for technology was (and is) m u c h the same. Technology, it was (and is) said, would increase numbers of those with access to education, either by breaking d o w n physical barriers of distance and time, or by lowering the cost per student, thus enabling an educational system to take in more students. Technology would also improve the quality of education by bringing to students richer cur­ricula, well-structured lessons and outstanding teachers, and by providing a powerful motiv­ational aid to learning. Students would learn more each year.

Until recently, developed countries tended to consider that their interest rested mainly in taking advantage of what technology could do to increase the quality of education, rather than the quantity. Their citizens already had m a n y educational opportunities. Developing countries, on the other hand, were obliged to be vitally interested in increasing quantity and quality, preferably within constant budgets.

Have these hopes been fulfilled?

It is clear from m a n y studies (see, for example, Hawkridge and Robinson, 1981; Perraton, in press) that technology, particularly broadcast­ing, has succeeded in bringing education to more people, both children and adults, in developing countries. For example, through radio, learners w h o never received any formal classroom education have been able to. study and others have been able to continue, once they have left school.

It is also certain that technology has enriched

education in m a n y countries, whether through direct teaching (as in Japan's broadcasting-and-correspondence schools) or through in­direct (as in Mexico's television soap operas and Kenya's radio stories for health education).

T h e hopes that have not been fulfilled are of three kinds. First, across the board, there is little evidence, from m a n y evaluative studies, of substantial increases in the rate of learning by students in classrooms served by technology w h e n compared with those not so served. If there have been such increases, they have rarely been detected by cognitive tests. T h e rare exceptions simply prove the rule. Second, the evidence on costs tells us that technology does not bring lower costs per student except in very exceptional circumstances (Eicher et al., 1982). Instead, technology is likely at present to constitute an added cost, with the inevitable consequence that it m a y be viewed as a luxury rather than a necessity. Third, with the excep­tion of educational broadcasting, technology is far from all-pervasive in educational systems, formal and non-formal, around the world. Its spread has been slower than m a n y predicted.

T h u s decision-makers have become cautious about promising that children will learn faster, that costs will drop or that every child will have access to the benefits of the technology, if only it is installed.

Over the past fifty years (roughly the period in which technology has been on trial) quite a few problems have arisen to deter governments and their ministries from rushing into tech­nology for education. Even before the Second World W a r , in the days w h e n educational radio was being propagated in m a n y developed countries, it became clear that teachers were taking longer to see the benefits of technology than politicians or administrators. Teachers were not (and in m a n y places still are not) being trained to use radio or films, and tech­nology was requiring of them roles that they could not or would not assume. They continued to place greater value on their o w n tutorial and didactic powers than on what technology could provide. They sought spontaneity, directness and unmediated learning. These trends re-

Educational technology, present and future 327

curred in developing countries as many case-studies have shown. W h e n television came, it was seen as even more demanding of teaching personnel than radio: it pushed them to the back of the class, so to speak, yet expected them to integrate its complex messages with their o w n teaching.

Another problem has become apparent m u c h more recently, and particularly with regard to developing countries' use of technology in edu­cation. It is that not only the technological equipment but also the programmes (say, for television) are obtained at a cost of heavy technical and often financial dependence on another country. A few countries in the devel­oped world make the equipment and train technicians in its use. They have, too, a near monopoly in the making of high-quality edu­cational products and programmes. They set the standard other countries aim for, and through such dominance, these countries achieve economies of scale and thereby increase their lead over countries whose products are made for m u c h smaller, less lucrative markets. There are a few signs that this pattern is being broken. In countries like India, television sets are as­sembled and local programme production is n o w possible, using equipment mainly built elsewhere, and employing technicians with a mixture of overseas and local training. T h e prevailing pattern applies to broadcasting and even more so to the newest technologies (e.g. satellites and computers).

Manufacturers of technological equipment for use in education are, almost without ex­ception, aiming to make profits. They have been accused at times of being irresponsible in selling technology because they have tended to leave its use to the purchasers. That is to say, they have not gone far enough in seeking to ensure that suitable teaching materials were available for use with their equipment. Nor have they provided adequate maintenance and servicing facilities. In the worst cases, they have failed to offer any training for operators of the equipment. A number of technological ventures in education have foundered on this rock, both in developed countries and those still devel­

oping. Notable among them were teaching machines sold in the 1960s without a range of good-quality programmes. Educators know that they cannot afford to repeat such mistakes, to have expensive equipment gathering dust.

Changing uses of technology

In 1982, w e are bound to say that educational broadcasting is the most widespread form of technology in education and the most highly valued internationally, despite some signs in developed countries like the United Kingdom that other technologies (e.g. audio- and video-cassettes) are becoming important.

Our understanding of h o w broadcasting can be used to best advantage in various sectors of education increases year by year. A s Lyle (1981) points out, fifteen years ago m u c h educational broadcasting was indeed live, and this was justified on grounds of spontaneity and indigen­ous or local production. In fact, m a n y pro­duction staff were still learning their trade and their products were perhaps seldom worth recording, but with each cycle of production their experience increased and so did the press­ures to record series for future use. Early fears about control of content diminished and demand for high-quality programmes rose in m a n y countries, therefore it became desirable to con­centrate production resources, to record pro­grammes and to distribute them widely. Today, equipment is available to record, store and duplicate programmes, and programme ex­changes foster wider distribution. Teachers can plan their lessons knowing that these pro­grammes can be bought, borrowed or, in some countries, copied freely.

W e have also learned more about cultural impact, not least from major educational broad­casting experiments in American Samoa, India and the Ivory Coast. W e know more about the impact of indirect teaching, as in the Tanzanian radio campaigns. Developing countries are n o w aware of h o w they m a y adapt to their o w n needs the programmes of other countries: the flexible use of television programme segments

328 David G. Hawkridge

from Sesame Street is a good example, with full-scale adaptations for Spanish-speaking, Egyptian and other foreign audiences. These countries have also noticed the dangers of cultural impact that stem from having large numbers of foreigners to hand as 'helpers' w h e n technology is being installed. Here the Colombian and Ivory Coast experiences with the Americans and French are worth noting.

W e do not k n o w nearly enough about util­ization, the term commonly used for what happens on the ground, particularly in schools. Technological problems, such as fluctuating or even non-existent power sources for television sets, can be solved quicker than organizational and personal ones. Large organizations, like ministries of education, and even individual institutions like the British O p e n University, are complex and throw up m a n y barriers against technological innovation. T h e co-operation of trade unions is essential, for example, if util­ization is to be effective and widespread. A n d the problems faced by individuals whose careers will be changed by technology cannot be ignored.

Changes in utilization can of course be helped along by technological developments. It is significant that today broadcasting is being used more and more in conjunction with other devices such as video-cassette recorders and audio-cassette recorders. In Japan, for instance, it is clear that secondary school teachers have changed the way in which they make use of broadcasts. Lyle (1981) quotes the data:

All the classrooms in three-fourths of the primary schools n o w contain a television set. Since 1975 the use of television . . . has reached saturation . . . As the use of television has climbed, the use of radio (almost universally available) has dropped from above 50 per cent to around 25 per cent (i.e. 25 per cent of schools m a k e some use). A different pattern has developed in the secondary schools. . . . Television's use has increased, but by 1971 it was still only at the 50 per cent level. A n d the displacement of radio was m u c h less marked . . . having dropped from about 50 per cent to about 40 per cent. B y the mid-1970s almost nine out often Japanese senior high schools had been supplied with video cassette recorders (and) . . . the

use of television has paralleled the increase in the availability of video cassette recorders. . . .

Where television is used in senior high schools, it almost exclusively—89 per cent—involves the use of cassettes. T h e same is true for radio programmes: 90 per cent of their use involves tape recordings. Even in the junior high, where the proportion of schools with video cassette recorders is m u c h lower, the trend is quite similar. But although four out of ten primary schools have video cassette recorders, the use of television is almost exclusively off-air.

W h a t has happened in Japan, of course, is that teachers in secondary schools w h o could not easily change their schedules to fit in with broadcasting schedules can n o w keep the re­cordings and use them w h e n needed in class. Teachers in primary schools, traditionally re­sponsible for organizing their o w n day with their class, could readily allow time for broad­casts, and still do. Teachers have control of the m e d i u m at both levels n o w ; that is very im­portant from their point of view.

This conjunction of technology is only a foretaste of what m a y come, however, as w e shall see. Change is the constant reading on the barometer of educational technology. Broad­casting technology will not be exempt from change, nor will education. But if change is inevitable, our acceptance of particular changes is not. Are w e aware of what w e should be challenging?

Some examples of technology applied

Before w e m o v e on to consider the future, it m a y be useful to identify examples where there is good reason to claim that technology is being used to advantage. In the formal sector, w e m a y look at primary school mathematics by radio in Nicaragua and at multimedia degree level courses offered by the O p e n University in the United Kingdom. In the non-formal sector, there are examples to look at from Botswana (teaching skills for development) and Canada (continuing education of nurses). For each, a short description must suffice.

Educational

Primary school mathematics by radio. T h e Nicaraguan Ministry of Public Education, with help from the United States, carried out in the 1970s a project in which primary school children were taught mathematics by radio. T h e project started in the district around Masaya, a town about 30 k m from the capital, M a n a g u a , and by 1978 about 8,000 children were being served. T h e radio lessons were written and broadcast by locally recruited staff, initially under the guidance of American experts. Local staff also wrote, printed and distributed teachers' guides. T h e radio lessons were aimed at increasing achievement in mathematics, through easy and wide utilization at low cost, in ways acceptable to children, teachers, parents and officials. Evaluation reports reflect substantial success for the project. Teachers were willing to use the radio lessons in the classroom and followed them up as advised in the guides. Children in the radio classes learned significantly more at each grade level (grades 1-4) in the project. A political change in 1979 halted production of new radio lessons, and at last report the ministry was undecided about whether to use the existing recorded lessons on a m u c h wider scale, across the country.

Multimedia degree courses. T h e O p e n University in the United K i n g d o m uses a combination of technologies to teach some 60,000 adult under­graduates. Since it started in 1969, more than 45,000 adults have obtained degrees from the O p e n University, studying part-time in their o w n homes via print, television, radio, audio-cassettes, gramophone records, slides, the tele­phone, h o m e experiment kits and other means. Students m a y also have access to television, video-cassettes and computer terminals in local study centres. T h e O p e n University's operations depend heavily on a central computer used not only for financial and administrative purposes but also for grading a large number of tests. T h e university is also experimenting with teach­ing through a range of advanced technologies which combine computers and telecommuni­cation links.

', present and future 329

Development skills. In Botswana, radio is being used to help teach development skills to adult rural w o m e n . T h e Botswana Extension College set up a two-stage project. In the first stage, without radio, staff identified 'natural leaders', respected and functionally literate, in each village, w h o could be volunteer change agents. Staff also designed simple instruction cards for use by these leaders. Each card shows, by means of pictures and printed vernacular (or English), a particular skill such as making maize meal porridge with ground-nuts added or h o w to knit a hat. Series teach child care, sewing and nutrition. In the second stage of the project, with radio, operations m o v e d from local to national scale. Major national organ­izations chose people to be trained as trainers, and these trainers returned to their h o m e lo­cations to train local leaders. Radio is used to publicize and discuss the cards once a week. Requests foi cards come in from local w o m e n ' s clubs, R e d Cross groups, extension agents, schoolteachers and churches. Cards are also supplied through government agencies, such as the Ministry of Public Health, which runs m a n y mothers' clinics. Radio is used minimally, but with substantial impact.

Continuing education of nurses. In Canada, tele-medicine services are being provided to five small, very remote villages in the north of the province of Ontario. These services include continuing medical education for nurses and volunteers stationed there. T h e communities can be reached only by air transport and not at all in bad weather. T h e link between the three hospitals in the project and the five villages is provided by slow-scan television, a system that uses radio telephone channels via satellite. Staff at each hospital have two-way c o m m u n i ­cation with staff in the villages, being able to send and receive series of still pictures with conventional voice transmission to accompany them. For example, a nurse in a village can place an X-ray in front of the television camera and the image will be transmitted to a doctor's screen in one of the hospitals far away. T h e nurse can discuss the case with the doctor, w h o

330 David G. Hawkridge

m a y in turn wish to transmit another picture, perhaps a photograph or the page of a book, to the nurse to explain some diagnostic point. Similar projects operate in other parts of North America.

N e w information technology

In capitals around the world, w e hear that technology is likely to bring change, significant and rapid. Governments in developed countries particularly are pinning their hopes for econ­omic revival on advanced technology. In devel­oping countries, leaders are searching for ways to leap-frog stages of industrialization that developed nations struggled through and they look to technology to help them.

In particular, the two words 'information technology' have acquired special meaning in the last few years. Information technology was at our disposal long ago, in the days of writing on w o o d or stone, but this is the new information technology. W h a t does it consist of? W h y is it so vital a component of what Toffler (1980) calls ' T h e Third W a v e ' of change (the first two being the agricultural and industrial revolutions respectively)? Can w e avoid damaging effects during this Third W a v e , despite our apparent failure to do so during the first two?

T h e n e w information technology is founded upon recent developments in three fields: computers, microelectronics and telecommuni­cations. These developments have converged and in doing so have already revolutionized information technology, with more change still to come. Instead of information technology depending largely upon 'mechanical' means of carrying out its functions, it can n o w depend upon 'electronic' means. Electronic devices en­able us to create, store, select, process, deliver and display information at speeds and in quan­tities that were seldom imagined. Moreover, they enable us to manipulate extremely small pieces of information that fill less than a millionth of a second, if w e so wish. These fragments can be drawn together in m a n y differ­ent ways, whether in selecting knowledge from

a computerized data base, in building up a picture transmitted by slow-scan television, in carrying out complex computations for admin­istrative purposes or in a multitude of other applications. A n d w e are able to use n e w in­formation technology with little risk of wearing out moving parts (because there are so few), with no fear of burning up vast reserves of energy (because it requires so little) and with the prospect of the real costs of the equipment falling substantially.

This is not the place to go into technical detail, but it is worth noting a few points about each of the three technologies before w e consider the potential of this n e w information technology for education.

Computers are electronic machines capable of processing information in a variety of ways and at speeds approaching instantaneous. They can be programmed to deal with very large quantities of information with great reliability and accuracy, thus accomplishing tasks which could not have been performed nearly as quickly, if at all, even in highly labour-intensive organizations.

T h e second technology, microelectronics, is characterized by miniaturization, the process of making incredibly small the switches, c o m ­ponents and circuits of electronic devices, in­cluding computers. This miniaturization has already reached the stage where m a n y of the separate elements that once m a d e up computers the size of a small room can n o w be produced in microscopic form, already wired together, on chips of silicon only a few square millimetres. These chips can be manufactured by mass production in tens of thousands, so that a single chip costs very little, m u c h less than a school textbook, yet contains all or m a n y of the information-processing components needed by an electronic device such as a computer or calculator or digital watch. By the time this appears in print, a single chip m a y have been produced that contains as m a n y as a million elements and their circuits. Other devices used in electronic equipment are also being minia­turized. In particular, the amount of infor­mation that can be stored in a very small space

Educational technology, present and future 331

is increasing tremendously. A single video-disc, the size of a gramophone record, can carry the information contained in 40,000 pages of A 4 print, and, with a microcomputer to help, these pages are accessible very rapidly on a video-disc player. Even denser means of storage are being developed.

T h e third technology, telecommunications, is being influenced by computers and microelec­tronics (see Martin, 1977). Computers are taking their place as controllers of telecommunications systems, as well as being generators and trans­formers of information carried by these systems. Microelectronics is making possible devices that are being used, inside cables, to increase switching capacities and to boost signals during long-distance transmission. T h e most exciting changes in telecommunications are in two areas: n e w transmission channels and n e w ways of sending information through them. A n example of the former is the optical fibre cable. Hair-thin glass fibres can be used to transmit laser-generated pulses of light that contain coded messages; the fibres' capacity is immensely larger than copper cable. Such n e w channels, and the old ones already available, are being used in n e w ways, the most important of which is that more and more information is being 'digitized', that is to say, converted into signals at just two levels that correspond to zero and one, the symbols of binary code. T h e zeros and ones can be sent through the communication channel at extremely high speed as sets of pulses, with far less risk of interference or corruption of the signals than w h e n 'analogue' signals are used. Analogue signals require a continuous range of signal levels, not merely two, and are transmitted by the current in, say, the telephone wire varying continuously in strength. All transmission systems distort ana­logue signals. Digital channels can carry speech and graphics, give access to remote data banks or 'intelligent' machines, or bring together people for teleconferencing. Copper cable (such as telephone line), optical fibre cable, microwave links, satellites and even high frequency and very high frequency radio m a y be channels for digitized information. Digitized equipment at

either end is likely to become cheap and ver­satile, by using integrated microcircuits on chips.

M a n y readers of this article will be aware of examples of n e w information technology in their daily lives, and they will k n o w that n e w devices and systems are appearing every month, ranging from small computers for personal use to talking wrist-watches to bank accounts used by push-button telephone to computerized li­brary systems, and so on. T h e list seems endless. Since the cost of some of these items is low, developing countries are seeing them as well as the developed. N e w information tech­nology is arriving very fast indeed.

W h a t does n e w information technology have to offer to education? After all, education is a particular kind of information processing. Schools and homes and places of work supply information of m a n y kinds to those w h o seek to learn. Learners need information to learn and, in learning, they frequently process it in one way or another. Surely n e w information technology has considerable educational poten­tial? It is easy enough to identify applications. It is equally easy to see massive barriers to implementation. W e m a y use n e w information technology in education, but w e m a y do so with disastrous effects.

Current applications of the n e w technology

Without going beyond the bounds of existing n e w information technology, w e can see m a n y applications. O n e example from each of the functions served by the technology will be enough to illustrate what is already being done and to give a foretaste of what is to come.

Creating information. T h e equipment used in most countries today to m a k e educational tele­vision programmes belongs to the old infor­mation technology. It is heavy, clumsy and requires quite large supplies of electricity, par­ticularly for lighting studios. F r o m the n e w information technology w e already have light-

332 David G. Hawkridge

weight, hand-held cameras that work well in relatively poor light. Smaller crews are needed, thus bringing d o w n the cost of making pro­grammes in several ways. For 'special effects', w e n o w have computerized equipment that also cuts costs and enables producers to m a k e programmes of high technical quality.

Storing information. Research information used by universities around the world is already stored electronically at relatively low cost in a number of computerized data banks. N e w in­formation technology such as the video-disc makes it possible for data banks to be established for m a n y educational purposes.

Selecting information. Learners wishing to sel­ect information from one or several of these data banks are able to take advantage of the n e w information technology's capacity for electronic switching to interrogate the bank until they find what they want or are told it is not avail­able. They are helped along in their search by the bank 'asking' them questions about what they are looking for.

Processing information. N e w information tech­nology is able to speed up textbook preparation and publication. Authors m a y use word pro­cessors to compile the text, and transformation of text into printed books is n o w possible through a series of near-automatic procedures that promise to bring d o w n costs.

Delivering information. Satellites offer the most obvious and well-known example of n e w infor­mation technology being used to deliver in­formation to m a n y places simultaneously for educational purposes, as in the Indian satellite experiment.

Displaying information. Personal computers (microcomputers) offer means of displaying pictures and text on a screen, usually in vivid colours, and some also have a loudspeaker for aural signals. Printers can be connected to the computers too. All these devices are built with the n e w information technology, and are being used in m a n y schools in developed countries.

As these and m a n y other applications have developed, so has the new academic field of information science, n o w taught in university and college courses and the base for consider­able research activity.

What is to come?

W e can also look beyond the boundaries of existing developments. Potential applications of n e w information technology in the primary school, for instance, might be as follows if w e believe the predictions of a prominent American educational researcher, Michael Scriven. T h e 'three Rs' as w e k n o w them will no longer be taught in the same way: reading, writing and arithmetic will be overtaken by a revolution. Take reading first: the technology already exists for optical character recognition and for speech synthesis. That is to say, the printed words on this page can be 'read aloud' by electronic means, which recognizes the printed words and changes them into sounds w e can easily under­stand. W e will invent a small device, powered by light and about the size of a credit-card cal­culator, which a young child will run across the page so that it 'reads aloud'. T h e child will quickly seize upon the notion that the page holds information he wants and will as quickly perceive that the device can unlock the page's secrets and teach him to decode the words. Soon he will be able to read the words faster than the device and he will use it only for ones he cannot understand.

W h a t does Scriven say about writing? T h e young child of tomorrow will learn key-boarding (as it is called) at h o m e on his parents' terminal before he learns to write. Writing will become a far less practised skill, reserved for personal occasions or when a keyboard is not available. Incidentally, in learning keyboarding the child will pick up spelling rather quickly too, because computers can easily be pro­g r a m m e d to tell him h o w to correct mistakes as he goes along.

Arithmetic is probably being changed by n e w information technology already, since hand-

Educational

held calculators have been used in primary schools for some years. Over ioo research projects have shown that children's arithmetic benefits from using them. They can be taught to appreciate far better what they are doing, with the calculator's help, and they acquire a positive approach to arithmetic (and, later, mathematics), something sadly lacking in m a n y classes in the past.

These notions about changes in the primary school, remarkable as they are, m a y c o m e upon us very soon. It would take a whole book to catalogue other changes, such as national c o m ­munication networks (Hiltz and Turoff, 1978), computers for children (Papert, 1980), and services supporting education in the h o m e (Woolfe, 1980), that n e w information tech­nology m a y bring and at the same time to assess the risks (Hawkridge, in press). It is easy to point to falling costs, to low energy demands and to pressures upon educational budgets as justifying the view that n e w infor­mation technology is precisely what education needs, but this approach ignores the difficulties it might bring in its wake.

Potential problems?

S o m e of the potential problems are the same as those w e examined earlier. Teachers will have to change their roles and some will lose their jobs. Certainly a good deal of retraining will be required. T h e chances of technological and financial dependence of developing countries on the developed ones are high, although m a n u ­facture and design of n e w information tech­nology need not be restricted to the latter. Expertise in creating educational information to be stored, selected, and so on, through the n e w technology is without doubt concentrated within a few countries at present, almost all in the developed world. T h e cost of creating such information, usually in the form of educational materials, is k n o w n to be high, yet the tech­nology is virtually useless without it. Securing the involvement of all concerned, particularly the teachers, is essential but far from easy.

', present and future 333

In relation to the total costs of education, the cost of installing n e w information technology for educational purposes is probably already lower than m a n y decision-makers appreciate. T o place a relatively primitive microcomputer in the hands of each pair of children in an American classroom n o w costs about the same as the salary of their teacher for one year. But educational systems expend almost all their income on buildings and staff salaries, leaving only a very small percentage to pay for edu­cational materials and equipment. In the United States, if the materials and equipment budget were doubled and the extra m o n e y spent entirely on n e w technology, it would still take years before the changes had significant impact. In other countries, especially in the developing world, funding increases would have to be greater and changes would be slower.

Beyond the problems of cost lie stark emotive questions such as ' W o u l d you like your child to be taught by a computer?' and ' W o u l d you prefer full employment or technology deploy­ment?' M a n y parents want more teachers and smaller classes before computers c o m e into the classroom. M a n y politicians acknowledge that labour-intensive systems c o m m a n d more popu­lar support than capital-intensive ones requiring less labour.

T h e quality of information provided by the n e w technology is a critical factor. If it is poor, users will quickly stop using the n e w devices and systems. In education, there are substantial problems in creating large stores of high-quality information, not least those of ideology and control, but also those of bringing together professionals from widely divergent fields, tra­ditionally divorced.

A s yet, manufacturers and purveyors of n e w information technology are not looking to edu­cational systems for large sales. Their first targets are commerce and industry, and, no doubt, the military. Next are the consumers, private individuals w h o want to use the tech­nology to improve the quality of their lives in various ways. It seems likely that research and development costs will be recovered largely from these early sales. Certainly education

334 David G. Hawkridge

cannot bear m u c h of these costs. Nevertheless, education m a y well be one of the last great markets. It m a y be like an ancient ghetto, within which slower, less efficient ways are maintained against the cultural assault that must surely come. Children and adults m a y be learning about h o w to live in the Age of Tomer's 'Third W a v e ' , but from their experi­ences outside the ghetto rather than within it.

W e m a y feel tempted to declare that the ghetto will preserve what is worth preserving, that efficiency is not what is needed. W e m a y feel unprepared for technology in education, or in­deed for technology in m a n y other parts of our lives. People in developing countries, in par­ticular, must wonder whether they need to prepare at all for such changes. Consider the herdboys of Lesotho. Are their lives going to be touched by the new information technology before the end of this century? Will their chances of securing even a modest education be increased by it? W h o will pay? Optimists pre­dict that even these herdboys will have small, very cheap electronic devices in their palms as they watch their goats: some of these devices will be radios, some will teach literacy and numeracy. Optimists point to new materials and manufacturing techniques that will make such a miracle possible. They put their trust in the neo-magic. Pessimists see instead the children of a few developed countries reaping the only benefits. They see the gap between rich and poor widening still further. They underline the disappointments experienced already by some w h o have toyed with technology in education. Further, they reject what they believe to be the ideology of those w h o seek to introduce tech­nology into education. This ideology, they say, is dehumanizing: it subjugates the person to the machine. Yes, it m a y well do so, but the ideology belongs to humans, not the machines, and the responsibility will be theirs.

T h e debate has only just begun, the new in­formation technology has only just come over the horizon. W e do not know yet all the ways in which it m a y have impact on education, whether in North or South. But w e certainly

cannot afford to miss opportunities to find out. W e can learn from what happened yesterday, or even today, in this field. For tomorrow, w e are at the beginning of something vastly dif­ferent, more exciting, more threatening. W e need to know all w e can about it, if w e are to make sound decisions for the education of our children's children. •

References EICHER, J . - C ; H A W K R I D G E , D . G . ; M C A N A N Y , E . ;

M A R I E T , F . ; O R I V E L , F. 1982. The Economics of New

Educational Media: Overview and Synthesis. Vol. 3: Cost

and Effectiveness Overview and Synthesis. Paris, Unesco,

(Educational Methods and Techniques, 1.)

H A W K R I D G E , David. 1981. The Telesis of Educational

Technology. British Journal of Educational Technology,

Vol. 12, N o . 1.

. New Information Technology and Education (pro­

visional title). London, Croom Helm. (In press.)

H A W K R I D G E , David; R O B I N S O N , John. 1981. Organizing

Educational Broadcasting. Paris/London, Unesco/Croom

Helm.

H I L T Z , Starr Roxanne; T U R O F F , Murray. 1978. The

Network Nation. Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley.

L Y L E , Jack. 1981. Since 1967: The Original Case Studies

Reviewed. A special chapter in Hawkridge and Robinson,

op. cit.

M A R T I N , James. 1977. Future Developments in Telecom­

munications. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. , Prentice-

Hall.

P A P E R T , Seymour. 1980. Mindstorms: Children, Computers

and Powerful Ideas. London, Harvester.

P E R R A T O N , H . {eà.). Alternative Routes to Formal Education:

Distance Teaching for School Equivalency. Washington,

D . C . , World Bank. (In press.)

S C H R A M M , Wilbur; C O O M B S , Philip; K A H N E R T , Friedrich;

L Y L E , Jack. 1967. The New Media: Memo to Educational

Planners. Paris, Unesco/IIEP.

T O F F L E R , Alvin. 1980. The Third Wave. London, Collins.

WOOLFE, Roger. 1980. Videotex: The New Television I Tele­

phone Information Services. London, Heyden.

Making good use of educational technology

Joäo Batista Araújo e Oliveira

The promise

Although it is not very easy to establish a precise date when the word 'educational tech­nology' gained currency throughout the world, a few landmarks can help us to make a long story short.

T h e early 1950s witnessed enormous scien­tific and technological developments which ren­dered the existing audio-visuals out-dated or less prestigious tools. Skinner's programmed instruction and developments in behavioural psychology (such as Fred Keller's instructional contracts) also paved the way for the great transformations of the 1960s.

T h e late 1950s and early 1960s were influ­enced not only by the importance given to technology in general but also by the develop­ment orientation of the economies of poor countries throughout the world.

Associated with the faith in planning, tech­nology and economic development were the first promises concerning the role to be played by the mass media and instructional technology. A meeting at the East-West Center in 1964, reported by Lerner and Schramm (1972), is a good example of the prevalent optimistic m o o d .

Progress made in the technologies associated

Joâo Batista Araújo e Oliveira (Brazil). Professor of organizational sociology and education. He has written a number of papers and has participated in several evaluation and consultancy projects in many countries, in the field of educational technology. He directs re­search for A B T (Associaçào Brasileira de Tecnología Educacional) and is in charge of a distance-learning project at the postgraduate level in Brazil.

with academic interests sponsored by funding agencies, particularly U S A I D , quickly contrib­uted to the start of a more or less organized concern with the testing and diffusion of edu­cational technology programmes in the Third World. According to a European view of such developments (Young et al., 1980, p . 19),

an alliance between the Stanford Institute for C o m ­munication Research, the United States A g e n c y for International Deve lopment ( U S A I D ) a n d the National Association of Educational Broadcasters acted as the imperialists of the U S educational television. T h e y argued that large-scale television projects could bring about dramatic improvements in education for the third w o r l d . . . . the Ford Foundation poured in large s u m s and concluded, b y 1965, that the claim of tele­vision to teach as effectively as an ordinary teacher w a s so well established that n o m o r e research funds were needed.

T h e Academy for Educational Development was the single most influential agency in the pro­motion and diffusion of new ideas, besides A I D itself. T h e academy's Handbook of Educational Technology (1971) is an excellent example of the mapping of the n e w territory: in it are defined what the field is about, what the ingredients for success are and, furthermore, what are the best examples to look at. T h e more circumspect work by Schramm (1973) also proclaims the great accomplishments and promises of projects undertaken in El Salvador, American Samoa, Niger and the Ivory Coast.

M o r e conceptual and doctrinal materials were disseminated, and optimistic tones can be found in the collection of papers prepared for the Report by the Commission on Instructional Technology, edited by Tickton in 1970. T h e

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 3,1982

Joâo Batista

promises are that technology can: (a) make education more productive; (b) give instruction a more scientific base; (c) m a k e education more individual; (d) make instruction more powerful; (e) make learning more immediate; and (f ) make access to education more equal.

Such claims were frequently associated with abundant loans from international agencies, and Unesco quickly became interested in the subject. European participation in co-operation with the Third World was also associated with the n e w libertarian movements in Africa (particularly concerning the activities of the British and French Governments), where m a n y newly inde­pendent states were 'enthusiastically searching for n e w solutions. With the winning of inde­pendence they wanted also to banish ignorance and illiteracy' (Young et al., 1980, p. 20).

Thus , big hopes became associated with big promises to such an extent that as early as 1970 the director of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) said ( O E C D , 1971, p. 19):

In a period w h e n technology has performed such wonders, it is perhaps to be expected that 'educational technology' has the magic appeal of a solution to the crowded classrooms, shortages of teachers, continuing education for adults, and so on. T h e simple lesson of this report is that there is n o technological miracle in education.

T h e early 1970s saw the inauguration of major undertakings heavily financed and m a n ­aged through complicated international and bilateral arrangements. T h e Ivory Coast is a typical example of such large-scale projects, even though it did not serve the exemplary function for which it was launched.

T h e prospects of utilizing even heavier tech­nologies, such as satellites, started in 1967, during a seminar held at Stanford University. T h e result was the publication of the A S C E N D Report (1967), a planning exercise for country­wide media-based educational systems for pri­mary school plus teacher-training projected for four countries, which included Brazil, India and Indonesia. This was more than an academic exercise, and in fact India's S I T E project

¡i/o e Oliveira

and Brazil's S A C I experiment were quickly developed and gained a good reputation and wide coverage.

Major educational reform programmes were also associated with big hopes for the role of technology, and, besides the projects already mentioned, El Salvador is a good example of the kind of intervention precognized and prac­tised, with plenty of faith in the media and heavy support from foreign experts.

Inside the developed countries, educational technology has also seen some interesting de­velopments, but not associated with such prom­ises, except perhaps in a few instances in the United States. However, a major undertaking gave educational television, in particular, the legitimacy it needed to gain worldwide recog­nition: this was Sesame Street. T h e programme was designed and intended to be the symbol of the n e w potential of educational television, and it was shortly declared that it had met its goals, if not surpassed them.

With a greater or lesser degree of optimism and good faith (and in a context in which edu­cational technology was associated with the myth of technological salvation, strong cen­tralized economic planning, and nearly u n ­limited belief in the possibilities of overcoming underdevelopment and other social injustices and inequalities), this n e w movement was intro­duced and diffused in most countries in different degrees and for various purposes.

Educational technology, in its various forms, has been used to improve teaching at prestigious universities such as Cambridge as well as for literacy programmes. It was used, among other ends, to improve the communication skills of various groups and communities; to offer medi­cal services to Eskimos; to improve agricultural practices in m a n y places; to support health, nutrition and population-control campaigns, and projects in a number of countries; to train people in industry; to offer distance learning to serve both formal and non-formal levels of different educational systems; to link (via sat­ellite, microwave or otherwise) higher education institutions; to upgrade the competence of teachers; to implement n e w information and

Making good use of educational technology 337

communication systems; to attack mass edu­cation problems; and to help implement massive educational reforms in primary education.

Actions and results

T h e present article does not attempt to evaluate the overall effects of such undertakings: this has been done partially elsewhere, and it would be a difficult task to group such a diversity of cases, pilot projects, campaigns, experiments, and mass-scale interventions under a single and comprehensive umbrella.

W h a t the foregoing analysis attempts to discuss are the difficulties and shortcomings associated with the strategies utilized in the implementation of educational-technology proj­ects. T h e positive aspects and the merits of edu­cational technology, as well as the untapped potential of the n e w media, are analysed in other articles of the present issue of Prospects, and they cannot be ignored. Over twenty years of massive implementation of projects and research on the subject has provided researchers and decision­makers with a large body of solid information and guidance for future action. However, changes in contexts and alternative views of positive and negative aspects can also help to strike a more balanced view and interpretation of what is going on in the field, and of the limits to be associated with our expectations.

Given a fairly high use of hardware compo­nents and large-scale interventions, educational technology projects often cost several million dollars, which have to be spent both in national and foreign currencies.

S o m e projects have also provoked change in the power structures of institutions, including national ministries of education and c o m m u n i ­cations: in a few cases, institutes of education technology were created; in some, a strong media-based (television, radio or correspon­dence) organization was set up to implement a n e w project; in other cases, particularly with the open colleges and open universities, n e w insti­tutions were formed to compete or collaborate with, or replace, other organizations.

Such changes, more or less abrupt, were also accompanied, in a few countries, by a n e w view of the processes of policy-formulation, decision-making and resource-allocation. Thus , old-time educationists, psychologists and gener-alists were replaced by economists and a n e w breed of planners. In some cases the n e w ­comers spoke a language foreign to their col­leagues, and tried to change the entire (tra­ditional) social structure of decision-making, curriculum-planning and delivery system of the educational sector. M o r e often than not, such attempts favoured centralized approaches and the general conception of top-down educational planning typical of technocrats. T h e success and failure of such attempts have yet to be appraised, as they vary from country to country.

Educational technologies also brought n e w connections between developing and developed countries. In a few cases, old colonialist pat­terns were simply reinforced, in others they were broken. Self-reliance was more talked about than practised; this was due particularly to the international pattern of financing and the long-lasting effects of training abroad (Weiler, 1978).

M a n y things happened because of influences outside the strict 'educational' segment: in particular, strong pressures came from equip­ment sellers. In some countries the interest of telecommunication agencies and even security agencies has also prompted support for or motivation to mass-education activities. T o assess the results and impact of such actions requires a multi-dimensional perspective and a sense of the broader social and political frame­work within which they were introduced.

S o m e countries had projects (and succeeded, like Cuba , for instance) to overcome illiteracy in a limited period of time; others, to support changes in the ideology of success and c o m ­munity work (like the United Republic of Tanzania), or in the communication of farming skills (Jamison and M c A n a n y , 1980) or health practices. Most countries used technology to solve problems related to the shortage of quali­fied teachers (Brazil, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Samoa), to extend primary or secondary edu-

338 jfoäo Batista Araújo e Oliveira

cation to masses of urban or rural students (Schramm, 1973, Y o u n g et al., 1980) or to meet several such objectives at once. Quite often the educational-reform programmes or other social interventions were associated with developments in the also underdeveloped or non existent communications sector (Ivory Coast, Mexico, Sierra Leone, etc.).

It is true that m u c h good has been done, in various degrees, and to different clienteles. In some cases it is not easy to attribute results uniquely to educational intervention or to the role of the media, given the complementary role of such instruments within the broader socio­economic framework. In some cases, bureaucrats (national or international) w o n the game and m a d e their offices more powerful and influen­tial; in others, n e w projects provided a chance for corrupt practices; in a few, sellers of tech­nology, planning systems and equipment got the best share; in some instances, researchers, evaluators and scholars took advantage of situ­ations (and funding) to collect their data and test their methodologies, theories or preferred approaches. It is also possible that quite a few people travelled abroad more than they needed to, that useless or inadequate equipment has been obtained, that inadequate buildings have been built, that traditional and time-tested ways of doing things have been unduly replaced, that competent professionals have had their careers destroyed because they opposed some innovations or did not master n e w bibles, n e w dogmas, or even n e w tech­niques and vocabularies, which turned out to be current.

Education and communication-technology projects have probably also averted the occur­rence of other problems. Several instances can be evoked in which the demand for school places was at such a high level and teacher-training opportunities were in such short supply that technologies were the only short-term solution (the cases of Teleprimaria and Tele-secundaria in Mexico, El Salvador, the Ivory Coast, Kenya, for example). In other cases, technical or developmental needs could only be met by quickly mobilizing and training people

(most of the campaigns are cited in the literature already referred to above).

As in m a n y other h u m a n undertakings, proj­ects meet some of their objectives, accomplish others which were not planned, fail to corre­spond to a few others and, sometimes, create n e w situations, desired or not. At other times, things that happen at the same time are attri­buted to the project, and become part of their fate.

Defining success

Success can be measured in several ways: student gains; learning gains; teacher training; modernization and updating of curricula; im­provement of communication networks; more access to one- or two-way communication and information services; participative planning; im­provement in farming practices and/or agri­cultural output; cost/effectiveness, efficiency, timing, etc.

There are a few cases of obvious spectacular failure, which have not been referred to as such, mostly for political and face-saving reasons. These cases, were it possible to have them openly discussed, would constitute very rich material for the enlightenment and learning of future planners and project directors. In a few cases, besides, or independent of, political reasons, failure was not duly appreciated due to evaluators' naivety of funding-agency con­straints. O n e such case, in Brazil, relates to a profoundly ill-conceived nationwide tele-education system, which inadequately attempted to solve so m a n y problems at the same time that it never got off the ground (McAnany and Oliveira, 1980; Santos, 1980). Other cases, which will not be mentioned by n a m e , will be treated later as examples embedded in the arguments that follow. Even in such cases, failure is not usually attributed to a project: it would embarrass officials, it would force people in funding agencies to recognize that wrong decisions had been taken, it would complicate m a n y people's lives. However, such instances are not unfamiliar to researchers and evaluators

Making good use of educational technology 339

w h o meet regularly at seminars and on other occasions, and such unwritten knowledge is seldom communicated to practitioners.

T h e definition of success is an interesting matter. Projects become famous because of their merits (training teachers, increasing learn­ing gains, helping to implement educational re­forms and such like criteria). In the early 1970s, most projects became famous even in the absence of hard data: projects were successful because they were important, relevant, large, well funded, well planned, well meant, etc. It is not irrelevant to stress that the acquisition of reputation was not only important for the project's actual functioning, as for the financing of future projects and the direction of attention of planners and evaluators w h o started working in the early 1970s.

In spite of the remarkable accomplishments of these large projects and of other less ambitious ones, it remains clear that education and c o m ­munication technologies never did accomplish, at any one time, the great promises and expec­tations of the 1960s.

Partial successes and differential benefits are the most typical results. In no country have general mass-educational problems been solved, even though they have been controlled or tackled in n e w ways, as already exemplified. Farmers have not systematically or dramatically changed their life-styles or levels of income, even though in some cases local successes can be claimed. T h e average level of teacher-training and teacher-competence in developing countries has not changed substantially, in spite of local­ized efforts and particular progress m a d e in a few cases. T h e amount of m o n e y spent on the poorer students has not reversed any k n o w n pattern of income distribution, even though in certain countries the absolute amount of m o n e y spent on marginal, rural and underprivileged populations has increased, and the relative wealth of the poor has increased as a part of a broader change in structural patterns in the economy. T h e same can be said of the relevance of the curricula, the 'quality' of the education received, the level of participatory planning, the level of democratization and access to

information, and so on. (Good examples of successes and evaluations of several kinds can be found in the directory contained in Y o u n g et al. (1980); Perraton (1982); Lerner and S c h r a m m (1976); Jamison and M c A n a n y (1980), as well as in Unesco publications dealing with the cost-effectiveness of educational media.)

It is obvious that educational technology cannot be judged by the extent to which it did not fulfil vaguely stated and optimistically in­terpreted promises. It could best be appraised by its specific results and the prospects it offers of contributing to educational development and social change. However , as optimistic as w e must be about the benefits obtained so far—given the huge educational and communication problems and challenges lying ahead of us—it is not easy to learn from past experience.

Ambiguity in evaluation

W h y is it so difficult to disentangle the net results of such huge verbal, financial, intellectual and managerial efforts in such a field? Besides technical and methodological matters associated with research and evaluation practices, there are at least four questions which m a k e it difficult to define with certainty the net effect of social interventions in general, and educational technology practices in particular. T h e y are related to the logic of decision-making and to the logic or art of interpreting reality.

First, it is not clear, in most interventions, exactly what happened. A n agricultural-inter­vention project can be seen by governments and funding agencies as an enormous help to farmers. This same project can be seen by other analysts as just another strategy of social control and maintenance of the status quo. O n e evaluation (or project statement, in the absence of rigorous evaluation) can pinpoint the absolute levels of productivity deriving from a project, while a critic can demonstrate that net gains diminished because farmers had to adopt more costly practices, buy fertilizers and acquire debts, as the result of the same project. This was the case, for instance, of

340 Joäo Batista Araúj'o e Oliveira

the I N V I E R N O project in Somoza's Nicaragua (O'Sullivan, 1978). T h e eyes of the beholder, the benefit of doubt, the need for self-justification or the limitation of scope in a given 'serious and experimental' study simplify reality to such an extent that it is not always the case that people can agree about what happened-often the direct opposite is the case.

Second, people do not always agree on the reasons for what happened. T h e weak links of causality in any effort of major social change are often difficult to establish. Learning gains could also be attributed to Hawthorne effects, diffuse motivational causes, accidental changes in tech­nology, bias in the experimental or comparative group, improvements in factors other than the ones embedded in the technology, and so on. Technologies that increase student learning can also be seen as causing or being associated with maintaining lower levels of teacher-training, teachers' salaries, etc. Technical modernization can be alternatively interpreted as subtle (or ob­vious) ways of perpetuating social injustices. This also explains w h y similar interventions pro­duce different results, even in similar contexts. There is not enough comparable redundance surrounding the tests of effective implemen­tation of m e d i u m - and large-scale technology projects, in the fields of communication and education. Additionally, alternative causes could also have led to this same result: instead of spending m o n e y on equipment and centralized planning, a few changes in teachers' salaries or textbooks or other school resources could have (probably) accomplished similar results. T h e E C I E L studies (Schiefelbein and S i m m o n s , 1980) and some research evidence reviewed by the World Bank about textbook effectiveness (Heyneman, 1980) are good examples of what 'little media' can accomplish, without overly disrupting an ongoing educational system. Managerial styles could also cause similar effects. Changes in societal or local conditions could also be conducive to the desired (or obtained) changes.

A third and more difficult issue to face in evaluating the net effect of educational tech­nology interventions is the issue of success.

Assuming (as economists often like or have to do, in the absence of evidence or better tools) that what seems to have happened has really happened, and that what happened has hap­pened because of a given set of variables (a project or intervention, or aspects of it), then comes the next question: W a s it good or bad? Several answers emerge. S o m e people tend to profess the belief that if something that was planned has in fact happened it is a mark of success. Accountants and certain economists and planners tend to subscribe to such views. Governments also like to talk about targeted goals and percentages of goal accomplishment. Projects that meet their stated (or revised) objectives are good.

Others like to question the nature of the goals themselves: W e r e the objectives 'good' to start with? Are they still good/valid w h e n the project is being implemented? O r is over? A few others go beyond such questions and ask: G o o d for w h o m ? W h o benefited more from such a proj­ect, or in which ways did different groups benefit?

In between, researchers and most often, evaluators, prefer to ask different questions to settle the issue of success in relation to the previous situation to other alternatives (in terms of costs, benefits, feasibility, etc.).

Planners, particularly from funding agencies, and decision-makers consistently prefer the easy way out: projects are successful because they exist, their goals m a k e them noble (in spite of what happens, in m a n y cases; that approach also explains, in part, w h y evaluation is so often avoided).

Finally, a question less often asked is also a logical barrier to the understanding of the reality surrounding us, thus limiting our ability to appreciate fully the net effects of educational technologies. T h e question is whether it was better that some things did not happen. T h e question helps both to evaluate what bad things educational/communications technology projects helped to avoid happening (social press­ures, higher costs, etc.) as well as some aspects in the projects that were not implemented, and thank G o d , they did not happen.

There is no solution or easy way out of such

Making good use of educational technology 341

matters, and there is thus no simple answer to the questions of whether education/communi­cation technology is worth its costs or whether it fulfilled its promises. Answers to w h y such technologies have not solved problems to the extent expected or advertised, and the circum­stances in which they have succeeded or can succeed, will be dealt with in the following section.

Making the most of technologies for education

WHAT IS THE CONTEXT?

In m a n y applications of educational tech­nology—as is usual with other kinds of tech­nologies as well—the solution preceded the problem. T h e flow of technology transfer does not always start with a problem, but often with some technology presented by a seller, an inter­national funding agency, a minister of education or communications becoming charmed with some sophisticated demonstration he has seen abroad or other more subtle forms of generating needs.

T h e British O p e n University presents a case in which the understanding of the social context, besides the appreciation of specific projects' results, is important for comparative purposes. In particular, there are three underlying charac­teristics of the British social system incorporated by the O p e n University which contribute to its development and success. First, the country has already had good experiences with distance teaching, and the postal services and other necessary infrastructural elements were already in existence. Second, access to the universities in the United K i n g d o m is extremely restricted by highly selective rules which operate through­out the previous educational years. Most people simply cannot be enrolled because of their past grades. In most countries there is no such restriction. In the case of the United K i n g d o m , it means that the O p e n University is likely to enrol m a n y students with a reasonable edu­cational background. Third, O p e n University

standards are primarily the same standards that apply to universities: the peers of O p e n U n i ­versity professors and course developers are the outstanding scientists and professors of the British university system. Peer rating, peer review of materials developed contribute to the high standards of the institution and its m a ­terials, and represent strong forces against aca­demic deterioration of staff. This combination of circumstances is seldom to be found in other countries that are developing open universities and colleges, and an appreciation of their potential and their results have to take the context into account.

In m a n y cases of the introduction of edu­cational technology, contextual factors have not been duly appreciated, so it is no wonder that so m a n y projects fall short of their goals. Nice as it might be for a budget-concerned edu­cational planner, a concept such as a 'teacher-proof instructional material' will certainly en­counter profound resistance from any self-respecting teacher in any country. Sophisticated planning techniques for determining school sites, cost-efficient as they might be in the economist's eye, will face major resistance from politicians concerned with their constituencies and personally related to those w h o will have to travel four or five additional kilometres in order to meet a technocrat's goal! Contextual factors such as authoritarianism, sex roles, ritual functions of the educational system, individu­alism or group-based orientation and the like are likely to constitute important constraints in any major change, and therefore should be carefully taken into account. Failure to do so is usually associated with excessive faith in cen­tralized planning, in the role of plans and in the kingdom of reason, rigid implementation and lack of a due appreciation of the contradictions of reality.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

Educational problems are easy to find but not so simple to define. T h e y are m a n y , varied and obvious: people ought to be educated; schools

342 Joäo Batista Araújo e Oliveira

and media help to educate people; farmers and peasants need more information; populations ought to k n o w h o w to limit their o w n growth; poor children must master survival skills; and so on. Anyone could easily draw a national plan of goals and derive its priorities in a short period of time.

Moreover, educational goals are often stated in comparison with other countries' educational systems. In part this is h o w innovation and modernization occurs, in part it is an expression of the phenomenon of rising expectations. A n y ­where, education is supposed to help a country's development, and more is generally considered better.

Imitation is also another social way of defining a national agenda. International agencies play a very important role in this regard. A decade for literacy, a year for the handicapped, and so on. After independence, countries start defining (in very similar ways) their educational needs (and they look very m u c h like the systems of the countries they are trying to liberate themselves from). Colour television is another example of such decision-modes. A n d not only that: edu­cational problems are m u c h more complex than m a n y other social and developmental goals. It is not easy: (a) to balance the desire for national unity with the wish to strengthen regional identity; (b) to reconcile free flow of infor­mation with strict developmental goals or national security policies; or (c) to select uni­form goals and standards while respecting a group's self-determination and autonomy.

Technologies, in general, concentrate their thrusts on maximizing unidimensional aspects of a reality (system-oriented technologists would strongly disagree, but they are an exception), educational technology interventions used to follow the same pattern. In a few countries a sponsor's desire to have a well-planned project ruled out local participation in the higher echelons of decision-making. In others, the desire to modernize schools left little room for tradition and other forms of cultural expression. Technology-oriented problem definition seldom allows for a broader view of a given reality, its history and social constraints. That is w h y

m u c h intervention is efficient, in the short term, but ineffective and unfeasible, in the long term. T h e maths project in Nicaragua, success­ful according to pedagogic standards, faced tremendous difficulties in amalgamating with the day-to-day operations of the school system: an educational problem is not only improving maths skills, but doing it within some context (or changing the context!).

Besides, problems in the real world, and in the world of educational technology in particu­lar, are not separated from their solutions: they often c o m e and go together. Problems arise or emerge w h e n solutions are ready; problems are singled out for solution w h e n a n e w technology becomes imperative, mandatory or even attrac­tive to a minister's eye.

A more important and often more disregarded issue in problem definition is the ownership of a problem and the organizational set-up to deal with it. Opening an open university in a country will be conceived as a different problem by an existing university, a ministry-of-education agency, an educational media organization, or a n e w institution. W h e n the Indian S I T E proj­ect was born, its association with All-India Radio—an organization based on the British BBC—defined, by this sheer fact, several pat­terns of defining problems and dealing with them.

T h u s , the history of m a n y interventions, as the history of decision-making itself, illustrates h o w difficult it is, in the world of education, to select the right problems, or to select problems in independent ways: independent of vested interests, technological options, organizational bias and specialization, ready-made solutions, and so on. A few topical educational problems exist, and to the extent that they approach a less multi-dimensional scale of complexity they are likely to be best served by educational tech­nologies.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

This question has received more attention than the previous one, even if it is true that the search

Making good use of educational technology 343

for alternatives has been quite limited in most projects of educational reform and introduction of education/communication technologies. T h e same is true in the world of business manage­ment, and there is nothing structurally wrong with that.

A very important contribution of economists, planners and practitioners in the field of edu­cation/communications technology is the notion of thinking about costs and alternative ways of spending money . A very useful distinction is the concept of capital versus recurrent prices. Poli­ticians and decision-makers are often rewarded by underestimating recurrent costs: that will be after election, and nobody will be around to relate future costs to today's decisions.

Other real-world constraints also conspire against thorough problem analysis: interest groups, conflicting viewpoints, institutional stakes, opportunities of getting a loan, financial, political and electoral pressures, absence of a carefully thought-out problem. Sometimes it is also a lack of humility, or being too inexperi­enced to admit that because a problem exists, it does not m e a n that a solution must also exist; or, for that matter, that education or technology are the solutions. T h e late 1970s, if not earlier, have already pointed to the limits of faith in technology and even education as the solution to mankind's equity and welfare problems.

Searches for solutions are also limited by the very nature of the planning process: good plan­ning makes history. Talking about future con­ditions is safe only w h e n it is based on past experience. T h e safer it is, the more unlikely it is to be correct. G o o d planning is only poss­ible retrospectively, and only recently have the world of educational technology and the tech­nological constraints of communication systems paid any attention to the flexibility needed for adaptation during the phases of implementation.

A c o m m o n assumption in this field, par­ticularly in the past decade, has been that something (some solution or technology) that has worked once will work again. ( T w o British institutions, the International Extension Col­lege and the O p e n University, appear to be

exceptions, given their genuine concern with the problem of technology transfer.) O n e mini­mizes contexts, history, interorganizational ar­rangements, and, in particular, h u m a n resources. G o o d technological thinking and the manage­ment of truly technological projects can be accomplished only through developed minds. Not enough appreciation is normally given to the adequate preparation of h u m a n resources which absorb or adapt a n e w technology: tech­nologies that were meant to bring in flexibility, w h e n the right people to deal with them existed, can lead to rigidity w h e n similar contexts and adequate personnel are missing: such is the history of m a n y failures of technology transfer in education.

Investing in problem implementation

A s mentioned above, m u c h less attention is given to locating problems than is given to problem solving (even though the constraints conspire against the exercise of reason), and implementation is left as a minor problem.

Project results and outputs show, if anything, that running a project in the real world is the main challenge: actions meet reality, and they either adapt to each other or the project goes astray (alone with the people running it, in m a n y cases).

T h e more scarce the resources, the more the real planning is enacted in the making. A n d such is commonly the case of projects under­taken in poor countries, or poorly funded ones in richer countries.

A key factor in project success is a careful look into interinstitutional arrangements, which is often needed in more complex operations. T h e design of interacting organizations, the issues of power, control, evaluation, funding and budgeting become key factors in predicting and obtaining the desired outputs. A s happens with contexts, often they cannot be controlled, and have to be accepted as such, to be co-opted, to be served or to be expelled. M a n y projects had to set up and run their o w n infrastructure,

344 Joäo Batista Araúj'o e Olivara

as they became unsuited to interinstitutional collaboration.

T h e right or adequate kind of organizational arrangement is vital to whatever can be im­plemented and learnt from reality: extremely rigid and formal agreements and management techniques can hinder the way the real world will be perceived at headquarters. A need to succeed (and the impossibility of failing or losing face or prestige) can perpetuate inad­equate (costly, ineffective, conflict-raising) prac­tices and even falsify results, to say nothing of the dozens of evaluation and feedback reports carefully hidden in bosses' desks throughout the developed and underdeveloped worlds.

A competent operation—either in an ex­tremely centralized project or one in which power is concentrated at the periphery—re­quires a very careful organizational design, in which the key aspects related to a project's success can quickly, easily and honestly be reported to the person in charge. This is one of the reasons w h y m a n y official reports of projects of educational technology have not m u c h to do with their reality, as seen from the outside.

Leadership is obviously a key issue. T h e time is past—in m a n y countries at least—when history was thought of and taught as the cult of heroes. T h e short history of educational tech­nology has fallen m a n y times into the old trap: El Salvador would not have been possible with­out Benecke, S I T E without Sarabhai, and so on, including so m a n y unidentifiable managers and less celebrated field-officers and consult­ants. People are important; of course, leaders, gurus, project inspirators, managers, are also important and there will often be characters to fill in the gaps (a few cases could perhaps be traced in which the absence of personalities contributed to chaos). But people in a project's life are important in m a n y other ways.

First, educational-technology projects, to suc­ceed in any meaningful educational way, have to take a 'project's target population' more seriously. Counting people's heads, running a few questionnaires or interviewing a few c o m ­munity representatives will never replace the genuine interest of an educator (an agent of

change by definition) in the subjects (and not the objects) of a given intervention. In particular, m a n y mass-education, technology-based edu­cational packages and interventions have mini­mized the function of motivation and the per­sonal relationships with the source of k n o w ­ledge. M u c h attention must be given, then, to a project's main raison d'être^ if an educational project worthy of the n a m e is to be successful. Otherwise, projects can be effective, people can be indoctrinated, perhaps trained, but probably not 'educated' in any respected meaning of the word.

Second, special consideration must be given to the role of people in the relations of tech­nology transfer. T h e usual pattern which can be traced in m a n y projects is of a totally assymetrical relation between the 'owners' of the technology and the 'recipients'; the ones w h o k n o w and the ones w h o are going to learn, etc. N o real transfer and assimilation is possible without competent people, a require­ment that is more important w h e n the tech­nologies are complex. N o wonder technology transfer leads to technological dependence, in m a n y cases: one imports problems, viewpoints, solutions, etc., regardless of one's o w n prob­lems, viewpoint and conditions.

In fact, m u c h of the cost borne (directly or indirectly) by m a n y countries (and institutions) in acquiring educational technologies could have been avoided had they appropriately in­vested in staff recruitment and training.

After so m a n y years of experience and inter­action, it can n o w be understood that the only way to transfer technology is through people's minds; buying equipment, importing sophis­ticated plans and solutions, building complex facilities should be undertaken only after a solid investment in brain-power. Local brain-power, in principle, is more able to understand local contexts, constraints and limits to change. L o ­cal brains, duly educated anthropologically to understand their o w n and other cultures (and viewpoints) are certainly the best vehicles to absorb innovations in an institution or a country. It m a y not be as prestigious or as glamorous as having some foreigners around,

Making good use of educational technology 345

but it is likely to be more effective in the long run.

Where most of the failures He

It is easier to fail than to succeed in such a complex world as that of education. It is also easier to detect (and analyse) the failures than to m a k e a project work.

In the business of educational technology, one must beware of promises and of the gran­diose. Promises have been unfulfilled mostly because it has been impossible to meet them.

T h e first mistake is to consider education, and educational technology in isolation, as 'inde­pendent' variables. T h e world of education and the place of education in the social context is m u c h more complex. Children do not learn, or do not learn enough, or do not learn well not only because teachers are underpaid, lazy and/or incompetent: they also do not learn because school is not telling them anything relevant; because school (alone, at least) is not going to affect their lives in any meaningful way, because they are hungry (in m a n y countries, including large parts of m y o w n , the ninth economic power of the Western World); because the educational system (which is not the educational planner's or the educational technologist's fault) is structured in such a way as to perpetuate injustices, regardless of methods used or tech­nologies introduced. O n e cannot operate mir­acles in politics and economics solely from the educational sector, m u c h less with educational technology weapons alone.

T h e second mistake is to import unfamiliar ways of defining and dealing with problems. In particular, to import the need to solve im­mediately large problems which require c o m ­plex structures far beyond a country's experi­ence. Complex projects are fine for those w h o need to test the use of computers and simu­lators or to test wonderfully complex inter-organizational theories, etc., but not always good for organizations and countries used to treating problems in more discrete units.

T h e point is not that because problems are

too big and complex they should be disre­garded. Rather it is because problems are c o m ­plex, they need to be approached in ways familiar to those dealing with their solution. It m a y take time, but it is the only way out. Otherwise—as w e have seen in m a n y cases of introduction of mass media—the locals will be left out of major decisions affecting not only their careers, but a society's life. Hasty funding-agency timetables should not replace the necess­ary time-lag for local people to master the requirements of project management and con­trol. Such constraints suggest quite different attitudes and approaches for technical assistance and for the difficult role of consultants.

T h e third mistake is to treat technology lightly. Technologies m a k e revolutions. Engin­eering and managerial technologies, as well as information systems technologies, are deeply associated with revolutions in the structure of economies and social systems. Technology is a very serious thing, a very important part of modern life in m a n y respects, and an extremely powerful tool. Decision-makers, educational planners and educational technologists might well pay tribute to the industrial origins of the term, and m a k e efforts to understand the hard thinking behind the concept. Having done so, they will certainly be in a m u c h better position than former colleagues to appreciate whether a n e w idea, solution or tool is really a technology, whether or not it fits a given context or objec­tive, and what is the price to be paid, in case it gets adopted.

What is left?

T h e 1980s present difficult challenges to the shapers of the generation w h o will be living in the twenty-first century. W e no longer have the right to be naïve about vague promises. W e no longer have the right to believe that technologies per se—as sophisticated as they might be—will be able to straighten out complex and difficult situations. W e are not entitled to simplify complex problems merely by using sophisticated technologies.

Joäo Batista

T h e next few years are likely to present n e w challenges. It will be not surprising if a few countries launch satellites and use them for edu­cational purposes; projects involving millions of people, such as China's proposed open university, m a y not be confined to that country. Colour television is being expanded, electronic blackboards reach remote villages, digital computers become commonplace in a few selected classrooms.

Yet, in spite of such tremendous develop­ments, m u c h remains to be done in m a n y respects. Expectations must be brought closer to reality. Unidimensional solutions can only solve, if at all, specific, unidimensional prob­lems. While some countries need skilled labour at various levels of training, they also need creative minds and open-minded leaders. Not all educational projects conceived for the masses give youth the opportunities to rehearse import­ant skills needed to master the coming, and yet unknown, curricula of the next century.

Managerial technologies are not always as developed as the hard technologies they are supposed to manage, and m u c h effort has to be directed to this aspect.

T h e experiences of the last two decades, our ability to accept partial success and our willing­ness not to despair in the face of chaos should be enough encouragement for those really c o m ­mitted to education, even w h e n w e no longer believe in the limitless benefits of n e w tech­nologies. •

References A S C E N D . 1967. Advanced Satellite Communication for

Education in National Development. Stanford, Calif., Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford Uni­versity.

A C A D E M Y FOR E D U C A T I O N A L D E V E L O P M E N T . 1971. Handbook

of Educational Technology. Washington, D . C . , Academy for Educational Development.

H E Y N E M A N , S. P. 1980. Textbooks and Achievement: What We Know. Washington, D . C . , World Bank. (Staff Working Paper, N o . 298.)

J A M I S O N , Dean; M C A N A N Y , Émile. 1980. Radio for Education and Development. Beverly Hills, Calif., Sage Publications.

¡i/o e Oliveira

L E R N E R , Daniel; S C H R A M M , Wilbur. 1972. Communication and Change in the Developing Countries. Honolulu, University Press of Hawaii.

. 1976. Communication and Change: The Last Ten

Years—and the Next. Honolulu, The University Press of Hawaii.

M C A N A N Y , Emile; OLIVEIRA, Joäo B . A . 1980. The SACIjEXERN Project in Brazil: An Analytical Case-Study. Paris, Unesco. (Reports and Papers on Mass Communication, 89.)

O E C D . 1971. Educational Technology: The Design and Implementation of Learning Systems. Paris, O E C D / CERI.

O'SULLIVAN, J. 1978. INVIERNO: A Mission Report Submitted to AED. Washington, D . C . , Academy for Educational Development. (Mimeo.)

P E R R A T O N , Hilary (ed.). 1982. Alternative Routes to Non-formal Education. Distance Teaching for School Equiv­alency. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press.

S A N T O S , Laymen Garcia. 1980. Les dérèglements de la rationalité. Étude sur la démarche systémique du Projet S A C I / E X E R N . (Thesis presented at the Uni­versity of Paris-VII.)

SCHIEFELBEIN, Ernesto; S I M M O N S , John. 1980. Os determi­nantes do desempenho escolar: urna revisáo de pesquisas nos países em desenvolvimento. Cadernos de Pesquisa, Vol. 35, pp. 53-71.

S C H R A M M , Wilbur. 1973. Big Media—Little Media, Chapter V . Washington, D . C . , ICIT/Academy for Educational Development.

Y O U N G , Michael; P E R R A T O N , Hilary; JENKINS, Janet; D O D D S , Tony. 1980. Distance Teaching for the Third World. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul.

W E I L E R , Hans N . 1978. Discovery and Dependence: The Uneasy Relationship between American Universities and the Third World. Keynote address prepared for the Western Regional Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society. Los Angeles. (Mimeo.)

A n overview of educational technology

in Latin America Clifton Chadwick

Educational technology has been widely dissemi­nated and applied throughout Latin America. T h e degree of interest in educational tech­nology is manifest in the wide variety of appli­cations for purposes of achieving various edu­cational goals, of which the most important has been increasing access to education. Others are increasing the quality of education, reducing repetition and desertion, reducing unit costs, amplifying the possibilities for teacher training and improving educational content.

Educational technology (ET) has been defined both amply and in a limited form. M a n y pro­fessionals insist that it is the application of knowledge from the natural and social sciences to the improvement of education, using the traditional definition of technology as the appli­cation of organized knowledge to the resolution of practical problems. Others prefer to use a more limited definition as the use of certain technological products (and processes) in the educational situation. Without pronouncing for or against either of these definitions, this article will tend to emphasize the latter.

Several studies and articles exist that have tried to summarize the activities of E T in Latin

Clifton Chadwick (United States). Principal special­ist in educational technology for the multinational project on educational technology of the Organization of American States and editor of Revista de Tecnología Educativa. Author of books and articles in a wide variety of fields relating to educational development and technology.

America or in specific countries.1 It is import­ant to remember that in referring to Latin America w e are talking about more than twenty-five different countries with more than 250 million inhabitants, speaking six official languages (not counting the native Indian languages). This article will attempt to give a brief overview of the activities in educational technology, emphasizing trends, areas of im­pact, problems, and tendencies for the future. T h e references can provide further reading.

A recent survey of projects in educational technology in all of Latin America was able to identify 474 different projects.2 It does not claim to be exhaustive but is a reasonably good sample of current activities: 69 per cent are in public institutions (ministries of education, state universities, etc.), 29 per cent in private institutions and 2 per cent in mixed pro­grammes . Table 1 shows distribution by country/region in number and percentage and Table 2 shows the technological media used in these projects.

This survey confirms our earlier affirmation8

that there is considerable activity in the field in Latin America. M u c h of the activity is on a large scale, organized at national level, with broad audiences, particularly in Brazil and Colombia. O f the 474 studies, 38 have audi-encies/participants of more than 5,000, the most outstanding case being educational tele­vision in El Salvador, which has 223,000 actual participants. T h e m e a n size of these projects is 25,000 (after leaving out the extreme case of El

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 3, 1982

348 Clifton Chadwick

T A B L E I . Distribution of educational technology projects in Latin America

Country N u m b e r Percentage

Argentina (Caribbean) Central America

Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Ecuador Mexico Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela (United States of America)

36 26 66

13 52

IOI 48 11

32 5

23 8

22

3I1

7.6 5-5

13.9

2.7 II.O

21.3

IO.I

2.3

6.8 1.0

4-9 1-7 4.6 6.5

474 100

1. Studies from the United States directed towards or available to Latin America countries.

T A B L E 2 . Technologies used in educational technology projects in Latin America

Audio-visual combinations (tape/slide, etc.)

Audio-cassettes Audio-tapes Slides Films Radio Satellites Television (open, closed

circuit, video-tape recording, etc.)

Printed materials Microcomputers or computers

N u m b e r

113 136

67 79

104

52 5

64 395 13

Percentage of total projects

(474)

23.8

28.7 14.1 16.7 21.9

II.O

I.I

13-5 83.3

2.7

Salvador). O n the other hand, 267 of the proj­ects involve only one institution and have a m o d e of 45 participants.

Television

T h e number of educational television ( E T V ) channels in Latin America was fourteen in 1973 but dropped to ten in 1978.4 During this same

period there was a notable increase in the n u m ­ber of educational programmes using time do­nated by commercial regular (non-educational) channels and a major increase in the use of closed-circuit and video-tape technology. T h e most important problems involved in the use of E T V have included both practical (infrastruc-tural) and conceptual problems. Tiffin5 has suggested that three phases of development exist for E T V systems in Latin America. T h e first is a stage of rapid growth, accompanied by great enthusiasm and high morale, during which the staff of the channel has high expectations of achieving a noticeable improvement in edu­cation. T h e second stage is a period of decline that is longer, in which the staff, teachers, students and parents become aware that E T V is not magic and 'that learning concrete skills in such subjects as languages and mathematics still depends on a teacher, text and blackboard'. This second stage also contains infrastructural failures such as overused equipment that begins to break d o w n , and typically there is no back-up equipment, no money for spare parts, or new equipment.

M a n y E T V systems fail to survive this second phase.6

Those that do survive begin a third phase of slow recovery, basically as a function of experi­ence and the injection of sufficient resources to allow the system to m o v e ahead. Goals are stated in more realistic terms, management improves, new equipment is purchased and salaries are improved.

T h e systems that survive are the less formal ones such as the telescuela and teleposta systems, which are means of offering education when no formal system is available. T h e conventional E T V schools where television is used as an adjunct to regular classroom operation are those most likely to fail. El Salvador has the only truly successful conventional system. Providing television for enriching an existing primary edu­cation system is not as useful as offering edu­cation in areas that do not have adequate opportunities. For example, Mexico's telesecun-daria system provides secondary schooling in rural areas where formal education is provided

A n overview of educational technology in Latin America 349

only to the end of primary school. T h e teleposta systems are similar but are normally directed towards adult education, at times using téle­nmelas, a form of soap opera that serves as a motivational form to induce the adult illiterate or semiliterate to follow the programme and to enrol in literacy training courses.

In terms of scope E T V cannot claim to be very successful. A s Tiffin points out, while the Mexican telesecundaria has about 70,000 people enrolled and E T V in El Salvador reaches 223,000 students in the regular (formal) edu­cation system, no other system can document more than 30,000 participants and the eight E T V systems in Brazil reach only about 100,000 per year in a country with more than 30 million illiterates.7

Smaller technology in television has been developing rapidly, particularly in the use of video-cassettes and small closed-circuit tele­vision. T h e survey of projects in Latin America found fifty projects using video-cassettes as one of the primary ways of presenting information. This is an area where w e expect more growth. Advances in video technology and its wide diffusion throughout Latin America has led to the intriguing condition of a significant software shortage as large numbers of schools have acquired video-cassette equipment but have nothing to play to the students.

Radio

A s an educational tool radio is widely used in Latin America, particularly in non-formal and adult-education areas. Our survey found fifty-two projects in radio with a wide range of purposes and scope. Here w e will mention some typical examples.

Escuelas Radiofónicas San Rafael in Bolivia programmes for the development of rural dwellers {campesinos) in literacy, health, live­stock, h o m e improvement, and agriculture to 35,500 persons (according to the O A S survey) through a combination of radio programmes, pamphlets and newspapers.8 In Honduras radio provides basic integral education including read­

ing and writing for the rural population (14 years and older) w h o do not have a chance to enter the formal system, through programmes c o m ­bined with manuals, filmstrips, comic strips, pamphlets and other low cost media. This pro­g r a m m e currently reaches 15,000 persons but with a goal of 65,000 by 1983.a

A m o n g the more widely known radio systems are Acción Cultural Popular of Colombia, the Nicaragua Radio Mathematics Project and the Radio Schools of the Shuar Indians in Ecuador.

Acción Cultural Popular (Popular Cultural Action) of Colombia, known as A C P O , is one of the oldest programmes of educational radio. Founded in 1947 by a young priest, José Salcedo, its purpose has been to improve the lives of the rural poor, giving them hope for a better future through an educational programme directed and designed specifically for them. Father Salcedo formed Radio Sutatenza and the first radio schools in Colombia in the town of Sutatenza in the Department of Boyacá. F r o m these humble beginnings A C P O has become an organization with a staff of more than 1,000 per­sons, and has served as a model for more than twenty similar non-formal education pro­grammes in other countries. T h e basic goal of A C P O is to give basic education and proportion for the social and economic realities of the rural poor, awakening in them a spirit of in­itiative, stimulating them to search for self-improvement.10

T h e Radio Mathematics Project in El Salvador teaches elementary-school mathematics within the formal school system with a reasonably high degree of effectiveness, reaching approximately 1,000 students. T h e basic methodology is a care­fully proposed thirty-minute radio presentation each day, followed by approximately thirty minutes of teacher-directed activities for which instructions are contained in a guide book pro­vided by the project. During the programme the children are required to respond orally and actively, and in writing in each thirty-minute lesson. T h e programmes and activities have been subjected to extensive formative evalu­ation. In the evaluation of the project the students receiving radio mathematics answered

350 Clifton Chadwick

half again as m a n y questions correctly as a control group, scoring 1.26 standard deviations better.11

T h e radio schools of the Shuar Centres in Ecuador have as their primary objective the maintenance of Shuar Indian culture and re­tention of Shuar Indians in the geographical locations where they live to help them develop according to their o w n cultural patterns. A secondary objective is to offer complete school­ing to the Shuar children as rapidly as possible. T h e methodology is radiophonie and bilingual and includes 172 organized centres. Each radio lesson is carefully designed with elements of motivation, acquisition, application and evalu­ation. T h e programmes follow directly the national curriculum in a bilingual form inter­changing national and local values, not sep­arating the Shuar from their national context, but strengthening their local context.12

T h e O A S survey found twenty-three radio programmes dedicated to rural populations, twenty-four to both rural and urban and one for only urban audiences. Thirty-two of the pro­grammes were directed towards non-formal secondary and adult education, fifteen towards formal primary and eleven towards formal secondary education.

Audio-visual combinations

There is widespread use of audio-visual m a ­terial in Latin America and in this section w e will summarize use of material that combines both audio and visual stimuli but is not included in other groups (television or film), and also uses of either audio or visual means used separately. In the survey, 141 responders use combined audio-visual means, 203 use audio stimuli in either cassette or open reel tapes, 79 use slides and 105 transparencies as forms of showing visual stimuli. In general these forms are chosen because of their low cost, relative ease of preparation and ease of subsequent use. Audio-cassettes, for example, are easy to dis­tribute through mail, and the playback devices are widely available at relatively low costs. T h e

same m a y be said for slides, particularly for 3 5 - m m projectors. T h e general pattern is to use these materials organized as a learning module and combined with a printed text or manual for the student, often specifically using principles of instructional design and development and at times including formative evaluation.

Films

Educational film is widely disseminated and was mentioned by 104 of those responding to the survey. T h e technological aspects of film use are clearly understood and oñer an alterna­tive that is relatively low in cost, although the video-recording products seem to be rapidly replacing film. T h e most typical uses are in natural sciences (biology, chemistry, anat­o m y , etc.) and in teaching educational tech­nology, instructional design and related areas (these two areas account for almost one-half of the projects using film).

Computers

Sixteen projects that use computers in some fashion were reported. T h e majority of these use the computer for research, data-processing, administration, control of students, etc. Three projects use the computer in formative and/or summative evaluation of students while eight use it directly for instructional purposes. A typical project is one at the Belgrano University in Argentina, which uses microcomputers for teaching natural sciences and mathematics to students at secondary and post-secondary levels and also to teachers.13

Printed material

O f the 474 projects in the survey, 395 reported use of printed material, normally as a mainstay in the teaching-learning process, and at times the major or even only media used (in an instructional module). T h e use of printed

A n overview of educational technology in Latin America 351

materials is widely variable. O n one end of the continuum is the presence of a pamphlet or worksheet to accompany an educational radio programme. O n the other end, a semi-programmed text of more than one hundred pages which serves as a 'master m e d i u m ' con­taining the educational content combined with E T V programmes whose function is to motivate and establish pacing in the course.

Considerable progress has been m a d e in the area of instructional design and development and m a n y of the widely k n o w n models such as those of Dick, K e m p , Gagné and Briggs have received wide dissemination in Latin America and are used for the preparation of courses, materials, teaching-learning experiences, etc. All of these models contain a media selection phase (or step) that attempts to rationalize decisions concerning which media are most appropriate for given groups of educational objectives. This use of design models has strengthened the relation between the tech­nologies and the printed materials, in general improving the degree of efficiency, although there is still room for considerably more improvement, particularly in the area of forma­tive evaluation of materials, modules and packages.14

Target groups

Educational technology is used at all levels of education in Latin America. T h e survey reveals 38 projects at the pre-school level, 168 in elementary/primary education, 211 at the secondary level, 181 at the post-secondary (university and advanced technical schools) and 213 in adult education (formal and non-formal). W e m a y note with interest the rather high number of projects at the pre-school level, given the strong tendency to use methods associated with Piagetian psychology, which normally does not lend itself to the use of educational technologies.

In terms of subject-matter included in the various projects the results are: natural sciences and mathematics, 141; social sciences and

languages, 120; adults, rural themes, liter­acy, etc., 78; technical/vocational subjects, 48; educational technology, pedagogy, instructional design, evaluation, etc., 167; and health, medi­cine, nursing, 30.

In terms of location within the formal edu­cation system versus what is referred to as the non-formal area, 316 projects are found in the formal education system, 153 identify them­selves as non-formal and 78 as both formal and non-formal. A total of 379 projects had urban audiences, 200 both rural and urban, and 70 had only rural audiences.

Distance education is a modality that has grown considerably in recent years in Latin America, through 'open' universities, rural radio education, etc. Distance education is that in which an educational programme is conveyed to students w h o are not physically present. In the best of cases, distance education also provides for feedback to the students in terms of their responses to the content of the programmes. In the survey, 277 projects were identified as 'direct'-contact education, 74 as distance-education projects, n o as combining direct and distance modalities, and 20 projects as providing contact on demand from the students.

At university level there are significant proj­ects in Mexico, Venezuela, Costa Rica and Colombia. T h e O p e n University (Universidad Abierta) of Venezuela and the University of Distance Education (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia) in Costa Rica are the two most notable institutions, with 16,000 and 5,500 students respectively. Both have had extensive problems in getting established, in­cluding differing learning styles, problems in production of materials, serious difficulties in distribution of the materials, academic evalu­ation and certification, inadequate study habits, financial and political factors, lack of h u m a n resources, and problems with communication media.16 Recently two of the most outstanding specialists in this area have suggested that distance university teaching should only be done as a part of an existing university, not as separate institutions.16

T h e largest number of projects in distance

352 Clifton Chadwick

education (almost one-half) are at the post-secondary level, offered primarily by universities or by ministries of education or other govern­ment-related institutions. M o r e than two-thirds of these projects are directed towards the improvement of teachers, because this area is of particular importance in Latin America. In m a n y countries there are large percentages of teachers w h o work despite not having completed their formal education requirements, and m a n y of these work in the rural areas. Their improve­ment is considered important as a means of improving the quality of education. Also m a n y countries are involved in curricular innovations intended to improve quality of education. Further, it is felt that teachers have the disci­pline required to work within the distance methodology.

T h e second largest group of distance edu­cation projects is adult education, in a variety of subjects, generally related to literacy community development and extension of primary or secondary education. About 40 per cent of the projects are found in this area.

About 10 per cent of the distance projects are in primary education generally serving students w h o for various reasons do not have access to formal schools (rural areas, m o u n ­tainous areas, etc.)

At the present time two major journals and five professional associations have been formed in Latin America in the field of educational technology. T h e journals are Tecnología edu­cacional [Educational Technology] of the Brazi­lian Association for Educational Technology and the Revista de tecnología educativa, published by the Organization of American States. In terms of associations the Brazilian Association of Educational Technology has existed for fourteen years and has more than 1,500 members . T h e Chilean Association for Educational Technology is three years old and has several hundred members . There are also professional organizations being formed in Argentina, Ecuador and Venezuela.

Transfer of technology

T h e potential transfer of innovations (both products and processes) is an issue that has received considerable attention. T h e theme was the focal point of an Interamerican Seminar sponsored by the Organization of American States in 1978 in Viña del M a r , Chile, with participations of specialists and governmental representations from almost all countries of the hemisphere, which examined forms and pro­cesses of transfer, products and processes transferred, dependency and national policies in the subjects of transfer of technology in education.

There was general agreement that educational materials (software) do not easily transfer from one country to another, not even in natural sciences. Technological products (hardware) do not cause particular problems in education as projects, schools, ministries, etc., are free to choose those elements that serve their needs. Conceptual or process innovations such as open universities or instructional design models require considerable modification to local needs and characteristics. It would appear that national and regional policies in relation to transfer of technology (and contents) m a y be needed. Given the national and non-proprietary nature of education two of the most important aspects that require attention are information and h u m a n resource development.17

Lessons and forecasts

In our experience in Latin America it is possible to draw a number of conclusions from the suc­cesses and failures of educational technology in the last two decades. Educational technology is a way in which multiple variables of an edu­cational, instructional or training situation m a y be organized, more easily understood and m a ­nipulated among other things in order to increase the efficiency of the teaching-learning situation. Educational technology should be a useful tool for improving systems, since it is

A n overview of educational technology in Latin America 353

based on concepts of physical (natural) and social sciences, though heavy emphasis is placed on those aspects that m a y be empirically or objectively identified. In the desire to m a k e the outcomes of education more concrete, specific and measurable, two problems arise. First, there can be too m u c h emphasis on those outcomes that can be most easily m a d e explicit, for example, through behavioural ob­jectives. Second, and considerably more danger­ous, is to assume that those outcomes that cannot be m a d e explicit are unimportant, or even do not exist. T h e result has been a tendency to teach efficiently information and skills that occasionally were of little importance or even trivial, and to overlook information and skills that often were very important or even fundamental.

It would appear that w e are entering into a n e w period of a more serious understanding of the processes of educational transfer and inno­vation. S o m e innovations that have been suc­cessful in Europe or in the United States m a y not work well, or indeed at all, in the Latin American context, either because they are inappropriate to Latin American needs or cul­tural context, or because the necessary resources and infrastructure do not exist or cannot be relied on to remain in existence. T h e constraints imposed by economic conditions and political systems, as well as cultural differences, must be taken into account in any innovation.

T h e applications of educational technology must respond to the specific needs of the so­cieties in which they will be placed; they must be appropriate technologies. T h e y must respond to political variables, to social systems, the language interests of the receiving/participating groups and the demands for increased democ­ratization of educational results. T h e inno­vations must respond to the forms of cultures and the unique histories of the groups involved, to the nature and needs of the ethnic groups that compose the society (as was seen in the case of the Shuar Indians of Ecuador).

Educational technology projects must con­tinue to show their advantages in terms of cost efficiency. M a n y projects do not n o w do so;

yet m a n y do. T h e ability to achieve the same level of output for lower costs is not as import­ant as achieving a higher level of output, particularly in terms of improved quality, at the same costs. Often this means taking advan­tage of what is actually available, what can be co-ordinated and organized between existing institutions. Technological bases frequently exist and require better co-ordination, organ­ization of dissemination channels, etc. For example, in Chile the distance education pro­grammes for teacher training in 1979 and 1980 used the existing television network of the main state channel, the technical expertise of the teacher training centre for preparation of contents and programmes, the offices throughout the country of the Chilean Teachers' Association for registration and distribution of texts, and the University of Chile's nationwide testing system to give the final test. B y co-ordinating these organizations it was not necessary to create any n e w infrastructural elements and therefore the course was carried out at a very low cost.18

In Latin America at this time there is m u c h interest in increasing knowledge of the psycho­logical bases of the teaching-learning process in order to improve the selection, design and application of technological processes and prod­ucts in education. Psychological concepts have already been successfully applied to the im­provement of media selection and instructional design19 and it is hoped that further progress will be m a d e . T w o examples of areas of interest are instructional design models based on Piagetian developmental psychology,20 and the development of cognitive skills as they relate to media selection.21

All of these elements lead us to mention the growing importance of the development and use of procedures for analysis and evaluation of probable impacts of technological innovation through studies and projections in the area referred to as technology assessment. T h e analysis of Tiffin concerning problems in the development of educational television systems and the work of Escotet on adverse factors in the development of open universities are two cases where technology assessment probably

354 Clifton Chadwick

could have reduced problems and resistance in these innovations. Information is n o w be­ginning to circulate concerning technology assessment methodology.

Another area of interest and awareness is the desire to increase the degree of active partici­pation of the clients of the various educational innovations. This is often expressed as a desire to 'dignify' the role of the participants, to give them more voice in the decisions that affect their lives, to emphasize again the importance of the democratization of education, not only in terms of access but also in terms of learning results.

This increase in participation combined with the ideas of appropriate technology and creative assessment requires the search for n e w forms and processes in the use of educational technology. T h e development of horizontal implementation, the combination of technology with principles of discovery learning, the strengthening of the relation between learning and personal pro­duction, the increase in interest in Mastery Learning and the development of n e w possi­bilities for secondary education are some of the more pressing interests in Latin America. Closely related is the necessity to improve educational content in order to m a k e it more flexible, relevant, and useful in m a n y areas, including scientific, technological, ecological, and cultural areas, the development of creativity, critical sense, and respect for work.

O n e of the areas of significant interest and progress in educational technology in Latin America is the improvement of pre-service and in-service teacher training. In-service training has been an area of significant developments, but m u c h remains to be done.

T h u s there is progress. There have been m a n y successful projects as well as some particularly unsuccessful ones. There is a growing awareness of the potential for edu­cational improvement through educational technology. There is also an understanding that there are no easy answers, that complex education systems are not subject to miracle cures by the adoption of some particular inno­vation. Above all, there is an awareness of the

problems of the transfer of technology in education. T h e lesson has been learned that the transfer of technology has to do with approaches, general principles and experience. It should not be confused with the wholesale transfer of techniques, systems or products. These have to be home-grown, or adapted to local needs and conditions. •

Notes i. A special number of the journal, Programmed Learn­

ing and Educational Technology (Vol. 17, N o . 4 , November 1980), prepared by Alexander Romiszowski and Clifton Chadwick, contains nine articles about educational technology in Latin America. See also C . B . Chadwick and A . Magendzo, 'Educational Technology in Latin America and Personalized In­struction in Chile', Journal of Personalized Instruction, Vol. 2, N o . 3, 1977, pp. 181-6.

2. Survey of projects, as yet untitled, to be published in 1982 by the Department of Educational Affairs, Organization of American States, Washington, D C 20006.

3. Editorial by Romiszowski and Chadwick, op. cit., pp. 197-200.

4. John Tiffin, 'Educational Television—a Phoenix in Latin America?', Programmed Learning and Edu­cational Technology, op. cit., pp. 257-61.

5. Ibid., p. 257. 6. Ibid., p. 258.

7. Ibid., p. 260.

8. For more information contact Manuel Molina Pablos, Director, Emisora y Escuelas Radiofónicas San Rafael, Casilla 546, Cochabamba, Bolivia.

9. For more information contact Maria de Jesús de Venegas, Coordinadora Nacional P R O N A E E H , Con­sejo Superior de Planificación Económica, Edificio Banco Atlántida, Comayaguela, Honduras.

10. See in this issue the article by Liliana M u h l m a n n de Masoner, Paul H . Masoner and Hernando Bernai entitled ' A Successful Experiment in Radiophonie Education: Acción Cultural Popular'.

11. Dean T . Jamison and Emile M c A n a n y , Radio for Education and Development, Beverly Hills/London, Sage, 1978.

12. See Rafael Mashinguiashi, 'Escuelas radiofónicas de los centros Shuar: consideraciones a partir del diagnóstico', Revista de tecnología educativa, Vol. 4 , 1978, pp. 32-49-

13. As reported in the O A S survey. For more information contact Horacio E . Bosch, Decano, Facultad de Tecnología, Universidad de Belgrano, Amenábar 1748 (1426), Buenos Aires, Argentina.

A n overview of educational technology

14. For a detailed account of the transfer of design models

to Latin America, see C . B . Chadwick, 'Difusión,

adaptación y adopción de modelos de diseño de

experiencias de enseñanza-aprendizaje en América

Latina', Revista de tecnología educativa, 1978, Vol. 4 ,

PP- 431-55-

15. See Miguel Escotet, 'Adverse Factors in the Develop­

ment of an O p e n University in Latin America',

Programmed Learning and Educational Technology,

Vol. 17, 1980, pp . 262-70.

16. Miguel Escotet, ' L a educación superior a distancia en

Latinoamérica: mito y realidad de una innovación',

Revista de tecnología educativa, 1980, Vol. 6, pp. 239-51 ;

Luis B .Peña , ' L a teleducación: ¿tecnología o c o m u ­

nicación ? Perspectivas y significado de la teleducación

universitaria', Revista de tecnología educativa, 1980,

Vol. 6, pp. 309-22.

17. See the special issue of the Revista de tecnología

educativa, Vol. 4 , 1978, dedicated to the subject of

transfer of technology in education, and particularly

Ovidio Oundjian B . , ' L a transferencia de tecnología

en la educación y en la política nacional sobre tecno­

logía educativa' (pp. 50-65), and C . Chadwick and

E . Barandiaran, 'Breve reseña de las conclusiones y

recomendaciones de los once seminarios de transfe­

rencia a nivel nacional y sub-regional' (pp. 127-32).

18. For more detail see Cristian Calderón, Clifton

Chadwick and Nelson Romero , 'Curso de perfecciona­

miento a distancia sobre evaluación del proceso de

enseñanza-aprendizaje', Revista de tecnología educativa,

1979, Vol. 5, pp . 351-79.

19. Chadwick, op. cit., note 15.

20. Robbie Case, ' A Developmentally Based Theory and

Technology of Instruction', Review of Educational

Research, 1978, Vol. 48 , pp . 439-63.

21. Gavriel Salomon, 'Medios y sistemas de símbolos

relacionados a la cognición y el aprendizaje', Revista

de tecnología educativa, Vol. 6, pp. 6-38.

Television children

Takashi

Television programmes for young children

Young children from 2 to 4 years watch tele­vision on average about three hours a weekday in Japan, according to a survey by the National Television C o m p a n y ( N H K ) in November 1979. In summer , it is found that this figure is reduced by half an hour. A m o n g children there are some viewers w h o watch television even eight hours a day.

Young children generally want to participate in games and plays on television programmes. Mothers and relatives are also very eager to see their o w n children playing on television. If someone appears on television, he can become a hero in his neighbourhood and in his nursery school. T h e waiting-list for participating in television programmes is n o w very long and they must sometimes wait for at least three months.

In nursery schools and kindergartens, most young children watch educational television frequently. M a n y teachers recognize the edu­cational effectiveness of educational ( E T V ) and some that of general television ( G T V ) , and rec­o m m e n d that children watch these programmes. However, some parents worry about h o w nega-

Takashi Sakamoto (Japan). A specialist in educational technology and educational psychology, in particular instructional design and evaluation, he is Professor of Educational Methods, Head of the Teacher Training Division and Chief of the Research Laboratory of Science Education at the Tokyo Institute of Education. He is author of many studies on various aspects of educational technology in Japan.

Prospects, Vol.

for young in Japan

Sakamoto

tively crime and violence on television affect children's habits, thought and language. T h e influence of television on a child's life is regarded as quite large both in terms of positive and negative aspects.

T h e most avid viewers are 3-year-old chil­dren; the next are 2- and 4-year-old children. T h e viewing hours of children over 5 are at the same level as those of primary school chil­dren. For 3-year-old children, a total of one hour and thirty-three minutes out of three hours and thirteen minutes is spent on concurrent viewing. This kind of figure is usually reduced for about half an hour in a s u m m e r month such as June. According to the same sort of survey by N H K conducted at Osaka in June 1979, the most frequent viewers are also 3-year-old children.

T h e percentage of mothers w h o feel that their children watch television too m u c h is 21 per cent of mothers of 1- to 3-year-olds, 28 per cent of 4 - to 6-year-olds and 42 per cent of primary-school children. Children whose mothers control their viewing time watch tele­vision for a shorter length of time (the differ­ence is approximately fifty minutes) and mothers w h o graduated from a higher school level regulate their children more.

In effect, though children watch television for nearly three hours on a weekday, it is assumed that most mothers (70-80 per cent) do not feel this figure is too great. They seem to accept television for young children. Above all they themselves watch television for a great number of hours during the day. However, mothers w h o graduated at the higher school level tend to emphasize the negative effects of television on child-rearing.

[,No. 3, 1982

358 Takashi Sakamoto

In pre-school education, children also fre­quently watch E T V in the classroom, mostly in the morning. In 1980, teachers in about 75 per cent of nursery schools and kindergartens util­ized E T V in the classroom. E T V programmes are widely accepted and highly respected by educators and mothers.

Kinds of broadcasts

T h e F o r u m of Children's Television, a voluntary group of mothers w h o are studying the effects of television on children, examined the television programmes produced for young children from pre-school to primary school and shown in the evening by five television stations in the Tokyo metropolitan area from 5 to 8 p . m . in one week of July 1981. They found that eighty-two programmes were broadcast for a total of twenty-eight hours and fifty-five minutes during that period. T h e components of the content are shown in Table 1. W e find that comic animations are most popular. In the morning a few television programmes for young chil­dren are also broadcast. For example, there are With Mothers by N H K , Open! Pong-ki-ki and Play with Mamma, Ping-Pong-Pang by Fuji T V , Curricular Machine by N T V . T h e first three are omnibus programmes for young children composed of dance, song, physi­cal exercise, puppet shows, story-telling, ani­mation, and so on. Open! Pong-ki-ki is rather similar to Sesame Street, Curricular Machine is intended to develop concepts of number and words. Generally speaking, an omnibus pro­g r a m m e in the morning and animation and puppet-show programmes in the evening are viewed extensively by young children, according to an audience survey.

In these kinds of television programmes, the target audience is young children from 4 to 12 years in the evening, while programmes presented in the morning are produced for 3-to 5-year-old children. However, 2-year-old children watch television for three hours a day. Also, in nursery schools, children from 1 to 2

T A B L E I. Components of television programmes for young children transmitted by five television stations from 5 to 8 p . m . in one week in July 19811

Kinds of programme

News

Documentary (nature, scenery)

Drama (except animation)

Specially photographed:

Metamorphosis

Puppet

Series:

Japanese

Foreign

Classic:

Foreign

Information on art and artist

Animation

Action

Comic

Others

T O T A L (in one week)

T O T A L (in one day)

1. 28 h 55 min 13 s.

2. 4 h 7 min 53 s.

Source: Adapted from The Data

Television, 1981.

Number

of shows

5

5

6

5

6

I

I

5

12

21

15 82

11.7

by Forum

Total

broadcasting

time.

in seconds

7500

728

9020

4 375

9175 2 700

1 510

5625

17234

24255

21 991

104 1131

14 87 32

of Children's

watch television. These phenomena suggest that mothers and nursery-schoolteachers would favour a good series of television programmes suitable for 2-year-old children.

A special project for developing television programmes for 2-year-old children started in 1979. T h e members of the team were composed of N H K television producers, child psychologists and educational psychologists of television. They co-operated to produce a n e w type of television programme for 2-year-old children. Television viewing by 2-year-old chil­dren was studied and educational objectives were set up. At the same time, some pilot tele­vision programmes were produced, evaluated by a microcomputer-based viewing behaviour analysis system, and have been improved by the

Television for y o u n g children in Japan 359

results of evaluative studies. Some of them are already broadcast and frequently viewed by 2 -year-old children and rated highly by mothers, educators and specialists in E T V .

N H K is producing and broadcasting six series of educational television programmes for nursery-school and kindergarten children. Table 2 shows the names and the rate of utilization of each series of programmes. Kou-Kou, Son of River is a programme of moral education, played by puppets; Can We Make it? is a programme in which a tall m a n makes various types of handicrafts and artworks set to music; Our Rhythm is a musical programme with dances and songs; Puppet Show is a pro­gramme of dramatic stories played by puppets; Our World is a science and social studies programme, and Bag of Mr Baku is a pro­gramme for developing cognitive ability. These programmes are broadcast three times a week on alternate days. Puppet Show is the most frequently watched series, followed by Our Rhythm and Can We Make It?

Younger children like to watch E T V pro­grammes that include dance, music, movement, and artistic productions, such as Our Rhythm and Can We Make It? O n the other hand, the older children in kindergartens and nursery schools like to watch drama programmes as well as programmes on the observation of nature and society.

T A B L E 2 . Six series of E T V for young children in

kindergartens and nursery schools broadcast by N H K

Rate of utilization in 1980 (%)

Nursery Kindergartens schools N a m e of series

Kou-Kou, Son of River

Can We Make It?

Our Rhythm

Puppet Show

Our World

Bag of Mr Baku

(Started in April 1981)

50.8 48 .2

48.4 55-8

62.0 54.8

37-9 27.8

26.9 25.6

Effects of television on young children

According to the above-mentioned survey by N H K of 1,481 mothers, babies are interested in sounds and images on television as soon as they begin to see the outside world. Children from 1 to 2 begin to understand the content. Most 3-year-old children acquire the habit of watching their favourite programmes.

In terms of responses to television, various kinds of imitative behaviour occur, as shown in Figure i. The imitative behaviour of clapping hands and doing physical exercises begins approximately one year earlier, in i-year-old

100

80

60

40

20

4-7 8 - n 1 month

VA

1-year old

2Vl

Words

Clapping hands

3'Á

2-year old 3-year old

F I G . 1. Imitative behaviour stimulated by television (survey by N H K ) .

36o Takashi Sakamoto

children, than that of singing songs and speak­ing, which starts with children of 2 or more.

In terms of the effects on the development of intellectual behaviour, Figure 2 demonstrates that 'interest in the same picture-books as viewed on television' gradually increases to include more than 80 per cent of 2 | -year-olds, 'questioning of things on television' also gradu­ally increases to include more than 70 per cent of 3-year-olds, and 'remembering of numbers and words by television' gradually increases up to 70 per cent for 4-year-olds. These figures are reached by combining mothers' answers 'very often seen' and 'often seen' to questions on children's behaviour.

According to our evaluation studies on tele­vision programmes for 2-year-old children, 2-year-olds imitate physical movements m u c h more than 4-year-olds, while 4-year-olds re­spond verbally to questions from television in a 'quiz' programme m u c h more than 2-year-olds.

W e can assume that drastic changes in the effects of television are found at various times in young children aged from 1 to 3 years, and also that television has a large educational impact on child development.

In terms of educational effectiveness, the following percentages indicate that of the mothers w h o answered 'yes' in the survey by N H K mentioned above, 43 per cent think

that television enriches a child's knowledge; 38 per cent think that mutual empathy with other children is acquired by watching the same tele­vision programme; and 37 per cent believe that television enriches verbal expression in children.

O n the other hand, some mothers feel that television has a negative influence on children: 35 per cent think that television teaches chil­dren more things than necessary; 28 per cent believe that it stimulates children to speak roughly and behave toughly; and 28 per cent think that it corrupts the Japanese language.

Above all, it is an interesting phenomenon that most mothers (73 per cent) evaluate tele­vision neither positively nor negatively. These figures are thought to represent a general climate a m o n g mothers about television for young children in Japan.

Concerning the negative effects of television on a child's behaviour, m u c h information can be gained from another survey by N H K conducted on teachers from all nursery schools and kindergartens in Japan between September and November 1979. Generally speaking, more teachers from nursery schools emphasize anti­social behaviour as one of the influences of television than those from kindergartens. A total of 23.4 per cent of teachers in nursery schools (17.0 per cent in kindergartens) feel that television affects the emotional equilibrium of young children, 31.4 per cent (29.5 per cent)

80

60

40

20

4- - " 11

1 1*4

Interest in the same picture book as viewed on television

2*4 3*4

„ Questioning of the things 76 on television 70

Remembering of numbers and words on television

4*4

1-year old 2-year old 3-year old 4-year old

F I G . 2. Development of intellectual behaviour influenced by television (survey by N H K ) .

Television for young children in Japan 361

that it encourages the use of rough language, and 28.2 per cent (23.8 per cent) that it stimulates violent behaviour.

Obviously, in most of these cases more teachers feel that there are no negative effects on a child's behaviour, as indicated by the figures above.

How are E T V programmes used?

E T V programmes for pre-school children are frequently utilized in kindergartens and nursery schools. In 16.7 per cent of kindergartens (10.3 per cent of nursery schools) teachers systematically use the series of E T V pro­grammes by integrating all of them into the formal curriculum. In 39.4 per cent (35.8 per cent), of cases teachers use some series system­atically but others not, according to the kinds of television programmes. Also in 26.4 per cent (32.9 per cent), E T V programmes are utilized differently, depending upon the teachers.

T h e statistics suggest that m a n y teachers are utilizing the series of E T V programmes as a formal means of education.

In fact, some teachers put E T V into the daily, weekly, monthly or yearly teaching plan. T h e educational objectives of a series or a programme are clearly described and these are integrated with those of the ordinary teaching plan. Therefore, some teachers provide preparatory teaching on the content of the programme for children before letting them watch television. Also they help children to develop behaviour stimulated by the content of the programme after watching television. For example, after letting children view a programme in which songs and dances appear, teachers encourage children to continue to sing the same songs and dance the same dances. Then later n e w songs and dances can be created by the children themselves. After letting children view a pro­g r a m m e in which handicrafts were made by a character on television, teachers show children pre-prepared materials and suggest that they make similar things. Making imitative products ât first, children develop their activities to

create n e w products. In these cases, E T V seems to function as cues for developing a child's creative behaviour. Certainly television programmes on the observation of nature and society give children m u c h useful knowledge, and those with puppet shows stimulate chil­dren to talk about the story, empathize with the feelings of characters on television and imagine the future development of the story in the next show.

How can teaching by ETV be improved?

In order to make better use of educational television, teachers should make continuous efforts to evaluate and improve their teaching with television. There are various ways of doing this. In the classroom-teaching situ­ation, for example, the prescription sheet for improving teaching by E T V can be applied and also teaching simulations such as the desk-top teaching simulation game and microteaching can be undertaken. In the desk-top teaching simulation game, one of the teachers or student teachers takes the part of the teacher and the others play the role of students. They put a large paper board on a wide desk, which represents the classroom O n the paper board, they place puppets made of coloured paper representing the teacher, children, radio and television. Each child puppet has his/her o w n name and salient characteristics. By moving the puppets, they play the teaching simulation game. Those w h o play the role of students are expected to make their paper puppets behave badly. If someone feels there are problems, he/she can ask all the members to interrupt the game at any time and discuss h o w the teaching performance and lesson plan could be improved. These provide the kind of teacher-training methods for E T V education.

Meetings of teachers w h o utilize E T V in kindergartens and nursery schools also contrib­ute to promoting the educational use of E T V .

First, there is the National Convention of the Japanese Association of Education by Radio

362 Takashi Sakamoto

and Television once a year. In 1981 more than 14,000 participants composed of teachers at all school levels, producers, directors and researchers got together to observe classroom teaching utilizing E T V and to discuss the effects of E T V and ways of improving teaching by E T V . There are also regional and local conventions of this type nationwide. Teachers interested in education by broadcasting in the area where the National Convention is to be held have had m a n y opportunities to learn and improve the methods for using E T V in class for one or two years prior to the conventions. Local meetings are held several times and experienced teachers and leading scholars on education by broadcasting visit the area to advise teachers on h o w they should proceed with the activities in the preparatory period. Japan is divided into eight area blocks. Each block has the convention in turn. T h e impact of this sort of event seems to be very great.

Secondly, w e have the Special Workshops for Studying Education by Broadcasting at each school level once a year. Experienced teachers, television producers and directors and re­searchers get together to study theoretically as well as practically h o w to use and improve E T V , and h o w to improve education by broadcasting generally. Approximately 500 participants in total got together, w h o work at each school level in different places in 1981.

The cost of E T V

Television has a great deal of effect on children nationwide. A s a vast number of young chil­dren watch television programmes and are influenced by them, the cost-effectiveness is assumed to be high. However, it is very difficult to calculate the actual cost for pro­ducing and broadcasting one E T V show.

A variety of costs are related. There are, for example, costs for facilities, personnel, planning, recording, producing, transmission, and so on. If w e exclude the costs for establishing and using facilities and resources and the costs for salary of full-time personnel such as producers,

directors, technicians, cameramen, artists, ad­ministrators, clerical and catering staff, w e can calculate the direct costs just for producing one fifteen- to thirty-minute E T V show for young children. It is assumed to be no less than one million yen (US$4,500).

The role of adults

Television programmes for young children pre­sent a variety of songs, dances, plays, stories, puppet shows, pictures, forms, colours, motions, more skillfully and more attractively than teachers and mothers do for their o w n chil­dren. Moreover, television brings children to distant and dangerous places where teachers and mothers cannot take them.

In this connection, television can enrich a child's environment. However, television can neither diagnose children's responses to tele­vision nor give intellectual as well as affective knowledge of results ( K R ) to children. Tele­vision cannot change the speed of presentation and the degree of difficulty depending upon the child's responses. Television cannot evaluate behaviour in each child. It cannot transmit knowledge of results such as 'John, you are right, but Jack, you are wrong' to John and Jack respectively. Television cannot give each child an affective K R such as 'Wonderful!' or ' Y o u are working very hard'. Teachers and mothers must diagnose each child's responses to television presentation, and they should give a suitable K R . If a child cannot understand the content of a television programme, it is a teacher or a mother w h o m a y describe it to him easily. If a child expresses incorrect re­sponses to a television programme, a teacher or a mother m a y correct his errors, for example, by saying ' Y o u are wrong'. By correction, he can absorb knowledge more strictly and reliably. W h e n a child imitates the game presented on television, a teacher and a mother can accept his behaviour in a comfortable atmosphere. Supported by this affective acceptance of adults, a child is motivated to continue the game and finally he m a y create n e w games. If a child

Television for young

behaves in a violent way stimulated by a tele­vision programme, it is the mother herself w h o can scold him and instruct him that this sort of violent behaviour is not acceptable.

This means that three-way communication between adults and children is important for child development, i.e. presentation of infor­mation by adults to children, diagnosis and evaluation of a child's behaviour by adults and presentation of K R information by adults to children. Though television expands only the first kind of communication such as presen­tation by adults to children, it cannot carry out the other two facets of communication. However, as the expansion of the presentation function by television is quite large, powerful and valuable, w e should use television as m u c h as possible, in so far as it has beneficial effects on young children. After that w e can support and extend the educational function of tele­vision by diagnosing and evaluating a child's responses and behaviour to television and by giving them K R . Here w e can achieve three-way communication mediated by television. •

A n experiment in radiophonie education: Acción Cultural Popular

Liliana Muhlmann de Masoner, Paul H . Masoner and Hernando Bernai

were reached. T h e most successful programmes were making extensive use of relatively low-cost technologies for mass communication, particu­larly radio and printed media.

T h e highest priority areas were what might be called training in essential survivor behaviour—vital skills including such subject-matter as hygiene, sanitation, child care, nu­trition, family planning, agricultural practices, and more. It was further noted that oral messages, delivered by radio or in person, and simple graphics could be used to enhance significantly skills critical to an improved con­dition of living, even for pre-literate populations.

In the course of this review of non-formal education programmes, the F S U staff was par­ticularly impressed by Acción Cultural Popular ( A C P O ) , a programme that had for m a n y years achieved a remarkable degree of success in Colombia.

In 19765 with the agreement of A C P O and with financial and other support from the United States Agency for International Devel­opment, a three-year evaluation study was undertaken by Florida State University.

T h e primary purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness and impact of A C P O in improving the lives of rural Colombians and in effecting change in achieving A C P O goals and objectives. A second purpose, no less im­portant, was to develop a description of the A C P O education model, based on careful study and analysis and on the outcomes of the evalu­ation, that could become the basis for guidelines

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 3, 1982

In recent years a n e w and important focus on expanding or initiating out-of-school pro­grammes of education for adult rural popu­lations has become apparent inmany of the lesser-developed countries of the world. Although there is continuing concern with increasing opportunities for children and youth through formal schooling, m a n y educational leaders have come to realize that, important as these efforts are to expand formal education, they only marginally address the problems of a nation's undereducated adults and that special, inten­sive development of non-formal adult rural education is essential to national prosperity and to better lives for the rural population.

In 1972 the Learning Systems Institute of Florida State University ( F S U ) began to study rural non-formal education programmes in de­veloping countries including Jamaica, the R e ­public of Korea, Thailand, India, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and m a n y of the countries of Latin America. A number of tentative conclusions

D r Liliana M u h l m a n n de Masoner (Argentina),

until her recent death, Senior Research Associate and

Director, ACPO Project, Learning Systems Institute,

Florida State University, Tallahassee; D r Paul H . Masoner (United States of America), University

Professor of Education and Dean Emeritus, University

of Pittsburgh, Consultant, ACPO Project,Learning Sys­

tems Institute, Florida State University, Tallahassee;

D r Hernando Bernai (Colombia), Director, Planning

and Evaluation, Acción Cultural Popular, Bogotá,

Colombia.

Liliana Muhlmann de Masoner,

that would provide assistance and support to other non-formal education programmes con­cerned with improving the quality of life of rural populations.

Although A C P O goals cover a broad spectrum of concerns important to rural populations, a decision was made to focus the evaluation primarily on three areas: the development of literacy and mathematical skills, the utilization of improved and effective agricultural tech­niques, and the adoption of improved health and nutritional practices. These specific A C P O goals were selected because of their relevance to rural development efforts in most nations of the world and the high programmatic emphasis by A C P O in these areas.

A project staff of P S U faculty and key A C P O staff included a significant number of Latin American educators. This basic project staff was supplemented for the field studies by more than thirty Colombians. Over a three-year period the staff m a d e an intensive study of A C P O structure and organization, staffing, policies, goals, procedures, programmes, and financing. T h e central project activity was the field study—an effort that involved intensive and comprehensive interviews with 601 campe­sino families in order to determine the effects and consequences of A C P O .

Study data point to significant improvements in basic education, in health and nutritional prac­tices, and in agricultural techniques. Although the study focused primarily on the areas m e n ­tioned above, there are also indications that A C P O has m a d e an effective contribution to the improvement of the quality of life for campe­sinos throughout the nation.

O n e thing is clear: in the course of a single year A C P O touches the lives of millions of rural Colombians in its outreach to improve their lives and to offer hope for the future. T h e success of A C P O has led to the development of similar programmes in at least fourteen other nations in Latin America. Nations elsewhere in the world have looked to A C P O as a model for the delivery of non-formal education to their o w n rural populations.

H. Masoner and Hernando Bernai

The establishment of Acción Cultural Popular

A C P O came into existence in 1947 in Colombia through the initiative and action of a young priest, José Joaquin Salcedo, w h o was con­cerned about the conditions under which the campesinos of the nation lived and w h o was convinced that an educational programme di­rected to the rural inhabitants was essential if they were to develop the capacity to improve the quality of life and to build reasonable hopes for the future. As in m a n y other developing nations the rural population was living in conditions of poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and disease. Most of the campesinos were, and still are, isolated from the modern world; this isolation meant that 10 million people, almost half the population, had little access to schools and other institutions providing educational op­portunities. It was clear that there was a real need for a n e w system of education that would reach those w h o did not have even the basic rudiments of learning.

It was in this setting that Father Salcedo established Radio Sutatenza and the first radio-phonic schools of Colombia in the small m o u n ­tain village of Sutatenza in the state of Boyaca. T h e transmitter was crudely m a d e and with a very limited broadcast range, but it did make it possible to reach m a n y campesinos of the region isolated by lack of transportation and communication and hitherto without any op­portunity for basic education. T h e radiophonie schools that came into being as an aspect of the n e w educational effort were located in campe­sino homes and included members of one or more families under the leadership of a cam­pesino w h o functioned as an adjunct to the educational programmes that emanated from Radio Sutatenza. T h e major focus of these early radio broadcasts was on basic literacy—reading, writing and numbers. However these early programmes went beyond literacy in an effort to develop in the listeners a recognition of the responsibility of each individual for his o w n personal development. Further, they made clear

A n experiment in radiophonie education: Acción Cultural Popular 367

the necessity to develop a comprehensive set of skills that included not only literacy but agri­cultural, economic and social skills that would m a k e it possible for the individual to improve his way of life and contribute effectively to the improvement of society.

Development of a massive non-formal education programme

F r o m this small initial venture into the field of non-formal education A C P O developed rapidly. Others, convinced of the importance of de­veloping educational programmes for campe­sinos and impressed by the utility of radio as a means of reaching millions of isolated rural dwellers, joined in the effort. A set of basic textbooks dealing with reading and writing, numbers, economics and work, agriculture, health and spirituality was prepared. A cam­pesino library, which is a collection of books that supplemented the basic textbooks, was de­veloped and eventually grew into approxi­mately fifty titles. T h e volunteer campesino w h o originally served the radiophonie school as an adjunct to the radio programme was joined by other field-workers w h o gave direction and leadership to A C P O programmes in various regions and communities to which it had ex­tended its efforts. Institutes for the training of field-workers were established in Sutatenza and Caldas. T h e original primitive radio trans­mitter at Sutatenza was replaced by modern broadcasting equipment and by four trans­mitting stations, thus greatly increasing cam­pesino listeners and adding millions of other persons w h o lived in the cities and w h o could profit from the educational messages of Radio Sutatenza. T h e content of the total radio pro­gramming was modified and increased to meet a wider range of interests and needs of the listeners beyond the initial educational focus. Radio Sutatenza became a major factor in C o ­lombia radio with a diversified programme for­mat including educational programmes, news, music, sports, dramatics, and other programmes

of both general interest and cultural value. Other elements and strategies were added to

A C P O ' s efforts to educate the campesinos. A weekly newspaper, El Campesino, with both the usual newspaper content as well as educational messages specifically related to campesino life was published and distributed throughout rural Colombia with a circulation at one time of more than 100,000 families. Special campaigns, led by the field-workers trained in the institutes, in­volved campesinos in projects designed to achieve improved health, better nutrition, adequate housing, n e w techniques in agriculture and animal husbandry, soil and forest conservation, as well as other needs essential to a better life for the rural population of the nation.

A s A C P O extended its influence to vir­tually all regions and areas of Colombia, efforts were m a d e to co-ordinate A C P O programmes with those of other agencies, governmental and non-governmental. In addition, over the years A C P O developed co-operative or con­tractual projects with the Colombian Govern­ment dealing with the utilization of radio for basic education, in-service teacher education, health education, prison education, and military personnel education.

A C P O today

Today Acción Cultural Popular is one of the largest and most successful private non-formal education programmes in the world aimed at rural populations and rural development. Radio education and radiophonie schools continue to be central to A C P O educational strategy. H o w ­ever, basic textbooks, the campesino library, the newspaper, the special campaigns, the field-workers, and the training institutes have become essential elements and strategies in a compre­hensive educational programme that has reached and changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of campesinos and others in urban areas. M o r e than 1,000 persons comprise the A C P O staff. A m o n g them are professional staff responsible for the educational programmes and the m a n ­agement operations essential to a large and

368 Liliana Muhlmann de Masoner, Paul H . Masoner and Hernando Bernai

complex organization. In addition this paid staff is supplemented by large numbers of volunteer field-workers, as m a n y as 10,000 in a given year.

Thus A C P O has, in the thirty-four years of its existence, grown from a young teacher-priest with a small radio transmitter to a large and complex operation that has extended its in­fluence throughout Colombia and that has been used as a model by similar non-formal education programmes in other countries. As Colombia has changed and as the needs of the rural population have changed, so too has A C P O changed in its programme content and its strategies. However, A C P O ' s concern for the improvement of the quality of life of the cam­pesinos still is primary, and all programmatic efforts are aimed at the achievement of that goal.

Goals and objectives of A C P O

In the by-laws of A C P O the goals of the institution are defined as follows:

Acción Cultural Popular has as its goal the integral education of the masses, particularly that of the rural adult through Radiophonie Schools, and employing a method which furnishes basic education and prep­aration for social and economic realities; in so far as it can, it will awaken in them a spirit of initiative and encourage them to seek their o w n personal and social improvement.

O n the basis of this goal statement A C P O has developed the concept of Educación Funda­mental Integral (EFI) or integral fundamental education. This concept views the education process as the development of the individual as a person and as a part of society; is based on the belief that the educational programme estab­lishes only the basic foundation of knowledge from which the individual must continue his learning throughout life; and includes in edu­cation all those elements which represent needs in the life of m a n that contribute to his development.

T h e priority areas of concern and action

are literacy, health and nutrition, agriculture, financial management, dwellings and living conditions, recreation and sports, family re­lationships, parenthood and family planning, participation in neighbourhood and community activities, capacity for confronting and solving personal and social problems, ethical and re­ligious principles, continuing education and self-improvement, political consciousness.

Instructional radio/ radiophonie schools

Central to the A C P O model of non-formal edu­cation are the educational broadcasts via Radio Sutatenza and the radiophonie schools.

T h e radio messages and the radiophonie schools function as part of a total system also involving a set of six basic textbooks; books from the campesino library; a weekly news­paper; recordings; extension courses; cam­paigns; the professional personnel w h o are responsible for the planning of the educational programme, the development of educational materials and broadcasts, and of the operation of institutes for training field-workers; and the field personnel w h o function in a face-to-face relationship with the campesinos w h o are the target of A C P O ' s educational efforts.

In a nation like Colombia where millions of people live in relative isolation from the large cities and from one another because of the mountainous topography and the inadequacy of means of travel and communication, the in­structional radio broadcasts, supplemented by print media and the field-workers, have been central educational programmes.

T h e four A C P O radio stations do not limit their broadcasts to instructional courses. Rather, they offer a wide variety of other programmes, which are educational in nature but which are not linked to specific courses or instructional programmes. Included in the programming are news, sports, music, drama, and other items of general interest to the listening audience. Typi­cally, the broadcast day, in order to a c c o m m o ­date both the instructional programme and

A n experiment in radiophonie

the general education programme, extends over twenty hours or more.

Over the years the instructional programme of courses via Radio Sutatenza and its four powerful transmitters has been revised m a n y times to accommodate the changing needs of the rural population, changes in the cur­riculum, and improved instructional strat­egies. However, in recent years the instructional radio programme has provided approximately eighty hours of broadcast each week and has focused largely on courses that together deal with the wide range of A C P O objectives.

Although the need for literacy training has decreased as Colombia has expanded and im­proved its public school system and has reached farther and farther into the hitherto isolated regions of the nation, there is still a sizeable number of adults as well as children and youth for w h o m literacy training is important. For these individuals the training programme fo­cuses on both initial training to read and write and use numbers and training designed to upgrade minimal skills that an individual m a y already possess. This course still plays an es­sential role in the A C P O educational pro­g r a m m e since basic literacy skills are necessary for individuals to participate in other A C P O educational courses and programmes and to utilize the print media—the textbooks, the library of some fifty titles, and the weekly newspaper. For campesinos w h o cannot listen on a regular basis, the entire literacy course has been reproduced on a set of records and is available along with a record player.

Other courses deal with several broad sub­ject areas: health and work, numbers and communications, and community life and prob­lems. Within these three areas the courses cover a wide range of topics that relate to A C P O goals and objectives. Courses are organized into units or modules of instruction, each dealing with a specific area of concern. Examples of some of the topical areas dealt with on a modular basis are the following: health ( immu­nization against disease, alcoholism, community health services); work (family vegetable garden, fruit growing, marketing of products, animal

: Acción Cultural Popular 369

care and breeding); community life (partici­pation in community organizations, develop­ment of sports fields, community actions to solve specific community problems). This modular non-sequential approach makes it possible to develop short courses on specific topics and, at the same time, accommodates the campesino w h o cannot listen on a regular basis over a three- to four-month period and enables him to give attention over a period of a few days or weeks to topics of interest and concern.

All radio courses are linked to the use of print materials: the basic textbooks, the fifty or so titles of the campesino library, and the weekly newspaper, El Campesino. This utilization of the print media not only provides lesson materials to which the radio instructor m a y refer but also reference materials for continued use long after the course has been completed, which will enable the campesino to continue his study independently and to locate needed information that will be useful in his life activities.

A n essential aspect of A C P O ' s instructional radio is the thousands of radiophonie schools throughout the country. T h e radiophonie school is not a school in the usual formal sense of the term. Rather, it is an educational setting involving one or more persons, each interested in learning, each willing to use his o w n re­sources, and each prepared to become in­volved in the educational programmes of Radio Sutatenza. While it is not possible to describe a typical school, since none really exists, it is possible to list some general characteristics. M o r e often than not the school will involve up to as m a n y as ten participants, often members of the same family or several families of the same neighbourhood {vereda), covering a range of ages from children to adults, including both those w h o have had no previous education and those w h o m a y have had some limited attend­ance in the formal school system, and all with a c o m m o n desire to improve their way of life. T h e group meets on a regular basis, usually in a h o m e , to listen to the instructional radio broad­casts and to participate in appropriate learning activities.

In most instances the school utilizes the

370 Liliana Muhlmann de Masoner, Paul H. Masoner and Hernando Bernai

services of a radiophonie school monitor w h o is a volunteer with m i n i m u m knowledge often gained from earlier participation as a student in a radiophonie school and with m i n i m u m training. T h e monitor m a y be any m a n or w o m a n , having some knowledge of reading, writing, and numbers, w h o serves as the bridge between the radio professor and the campesino students. H e attempts to interpret what the radio teacher says and to bring it to reality in the setting in which the campesinos live.

T h e monitor has a variety of specific func­tions that facilitate learning. H e organizes the group and encourages regular participation in the radiophonie class. H e provides and has ready materials and equipment that are needed for each lesson, follows instructions given by the professor and helps the students as they engage in group activities as prescribed. H e provides general supervision, encourages and promotes discussion, adapts lesson content to the local situation, and guides the students in making practical applications of their learning in every­day life.

T h e selection of the monitor occurs in vari­ous ways. Sometimes he is selected by the students planning to participate as a radiophonie school group. O r , he m a y himself organize the radiophonie school and initially assume the role of monitor. In yet other cases, a leader or community worker or the local priest m a y select and recruit him to serve as a monitor.

T h e monitor is basically a natural teacher. Although no formal training programme is offered prior to becoming a monitor, once he has accepted this responsibility informal train­ing efforts are often carried out by leaders or community workers on an individual or group basis. In any case, the regular meetings of monitors and community workers under the direction of the leader as well as participation in extensive courses provide useful in-service training.

Other support facilities

TEXTBOOKS AND THE CAMPESINO LIBRARY

T h e following textbooks (cartillas), six in number , provide the basic content for the A C P O educational programme: Cartilla básica (Basic Text); Nuestro bienestar (Our Welfare); Hablemos bien (Let U s Speak Correctly); Cuentas claras (Mathematics M a d e Plain); Suelo pro­ductivo (Productive Land); and Comunidad cristiana (Christian Community) .

These texts are designed for specific use in connection with the instructional radio pro­grammes as well as for continuing study by the individual campesino once he has developed the m i n i m u m basic skills of reading, writing and mathematics.

T h e books of the campesino library, n u m ­bering almost fifty titles, complement and supplement the content of the instructional radio programmes and the textbooks. T h e y cover a complete range of A C P O programme content associated with A C P O goals and objec­tives and include such varied topics as the cultivation of fruit trees, fish culture and fishing, pig-raising, bee-keeping, cattle-raising, first aid, health and nutrition, contagious diseases, sex and marriage, children's stories, playing the guitar, civic rights. These library books are used in connection with both specific radio courses and reference materials.

THE NEWSPAPER

El Campesino, a weekly newspaper published by A C P O and distributed throughout Colombia, is an important element of the A C P O educational programme. El Campesino is used regularly in connection with the radio courses as an ad­ditional source of information and a reference. At the same time, it makes it possible for thousands of campesino families to become more aware of the world in which they live and of the events in Colombia and elsewhere

A n experiment in radiophonie education: Acción Cultural Popular 371

that have importance for themselves and for society generally.

While El Campesino has the usual features of a newspaper, special emphasis is given to news that is of importance to rural development and to the concerns of campesinos. In addition, in each issue, there is a separata or section that contains feature articles relating to such con­cerns of the campesino as improved agricultural practices, techniques for the care of farm animals, suggestions on nutrition, better health care, recipes for cooking, hints on the making of clothing, as well as occasional poetry or prose selections contributed by campesinos.

CORRESPONDENCE

A n aspect of A C P O ' s programme, not always associated with non-formal education pro­grammes, is an extensive correspondence be­tween campesinos and the central offices of A C P O . Once a campesino has completed the basic literacy course, he is encouraged to write his first letter to A C P O . For m a n y campesinos this letter is the beginning of an extended correspondence which in effect becomes a part of a continuing educational programme once participation in courses m a y have ceased. Campesinos are encouraged to write to A C P O for information and assistance relating to their needs and problems. Each letter is answered individually in an effort to provide the needed assistance. In a single year as m a n y as 50,000 let­ters were received from campesinos and answered by the staff assigned to the correspondence section.

Extension courses

Extension courses are utilized throughout Colombia by A C P O in an effort to meet specific local problems and needs. Typically an ex­tension course is a one-day workshop ac­tivity, organized in co-operation with interested campesinos by an A C P O field-worker, and dealing with a problem of local interest and

concern. A few examples of the topics dealt with in extension courses are: community organ­ization, co-operatives, proper use of credit, improvement of agricultural techniques, conser­vation of natural resources, nutrition, develop­ment of h o m e industries, and utilization of services of other community agencies.

Campaigns

Campaigns are regularly utilized in an effort to encourage and assist campesinos to make prac­tical applications of what has been learned through the instructional radio programmes, radiophonie schools, recordings and printed matter. These campaigns are featured in articles in El Campesino, are promoted via Radio Sutatenza, and are conducted at the local level by A C P O field-workers. Direct assistance is given to campesinos to apply what they have learned in a variety of ways.

S o m e campaigns have a continuing emphasis throughout the year and even over a period of years. A m o n g these are campaigns related to: nutrition, housing, soil, matters of present concern and even of continuing concern but which are given special emphasis through short-term programmes.

Temporary campaigns have included the veg­etable garden, the fish pond, the compost pit, community services, conservation of family econ­omic enterprises, balanced diet, bee-keeping, running water for the h o m e , building of latrines, community organizations, and methods of mar­keting products. These temporary campaigns are integrated with permanent campaigns when­ever it appears relevant and useful.

The interpersonal component

Although A C P O is viewed as a programme of radiophonie education and although consider­able reliance is placed on printed materials that complement and supplement instructional radio, a critical element in A C P O ' s success over the

372 Liliana Mvhlmann de Masoner, Paul H. Masoner and Hernando Bernai

thirty years of its operation are the h u m a n resources that constitute the interpersonal component.

These resources fall into three categories in the A C P O structure as follows:

Management and planning staff include those responsible for top policy-making, adminis­trative and financial direction, planning and evaluation, and operations, including the m a n ­agement of units involved in publishing ven­tures and in the operation of the radio station.

Those responsible for educational develop­ment focus on the educational leadership and planning activities for A C P O ' s massive non-formal education programme. T h e professors are responsible for developing the curriculum of the radio education programme, for writing radio scripts, for radio teaching, for writing the textbooks of the library and the education sec­tion of El Campesino. T h e teacher educators are the faculty of the institutes where field personnel are prepared. They have the task of developing the curricula of the institutes and operating the instructional programme, including both didac­tic and practical elements.

Field staff include both volunteer and paid field staff w h o work in a face-to-face setting with the campesinos. Included here are the following: the radiophonie school monitor w h o helps to guide the participants of the radio-phonic school; the community worker w h o serves a small neighbourhood and gives assist­ance to the monitors, interprets and promotes A C P O programmes, and works directly with campesinos in programme activities; and the leader w h o is the key person in the activities of A C P O in a community, giving supervision to monitors and community workers, organizing and promoting A C P O programmes, and serving as the A C P O representative. In addition to these neighbourhood and community staff m e m ­bers are the supervisors w h o give direction and supervision to all field staff in a group of communities, and the zone chiefs and their assistants w h o are responsible for the general direction and operation of A C P O in the seven zones of the country.

Evaluation of A C P O

A C P O has over the years utilized two approaches to evaluation: internal evaluations in which all levels of staff, as well as students, participate, and external evaluations that involve national and international organizations, as well as scholars from universities in Colombia and elsewhere.

Evaluations occur regularly in the radio-phonic schools under the direction of the school monitor. Self-evaluation instruments prepared by the professors are used both to assist the student in evaluating his progress and to encourage him to engage in further study. Central office and divisional professional per­sonnel hold seminars to discuss and evaluate all aspects of the A C P O educational programme. Once each year, a meeting of all A C P O pro­fessional personnel, as well as leaders and super­visors, is held at Sutatenza. This meeting pro­vides an unusual opportunity for a comprehen­sive evaluation of A C P O programmes and activities.

M a n y external studies and evaluations have been carried out by national and international organizations, as well as by universities and individual scholars. As mentioned above, the Florida State University, with support from the United States Agency for International Devel­opment, has completed a three-year evaluation of the overall effectiveness of the A C P O edu­cation model in terms of its immediate effects and its long-range consequences on campesinos. T h e outcomes of the evaluation have been utilized to develop a comprehensive set of guide­lines for nations that wish to develop and/or improve non-formal education programmes for the rural populations.

A C P O and the future

A C P O , like all formal and non-formal edu­cational efforts, cannot remain static. Changes are necessary as society changes. At the present time, A C P O views its future development in

A n experiment in radiophonie education: Acción Cultural Popular 373

terms of three basic principles derived from its experience: the need to adjust content and methodology to the changing needs of the campesinos; the importance of adapting mass educational programmes to the specific circum­stances and needs of different regions of the country; and the importance of community support in the development of educational pro­grammes for community needs.

Wha t A C P O becomes and h o w effectively it serves the needs of the target population de­pends on A C P O ' s response to these principles. U p to n o w in its thirty years of existence, its success has been due to its ability to change as society has changed. Today, with the rapid and massive changes in life throughout the world, A C P O and its counterparts elsewhere must be prepared to meet change with change.

Lessons learned

Throughout the three years of the Florida State University study and evaluation of the edu­cational programme of Acción Cultural Popular a number of fundamental questions were always present. H o w can the A C P O experience be useful to others interested in the development of and/or improvement of non-formal education programmes for rural populations in developing countries? H o w useful is the A C P O education model elsewhere in other settings? T o what extent do the outcomes of the study suggest policy, organization, content, and procedures for similar programmes in Latin America and in other countries throughout the world?

T o have posed questions like these is not to imply that A C P O could or should be transported without change to another location or another country or that other nations could or should develop identical programmes without any con­sideration of regional or local factors that might require important modification. Rather, these questions suggest that A C P O experiences, out­comes, successes, failures can provide useful information to others about to undertake pro­grammes of rural non-formal education or faced with the need to review and revise programmes

already in existence. They suggest that there m a y be lessons to be learned from A C P O that would be useful elsewhere.

Following are a number of generalizations intended to serve as guidelines for rural non-formal education programmes, guidelines that were identified by some of those closely associ­ated with A C P O on the basis of literally hundreds of discussions with members of the A C P O staff as well as campesinos w h o over the years had been associated with A C P O pro­grammes.

i. Programmes of rural non-formal education should focus primarily on adults and out-of-school youth whose prior educational oppor­tunities have been considerably lacking or non-existent. However, such programmes m a y be useful to younger members of the rural population and even to individuals living in urban areas for w h o m significant educational needs are not being provided.

2. T h e focus of such programmes should not be limited to literacy (reading, writing and mathematics) but should include such areas as agriculture and/or other work activities, health, nutrition, recreation, family plan­ning, and other concerns relating to im­proved productivity and welfare.

3. T h e development and operation of such programmes should be based on careful studies and identification of needs of the rural population, should take into account cultural values and norms, and should in­volve representative members of that popu­lation in planning, operation, and delivery of the educational programme to the client audience.

4 . Programmes should focus upon developing within individuals an understanding of their o w n responsibility for improvement, a rec­ognition of their o w n potential for progress, and a knowledge of the value of those resources they possess.

5. Programme elements, processes, method­ologies, and strategies of the total non-formal education programme should be integrated into a complete instructional system that recognizes the role of each element in success-

374 Liliana Muhlmann de Masoner, Paul H. Masoner and Hernando Bernai

ful outcomes. A m o n g these (based on the A C P O model) are the following: radio, radio-phonic schools, textbooks, the h o m e library, the weekly newspaper, recordings, extension courses, the leaders and other field-workers, the institutes for training personnel, and the professional leaders responsible for devel­oping curricula, radio courses and written materials.

6. T h e personnel selected to implement the programme, those w h o meet with the client population, are an essential and important aspect of the total programme, for it is this group which provides personal inspiration, motivation, incentive, and support to indi­viduals needing help and seeking assistance. It is important also that staff include a con­siderable number of individuals from the client population itself, w h o can understand the needs and concerns of the rural population and w h o can establish compatible relation­ships conducive to learning.

7. All personnel involved in non-formal edu­cation programmes should undergo care­fully designed pre-service and in-service training programmes that assure that all individuals clearly understand the nature and needs of the client population and the purposes of the programme and develop competence in those strategies and techniques that are effective in achieving both immedi­ate and long-range goals. In the A C P O model this training is evident in the work of the institutes for the training of field staff, in continued in-service training programmes of such staff, and in programmes of training for professional staff as well.

8. Non-formal education programmes should relate to and involve other systems of edu­cation and support to the client popu­lation—government, private organizations, the church, the formal system of edu­cation—so that all systems available can operate as m u c h as possible as an integrated whole in providing assistance to rural popu­lations.

9. Programmes should include a continuous system of evaluation, both internal and

external, that will result in constant moni­toring of the programme and its outcomes and in modification and improvement. •

Bibliography B E R N A L , Hernando; M U H L M A N N D E M A S O N E R , Liliana; M A ­

SONER, Paul H . Acción Cultural Popular: Pioneer Radio-phonic Education Program of Latin America 1947-1977. Bogotá, Colombia, Acción Cultural Popular, 1978.

. Acción Cultural Popular: Estudio de Caso. Revista de tecnología educativa, Vol. 3, N o . 4, 1977. (In Spanish.)

M A S O N E R , Paul H . Research to Improve Practice: Colombia. The Democratization of Education. Washington, D . C . , International Council on Education for Teaching, 1981.

M A S O N E R , Paul H . ; M A S O N E R , David J. Nonformal Adult Education in Developing Countries. Basic Education: International Perspectives on Preparing Teachers for New Roles. Washington, D.C.,International Council on Edu­cation for Teaching, 1981.

M A S O N E R , Paul H . ; M U H L M A N N D E M A S O N E R , Liliana;

B E R N A L A L A R C O N , Hernando. Nonformal Education for Rural Development in Colombia. Education for Development. Washington, D . C . , International Council on Education for Teaching, 1978.

M O R G A N , Robert M . ; M U H L M A N N D E M A S O N E R , Liliana;

M A S O N E R , Paul H . Evaluación de sistemas de comuni­cación educativa. Bogotá, Colombia, Acción Cultural Popular, 1980. (In Spanish.)

M U H L M A N N D E M A S O N E R , Liliana; M A S O N E R , Paul H .

Teachers in Rural Nonformal Education: Implications for Teacher Education. The Quest for Excellence in Teacher Education. Washington, D . C . , International Council on Education for Teaching, 1979.

Multimedia teaching packages in Hungary

A. Nádasi, I. Suba and K . Tompa

Scientific, technical and social developments present n e w requirements for primary, second­ary and higher education all over the world which are in contradiction with the traditional system of education in most countries. S o m e countries are looking to educational technology to help provide a solution.

At the International Seminar on Educational Technology, held in Hungary in 1976 and sponsored by Unesco, two potential ways of developing educational technology in schools were defined: an increase in teaching time ('extensive development'); and the qualitative transformation of the educational system ('in­tensive development').

'Extensive development' can be implemented only to a limited degree, because the extension of school time greatly hinders the inclusion of young people in the production process, and the creation of material and intellectual values. It also means extra expense. In certain countries methods and procedures would be especially welcome if they shortened the time necessary for training and decreased the number of teachers and other personnel.

Intensive development seems to be more feasible. Indeed, educational reforms in differ­ent countries point in this direction. T h e struc­tural transformation of primary schools, the

A . Nádasi (Hungary), Head of the Department of Instructional Development at the National Centre for Educational Technology in Budapest; I. Suba (Hun­gary), instructional designer at the National Centre for Educational Technology; K . T o m p a (Hungary), instructional designer at the National Centre for Edu­cational Technology.

supervision and modification of curricula, the introduction of n e w subjects, the optimization of the educational process, the increase of edu­cational effectiveness, the in-service training of teachers are all manifestations of intensive development.

T h e innovative viewpoint and its actual results of research to be implemented in edu­cational practice can also contribute to creating curricula that can be used with better results, in order to form more effective teaching pro­cesses in the different fields of education.

National Centre for Educational Technology

T h e development of educational technology in Hungary was given a real impetus w h e n the National Centre for Educational Technology was founded in 1973 with significant aims concerning the development and introduction of educational technology in two areas. O n the one hand the centre launched courses and in-service training for students and teachers in educational technology. T h e planning of these courses involved not only the traditional selec­tion of teaching materials and the compilation of notes but the preparing of software systems serving concrete objectives as well.

O n the other hand the centre examines and produces audio-visual software systems for public educational institutions in order to im­plement curricula more effectively. By solving certain tasks connected to the training and in-service training of teachers, the centre can indirectly contribute to the intensive develop­ment of education. B y producing software and

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 3, 1982

376 A. Nádasi, I. Suba and K. Tompa

teaching packages the centre has a direct impact on the development of public education.

Therefore w e have some experience concern­ing h o w media combinations and teaching packages influence the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process.

T h e teaching package

In the past ten to fifteen years in the United States and in other countries, teaching packages of various forms and content have been created in order to implement different objectives and to solve certain problems. T h e makers and the users had m a n y different expectations: the expansion of educational objectives, to include the development of the whole personality; taking into account individual abilities, the achievement of individualized learning; the in­tegration of different subjects; the realization of co-ordinated teaching; a more thorough and more effective acquisition of the different sub­jects; and achieving a reproducible educational process.

A m o n g the teaching packages w e can find a few containing one or two software items and some others that w e can call multimedia teaching packages, that is, ones where several different kinds of software items serving differ­ent purposes can be found. T h e selection of the media included in the package is usually in­fluenced by the objectives w e want to achieve, the tasks to be carried out, the characteristics of the given age-group of pupils and quite a few other factors.

T h e teaching packages vary according to the amount of the material to be covered.

T h e teaching packages planned for teaching one item of knowledge or practical activity concentrate on a single, well-circumscribed idea, fact, or rule. Usually the pupils need a few hours to learn the material contained in such packages; they can be flexibly adapted to the different flexible curricula and training programmes.

T h e teaching package covering a whole teaching unit elaborates a theme in accordance

with the special content structure of the given subject. This means that it takes account of the objectives and contents at different levels. T h e material contained in a teaching package can be fifteen to twenty lessons or sometimes even more.

W e have m a d e teaching packages for complete academic years, complete training programmes and complete in-service training courses. These essentially represent a specific, unified curricu­lum and described a well-defined educational process; one cannot use selected parts indepen­dently in other curricula.

T h e implementation of such a teaching pack­age has limited flexibility. T h e teacher using it cannot easily teach part of a topic according to another concept.

Teaching packages also vary according to the type of learning planned. Teaching packages intended for individualized work take into account the differences in the pupils' levels of accomplishment, their speed of learning, and their aims. T h e learning programme is chosen according to the individual interests of the pupils, and the guidance, checking and feedback are carried out with the help of the media built in the packages. T h e teaching packages combin­ing individual work, group work and teacher's guidance break the teaching-learning process into 'cycles of learning'. Individual discovery and the teacher's control are given equal roles in the teaching-learning process. Teaching pack­ages based on the guidance of a teacher are used mainly in group work and to a lesser degree in independent activities. Such teaching packages contain objectives to be reached not by indi­vidual pupils but by everybody. T h e various media are used partly depending on the differ­ent objectives, partly considering the varying abilities of the pupils.

Special features of developing teaching packages

W e have to take into consideration some of the characteristics of Hungarian public education in developing teaching packages. In Hungary

Multimedia teaching packages in Hungary 377

there is a centrally prepared curriculum for each subject, which suggests thematic units, contains the teaching-educational objectives and the m i n i m u m requirements. School radio and school television supplement the work done in schools. T h e question is h o w to increase the effective­ness of the teaching-learning process with the help of modern media and methods of edu­cation.

O u r research into teaching packages was carried out with four points in mind: W e aimed at improved learning through diversi­

fication of the teaching process. Teaching packages are of the multimedia type

in order to achieve the different learning objectives, and in order to adapt to the indi­vidual pupils.

W e wanted our teaching packages to cover complete teaching topics, thematic units, in line with the central curriculum.

Education should continue to be directed by the teacher. Naturally, depending on the objectives, independent work is also m a d e possible by the teaching package.

Thus , w e give the n a m e 'teaching package' to the system of audio-visual, printed and other learning materials, which help the work of the pupils and the teacher in achieving clearly defined objectives in a given topic and which have been tested and proved valuable by experiment.

T h e teaching packages based on the guidance of a teacher are intended to improve learning by using educationally sound materials that can be reproduced in large quantities.

T h e development of teaching packages is carried out in a sequence of steps that includes planning, production, testing in schools and introduction.

Criteria of effectiveness

Effectiveness is a concern in almost all fields of life. It is comparatively easy to define in technical sciences, but in social sciences, there­fore education as well, it is more difficult to give an unambiguous definition of effectiveness.

S o m e want to measure the effectiveness on purely economic grounds, others by whether it saves time and manpower. T h e most import­ant factor, the level of training reached, should equally not be ignored. W h a t really proves effectiveness—which is, of course, very dif­ficult to measure directly—is what percentage of training can be recovered in the course of the production or intellectual activities of those w h o took part in the training.

W e are still examining h o w teaching packages influence the achievement of pupils in different subjects. W e are also examining h o w the packages can be adjusted to the current teaching-learning process and h o w n e w media are ac­cepted by the pupils and the teachers. W e can try to answer these fundamental questions only after analysing several individual cases. That is w h y w e have m a d e and are making teaching packages for different subjects and different target populations.

A teaching package on nouns

O n e of our teaching packages has been m a d e for teaching Hungarian in primary schools and deals with nouns. It contains media supporting the teacher directly in his work, a system of objectives, a thematic plan and a teacher's guide. T h e system of objectives informs the teacher what the pupils have to learn in terms of grammar and spelling at the level of knowledge, application and orientation. T h e thematic plan constitutes fourteen lessons devoted to the teaching of nouns. Tables indicate the task of each lesson, the material to be used from the workbook, and the audio-visual and other media that can be used in class.

T h e teacher's guide contains the suggested presentation of the topic ' T h e World of Nouns' , indicating the material of the lesson and its set-up; the role of teaching media and the different forms of work; the summarized con­clusion of the lesson and the homework.

T h e software is composed of the following: A grammar workbook used in grade 6 containing

exercises and problems to be solved in the

378 A. Nádasi, L Suba and K. Tompa

form of class-, individual- or group-work. A sound film entitled Tracing the Nouns, which

has been m a d e to introduce and conclude the topic. It does not impart actual information to be learnt but, in harmony with the concept of the teaching package, experiences, material for the elaboration of the topic.

Word-cards for forming geographical names and practising the spelling rules. T h e pupils classify the words given as examples on the cards handed into groups. T h e groups contain types of words demonstrating a spelling rule, which is set out by the pupils when classi­fying the cards into groups.

A combination of tape and overhead trans­parencies to practise the spelling of geographi­cal names. T h e tape dictates material and the pupils can check their work with the trans­parencies.

Worksheets and overhead transparencies. In order to classify the spelling rules of the different types of nouns, the first page of transparencies sets tasks which the pupils carry out in their worksheets. Their work is checked when the teacher places the right solution on the first page of transparencies.

Tape-slide series on well-known people in Hungarian history, aimed at making their names more meaningful to the pupils. T h e slides have been m a d e both with and without subtitles in order to help the pupils practise their spelling.

Tape-slide series on a library for children which elaborates on the spelling of the titles of books, magazines. T h e slides present a well-equipped library for children and call atten­tion to what can be found in a library, and one can have access to books, magazines, etc.

Slides depict geographical phenomena with graphic signs as well as books, magazines, and institutions to enable pupils to give and write d o w n correctly as m a n y right names as possible.

Task-slips to measure accomplishment for checking and evaluating the attainment of goals. It contains different types of exercises on grammar and spelling, answers to ques­tions, supplying missing parts, multiple choice

exercises, etc. T h e slips are equivalent to the device measuring the effectiveness of teaching.

A mathematics teaching package

Our other teaching package is entitled 'Sets of Points' prepared for teaching mathematics in the first year of secondary school. T h e topic was chosen because it helps pupils form an idea about mathematics closest to that of the curriculum for primary schools; it needs a great deal of demonstration as it contains basic ideas of geometry that have not been defined but gained through abstraction; it is very important that pupils should get used early to regular individual and group activities, and problem-solving; and the teaching package can help pupils from different primary schools to reach the same level.

T h e package contains a system of objectives, task slips for measuring knowledge of the sub­ject, a teacher's guide, a student's workbook, a series of transparencies entitled 'Sets of Points', a series of transparencies entitled 'Sets', a tape-slide series for remedial purposes, and a film entitled From the Form of Objects to the Point.

Testing the packages

W e examined the effectiveness of the teaching package by representative samples, in natural circumstances (not in laboratories), using a con­trol group. W e looked at changes in teachers' accomplishments and attitudes with subject-matter tests and attitude questionnaires. W e obtained the data on the basis of observations, visits to classrooms, discussions with specialists and evaluation sheets.

During experimental lessons w e compared the average accomplishments in different fields. W e also looked at changes in achievement to see whether the group using the package had not turned into an unfavourably heterogeneous one from the point of view of knowledge. Then w e compared changes in achievement among good, mediocre and weak pupils. W e determined

Multimedia teaching packages in Hungary 379

with correlation calculation whether or not there was any connection between achieve­ment and class size. W e compared the changes in achievement in the experimental subjects (Hungarian and mathematics) with other sub­jects. W e asked open questions about attitude change. Finally, w e asked the teachers' opinions about the effectiveness of the teaching packages.

T h e results of the evaluation can be s u m ­marized as follows:

T h e use of teaching packages increased the effectiveness of the teaching material in equally different fields. Higher-level teaching objectives (e.g. the creative application of certain k n o w ­ledge) can be reached more successfully with teaching packages.

Differences in achievement between individ­ual pupils were considerably decreased.

T h e teaching package improved learning more in mediocre or weaker pupils than in good or excellent ones.

Changes in learning do not depend on the size of the group.

T h e tests confirmed our opinion that the educational effectiveness of teaching packages can be measured not only by achievement but also by the changes in attitudes. This w e consider very important because the favourable attitudes can carry over into the learning of other subjects.

Analysing the changes in attitudes, w e found that pupils in general appreciate Hungarian language and mathematics more than before. T h e pupils were m u c h less excited in class than before; they found the subject easier and conse­quently they liked it more. T h e teachers agreed that the packages are useful; their effect can be seen in an enrichment in learning, an in­crease in interest, and an improved atmosphere of the lessons.

Possibilities for further development

T h e development and testing experiences of ' T h e World of Nouns ' , 'Sets of Points' and a modular teaching package ('Programmed

Teaching') laid the foundation of a develop­ment research project during which w e elab­orated a complete software system for a n e w subject to be taught in the first year of secondary school called Technika.

T h e evaluation processes, and revision of the software system, confirmed the results of the previous experiments carried out before. T h e evaluation demonstrated the need for audio­visual teaching packages to increase learning and foster positive attitudes in teachers and pupils. O n the basis of the concepts, principles and models elaborated and proved valid, w e can create interdisciplinary curricular modules to pupils' abilities, skills, knowledge and per­sonalities, examine their effectiveness and in­troduce them on a broad scale. H

T h e rise and fall of educational technology

in Sweden Christer Brusling

At the end of the 1960s and in the beginning of the 1970s I was, as a teacher educator, partici­pating in the reshaping of teacher education on the basis of educational technology, denned as systematic education applying behaviouristic principles. Not by m y o w n initiative, a group of experts had worked out curricula for the study of education. T h e curricula started with the analysis of objectives, advanced across the analysis of pupils and of subject-matter to conclude with analysis of results. Trained as a psychologist, moreover in a rat laboratory, I felt rather pleased with these curricula. S o m e of those I trained were less satisfied, I ' m afraid.

F r o m 1970 to 1973 I worked on a research and development project entitled 'Micro-teaching'. At several institutions for teacher education similar investigations were started to try out and develop the American idea of training teaching skills in laboratory-like con­ditions, often with the aid of video-technique both in a demonstrational phase and a feedback phase with self-confrontation. At that time I myself did not describe m y work as edu­cational technology even if that was adequate according to both of the prevailing definitions: systematic education applying behaviouristic principles, and the use of communication media for educational purposes.

B y the middle of the 1970s educational tech-

Christer Brusling (Sweden), assistant professor of education at the University of Gothenburg.

nology according to the former definitions had almost vanished from the scene. Y o u could ask what replaced it.

Table 1 clearly shows that subjectively experienced differences in the themes of edu­cational research (and I doubt that others would m a k e a very different sample of keywords) are easily verified in this way. T h e content of the table is commented upon while dealing with the following three questions: W h a t were the reasons for the wide adoption of

educational technology ten to fifteen years ago?

T A B L E I . Frequencies of certain keywords denoting educational R & D projects catalogued by the National Board of Education in 1971 and 1980

Keyword

Systems of methods and materials

Teaching materials Goal analysis, analysis of objectives

Programmed instruction

Closed circuit television

Individualized instruction

Educational efficiency

Evaluation

W o r k forms Cognitive development

Project methods and problem-oriented

learning

Perspectives of knowledge Pupil-active work forms

1971

23 30 15 8 9 4 3

16

0

0

0

0

0

1980

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

19 18

8

8 5 4

* This article is based on a paper presented at the confer­ence on 'Technology in the Service of Teacher Training', Szombathely, Hungary, 5-10 October 1981.

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 3, 1982

382 Christer Brusling

W h y did it disappear? W h a t conclusions could be drawn from this

history? In the discussion that follows I a m indebted to a research group in Uppsala, headed by professor K . - G . Ahlström.

T h e rise of educational technology

In the 1960s a strong economic optimism prevailed. Not least the educational system was expected to contribute to economic growth. B y designing school and education in analogy to industry the raw material, i.e. the pupils, should be transformed in a reliable way into the desired products. I myself participated as a co-author of a script for a C C T V programme for teacher education in which sequences from the car industry were mixed with school scenes.

T h e contributions of the teacher were to be strictly directed and controlled, systems of methods and materials and programmed instruc­tion became usual. Microteaching in teacher education was intended explicitly to rationalize the expensive practice teaching. B y investing in electronics the need for a teacher-intensive training in schools was to be reduced. Also, to define the goals of teacher education in terms of teaching skills was a step on the way to accountability in teacher education.

In Sweden harmony prevailed between the basic views about knowledge and pupils in the official curriculum of the comprehensive school and the behaviouristic educational technology. True, the curriculum maintained two different and contradictory views: a humanistic in the introductory part and a mechanistic in the part teachers paid attention to, the part containing directions as to the teaching of all the different subjects in school. B y and by the teachers came to n a m e the introduction as the poetic part.

T h e nine-year comprehensive school became in 1969 to an increasing extent a comprehensive school in which the differentiation into streams in the ninth year was abolished.

T h e problem with the heterogenous classes was to be solved by individualized teaching

within the class. Great expectations were held for educational technology and programmed instruction. Projects, particularly in mathemat­ics, were conceived to make programmed in­struction possible. At the same time there were expectations of being able to reduce costs by rationalization—the instructed group was to increase in number and the direction of the work was to be divided between the teacher and teaching assistants. T h e view of educational de­velopment was centralistic—educational theory was to be transmitted to practice by way of an educational technology.1 Educational research was organized as research and development, in that order, the National Board of Education administered the activities (in co-operation with university institutions), and results were dis­seminated by way of regional school boards to teachers.

T h e fall of educational technology

In the beginning of the 1970s the ability of educational technology to solve problems in school was questioned. It became evident that programmed instruction did not succeed in giving instruction adapted to different aptitudes. Besides general problems of maintaining m o ­tivation in the long run, it was evident that m a n y pupils having reading and writing dif­ficulties did not manage the programmes. It was not possible to rationalize away the teacher—the large groups did not work as intended. T h e problem of individualization of instruction was still there.

In 1968 a committee was appointed to take a critical look at pre-school. Its work resulted in 1975 in a law which obliged the local authorities to grant all 6-year-old children part-time pre-school (three hours a day). T h e pedagogy proposed by the committee was based on cognitive developmental psychology. B e ­haviouristic learning psychology was rejected. T h e keyword in the proposed pedagogy was dialogue. Later this dialogue and its psycho­logical back-up was to exercise a great deal of influence on the revision of the curriculum of

The rise and fall of educational technology in Sweden 383

the comprehensive school, appearing in 1980. T h e revised curriculum, differing from its pre­decessor, is consistent as to the view of k n o w ­ledge and pupil. It is based on a constructivistic view of knowledge, the pupil is looked upon as a spontaneously active, creating subject, together with the teacher taking part in educational work. T h e term 'instruction' is almost c o m ­pletely replaced by 'work', which refers to teacher and pupil work alike.

Looking at Table 1 the consistent swing of the pendulum away from the behaviouristic position is remarkable. T h e committee on pre­school education did not only work out edu­cational principles concerning children in pre­school but for its teacher education as well. In accord with the broad objectives of pre-school education, concerning cognitive and personality development, something similar was recom­mended for teacher education. T h e borders between subjects should be m a d e less visible, project methods and problem-oriented studies in groups should be put into practice. This is not to say that these things started in pre-school teacher education but it represents a good example of the n e w orientation. Committees preparing the revision of the curriculum of the comprehensive school m a d e a break with the so far prevailing centralism of school adminis­tration. It was supposed that problem solutions are best handled locally and, as a consequence, decisions on h o w to spend money should be m a d e at the local level. This n e w freedom is, however, attached to an obligation publicly to account for decisions as well as the considerations behind them. In 1982 the possibilities locally to engage in educational development will be increased because of the replacing of the cen-tralistic model with a model giving the local school m u c h greater influence. T h e n e w con­ditions m a y prove to be conducive to the growth of an educational technology based on reflected practical knowledge.

A s for microteaching, there was growing concern about the meagre support of the validity of the identified teaching skills, the lack of strategies for organizing the use of the skills and whether the opportunities offered by the video-

technique really were exploited (McKnight, 1980). In m y o w n experiments conventionally prepared (lectures, readings) control groups did not perform less well than groups having the added advantage of using video-tapes.

T h e much-asked-for adjustment to different subject-matter, grade level and instructional materials did not appear.

Having concluded m y experimental inves­tigations of microteaching I imagined that the method teachers would follow up. This hap­pened only to a very limited extent. T h e reason, I believe, was not distrust in the behaviouristic rationale of the technique but too vague ideas about objectives. T o be useful microteaching demanded clearly stated behavioural objectives that one way or the other had to be backed up by convincing theory. W h a t happened m a y be seen as an example of what Ahlström claims to be a tendency among teachers to avoid working conditions that could eventually m e a n ac­countability.

What's in the future?

A s Travers (1973) points out, there are and have always been technologies without a scientific basis. A n educational technology could consist of codified and reflected teaching experiences. Lortie (1975) m a y be used to identify a number of reasons w h y such technologies are scarce in number, the main reason being that teachers' working conditions maintain an individualistic approach to teaching. T h e recruitment to the profession is based on the acceptance, indeed the liking, of these conditions, which because of that are reproduced. T o avoid uncritical ac­ceptance of n e w ideas it appears vital to change teachers' working conditions into a state more conducive to the emergence of codified collective experiences. Technologies thus created would certainly represent a level different from that of the behaviouristic educational technology.

It is of some interest to link the Swedish history of educational technology and Levin's (1976) analysis of the relationship between educational reforms and two types of work

384 Christer Brusling

reforms. In Levin's analysis, educational tech­nology belongs to a group of educational reforms consistent with work reforms emphasizing in­dividuality, while team teaching, mastery learn­ing, desegregation and micropolitical changes (such as decentralized decision-making) go with work reforms emphasizing co-operation and participation. It seems to m e that this expla­nation of the decline of educational technology in favour of other reforms is pertinent; as a matter of fact, Levin's examples of work reforms emphasizing co-operation and participation are Swedish in origin.

Recently the popular belief that the more faithfully communication media depict real life events the greater the instructional value of the media has been questioned. Salomon (1979) suggests that what makes communication media effective for educational purposes is the extent to which the representational symbol system used by a specific m e d i u m corresponds to the learner's internal representations. Indeed, the more faithful depiction of real-life events (like television) m a y fail to invoke relevant decoding skills and thereby lead only to a shallow process­ing of information. Research into the interaction between the ways media represent information and cognitive abilities of the learners can be expected to improve learning from media.

A s has been said already, a problem with microteaching, at least the teaching skill ap­proach, has been its integration with other el­ements in teacher education. If project methods and problem solution in groups are usual forms of work microteaching might profitably be used by student groups to demonstrate the practical implications of proposed solutions. T h e student teachers themselves should show in what ways the problem, the theoretical work on the prob­lem and the demonstrated practical impli­cations relate to each other. Knowing that a video-taped demonstration is to be produced should add some vigour to the explorations of implications of raised ideas.

M a n y have voiced arguments to include cognitive variables in microteaching research (McKnight, 1980, M a c L e o d and Mclntyre, 1977). T o m e the possibilities of using video-

techniques in investigations of teacher cog­itions (Winne and M a r x , 1977) are the most exciting. Obviously a video-tape is a very power­ful cue for recall, as shown by Kagan et al. (1969). It offers means of detailed inquiry into teachers' (and students') cognitive processes during a lesson. Considering Bassey's (1981) review on the relative merits of search for generalization and study of single events, this only adds to the charm of such an under­taking. •

Note 1. In teacher education the technology was supposed to be

administered by method teachers. Every teacher edu­cator knows that that technology contains elements other than those deduced from research, that is to say, elements arising from practice be it only the method teacher's own practice.

References BASSEY, M . 1981. Pedagogic Research: O n the Relative

Merits of Search for Generalisation and Study of Single Events. Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 7, N o . I, pp. 73-94-

K A G A N , N . , et al. 1969. Interpersonal Process Recall. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Vol. 148, N o . 4,

PP- 365-74-L E V I N , H . 1976. A Taxonomy for Educational Reforms for

Changes in the Nature of Work. In: M . Carnoy and H . Levin (eds.), The Limits of Educational Reforms.

N e w York and London, Longman. LoRTiE, D . 1975. Schoolteacher. A Sociological Study.

Chicago, 111., University of Chicago Press. M C K N I G H T , P. 1980. Microteaching: Development

from 1968 to 1978. British Journal of Teacher Edu­cation, Vol. 6, N o . 3, pp. 214-27.

M A C L E O D , G . J M C I N T Y R E , D . 1977. Towards a Model for Microteaching. British Journal of Teacher Education,

Vol. 3, N o . 2, pp. 111-20. S A L O M O N , G . 1979. Interaction of Media, Cognition and

Learning. San Francisco, Calif., Jossey-Bass. T R A V E R S , R . 1973. Educational Technology and Politics.

In: R . Travers (ed.), Second Handbook of Research on

Teaching, Chicago, 111., Rand McNally. W I N N E . P. ; M A R X , R . 1977. Reconceptualizing Research on

Teaching. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 69, N o . 6, pp. 668-78.

TRENDS AND CASES

z

Introducing students to mass media:

Radio Victoria de Girón Renaldo Infante Urivazo

O n 25 April 1971, Fidel Castro inaugurated the Basic Secondary School in the Countryside in the Victoria de Girón Citrus Cultivation Plan area. T h e Citrus Cultivation Plan area is located in the Matanzas province, adjoining Jagüey Grande, a flourishing southern town, that played a prominent part in the historical events of the 1960s.

T h e inaugural ceremony initiated what was to be the Victoria de Girón Plan, which n o w covers fifty-six schools and includes, in ad­dition to basic secondary schools, a large number of pre-university and technical and vocational establishments. M o r e than 40,000 students are enrolled in this impressive network of edu­cational institutions.

Demographically, the area consists of an extensive region that was divided up in the past into a patchwork of smallholdings. W o o d ­land vegetation was interspersed with pasture-land, and agricultural yields were high. T h e major obstacle to rapid development was the large quantity of stone per metre of land. T h e most valuable natural asset was an ample supply of groundwater, well suited for the application of irrigation systems.

Renaldo Infante Urivazo (Cuba). Degree in journalism and political science (Havana University). Awarded a Unesco fellowship to attend a course in mass com­munication sciences in Quito, Ecuador, in 1971. At present, Programme Planning Director at the Cuban Radio and Television Institute (ICRT).

It was discovered in certain small plots or former smallholdings that orange and lemon trees could be cultivated with considerable success, producing high average yields.

State management of the project ensured speed and rigorous organization; the long and valuable experience of the population of the region in the cultivation of citrus fruit was an important contribution to it. Despite the short­age of qualified technical staff, the introduction of the plantation system was successfully under­taken.

It was a risky venture in view of the lack of properly qualified personnel, but it also prom­ised to promote economic development in the southern part of Matanzas province and to break the pattern of one-crop production by introducing a n e w and important type of culti­vation that diversified agriculture and gave access to a lucrative export market.

T h e second complex was inaugurated in the same year. It was called 'Décimo Festival' in honour of the Tenth World Festival of Youth and Students. T h e rate of construction was to increase in subsequent years, and the present total n o w stands at fifty-six establishments.

T h e implementation of the Citrus Culti­vation Plan and the presence of the schools in Jagüey Grande brought about a radical change in an extensive region that had previously been one of the most neglected in the country. T h e construction of dozens of n e w schools was accompanied by the growth of a n e w population centre with large housing projects to accom-

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 3, 1982

388 Renaldo

modate the workers and farmers. Miles of n e w roads form a constantly expanding network; electric power systems have been established for agricultural, educational and social uses and telephone facilities have been installed.

Students attending secondary, pre-university and technical schools play a vital role in look­ing after the gigantic nurseries of millions of plants, in grafting, irrigating the plantations, pruning the trees, harvesting the fruit and performing m a n y other tasks suited to the young. Seventy per cent of the harvesting is done by the students of the schools in the countryside.

Background

A n appreciable number of students w h o had just left primary school moved to the area from other provinces. There was a really urgent need for secondary teachers and a titantic effort was required to reach a solution. This phenomenon, typical of growth periods at the various stages of development, had assumed alarming pro­portions in the early years of the revolutionary regime, necessitating emergency measures and meticulous planning for the future. O n that occasion, m a n y expedients were resorted to, including the use of radio and television in support of the national system of education.

T h e possibility of offering teaching posts to students w h o had completed secondary school was considered, despite their total lack of experience. Implementation of this idea led to the creation of what was to be the first contin­gent of the Manual AscunceDomenech Teach­ing Detachment.1 Through its work in various courses in the schools, this reservoir of future leaders helped to educate thousands of young people at secondary level.

T h e young student-teachers m a d e an effort to take part in all the activities of the school, joining with their pupils in the work of planting and harvesting and performing the duties in­volved in a boarding-school system. With the help of these pupil-teachers, w h o often faced students older than themselves in the class-

Urivazo

room, thousands of young people received an education that combined study and work; thus a means was provided of meeting the demand for teachers, while at the same time furthering economic plans, producing n e w wealth, and matching education to the society under con­struction in Cuba .

T h e transformation of the area and the fact that a settled population came to exist side by side with a fluctuating community of students gave the territory of Jagüey Grande a particular personality and style of life, influenced by its major agricultural resources, and giving rise to various cultural tendencies and movements reflecting concern for interaction and communi ­cation. T h e educational establishments are sep­arated from each other by plantations, but their activities and objectives are similar and the system under which they operate is the same. A s a result, m a n y felt the urge to find ways and means of forging n e w links between the people living in the area. A m o n g the m a n y activities planned and implemented, the idea of starting a radio station that would base its services on the immediate socio-economic environment took shape. Various agencies and institutions were asked to support the plan. Cultural circles, the cinema, science and technology and the sporting world were all asked to play a role. T h e Cuban Radio and Television Institute backed the establishment of the broadcasting service and it was inaugurated on 8 September 1977, taking the n a m e Radio Victoria de Girón.2

O n e of the policies and objectives of the country's national radio and television system is to cater to the interests of young people in its programming. T h e items transmitted by both media for young audiences include news broad­casts, cultural programmes, entertainment and competitions as well as discussions and various forms of guidance. In addition, radio and tele­vision have kept in close touch with the ac­tivities of young people in their political, social and student organizations, with their sports events, and with their achievements in national defence, education and the productive field.

T h e creation of the n e w radio station did not signify a further expansion of the general influ-

Introducing students to mass media: Radio Victoria de Girón 389

ence of radio, but represented rather an attempt to introduce a n e w dimension into radio work with and for young people on the basis of the n e w socio-economic phase that their total im­mersion in a study and work plan had brought about. T h e creation of an instrument consistent with the type of education students were receiv­ing was seen as a natural consequence of the contribution young people were making to the country's economy through such activities as those under way in Jagüey Grande. If young people were able to engage in productive work, fulfil targets and manage their affairs and organ­ize their lives in the context of a combined enterprise of study and work, they were surely entitled to have instruments that they could handle according to their way of life and m o d e of action. A n d so the idea came about of putting young people in charge of programme planning and of the production of the programmes they selected. In short, young people in this case were the agents of socio-economic achievement and were making an important contribution to society through a n e w form of participation.

At the inaugural ceremony, the President of the Cuban Radio and Television Institute ( ICRT) , Nivaldo Herrera, outlined the objec­tives and characteristics of the radio station, announcing

the birth of a young radio for the education of youth in the most fundamental values of the h u m a n con­science, for the dissemination of information regard­ing their concerns and achievements in the light of the education of the n e w generation, and in support of the self-sacrificing efforts of young people in the economic, political, ideological and cultural fields.

Relations between the broadcasting service and the Cuban national education system have never been so close as in the period of revolutionary reconstruction. Since 1959, strong links have been established at various times with schools and teachers. Primary, secondary and adult education have all m a d e use of the resources of radio and television on m a n y occasions to serve their aims. 'Radio classes' and 'teleclasses' be­came a commonplace of media jargon during the 1960s and played a very useful role until the

country had a sufficient supply of teachers for the grades with the largest enrolments. But radio and television did not even then relinquish their auxiliary role in education. They continue to provide instruction in music, dancing and languages, and special programmes are broad­cast to help Cuban workers complete the ninth grade.

Another special link exists between the broad­casting service and the national education sys­tem. It consists in the provision of vocational guidance through so-called circles of interest. These circles, set up in some grades of primary education and at secondary level, bring together students engaged in similar activities with a view to identifying their inclinations towards specific branches of science, technology, art and other fields. There are, then, radio and television circles of interest in which students have an opportunity to get to k n o w all the specialized branches of both media, for instance broadcasting, audio and video operations, script-writing, aspects of journalism, announcing, etc.

Preparatory work

T h e experiment described above provided an opportunity for the circles to work in the prac­tical context of a radio station run by young people.

In the light of these possibilities, Radio Victoria de Girón began to set up circles of interest in the field of broadcasting in each of the establishments belonging to the Schools in the Countryside scheme. A committee of assessment was formed to pre-select students for the circles, which were to be composed of professional programme directors, journalists, technicians and announcers. A timetable was drawn up and the process of selection was initiated. At the same time, a number of specific technical criteria were established, for instance a good speaking voice, diction, reading, writing/ editing and the ability to integrate into a working unit of the kind proposed. A n opinion poll was conducted to discover aptitudes for radio work.

390 Renaldo Infante Urivazo

A s soon as this process and that of selection had been completed, responsibilities were as­signed as follows: (a) director of the circle; (b) writers and/or editors; (c) announcers; and (d) news correspondent.

It was recognized that selection did not in itself guarantee the proper functioning of the circle, and so a seminar on the various special­ized fields was organized and students were coached in a variety of skills ranging from script-writing to news editing.

T h e success of the learning process depended on the quality of the advisory services that could be offered, because the material studied and explained during seminars was not suf­ficiently comprehensive. T h e practical appli­cation of certain procedures helped to consoli­date the theoretical knowledge acquired and test whether it had been correctly assimilated.

In this connection, two separate methods were employed, both of which proved effective: i. Analysis of a script with the m e m b e r s of the

corresponding circle prior to programme recording, so that the text can be corrected where necessary and the style adapted for radio. This first phase is followed by oral practice, covering aspects of elocution, dia­logue, forms of presentation, tone of voice, modulation and inflexion. Once the form and content of the programme have been finalized, work can begin on the recording of voices in the studio.

2. Operation and control of the radio bases in the educational establishments through the local network. In this case, the students are given practical training for their future radio work under the effective guidance of a teacher specializing in a branch of the hu­manities, either Spanish or literature. T h e correspondent plays an important part in this activity, summarizing the principal events of the day in the school, such as information meetings, work in the citrus plantations, competitions, sports events, etc., and sending them to the station.

In planning the radio training scheme for young people, both the educational and radio and tele­vision authorities considered it advisable to keep

membership of the circles of interest stable with students spending as m u c h time as possible in contact with the station and making full use of the capacities that they develop with experi­ence. T h e selection process takes place a m o n g students in the seventh grade, i.e. the first year of secondary education. Successful candidates can therefore work in the field of broadcasting for six school years, until they have completed the twelfth grade. But this does not c o m e about automatically. In order to remain a m e m b e r of the circle and to continue working in the field of broadcasting, students have to achieve consist­ently satisfactory results from year to year.

W h e n specific needs or unforeseen circum­stances lead to transfers of students that m a y affect the membership of the circles, a further evaluation session is organized in addition to that carried out each year a m o n g seventh-grade pupils. Moreover, an assessment procedure simi­lar to that for secondary students is conducted in pre-university and polytechnical establish­ments.

T h e studio managers, editors and sound technicians work with professional equipment that requires special care in order to keep it in good operating order and to ensure that it is used to full advantage.

It is therefore given very careful attention. Radio Victoria de Girón can count, then, on the services of experienced student managers, sound technicians and editors. Those w h o have shown the greatest skill and facility in applying radio techniques are m a d e responsible for putting the station on the air, looking after the complex hookups or network operations and directing the live programmes.

T h e circles of interest clearly form the basis for this special type of work. Their major strength lies in the fact that the pupils' theor­etical and technological studies find immediate application, being carried into practice through the radio base and the student broadcasting service. In this respect, the circles m a y be considered as a dependable source of manpower .

T h e fact that students have to be highly qualified and produce satisfactory results acts as an incentive and driving force in the edu-

Introducing students to mass media: Radio Victoria de Girón 391

cational field, since nobody wants to be deprived of his functions on account of laxity in his studies.

There are at present fifty-six circles of interest in all, one for each educational estab­lishment. There are programmes with estab­lished student announcers w h o have built up three or more years of experience in broad­casting, a fact that bears witness to their en­thusiasm and the interrelationship between their educational aspirations and their keenness on this kind of work.

It is interesting to see the resourceful way in which these 15- and 16-year-olds tackle the production of radio programmes of quite con­siderable complexity. They are helped in their task by the guidance provided by professionals w h o supervise every step taken by the m e m b e r s of the circles. Direction and guidance in edu­cational terms must play an important role in a broadcasting service that forms an integral part of the educational system, since emphasis is laid on the acquiring of habits and the develop­ment of initiative and skills, as though it were an education unit within the broadcasting ser­vice. Well-qualified professionals must therefore be selected w h o will devote themselves fully to the task of guiding the m e m b e r s of the circles.

Programme planning

C u b a n adolescents and young people as a whole are organized in the Union of Pioneers, the Federation of Secondary Students and the Union of Y o u n g Communists. Without the help of these organizations ventures such as Radio Victoria de Girón would not meet with the same success in their work with young people. A s organized forces, they provide back­ing for the achievement of objectives and targets in all kinds of fields.

All members of the circles of interest in the basic secondary schools are Pioneers, so that their programmes are used by the José Marti Organization of Pioneers in furthering its ac­tivities. In the case of the school, it promotes healthy rivalry between centres, citrus har­

vesting contests and the year-to-year struggle to achieve high results of outstanding quality. T h e broadcasting service is represented at all Pioneer ceremonies and events in the persons of its correspondents, w h o are responsible for providing information on political, recreational, cultural, historical and other activities.

In the pre-university establishments the Union of Y o u n g Communists has been carrying out similar work, with the support of the Feder­ation of Secondary Students ( F E E M ) . This federation groups all students at pre-university level and those attending technical and vo­cational establishments.

T h e circles of interest at these levels provide information on their activities in the pro­grammes they broadcast. Interviews with collec­tives that have achieved outstanding results in citrus production or in promoting cultural and sports events are a c o m m o n feature.

Radio Victoria de Girón is also used as a means of developing awareness and it plays a part in the ideological struggle to protect our young people from deviationist and diversionist tendencies which are alien to our way of thinking and to the values of a n e w society attempting to construct a socialist system.

T h e Society for Patriotic and Military E d u ­cation ( S E P M I ) has thousands of young m e m ­bers throughout the country and has advisory links with the Ministry of the A r m e d Forces. It has introduced a series of technical military sports activities that has aroused enthusiasm on the part of students at pre-university level in the context of the Schools in the Countryside scheme. S E P M I is given broadcasting time to publicize the activities of its leading units and the timetable of its training sessions. S E P M I ' s objectives provide the keynote for the radio programmes on this subject: education of youth in the highest patriotic values; preparation of youth to confront the enemy in the event of an invasion of our territory; helping them to occupy their leisure time by providing facilities for the pursuit of their recreational and other interests.

A s far as free time and recreation are con­cerned, the student radio goes to great trouble

Renaldo

to cater to young people's interests and succeeds in developing a close relationship between pro­g r a m m e and listener, covering topics requested by the student body and offering suggestions on various issues.

Table i gives an idea of the various pro­grammes transmitted by Radio Victoria de Girón in its six hours of daily broadcasts for students.

O n e of the factors that facilitates radio pro­g r a m m e planning in C u b a is the close co­ordination between producers and the insti­tutions and bodies whose work has an impact on the radio message. Specialists in education and culture, for instance, play a direct role as consultants for programmes in these fields. Each year, the education authorities provide the materials used in the seminars, the teaching staff, methodologists and inspectors, and trans­port facilities for conveying students to the radio station. In the cultural field, an enormous amount of work has been done by the 'Twentieth Anniversary' Brigade of Art Instructors, whose specialists direct all cultural activities in the

T A B L E I.

Type of programme Hours per week

Information on the daily activities of the educational establishments'. reports on progress and contests, sports, outstanding achievements in work on the citrus plantations, etc. io1

General information on national and foreign affairs 4-252

N e w s and information on citrus cultivation, patriotic and military education, trends of youth organizations 9-451

N e w s bulletins 1.201

Educational and methodological guidance 3 1

Scientific and technical subjects 2 1

Cultural, instructive and analytical programmes 1.3 o2

Music programmes including items of general interest io1

TOTAL 42

1. Student presentation and production with advisory assistance. 2. Student presentation and student and professional production.

rante Urivazo

educational establishments belonging to the Schools in the Countryside scheme.

T h e cultural programmes broadcast on the student radio enjoy considerable prestige. Special mention should be m a d e of an unpre­cedented experiment initiated and directed by the station itself. Part of the music broadcast is performed by the student members of an amateur movement that makes recordings each month in the studios of Radio Victoria de Girón. This is a further aspect of the student radio that distinguishes it from the country's other broadcasting services.

T h e universal tendency to set up small local broadcasting units catering to the needs of smaller communities is everywhere the subject of penetrating analysis. T h e more relevant a radio service is to its socio-economic environ­ment, the more likely it is to attract thousands of listeners w h o find their o w n specific interests reflected in the programmes.

However, the C u b a n broadcasting system combines this approach with the stratification of programmes, differentiating between the municipal, provincial and national levels. Thus , the small stations have six to eight hours of their o w n programmes and link up with the provincial stations to which they feel most closely allied during the rest of their time on the air.

For twelve hours Radio Victoria de Girón relays the provincial programmes of its big sister, Radio 26, of Matanzas province. This leads to greater rationalization of content. In the case of news, provincial and national news-reels are relayed and the local station concentrates on preparing bulletins based on contributions from student correspondents in the schools. T h e correspondents vie with each other every month as regards the quantity and quality of their reports, which are communicated by telephone, telegraph or school transport.

Introducing students to mass media: Radio Victoria de Girón 393

Radio Victoria de Girón and the Citrus Cultivation Plan

Radio Victoria de Girón observes and monitors the progress of the plan through the students' work. It channels its o w n efforts in two direc­tions: stimulation of educational activities and support for the achievement of economic targets. Its role is therefore based on the interaction between these two objectives.

Investment in school-building under the plan has exceeded 59,640,000 pesos, not including the state's investment in equipment for the centres. About 500 students are enrolled in each school. They are organized in brigades and are responsible for about 1,320 acres of citrus plants. Their work represents a considerable saving for the C u b a n economy, and at the same time they are being prepared for life and imbued with a productive spirit.

T h e performance of the various districts of the plan is checked from time to time and the best brigades selected. Challenges are issued on the air, the winning collectives are given en­couragement and daily production levels are publicized.

T h e information programmes go into great detail regarding technical questions. For thirty minutes each day they offer guidance on plant care, characteristics of varieties of citrus, ways of dealing with pests or vectors, the influence of climatic features on the spread of diseases, etc., and the results achieved in the eight districts into which the plan is divided. A very close link has been established in this connection with the management of the enterprise which supplies the radio with useful scientific material and appoints technical experts to supervise the pro­grammes and take part in them.

T h e manpower involved in implementing the plan at present includes 238 middle-level and n o senior technicians—economists, agricul­tural engineers and mechanical engineers. Each year the technical and vocational education establishments in the same area produce h u n ­dreds of qualified specialists in citrus fruit cultivation w h o are incorporated in the plan or

in those of other regions where their expertise is required. T h e scientific and technical pro­grammes broadcast by Radio Victoria de Girón are presented by announcers, operators and producers from the polytechnical institutes specializing in citrus cultivation.

But the student radio in Jagüey Grande does not concentrate exclusively on favourable de­velopments. Considerable importance is at­tached to criticism as an incentive to improve quality and output. Such criticism is usually levelled against collectives that are lagging behind or whose work is not u p to the mark. But it is a method that requires careful handling on the air. A good deal of tact and skill is needed as well as rigorous control and reliable data. Criticism of this kind can be formative and constructive and exert a stimulating effect. A collective that is the target of criticism today m a y be singled out for praise tomorrow.

Sociology attributes to the media the role of organizer, teacher, guide, and habit-former, influencing social conduct and promoting a communal and united spirit. But each m e d i u m has been created for a specific aim and purpose, and one of the things that makes this C u b a n experiment unique is the fact that it trains young people to perform practical tasks. It becomes clear on analysis that the phenomenon of a student-run radio station with student-produced programmes is closely bound u p with the integrated educational approach that combines study and work—learning about a specific branch of agriculture and applying the theor­etical knowledge thus acquired to practical cultivation.

This approach has yielded important results, which the national educational system considers to be highly positive, the use of radio having contributed to this achievement. W e consider that, from the standpoint of national interest and the development of the country, the student radio scheme has fostered the all-round edu­cation of young people, providing them with vocational guidance in regard to their future development, training them to live together in harmony, inculcating awareness of their

394 Renaldo Infante Urivazo

role as producers and cultivating work habits. It has helped to raise the political and ideo­

logical level of young people in general, teaching them the principles of socialism and proletarian internationalism.

It has played a crucial role in achieving economic progress by showing young people their duties in terms of citrus cultivation and production, an important source of foreign exchange for the country. It has used infor­mation as a powerful vehicle for publicizing and organizing major economic tasks, providing evidence of the extent to which broadcasting can serve the purposes of development.

It has improved school performance and encouraged students to remain longer within the educational system. In addition, through its preventive campaigns, it has been a source of health education for young people and the population in general.

It has promoted and is promoting healthy rivalry as a motive force in education and economic development, turning it into an ef­fective lever in the effort to expand production.

T h e Cuban state is extremely pleased with the experiment and plans have very recently been drawn up for two n e w stations, organized along similar lines and linked to agricultural development projects in the municipalities of Sola in Camagiiey province and Sandino in Pinar del Rio province. •

Notes 1. T h e teaching detachments form an advance guard

whose purpose is to back up the regular teaching staff in areas where the need is greatest, either in the national or international context. Manuel Ascunce Domenech was a young literacy teacher w h o was killed by bandits in the mountains of Escambray during the National Literacy Campaign organized in i960 and 1961.

2. T h e radio took its name from the victory achieved in Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs) by the Cuban A r m e d Forces and Workers' Militia in 1961 when they repulsed an invasion of mercenaries trained in the United States, Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Reviews PROFILES:

FRIEDRICH FROEBEL

T h e 200th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Froebel on 21 April 1982 is an occasion for the G e r m a n Democratic Republic and all M e m b e r States of Unesco to honour the m e m o r y of the great G e r m a n educationist. Froebel was one of the leading represen­tatives of the progressive bourgeois approach to the science of education, and the treasury of educational thought has been greatly enriched by his work. Friedrich Froebel played a prominent part in deter­mining the development of educational theory and practice in his time.

His theories and his attempts to put them into practice were rooted in his empirical criticisms of the prevailing education system; they bore the stamp of his democratic bourgeois background. This is par­ticularly true of his ideas on the general education of m e n and of nations, the all-round and harmonious personal development of all members of society and the universal right to education. H e m a d e valuable contributions to the science of education, for instance through his ideas on the aim of education, the fundamental importance of the child's active partici­pation in the educational process, the nature and organization of educational content. Froebel's views reflected the social needs of his time. H e had realized that the teacher's task always consists in educating children primarily for living 'in the present' and for meeting 'present needs' and 'present demands' as they arise 'at a specific time, in a specific place and in specific circumstances'. H e was aware of the close connection between social development and education; recent research has shown that Froebel sympathized with democratic petty bourgeois forces, but this is not to say that he dissociated himself from democratic revolutionary demands and objec­tives. O n the contrary, being possessed by an illusory enthusiasm for enlightenment and a blind faith in the unlimited power of education, he harboured throughout his life a Utopian belief in the feasibility of radical reforms. Although, of course, these hopes were disappointed, Froebel's achievements were so remarkable that he is rightly ranked with Pestalozzi, Herbart and Diesterweg as an important represen­tative of classic bourgeois pedagogics. His ideas and practical work in the field of pre-school education w o n him world renown.

Friedrich Froebel (21 April 1782 to 21 June 1852) lived at a time of great social change in Germany. H e played an active part in important historical events, for instance in the Napoleonic wars in 1813-14 when he served in the Lutzen rifle corps. Bourgeois revolutionary forces began to emerge in his lifetime under the influence of the French Revolution and

Prospects, Vol. XII, N o . 3, 1982

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the pressure of popular democratic movements. H e witnessed, on the other hand, the restoration of reactionary aristocratic rule in the G e r m a n states and saw the promising beginnings of educational development curbed and reversed. Although Froebel did not often comment on current events, his whole work reflects his interest and involvement in social progress. With almost four decades of successful activity behind him, Froebel declared in a letter written in 1848: 'If you examined the essence of m y educational activity you will see that, for a whole generation, I have been teaching and educating children for the republic's sake, I have been preparing them for the exercise of the republican virtues.'

Froebel hoped that a marriage concluded between politics and pedagogics on the basis of their c o m m o n h u m a n values would ensure that 'the whole G e r m a n nation will do as the whole body of G e r m a n edu­cationists and teachers does today and not only take an interest in G e r m a n education for the people and its sound theoretical foundations' but also 'play a truly active and constructive part therein', so that education would become everyone's business.

B y insisting that a system of universal education should be accessible to all G e r m a n children, Froebel promoted a democratic approach to educational policy and found that this accorded with the national need for a better educated population which had arisen as a result of Germany's rapid industrial and scientific development. Froebel conceived of universal edu­cation as an alternative to the traditional elitist education. Because his Utopian ideas led him to overestimate the real historical possibilities of his time, he thought that it would guarantee the enforce­ment of the right to education. But at the same time he gave a wider interpretation to the concept of universal education, viewing it not only as education for the people but also as education by the people, in the sense that the people would participate in the education of the rising generation and the whole of education would be bound up with the life and activities of the people. That was a far-reaching democratic demand which, like his whole edu­cational policy and programme, was well ahead of his time. N o wonder, therefore, that during Froebel's lifetime obstacles were placed in his way by reac­tionary forces seeking to discredit his ideas on universal education and education for the people. After m a n y years of dedicated effort, he was obliged to stop the educational work he had been doing at the school at Keilhau, which he had directed from 1817 to 1831; his schools in Switzerland were constantly under attack and kindergartens were finally pro­hibited in Prussia in 1851 and in other G e r m a n states thereafter.

In Froebel's view, the object of universal education (today w e tend to speak of general education as the basis for further education) was to enable every

child to develop a well-rounded personality, and not to prepare children at an early age to occupy their allotted place in society or to train them too soon for a particular profession. 'In the final analysis, the education of m a n can have only one basis, one aim and one purpose: the all-round development of the individual through educational methods specifi­cally designed to foster his threefold powers as an active (creating), sentient (feeling) and intelligent (thinking) . . . being.'

This is the only way of laying the basis for the child's future activity in life and for occupational specialization. According to Froebel, the all-round development of the personality is possible only if the educational process succeeds in 'forging un­breakable links between thinking and doing, cognition and action, knowledge and ability', providing both 'the h u m a n body and the h u m a n mind with an all-round comprehensive education in keeping with man's innermost nature'. This means that none of an individual's aptitudes should be neglected because they are thought to be worthless or insignificant and all aspects of the child's personality should be assiduously fostered since a true education leaves no gaps and knows no limits but is a lifelong process of perfecting the personality.

Given the aim of developing a well-rounded personality, educational content should reflect the diversity of h u m a n aptitudes and powers. T h e curriculum that Froebel drew up was representative of all the foremost social and cultural concerns of his time—'art', 'science', 'training in methods of exploiting natural resources' and in the 'simple and more complex processing' of the products thus obtained, 'a knowledge of natural substances and forces', 'natural history and the history of mankind and of nations; mathematics and languages'. ' N o subject of study that is relevant to man's basic needs should be excluded.' Froebel sought to carry out this ambitious educational programme in his schools, as is shown by their timetables and attested by former pupils and visitors. H e attached the highest importance to laying sound foundations for mental, physical and aesthetic training and set great store on the teaching of languages, natural sciences and mathematics as part of a wide-ranging, useful general education. W h a t he demanded was that his pupils should be equipped with 'a comprehensive stock of thoroughly assimilated knowledge and the confidence to make use of that knowledge in their daily life, so that they are able to cope with any situation and meet any challenge, in other words, that they should be capable of 'further developing their powers in any field of activity they m a y choose'. 'It is only through the application of knowledge and learning that w e can really confirm and expand what w e have been taught.'

There is a direct connection between Froebel's

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democratic idea of involving the whole population in the educational process and his insistence on the need to make education relevant to everyday life3 on the oneness of school and life. H e considered the relevance of knowledge to life as an essential criterion to be applied in selecting educational content and a crucial pre-condition for the full development of the individual's aptitudes and powers. 'Just as education, teaching and training and their subject-matter must never be dissociated but must be visualized as being so closely interlinked as to form an integrated whole, so also should education, teaching, training, school and what they stand for never be separated from life; still less should they come into conflict with each other, for school and life, knowledge and action are bound up together.'

This statement of what Froebel demanded of education implied criticism of the conditions pre­vailing in the schools of his day, their alienation from life, their insistence on the memorizing of lengthy religious texts, and their use of discipline and cramming to enforce blind obedience to the reac­tionary authorities.

In opposition to this, Froebel based his educational theories on the idea that m a n develops his powers through his activity and that the educational process must accordingly be rooted in 'doing, working and thinking'. T h e whole of his education sys­tem—including pre-school education—is based on the activity of the children under the guidance of their teacher. ' T o link doing and thinking and to teach children to link doing and thinking: this is the source of all productive education.'

T h e educational process must therefore be designed to 'cultivate the urge to be doing something'. This principle must underlie all efforts directed towards 'the development of the child's truly h u m a n qualities and the elaboration of a satisfactory all-round education'.

Froebel's insight into the value of activity for character formation led him to show h o w all forms of activity—playing, learning and working—have their o w n special significance for the true education of m a n . H e revealed the m a n y ways in which they are interrelated, drew attention to their necessary interaction in the educational process and pointed out that they could contribute to the success of attempts at the all-round and harmonious develop­ment of the personality. ' T h u s , work, instruction and play are to form an indivisible whole which will become a sound basis for a contented, energetic, enlightened and happy life.'

Froebel always saw education as a reciprocal process affecting both teacher and student, a process in which the teacher, guided by educational principles, influences the development of the whole person mainly through m a n y different activities, a process of inducing both student and teacher to make a con­

scious effort to change themselves. A true teacher and educator must always be capable, simultaneously, of 'giving and taking, uniting and dividing, dictating and giving way , acting and enduring, being strict and indulgent, firm and adaptable'.

Friedrich Froebel's greatest achievement undoubt­edly lies in the field of pre-school education. Within a few decades, his idea of kindergarten, as expressed both in theory and in practice, had spread throughout the whole of Europe, the United States, Japan and m a n y other countries. Froebel took up the ideas on pre-school education developed by Comenius, Rousseau, the Philanthropists, Pestalozzi, Oberlin, O w e n and Fourier. F r o m the practical experience that had been gained in day-nurseries he drew n e w conclusions of great historical significance. H e was already advanced in years w h e n he worked out his theories on pre-school education. In so doing he anticipated latent needs, since Germany's rapidly expanding industry had to be supplied with additional manpower , and one way of doing this was to employ w o m e n as well as m e n in the production process. Froebel founded the first 'kindergarten' in 1840—the word was coined in the same year—and thus took the first decisive step towards the fulfilment of his edu­cational mission. His work is of historical importance because the entire education system was reorganized thanks to his determination, and universal pre­school education became, in accordance with his views, the foundation and substructure of a h o m o ­geneous system. A s his nephew, Julius Froebel, once wrote, he thought of the kindergarten as 'simply the substratum of an edifice of ideas, objectives and means so constructed as to encompass the whole education of m a n from earliest childhood to an advanced age'.1 Froebel's thinking went far beyond the views widely held in his day regarding the signifi­cance, aim and duties of day-nurseries and their prevailing practices. H e worked out a comprehensive and detailed system of pre-school education which met practically all the demands of his time, but which is admittedly difficult to grasp because his writings on the subject pursue m a n y metaphysical trains of thought. In his view, the object of pre­school education was to enable the small child to become an active, sentient and intelligent h u m a n being. T h e 'Universal G e r m a n Kindergarten' should be an 'establishment for the all-round care of the growing child' and should provide every child with 'all-round guidance for his all-round development'. This should be done by means of the activity best suited to a child of that age, namely play. Froebel perceived play not only as the principal activity of the pre-school child, but also as a 'mirror of life' that gave 'the child a glimpse of the world for which he is to be educated'.2 Play, according to Froebel, always served a purpose. H e saw it as the expression of the child's innermost being, the reflection of his aptitudes

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and creative powers, which were revealed in the way he 'processed' a material or used an implement during play.

Every activity, every act of any individual, even of the smallest child, is the expression of a purpose proceeding from a relationship with something which has to be handled or represented. But in order to feel this urge the individual, and especially the child, usually needs a material, a separate, specific object, even if it is only a little piece of wood or stone, with which it can make something or which it can turn into something.

W h e n the child is playfully active, w h e n he 'pro­cesses' a material with a specific end in view and uses an implement for a particular purpose, he acquires the ability 'to develop all his powers and aptitudes as freely as is appropriate at the stage he has reached in his life and education'. O n the basis of this conclusion, Froebel worked out a self-contained play system, the principal feature of which was the handling of spheres, cylinders and cubes. Using the 'gifts' he had devised and various other materials, the child was to develop his mental and physical powers in the various games, discover the world and its inherent orderliness. It was through play and in play that the child's personality could be fully developed in all its aspects, and therefore play 'should not be a haphazard activity, it should not be left to pure chance'. It is clear that Froebel's 'gift' system was influenced by the contemporary state ot knowledge in the fields of natural sciences and mathematics, with which he was well acquainted. M a n y of Froebel's 'gifts' can still be used to help pre-school children to discover the world. Having been rationally integrated into modern views on the educational process and its objectives, they are successfully used to this day in the kinder­gartens of the G e r m a n Democratic Republic.3 It should be borne in mind, of course, that if it is applied onesidedly, as it has been by m a n y of his successors and disciples, Froebel's play system also encourages certain tendencies towards a formalistic organization of the educational process in the kindergarten.

Even at the infant and kindergarten stage, children should be able to assimilate all kinds of information, with the help of the 'child leaders' (later: 'kinder­garten teachers') w h o introduce them to the world around them and to life in society. T h e subject-matter chosen by Froebel for the kindergarten sylla­bus shows that his first consideration was to lay the foundations for mental, physical, moral and aesthetic development. H e stressed the need to bring out every child's individuality and to take great pains to prepare all children for their future life in society. Froebel's writings are therefore a source of valuable guidance for the social education of even the very youngest children. Having observed Froebel's prac­tical work at first hand, Diesterweg described it in

the following words: ' A child's best plaything is another child. In the kindergarten the child lives in close association with other people; only in this way can he be prepared for living in society. In his play, the child can and should live in advance his whole future life instinctively, without realizing that he is doing so.'4

Friedrich Froebel was a pioneer of pre-school edu­cation for all the children of the nation. This pro­gressive idea was taken up and propagated during his lifetime and in the second half of the nineteenth century by m a n y democrats, for instance by Adolph Diesterweg. Froebel's ideas were carried beyond the frontiers of G e r m a n y by democrats w h o emigrated after the failure of the 1848-49 revolution, for instance Johannes Ronge and his wife took them to England and Carl Schurz and his wife and Adolf Douai took them to the United States.6 Douai founded a G e r m a n school in Boston in 1956, adding a kindergarten to it later on. His book entitled The Kindergarten. A Manual for the Introduction of Froebel's System of Primary Education into the Public School6 was p u b ­lished in N e w York in 1871, and a Japanese version was brought out in Tokyo in 1876. It was due to this book that Froebel's ideas began to be disseminated in the United States and Japan.

In the last third of the nineteenth century rep­resentatives of the G e r m a n labour movement became interested in Froebel's humanism and defended it against all one-sided interpretations. This cause was taken up , for example, by Wilhelm Liebknecht, one of the most outstanding figures of the G e r m a n labour movement . A s editor of the newspaper Die Gleichheit, Clara Zetkin helped to m a k e Froebel's theories more widely k n o w n , and especially his ideas on play and its importance for the development of the child's personality.7

Froebel's ideas have found a h o m e in the G e r m a n Democratic Republic. His heritage has become an integral part of the socialist approach to education and his work has greatly stimulated both the science of education and its practical application.8 E d u ­cationists of the G e r m a n Democratic Republic gave expression to their appreciation of Froebel's work and their fruitful interaction with his legacy in commemorative ceremonies in 1952, 1957, 1967 and 1977. Froebel's bicentenary will be yet another oc­casion for studying his enduring achievements in greater depth and continuing his work at a higher level.

KARL-HEINZ GÜNTHER, Director of the Institute

for the History of Education, A c a d e m y of Pedagogical Sciences

(German Democratic Republic)

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Notes i. Quotation from Gedenkschrift zum 100. Todestag von

Friedrich Fröbel am IJ Juni IÇS2 [Commemorative Book to Mark the Centenary of Friedrich Froebel's

Death on 15 June 1952], Berlin, 1952, p. 108.

2. Fröbels Theorie des Spiels [Froebel's Play Theory],

2nd ed.,Part I, p. 16 et seq., Weimar und Langensalza,

1947-

3. Cf. Lore Thier-Schroeter, Friedrich Fröbel—seine

Spielgaben in der Deutschen Demokratische Republik [Friedrich Froebel: His 'Gifts' in the German D e m o ­

cratic Republic], Berlin, Volk und Wissen Volkseigener

Verlag, 1977.

4. F. A. W. Diesterweg—Sämtliche Werke [F. A . W . Diesterweg—Collected Works], Vol. IX, p. 66, Berlin,

Volk und Wissen Volkseigener Verlag, 1967.

5. Cf. H . König, 'Die Arbeiterbewegung und das pro­

gressive pädagogische Erbe Friedrich Fröbels' [The

Labour Movement and Friedrich Froebel's Progressive

Educational Legacy], in Jahrbuch für Erziehungs- und Schulgeschichte, Vol. 18, p. 39 et seq., Berlin, Volk und

Wissen Volkseigener Verlag, 1978.

6. A . Douai, The Kindergarten. A Manual for the Intro­duction of Froebel's System of Primary Education into the Public School, N e w York, 1871.

7. Cf. C . Zetkin, Über Jugenderziehung [On the Edu­

cation of Young People], Berlin, Dietz Verlag, 1957,

and G , Hohendorf, Revolutionäre Schulpolitik und marxistische Pädagogik im Lebenswerk Clara Zetkins [Revolutionary School Policy and Marxist Educational

Theory in the Work of Clara Zetkin], Berlin, Volk und

Wissen Volkseigener Verlag, 1962.

8. Cf. Gedenkschrift zum ZOO. Todestag von Friedrich Fröbel am 15 Juni 1952, op. cit.; 'Fröbel-Ehrung 1977

in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik 1977'

[Tribute to Froebel in the German Democratic

Republic], in Jahrbuch für Erziehungs- und Schul­geschichte, Vol. 18, op. cit., p. 11 et seq.

Bibliography Friedrich Fröbel's gesammelte pädagogische Schriften

[Friedrich Froebel's Collected Writings on Education].

Vol. 1, Section 1, p. 456. Berlin, Wichard Lange, 1862.

Friedrich Fröbel und Karl Hagen. Ein Briefwechsel aus den Jahren 1844-1848 [Friedrich Froebel and Karl

Hagen. Correspondence: 1844-1848], p. 94. Weimar,

E . Hoffman (ed.), 1948.

JF. Fröbel: Ausgewählte Schriften [F. Froebel: Selected Writings], Vol. 1, p. 117. Bad Godesberg, Kupper-

Verlag, 1951.

Fröbels Kleinere Schriften zur Pädagogik [Froebel's Minor Writings on Education], p. 148. Leipzig, H . Zimmer­

mann, 1914.

B O O K R E V I E W S

Aspects of Ethnicity. Understanding Differences in Pluralistic Classrooms

Wilma S. LONGSTREET

N e w York, Columbia University 1978, 196 pp.

Race, Education and Identity

Gagendra K . V E R M A and Christopher B A G L E Y (eds.)

London, T h e Macmillan Press Ltd

1919, 240 pp.

T h e development of international exchanges in the fields of politics, economics and tourism, together with the expansion of regionalist and migratory movements, have made multicultural situations a reality, and have thereby redirected research and focused attention on fresh problems and concepts. T h e trend is apparent in the increase in intercultural studies.

In fact, the question of contacts between different cultures is not new. Wha t is new is the m o d e of investigation, the way in which the problems are posed. T h e chain of derivation from interracial, to interethnic, to intercultural studies no longer stands in need of demonstration, but derivation is not syn­onymous with repetition or routine updating. If concepts of culture and image are supplanting ideas of race and stereotype, it is because the terms of the problem have changed and evolved,under the pressure of research combined with social and political factors.

T h e shift from race to culture has been a gradual one. Thus , having denied that there were any grounds for the kind of classificatory research that sought to establish a static description or nomencla­ture for the different physical, intellectual and psycho­logical characteristics of various groups, researchers began to question the link between attitude and behaviour, which had been the corner-stone of the work of G . Allport, O . Klineberg and d'Ardoino. At that time, under the influence of attitudinal psycho-sociology, it was believed that prejudice, denned as a hostile attitude towards other people, played an essential part in discriminatory behaviour. ('An attitude of hostility towards black people, for example, predisposes the individual to take part in activities through which such hostility is expressed, whether it is simply a question of noting and remembering unfavourable reports on black people in the news­papers, propounding arguments against them, or actually participating in open acts of violence.')1

During the 1950s a new trend began to emerge. T h e causes of racial phenomena were no longer sought in

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the attributes of each side, but rather in the charac­teristics of the situation as a whole. Interest centred not so m u c h on groups or individuals considered in isolation, but on the social context of which race relations formed part. Researchers n o w began to describe the kind of situation in which contacts occurred, so that their analyses came to include a great m a n y variables like demography, economy, history, politics—not excluding culture.

Moreover, the seriousness of the social problems involved is the background against which research is carried out. Investigations are guided by the need to adapt social institutions in general, and educational ones in particular, to a multicultural reality: hence the publication of numerous books and articles on inter-cultural curricula, the growing awareness of the cultural aspects of all forms of learning, and the need to begin to m a k e education genuinely intercultural. T w o of these books explore, each in its o w n way, the problems arising in teaching because of the pluralistic structure of society and the obligations that this fact entails with regard to knowing and respecting other people: Aspects of Ethnicity. Understanding Differences in Pluralistic Classrooms and Race, Education and Identity.

W i l m a Longstreet, a lecturer in education at the University of Michigan-Flint in charge of teacher training, is particularly concerned with teacher-student relationships. H e r aim is to provide teachers with the necessary tools for clear understanding and a sound grasp of the educational process in a plural­istic classroom where acceptance of cultural differ­ences must necessarily be based on rigorous and systematic observation of those differences.

T h e m a n y papers published in Race, Education and Identity constitute an approach to a number of problems posed by children and adolescents belong­ing to cultural minorities in Western societies, which are, if not actually racist, at least decidedly ethnocen­tric. T h e questions discussed include conceptual learning, evaluation, failure at school, ethnic identity, language learning and self-esteem.

THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Intercultural relations, as a n e w field of research for the social sciences, are defined in terms of concepts that are for the most part characterized by a lack of semantic precision that it would be well to reduce to a m i n i m u m . T h e authors of the works examined have all felt the need to define their conceptual base before describing their research. W e shall therefore begin this review with a discussion of the relevant concepts; this will be followed by an analysis of teaching and learning processes as these are affected by the intro­duction of culture as a variable in educational strat­egy.

Although the concept of race has been virtually

banished from the present area of study, the idea of race still underlies a great deal of research. It is there­fore necessary to retrace its history, and so Michael Banton attempts to do in his study published in Race, Education and Identity.

Banton recalls that, in the seventeenth and eight­eenth centuries, the word 'race' meant the lineage or genealogy claimed by the nobility and royal families. At that time there was no question of interracial contacts, still less of biological differences. T h e term was used not in a scientific but in a mainly literary and historical sense. According to Banton, it was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century, under the influence of Cuvier and the theory of types, that there was a shift in usage from the word type to the word race. Raised to the level of a concept, race began to acquire zoological and biological connotations, resulting eventually in the development of racial theories that attributed variations between cultures to differences between races, and sought to justify social hierarchies by invoking innate characteristics linked to biological types. Differences in behaviour and mentality were therefore traceable to differences in anatomy and constitution.

Banton points out that the racial theories were soon challenged and condemned by science. Firstly, Darwin's treatise on the origin of species, by casting doubts on the idea of the permanence of types and consequently of races, undermined the very foun­dation of these doctrines. Secondly, the theory of racial typology could lead only to social pessimism in so far as the types, being 'pure', had little scope for improvement, and hence were inevitably doomed to degeneration. T h e theory was therefore abandoned.

If, in spite of being invalidated and rejected in scientific and conceptual terms, the idea of race has nevertheless survived, Banton believes that it is solely for psychological and sociological reasons. T h e social scientist must therefore concentrate not on the concept of race itself, but on the social situations that cause people to refer to it.

Whereas the concept of race implies genetically transmitted physical characteristics, ethnicity is de­fined in terms of the cultural traits specific to a particular social group, and more precisely the indi­vidual and collective strategies developed as a func­tion of those traits. Being connected with social differentiation, ethnicity is a dynamic concept con­ditioned by context and history. In the words of W . Longstreet:

Ethnicity is that portion of cultural development that occurs [between the ages of 10 and 12, approximately] before the individual is in complete command of his or her abstract intellectual powers and that is formed pri­marily through the individual's early contacts with family, neighbours, friends, teachers and others, as well as with his or her immediate environment of the home and neighbourhood.

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Longstreet distinguishes five aspects of ethnicity: Verbal communication, covering all forms of verbal

behaviour, and within which it is possible to draw distinctions, for example, a m o n g discussion modes which vary not only from one ethnic group to another, but also according to family, school or working environment, and from individual to individual.

Non-verbal communication. A m o n g the m a n y types of non-verbal behaviour Longstreet distinguishes: the diakinetic system, or movements characteristic of the group; they m a y be identical with those of another group, but m a y have very different m e a n ­ings (for example, a smile m a y express joy or regret, depending on the culture); proxemics or the distance maintained between individuals; touch (shaking hands, for example); and eye contact.

Orientation modes , or non-verbal behaviour, w h e n a subject is alone or in a group, 'including certain patterns of body movements , without any intention of communicating'. This category chosen by the author seems to us the least relevant, and very hard to define in view of the tenuous distinction between purely ethnic and intellectual or social forms of behaviour.

Social value patterns such as marriage and divorce. According to Longstreet, racism is rooted in u n ­questioning belief in these values. Moreover, 'values are often not expressed openly and, indeed, often exist in contradiction with each other as well as at different levels of awareness'. Fidelity, for example, considered as a moral ideal, is incompatible with virility, gauged by numbers of female conquests.

Intellectual modes , dealing 'primarily with h o w people have learned to learn, i.e. their learning styles, as well as their attitudes towards learning and towards what is learned'. W . Longstreet selects five different modes from an intelligence test : verbal fluency, mathematical ability, spatial reasoning, mechanical reasoning and abstraction, to which she adds the m o d e of m e m o r y . T h e lack of any strict definition of intelligence, however, means that the category is charged with affectivity and emotional tension.

B e this as it m a y , it should be remembered that culture makes it possible only to describe and identify phenomena, not to explain them. Culture should never be regarded as causative, as race was wrongly considered to be in the past.

T h e concept of identity underlies the whole area of intercultural problems but remains semantically imprecise. In Race, Education and Identity, Peter Weinrich discusses the question of interethnic identi­fication and self-rejection in a black adolescent, and quotes E . Erikson on the subject: 'Identity formation arises from the selective repudiation and mutual assimilation of childhood identifications.' Every indi­

vidual is confronted with the problem of the devel­opment of his o w n identity from a m o n g a number of possible identifications. In a multi-ethnic context, 'cross-ethnic identification' does not necessarily entail total self-rejection; on the contrary, it means that the individual's opinion of himself improves. Whatever the significance of interethnic identification, there is no doubt that the development of identity during adolescence, always an intrinsically complex process, is rendered even more difficult in a multicultural con­text where not all cultures enjoy the same social status.

A person's concept of himself is inseparable from his identity, and a great deal of research has been carried out on the subject. T h e self-concept is what the individual considers to be important or essential in his nature. This always implies self-evaluation and hence a correlation with self-esteem, which is the emotional and evaluative dimension of the self-concept.

In Race, Education and Identity, a n u m b e r of interesting questions are raised by the work on pupil self-esteem carried out by a team of researchers (Bagley, Mallick and Verma) as part of a study on white and black adolescents in British schools. Application of the Coopersmith scale* shows that as long as children remain in an environment where theirs is a majority culture, they express positive judgements about themselves and develop a satis­factory self-concept and self-esteem. O n the other hand, the same test, administered in schools where children of ethnic minorities have been integrated and consequently exposed to an environment domi­nated by 'whites', reveals a tendency towards lack of self-esteem and underestimation of oneself. T h e authors therefore believe that self-esteem is an essen­tial concept in understanding multi-ethnic relations, as well as being a significant factor in the development of prejudice.

T h e wide range of concepts and definitions indi­cates h o w complex the problem is. Interethnic rela­tions are a function of m a n y different parameters, including the social, political and economic environ­ment and the experience of the group and/or the individual.

TOWARDS INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION

Although the need to widen educational horizons towards multiculturalism is no longer in doubt, the development of a specific multicultural content and curriculum poses problems. Studies have paid more attention to psychological and social conditions than

* The Coopersmith scale measures self-esteem as a function of a number of parameters such as ability to listen in a discussion group, ability to conform to social standards, sensitivity to criticism, lack of trust in parents, unattractive physical appearance, etc.

402 Reviews

to teaching procedures and programmes, and in fact the very idea of an intercultural education raises questions. Here it is worth considering the study by V e r m a and Bagley, in Race, Education and Identity, on changes in racial attitudes as a result of the adop­tion of different teaching strategies. O n the one hand, the authors refer to Miller's experiments, in 1969, which pointed to the conclusion that, at least in a British context, experiments in teaching on the subject of race relations could sometimes be danger­ous and that attempts to improve students' attitudes through information and reasoning could have harm­ful results—hence the development of a certain lack of enthusiasm for this kind of teaching.

O n the other hand, the authors describe their o w n experiment, also intended to improve relations among races at school. Three different approach strategies were adopted: strategy A : during the discussion the teacher assumed the role of a neutral chairman; strategy B : the teacher expressed in his o w n point of view and acted as if seeking to encourage mutual understanding; strategy C : relations were analysed through psychodramas and role-playing games. T h e results invalidate Miller's findings and show on the contrary that the experimental group became more tolerant than the control group. T h u s , in the opinion of V e r m a and Bagley, it seems reasonable to conclude that there is no indication that teaching on race relations in schools is counter-productive.

Race relations are not the sole concern of inter-cultural education. For this reason a number of researchers, such as Laishley, have turned their attention to the possible uses of psychology as a source of information and a means of investigation for adolescents themselves w h o are seeking to acquire a better understanding of themselves and their relationships with other people. J. Laishley has pro­duced a course on the subject: ' T h e H u m a n Relations Project: A Social Psychological Approach to A d o ­lescent Interaction and Development'. T h e course consists of four lessons. T h e first lesson focuses on the behaviour of each individual in the group. T h e purpose is to understand w h y people form groups and what needs are fulfilled by their coming together. T h e second lesson is concerned with these persons' perception, judgement and character, with the aim of identifying the various factors affecting these. T h e third lesson deals with indicators of self-knowledge. A m o n g other things, it explores the different ways in which an individual m a y describe himself. A n d the last lesson examines personality development in physi­cal, emotional and cognitive terms. Although the results clearly show an improvement in the atmo­sphere and the growth of trust between teachers and pupils, the author notes few significant differences between the experimental and control groups in terms of greater awareness of the complexity and diversity of h u m a n nature.

T h e main conclusion to be drawn from these studies and experiments is that to m a k e education intercultural is difficult, and cannot be achieved merely by introducing a n e w syllabus.

Another aspect of intercultural education concerns the teacher's awareness of the cultural origins and characteristics of his pupils. Opinions in this field tend to be divided. In the first place w e must beware of the kind of erroneous racist interpretations that E . Stones is careful to reject in his study on 'the colour of conceptual learning'. T h e author attacks Jensen's thesis (1973) that there are two different types of learning, mechanical and conceptual. Accord­ing to Jensen, the first is similarly distributed in different populations, but this is not true of the second. H e therefore believes that abilities are dis­tributed in accordance with the laws of genetics and that hereditary factors are decisive in determining learning ability. Stones criticizes this position in no uncertain terms, and shows that intelligence tests measure above all what children have learnt already, and not their ability to learn n e w things, and that in any case race should not be confused with socio­economic category. Moreover, Stones is convinced that the attempt to link types of learning with racial differences is senseless and futile. H e believes that it would be m u c h more useful to concentrate on devising methods to increase children's learning abilities in general.

These observations are supported by the research carried out by Bagley, Bart and W o n g on the back­ground to success at school a m o n g 10-year-old Indian children living in London. T h e study covered 150 'coloured' children having at least one parent of Indian origin. T h e children were given tests concern­ing their attitude towards h o m e and school, self-esteem, school achievements and acceptance of their ethnic identity. T h e parents were also questioned about the level and type of education they have them­selves received, and about their attitudes to British culture and institutions, particularly as these related to education. A s a result of the inquiry, the authors state categorically that there are no intellectual differ­ences between 'blacks' and 'whites' in British schools, or, at least, very few that cannot be accounted for by social factors. For instance, Bagley, Bart and W o n g show h o w a social factor like the parents' rejection and criticism of British institutions and culture is in fact a cause of failure at school.

There is thus no need to deny that there are differ­ent modes of learning and different degrees of success: the mistake lies in attempting to link them with genetics.

W . Longstreet believes that students' learning modes are conditioned by their cultural background and that the teacher has a duty to analyse them and act accordingly. She thinks that the influence of

Reviews 403

ethnicity on intellectual attitudes can be measured by working out a system of classification of learning modes , of relative values attributed by social groups to different intellectual abilities, and of contexts and activities in which intellectual attitudes are encour­aged or otherwise. (For example, the young Jewish student learns by asking a great m a n y questions, but in general the teacher prefers to deliver a lecture; and certain ethnic groups characteristically attach more importance to verbal fluency than to mathematical ability or even writing skills.) Longstreet is of the opinion that the teacher's role is to recognize the characteristics of each ethnic group, so as to be able to take them into account not only w h e n teaching, but also in the spatial layout of the classroom, his o w n physical relationship with the students, and even the choice of a timetable.

This kind of approach carries the risk of the same errors as the approach based on the concept of race. Individuals and groups should not be crudely labelled in terms of observed characteristics. It should be remembered that in Longstreet's view the teacher must confine himself to hypotheses and not construct a rigid system.

Evaluation of curricula is an important aspect of cur­rent educational research. At the same time it is be­coming increasingly difficult as the school context grows steadily more pluralistic. In a study on racism and evaluation, the authors Jenkins, K e m m i s , MacDonald and V e r m a point out that, as currently practised, evaluation relies too heavily on reading, on Western concepts, and on multiple choice tests. A n y kind of evaluation presupposes a system of values and an ideological context. T h e problem is that the society w e live in is not only multi-ethnic and cul­turally diversified but also distinctly racist.

For example, questions arise about the objectivity and neutrality of the tests used. A number of the underlying concepts involve constructs that are a response to the demands of an industrial society. Even the idea of adaptability, as used in I Q tests, is rooted in a market economy where the ability to adapt to rapid changes is of vital importance. Accord­ing to the authors, the engineering model of evalu­ation is equally inappropriate in a multi-ethnic society, as it concentrates almost exclusively on student per­formance, while neglecting learning processes and the reasons for gaps in certain types of learning. T h e engineering model lays too m u c h stress on congruence between goals and achievements, so that it is by definition insensitive to the sociological and psycho­logical environment in which education has its place. T h e authors therefore feel it m a y be unwise to use an evaluation model of this kind in a multicultural context, precisely because it presupposes a consensus on goals and objectives. Moreover, existing tests contain assumptions that are discriminatory towards

cultural minorities; they should therefore be used with caution and critical awareness. For our part, w e should like to suggest that equal caution be used in all dealings with children, as culture is by no means the only source of differentiation.

Adopting a multicultural curriculum, adapting learning processes, and changing the image that individuals have of one another, and in particular the teachers' image of their pupils: these are the three main strands of intercultural education to emerge from the works examined. W . Longstreet's theory is that knowledge of the ethnic profile of each group will be conducive to an increase in mutual understanding. According to the author, this kind of knowledge can be built up only by the teacher in the classroom. W h a t is more , the task should never be regarded as complete: it is of value only if it forms part of the kind of action research where the teacher does no more than put forward hypotheses, which are constantly revised and refor­mulated, and does so for the sole purpose of directing and planning the teaching process. Longstreet stresses at some length the importance of not generalizing from a few observations, and the need to continue research throughout a teaching career.

T h e limits to this kind of approach are self-evident. In fact it is doubly Utopian in that it assumes, on the one hand, that all teachers are capable of such research, and, on the other, that knowledge of other people alone will improve inter-cultural understanding. A great m a n y parameters affect interethnic relations. Clearly, an awareness of differences will remove a number of ambiguities, but this will by no means be enough. B y way of contrast, the studies collected in Race, Education and Identity, with their manifold points of view and the seriousness of the controversies raised, help to highlight the complexity of intercultural relations, the large n u m b e r of variables involved, and the importance of the context.

O n e cannot help thinking that intercultural edu­cation contains a fundamental contradiction, in that it is justified, at least at present, only in relation to sick societies where cultures with unequal social status coexist. Relations between groups, and par­ticularly ethnic groups, cannot be reduced to mere relations between cultures. These are social, political, economic, psychological and sociological aspects, and these cannot be ignored with impunity.

Martine A B D A L L A H - P R E T C E I L L E Departmental Inspector of Education

(France)

Note I. O . Klineberg, Psychologie sociale, p. 542,Paris, Presses

Universitaires de France, 1967.

404 Reviews

An Assessment of Educational Reform in India and Lessons for the Future.

Reflection on the Future Development of Education: Report Studies, C. 86

J. P . NAIK

Paris, Unesco Division of Educational Planning

March 1980, 72 pp.

During the post-independence period, the Govern­ment of India appointed and received detailed reports from three commissions on education: The Uni­versity Education Commission (1948-49), headed by D r S. Radhakrishnan, the Secondary Education Commission (1952), under the chairmanship of D r S. L . Mudaliar, and the Education Commission (1964-66), headed by D r D . S. Kothari. There were three other commissions appointed during the pre-independence period, namely, Indian Education Commission (1882), Indian Universities Commission (1902) and the Calcutta University Commission (1917-19). T h e Indian Education Commission was the only commission during the British period that was concerned with all levels of education in the country. Thus the Education Commission, headed by Kothari, which is familiar to many as the Kothari Commission,1 is the latest one and is the only commission that was requested and has submitted a very detailed report on the entire spectrum of education during the post-independence era, the problems faced by all levels of the educational system, the reforms necessary to establish a truly 'national system of education' that serves the interests of the c o m m o n people, the priorities of action and h o w to implement the recommendations. The commission took into consideration all the previous thinking and experimentation and, after analysing critically the then-existing situation, observed: 'Indian edu­cation needs a drastic reconstruction, almost a rev­olution.' T h e commission prepared a blueprint of educational development in India for a twenty-year period (1966-86). T h e voluminous report of the Kothari Commission is one of the few documents on education that has been discussed and debated in a good number of meetings, committees and confer­ences. A s a follow-up measure, the National Policy of Education (1968) was prepared and adopted by the Government of India.

But it is a matter of regret to note that the rec­ommendations of not only the Kothari Commission, but also those of every commission, appointed by the government of independent India, are as m u c h relevant today as at the time when the reports were prepared. Transformation of education has been

long overdue. For example, the Government Resol­ution on Educational Policy (1904) commented:

excessive prominence is given to examinations;. . . the courses of study are too purely literary in character; . . . the schools and colleges train the intelligence of the students too little, and their memory too much , so that mechanical repetition takes the place of sound learning;... in the pursuit of English education the cultivation of vernaculars is neglected.2

Unfortunately these comments still apply to the Indian educational system. All the reports, resolutions and policy statements generated little action, but aroused hopes that remained unfulfilled and led to frustration.

Fifteen years after the Report of the Kothari Commission was accepted by the government, perhaps it is time to m a k e a thorough study regarding the implementation of the recommendations of the Kothari Commission, the progress achieved in this direction, the problems responsible for not im­plementing the proposals and to draw lessons from past experience, before probably appointing another commission or before preparing plans for the future.

T h e present Report Study under review, presented in connection with the Unesco programme activity entitled 'Reflection on the Future Development of Education' is prepared in the context of a research project titled ' T h e Development of Education in India (1981-2000)', sponsored by the Indian Institute of Education. This is an excellent study serving the very purpose outlined above. T h e author of this study, J. P . Naik, being the member-secretary of the same Kothari Commission and having vast experience in Indian educational planning, c o m ­petently reviews the historical background of the commission's work, discusses the commission's find­ings and suggestions and examines the manner in which the recommendations were implemented during the post-commission years. T h e author critically evaluates the progress, and, not surprisingly, con­cludes, being disappointed, that 'the recommen­dations of the Education Commission were not implemented properly' (p. 72) and that there is a 'continuing educational crisis' (p. 40).

While the Kothari Commission attached highest priority to the transformation of education, pro­grammes of qualitative improvement, especially those that would benefit the c o m m o n m a n , and the pro­grammes of expansion of education with an emphasis on those that benefit the poor people (in the same rank order), the author rightly finds that the pattern of priorities w e had actually adopted proved to be just the opposite. Rapid expansion took place in the facilities for secondary and higher education at the cost of elementary education. For example, the index of enrolment in elementary schools increased to 406 in 1978/79, with base 100 in 1950/51, while

Reviews 405

the index of enrolment in higher general education rose to 842 in 1978/79. Similarly the index of direct expenditure on primary education rose to 1,219 by 1975/76» with the same base year, while that on higher education increased to 2,940 in the same period. T h e qualitative improvement of education has always received only second priority and there has been little achievement on this side.

The efficiency of the system has deteriorated and perhaps the factors that have affected the standards in education most are the weakening of motivation among students, deterioration in professional standards among teachers, and breakdown of the day-to-day functioning of the edu­cational institutions over long periods of time due to disturbances of some kind or the other. Very often, the normal educational process in the class-room just does not take place.3

Even the programmes of qualitative reform whose need has been universally accepted such as promotion of values and development of skills were not con­sidered. T h e quality of education was improved, if at all improved, in those areas where benefits went largely to the élite or well-to-do groups. Education was transformed to suit the life, needs and aspirations of the people belonging to the upper echelons of the society. T h e elitism and hierarchical structure in education continued. T h e inegalitarian nature of the system survived surprisingly the thirty years of planning.

Presenting an overview of the achievements m a d e during the last three decades, the author finds:

It would be incorrect to describe the existing educational system as an instrument for educating the people . . . it is more appropriately designed for not educating them. In fact, the primary objective of the system is not to spread education among the people, but to function as an efficient and merciless mechanism to select individuals who should continue to remain in the privileged sector or enter it afresh. . . . The main achievement of the system is to condemn the bulk of the children of the c o m m o n people to be drop-outs and failures and to consign them to a life of drudgery and poverty which has hardly any parallel in the contemporary world or even in our own earlier history (P- 59)-

Evaluating the implementation of the r ecommen­dations of the Kothari Commission, the author classifies the recommendations into three groups: recommendations that attracted wide attention, those that attracted limited attention and recommendations that were opposed and rejected or just ignored. T h e author obviously could not present a list of rec­ommendations that were accepted and also were implemented. However the author attributes the non-implementation of the recommendations prop­erly not only to 'factors inherent in the individual recommendations', but also 'to the absence of a general atmosphere or infrastructure conducive to the implementation of reforms' (p. 72).

Apart from discussing thoroughly the national system of education recommended by the Kothari Commission, h o w far the commission's blueprint was right and accepted by the nation, and the efforts that were m a d e during the post-commission years to implement the proposals, the author draws inferences from this experience and prepared a revised blueprint for the future development of education in India. H e outlines the desirable national system of education based on the Swadeshi (indigen­ous) spirit, a system that educates the c o m m o n people rather than 'uneducating' them, a system that would be modern but not Westernized, a system that bridges the gap between the élite and the people instead of widening the gap, a system that would be dynamic and elastic to the needs and a system that would be closely linked with national development. Transformation of the existing system into such a desirable form would be possible only if, as Naik argued in another policy frame:4 :(a) there is adequate and large-scale action rather than piece­meal planning based on a few pilot projects; (£>) a nationwide intensive and popular movemen t is organized to bring about the needed educational and social transformation; and (c) a simultaneous struggle is launched within and outside the edu­cational system. In fact, political, social and economic factors are more important than the factors internal to the educational system.6 There is also enough evidence to the effect that educational systems can deliver the goods only if reforms in educational systems are accompanied with changes in political, social and economic spheres of the society.6

T h e structure of the revised blueprint presented in this document is not altogether n e w . But the author puts forth his arguments with n e w vigour and force and 'goes far beyond the lead provided by the Education Commission' with a hope to inculcate n e w spirit and a sense of urgency in the minds of the educational policy-makers of the country to reform the system of Indian education that 'continues to be afflicted by m a n y of its old ills and with every passing year appears to be acquiring new maladies'.'1

T h e document indeed presents a rare retrospective study of the educational experiences of the country and thus contributes significantly towards a more systematic and sophisticated understanding of the complex nature of the innumerable crises the Indian educational system is faced with, in the socio­political and historical perspectives, and h o w sys­tematically and confidently these problems can be overcome. Like any of the author's other writings, the present study is extremely readable!

Jandhyala B . G . T I L A K ,

Indian Institute of Education (Pune, India)

4o6 Reviews

Notes 1. Ministry of Education, Government of India, Edu­

cation and National Development: Report of the Edu­

cation Commission 1964-66, N e w Delhi, National

Council of Educational Research and Training, 1966.

2. As quoted by K . R . Ramachandran, 'Education in

Post-Independent India', in S. L . N . Sinha (ed.), Econ­

omic and Social Development: Essays in 'Honour of

Dr C. D. Deshmukh, pp. 429-58, Bombay, Vora, 1972.

3. J. P. Naik, Equality, Quality and Quantity: The Elusive

Triangle in Indian Education, Bombay, Allied, 1975.

4. 'Citizens for Democracy', Education for Our People,

Bombay, Allied, 1978.

5. See J. Simmons, 'Steps Towards Reform', in J. Sim­

mons (ed.), Education Dilemma, pp. 235-50, Oxford,

Pergamon.

6. For example, for a case-study of Cuba, see M . Carnoy

and J. Werthein, Cuba: Economic Change and Edu­

cational Reform 1955-1974, Washington D . C . , World

Bank, 1979 (Staff Working Paper N o . 317).

7. J. P. Naik, 'Education', in S. C . Dube (ed.), India Since

Independence, pp. 240-62, N e w Delhi, Vikas.

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Contents of preceding issues

Vol. X I , N o . 4, 1981

Fred Mahler Integrating education with production and research in Romania

VIEWPOINTS AND CONTROVERSIES

Seth Spaulding The impact of international assistance organizations on the development of education

DOSSIER

EDUCATING HANDICAPPED CHILDREN AND YOUTH

Karl-Gustaf Stukdt Economic aspects of special education V. I. Lubovsky Basic principles of special education in the U S S R Hugh Stuart Taylor Helping parents to become partners in the education of their handicapped child Rose Chacko Family involvement in the training of mentally retarded children: an Indian example Lothar Hammer Early identification of handicaps and early special education in the German Democratic Republic Armin Löwe Hearing-impaired children: prevention and integration Prem Victor Hearing-impaired children in India: needs and possibilities Svend Ellehammer Andersen and Bj'ern E. Holstein Integration of blind children into schools in Denmark Vanda Weidenbach Music in the education of the young multiply handicapped deaf-blind child

TRENDS AND CASES

Knud Mortensen School education for Palestinian refugee children and youth

Vol. XII, N o . I, 1982

VIEWPOINTS/CONTROVERSIES

José Luis Pinillos The modification of intelligence James W. Botkin Innovative learning, micro-electronics and intuition Joachim Lompscher Personality development and the pedagogical organization of pupils' activities

OPEN FILE

WHITHER EDUCATION?

Torsten Husén Present trends in education Jean-Claude Eicher What resources for education?

prospects Oleg K. Dreier Problems facing the developing countries: an Eastern European view Ingrid Eide Thoughts on the democratization of education in Europe Mircea Malitza Coming changes in science and the curricula Michel Souchon Education and the mass media: where they differ, where they converge

TRENDS AND CASES

Victor L. Urquidi Technical education in Mexico: a preliminary appraisal

Vol. XII, N o . 2, 1982

VIEWPOINTS/CONTROVERSIES

Michel Debeauvais Education and a N e w International Economic Order Krishna Kumar Growing rich together: educational images of the international order

OPEN FILE

LITERACY CAMPAIGNS

E. A. Fisher Illiteracy in context Abdun Noor Managing adult literacy training Hong -Yong-Fan Continuing literacy work in China Gudeta Mammo The national literacy campaign in Ethiopia

^Fernando Cardenal and Valerie Miller Nicaragua: literacy and revolution W. P. Napitupulu Each one teach ten: literacy in Indonesia Arthur Stock The United Kingdom: becoming and staying literate Rafe-uz-Zaman Functional literacy through television in Pakistan Adama Ouane Rural newspapers and radio for post-literacy in Mali

TRENDS AND CASES

Hans Reiff Educational and military resource allocation in Asia Jimoh Omo-Fadaka Education and endogenous development in Africa