Preexisting attitudes of college students to instructional television

Preexisting Attitudes of

College Students to

Instructional Television 1

ROBERT W. JANES

The review of a decade of research on the instructional efficacy of television has demonstrated that as a teaching medium, television is at least as effective as the classroom lecture (8, ~o). Now that the demonstration of the pedagogical efficiency of educational television has been completed, research can be directed toward the many problems involving the relation of the new educational technology to the learning process (z). These technical innovations are entering the institution of American education mainly by two avenues; one, by the mass distribution of information to students through instructional systems such as television; the other, by individualized instruction hinged to technical devices such as the teaching machine (5). It has been suggested in the light of these developments that the new focus of research should be unexplored relationships between these teaching techniques and the actual learning experience of the student who is exposed to them (8, ~o).

The present three-year study followed this suggested line of

1 Research for this study was supported in part by a grant from the U.S. Office of Education.

The author is professor of sociology, University of Maryland.

325

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CONDITIONS FOR THE

INVESTIGATION

investigation. The aim of this research was to identify student traits which might encourage positive or negative response to the televised lectures in a university course. The focus of the study was on the correlation of preexisting attitudes of students and their reaction to a televised presentation which replaced formal classroom lectures in an introductory social science course. The student traits included a measure of "authoritarianism," an index of "self-confidence," and intelligence scores--all individual qualities which presumably existed prior to student experience with the course. The results of the study suggest that none of those particular qualities, to the extent which they characterize this student population, operate to inhibit student learning predi- cated on televised instruction. The locale of this study was a large Midwestern university which had recently begun to explore the possibilities of on-campus televised instruction; the course was an introductory one-year general social science course which had been taught for about ~o years by the large-lecture method and which involved an average enrollment of about 4oo students. During the first year of the study, one lecture section was taught by the traditional lecture method, and the second lecture section saw the same lecture given on television. Students in the TV section were given the choice of viewing lectures either in small classrooms or in a campus residence where a set was available (6). After the first year both sections were taught by television, and all students were given the choice of viewing either in small classrooms or else- where.

The staff of the course had two reasons to be concerned with student reaction to the televised lectures: one, as is normally the case where television is first employed in university instruction, because of the lack of knowledge of the techniques of effective lecturing in the medium; and two, because it was not known whether students would learn equally well from the lectures out- side the classroom as from those given in it. For these reasons there was a continuing interest in student reaction. In time this interest became formalized in a research project sponsored by the U.S. Office of Education.

The aspects of student reaction to televised lectures in this course which were pertinent to the objectives of the project were (a) the relative preference by students for either a televised or large-classroom lecture; (b) the effect of exposure of students to

PREEXISTING ATTITUDES OF COLLEGE STUDENTS TO ITV �9 3 2 7

THE RANGE OF STUDENT PREFERENCE

FOR TELEVISED

LECTURES

TABLE 2

Student Preference for Course Lectures in

Large Classroom or by Television

o v e r a

Three-Year Period

a televised lecture presentation on their preference for television; (c) the evaluated ranking of the televised lecture relative to other instructional stimuli such as readings, the discussion section, and other students; and (d) the relation between preference for televised lectures, intelligence scores, and academic performance.

Each year a number of questionnaires were administered to survey student reaction to the mode of lecture presentation and their preferences for televised or large-classroom lectures. In the second year two separate instruments were used to secure some measures of student attitudes. It was hypothesized from the first year results that these measures of student attitudes might be correlated with student preference for presentation. The follow-

ing analysis is based on the results of these instruments, some supplementary information gathered from informal interviews with and observations of students, and reports from discussion leaders as to how students in the weekly discussion sections responded to the TV presentation of lectures. During the first semester of each year an instrument was administered which included an item on a five-point scale describing preference for presentation ranging from large-classroom to television. The results for this item are shown in Table z.

Date Test Administered Average S.D. N

2st year ~4th week Classroom Lecture Section 3.72 ~.~4 246 Television Section 2.26 ~.35 263

2nd year 3rd week 4.27 2.52 367 �9 4th week 3.39 z.54 366

3rd year z4th week 2.33 ~.38 34 ~

(Scale range: prefer TV very much, 2; prefer classroom very much, 5)

Table i reveals a high variation in student preference for television over the three years and at any specific time during this period. In view of this variation, it should be noted that the manner and content of the course presentation did not vary markedly over the three years. During the third year a video tape machine became available to the local educational station, and from that time on the lectures were video taped. This pro- cedure led to some improvement in the quality of the presentation, at least in the eyes of the staff concerned with lecture prep-

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HYPOTHESES ABOUT BASIC

STUDENT ATTITUDES

RELATIVE TO TV LECTURES

The Authoritarian Identification

Hypothesis

aration. During this entire period, however, the course was es- sentially the same, and there was no major change in the com- position of the student body in respect either to background or number. It seems reasonable to assume, therefore, that the distribution of student reactions is due to something other than vari- ations in the televised presentation itself.

Two conclusions can be drawn from Table ~. First, the evidence for the first two years shows that exposure to TV lectures makes students more favorable to them relative to preference for large-classroom lectures. Second, at any one time student preference for mode of lecture is highly varied; the standard deviation of the choices is always large, and--as might be expected from the size of the standard deviation--the distribution of preference is somewhat U-shaped rather than normal. This fact that exposure to televised lectures makes students more favorable to TV presentation in conjunction with a continued high variation in preferences for mode of lecture suggested that it was preexisting student attitudes which were most important in deter- mining their reactions to this medium. During the first year the findings from informal interviews and from open-ended items on questionnaires indicated a number of reasons for liking or disliking televised lectures. Those favoring television emphasized the convenience and comfort of seeing it at their place of residence and the clarity and close-up presentation of visual materials. Negative responses included the lack of comfort and poor viewing conditions in the small classrooms used for receiving the lecture and the impersonality of the medium. This objection to impersonality was also registered with discussion leaders when they asked about reaction to television. The statement was reiterated throughout the study, "With television you can't ask anyone a question if you don't understand what the lecturer is saying." Three hypotheses were devised on the basis of the various observations on student reaction during the first year of the study. The first of these propositions was derived from the complaint about the impersonality of television, and it was labeled "the authoritarian identification hypothesis." It stated, "Student scores on a measure of authoritarianism would be inversely pro- portional to preference for televised lectures presentation." The reasoning behind this assumption was that those students who appeared to be most critical of television because of its imper-

PREEXISTING ATTITUDES OF COLLEGE STUDENTS TO ITV : 3 2 9

The Self-Confidence

Hypothesis

sonality seemed to be those who had a strong wish for the physi- cal presence of a faculty person in the instructional situation. One girl expressed this point of view in the statement, "My par- ents aren't paying my tuition for me to listen to a canned lecture."

The source of such a choice in students would be a basic predisposition to prefer an immediate authority figure to guide or support their response to the instructional stimulus of the lecture. This predisposition is the phenomenon referred to as authority identification, and it was felt that the F-Scale developed in The Authoritarian Personality would serve as its measure (z, 4, zz). If this attitude were found to be operative for many students, its presence could well serve to limit the usefulness of televised transmission of lectures. The index to measure "authoritarianism" (2, 4, zz) which was finally employed was a short- form combination of the original scales and of Christie's (3) modification of these scales. This index consisted of the scores on the eight items from the F-Scale Cluster constituting "authoritarian aggression" from the original Forms 45 and 4o (I, 4, zz) and on these identical items reversed according to Christie's formulation of a "reversible" F-Scale (3). The second hypothesis was derived from the observation that the students who seemed most receptive to the TV presentation were those who impressed the staff of the course with their self-confidence. They were students who appeared to feel as if they could handle well not only the challenges presented by the subject matter and requirements of the course but also the demands, in general, of campus life. The second hypothesis stated, "Student scores on a measure of self-confidence would be directly propor- tional to preference for televised lectures."

In a sense the second hypothesis is a corollary of the first. It appeared reasonable to assume that the self-confident student was a person with some degree of internalized standards. His experience with others in his school career prior to the time of enrollment in the course would have reinforced his sense of his own worth. He would not be heavily dependent upon available authority figures to validate the correctness or goodness of his academic behavior. Such a person presumably would not be challenged by the novelty of a TV presentation and would not need some member of the faculty constantly present to confirm his response to the stimuli of televised lectures. A student with

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The Intelligence

Score Hypothesis

THE FINDINGS

these personality attributes is the antithesis of one characterized by authoritarian identification, and it seemed likely to the in- vestigators that the confirmation of either hypothesis would be linked with the confirmation of the other. The technique selected to measure self-confidence was Osgood's semantic differential (7, 9) applied to the item "Myself as I Really Am." The distribution of scores from this measure was regarded as providing an estimate of the relative self-confidence of subjects. On the basis of observations made by the staff during the first year, it was hypothesized that student intelligence, as measured by some standard test, was independent of the student's preference for televised or classroom lecture. During the first year of the study, scores on such a test were not available for students enrolled in the course. Scholastic rankings in high school were, however, and these were checked against preferences for a small sample of students. The results seemed to indicate no association between the two variables. It also seemed, on the basis of a few informal interviews, that some of the best students in the course - -and presumably the more intelligent--were less concerned with the medium by which lectures were given and more concerned about the content. On the basis of this somewhat flag- mentary evidence, it was hypothesized that scores on a standard intelligence test would be independent of preferences by students for televised or classroom lectures. It was anticipated that such scores would be available during the second year of the study in the form of the results of the SCAT (Standard College Apti- tude Test).

These three hypotheses, then, expressed the expected relation between preexisting student attitudes or capacities and preference for TV or classroom lectures. Each of these traits represented a quality of the individual student which he brought to his experience with the televised lectures in this particular course and which in some way would enter into or involve his reaction to this medium as a vehicle for lecture presentation. To test the authoritarian identification hypothesis, student scores were correlated on an index of authoritarianism with the answers to the question, "If you had your choice of regularly attending a classroom lecture or TV lecture, how strongly do you feel you would prefer one to the other?" The response to this item was on a five-point scale ranging from "TV strongly" to "classroom strongly."

PREEXISTING ATTITUDES OF COLLEGE STUDENTS TO ITV : 33"r

Testing the Self-Confidence

Hypothesis

It had been hypothesized that the higher the index of authoritarian identification, the more likely the preference for classroom. In this particular sample of slightly more than 3oo undergraduates, the number showing high authoritarian identification by this measure were remarkably few. The scores were extremely concentrated at the center of the index. If this sample of students was to any degree representative of undergraduates in large state schools, it would indicate that high authoritarian identification would not be a typical attitude of many students. The findings, however, revealed an association opposite to that anticipated. The correlation was low, but showed a relation between the measure of preference for television to the index of authoritarian identification of r -- .z7 (P. ~ .o~, N = 228). The original hypothesis had to be rejected, although the small correlation indicated that authoritarian identification ratings account for a very small amount of variance in preference for televised lecture over large classroom.

In order to explain this unexpected correlation, the research staff asked discussion leaders in the course to interview infor- mally a number of students known to be high on authority identification. Most of these students were average to poor in academic performance and in general appeared to be either neutral toward or mildly dissatisfied with both the course and the televised presentation. As a group, however, they reported to their discussion leaders that they preferred lectures which were struc- tured or outlined to facilitate note-taking. The majority of them seemed to feel that the televised lectures--especially because of the use of "live cards"--had a simplified structure. This fact may account for the slight association of F-Score with preference for television. The measure used to test the self-confidence hypothesis was Os- good's semantic differential. This index was utilized in two ways; first, to give an evaluation by students of various instructional features which appeared associated with or pertinent to their reaction to the televised lectures; second, to provide a score repre- senting the relative "self-confidence" of each student. Used in this fashion, the semantic differential serves as an instrument to describe the range of evaluation of selected items on a scale from relatively positive evaluation to relatively negative evaluation.

The results of applying the semantic differential to instructional features of student experience are shown in Table 2.

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TABLE 2

Median Scores on the

Evaluative Factor of the

Semantic Differential

for Items Pertinent to a

Course Taught by Television

TABLE 3

Rank-Order Correlations of

Student Self-Confidence

with Student Evaluation of Instructional

Features of the Course

Item

Course liked most My discussion leader Readings in the course Other students in the course TV lectures in the course Commercial TV programs Course liked least

Possible range of scores 2-z4 N=265

Median Score

3.3 4.9 5.8 5.8 6.3 6.9 9.3

The lower the score, the more "positive" is evaluation of the item.

The data of Table 2, based on the responses of over 2oo students in the course, indicate that the range of evaluation with this particular version of the semantic differential is about six points--the difference in the scores between "least liked" and "most liked" course. Within this range the televised lecture is the least positively evaluated of the selected features in the course and the discussion leader the most positively evaluated. The televised lecture, however, is midway in the range of evaluation, which suggests an evaluative neutrality toward it on the part of the majority of students.

However, when the scores on the self-confidence rating of students were correlated by rank order with the evaluation of the instructional features of the course, a somewhat different picture emerged. The more "self-confident" students apparently have a very different pattern of evaluation of the features of this course, as shown by Table 3.

Other Students in Course

EsfimatedSelG Confidence .834

TV My Lecture Commercial Readings Discussion

in Course TV in Course Leader

�9 767 .734 .220 --.002

The correlations here show that "self-confidence" in students is not correlated with evaluation of discussion leader, but is highly correlated with evaluation of other students and of the televised lectures. This finding was of interest to the research staff because in this particular sample, about 2o percent of the students were high on the scale of "self-confidence," and about 4o percent were each in medium and low categories on this scale.

Discussion leaders who had students scoring high on the scale were consulted for their impressions of the traits of students

PREEXISTING ATTITUDES OF COLLEGE STUDENTS TO ITV " 3 3 3

Testing the Intelligence

Score Hypothesis

known to be high on the "self-confidence" scale. As a group they tended to have the following traits: they were not, in terms of grades, the best students, but they were better than average; they did not seem to be the most intelligent students (a subse- quent analysis completed after this study showed no correlation between SCAT score and rating on the "self-confidence" scale); they were, however, active in class discussion--especially when it involved topics such as minority relations, class structure, and the relation of personality to society. Several instructors com- mented that the discussions in which these students participated most actively were often triggered by televised lectures which illustrated the nature of prejudice, discrimination, and social- ization both in America and exotic cultures.

In general it appeared that these students were most highly stimulated, at least for classroom discussion, by lectures contain- ing a great deal of visual illustration of the forms of human relations. On the basis of these observations, the research staff came to the conclusion that the response of these students to these lectures was more of an affective reaction than a cognitive one. Students high in the "self-confidence" scale were apparently more stimulated than others in the course by lectures which were high in visual illustration of social science precepts involving human relations. It might be noted in passing that it is difficult to test--at least in traditional types of course examination--this kind of student learning. Most examinations appear designed to measure cognitive learning. Perhaps this is one reason these students did not secure higher grades, although obviously they were stimulated strongly by certain lectures.

In the light of these findings, the second hypothesis that students high in a scale of "self-confidence" would show a preference or positive evaluation of televised lectures is confirmed. But, in number, these students appear to be a minority; and the main form of academic achievement to which they are stimulated by their experience with television is strong participation in classroom discussion. Only in the third year of the study did it become possible to secure Standard College Aptitude Test (SCAT) scores for the students in the course. These scores, as measures of student intelligence, were correlated with preference for TV lectures and with grade on the final examination in the course, with the results shown in Table 4.


TABLE 4

Zero-Order Coefficients of

Correlation Between

Preference [or Television

Lecture, SCAT Score,

and Grade on Final

Examination

SCAT Score Grade on Final Exam

Preference for TV lecture .38 .65 SCAT score .55

All correlations were positive, and the largest was between final grade and preference for television. Obviously, the third hypothesis which assumed independence of intelligence scores and preference for television was not demonstrated. Analysis of correlations in Table 4, however, suggest an unexpected relation- ship between preference for televised lectures and academic performance as represented by examination grades in this course. The size and pattern of the correlations suggested that it is grade obtained in the course which is most clearly related to preference for television. This finding led to a conclusion which has gener- ally been avoided or ignored in the wide-ranging discussions on the employment of the new instructional technology: to wit, apparently students like or express positive evaluations of courses in which they perform well or from which they receive good grades or other approval and recognition from either instructors or students. The opportunity for such reward for performance is offered by the whole battery of instructional features of a particular course including the readings, discussions, lectures, lab sections, required papers, conferences, etc. Student evaluation of a course and its subject matter comes from a composite reaction to all of these stimuli. If a student is able to perform satisfyingly in any way in response to one or to a combination of these alter- natives, he becomes positively inclined toward the course or subject matter.

In short, for many students, a generalized motivation to respond to a course exists prior to their enrollment in a course, but it is the actual student experience with the presentation of that course which mobilizes this motivation into actual response. At the same time the student may possess other qualities, such as higher intelligence and greater self-confidence, which help him to make a good academic record in the course. But these personal qualities may not influence the student to evaluate a course positively. Rather, it is because the instructional features of the course give him a chance to use his intelligence and self- confidence to achieve recognition that he has reason to express a liking for the course.

PREEXISTING ATTITUDES OF COLLEGE STUDENTS TO ITV : 335

SUMMARY AND

INTERPRETATION

Three measures of attitudes or capacity of students enrolled in a social science course were correlated with their preferences for televised or classroom lectures after they had been exposed to televised lectures in the course. The measures included an index of "authoritarian identification," an index of relative "self-confidence," and an intelligence score (SCAT). All measures showed a positive statistical correlation with preference for televised lectures. "Authoritarian identification" was slightly correlated, intelligence scores were more highly correlated, and "self-confidence" was most highly correlated. Each association of a measure with preference for the televised lecture did not appear to be based primarily on some intrinsic appeal of a TV presentation, but rather on a pertinent quality of a televised lecture which satisfied specific educational expectations or aspirations of students. The students whose attitude of "authoritarian identification" correlated with TV preference apparently seemed to be attracted to simplified visual presentation of lecture materials. The association of intelligence scores with TV preference seem- ingly was a reflection of student approval of an instructional fea- ture of a course where students receive high grades. Superior academic performance measured by grades more likely was a consequence, for these students, of their intelligence potential rather than of any quality inherent in televised lectures. In the case of students high in "self-confidence," as some of the data suggest, it may be that the visual portrayal by television of situa- tions involving social relations or human problems served as an instructional stimulus which does generate a positive affective response to the medium of transmission. Again, however, it may be that students high in this trait evaluated the instructional features of the course positively because they provided stimuli to which they could actively respond in class discussion and thereby satisfied this particular academic interest.

Whatever might be the reason underlying the positive relation of preference for televised lectures with student traits, the evidence does indicate that a course which presents the subject matter to beginning undergraduates can be organized effectively around a televised presentation. None of the preexisting student attitudes and capacities examined in this study provide predis- positions which limit most students from developing positive reaction to lectures by television. The use of televised lectures, also, does not apparently inhibit satisfaction of certain other student aspirations or expectations in such a course.


REFERENCES 2. Adorno, T. W. The Authoritarian Personality. New York: Harper & Brothers, 295o.

2. American Behavioral Scientist. "The New Educational Technol- ogy." American Behavioral Scientist 6: 1-78; November I962.

3. Christie, Richard; Havel, J.; and Seidenberg, Bernard. "Is the F-Scale Irreversible?" Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychol- ogy 56: 243-59; March 2959 .

4. Christie, Richard, and Jahoda, Marie, editors. Studies in the Scope and Method of the Authoritarian Personality. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 2954.

5. Finn, James D. "A New Theory for Instructional Technology." Programmed Learning. (Edited by W. I. Smith and J. W. Moore.) Princeton, N.J.: D. Van Nostrand, I962. pp. 3-27.

6. Janes, Robert W. "An Educational Experiment with On-Campus Open-Circuit Television." Journal of Educational Sociology 34: 3oo-312; March i962.

7. Krech, David; Crutchfield, R. S.; and Ballachey, E. Individual in Society. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., I962. pp. 167-69, pp. 279-82.

8. McKeachie, W. J. "Procedures and Techniques of Teaching: A Survey of Experimental Studies." The American College. (Edited by Nevitt Sanford.) New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1962. pp. 312-64.

9- Osgood, Charles F.; Suci, George J.; and Tannenbaum, P. The Measurement of Meaning. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2957.

lo. Schramm, Wilbur. "What We Know About Learning from In- structional Television." Educational Television: The Next Ten Years. Stanford, Calif.: Institute for Communication Research, 2962. pp. 52-76.

1I. Titus, H. E., and Hollander, E. P. "The California F-Scale in Psychological Research: 195o-55." Psychological Bulletin 54: 47-64; January I957.

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Preexisting attitudes of college students to instructional television