Documentary News Letter (1944-1945)

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36 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER THE CENTRAL COUNCIL FOR SCHOOL BROADCASTING By FLORA MEADEN, Assistant Education Officer of the C.C.S.B., which has often been mentioned in discussions on the educational film. This article describes the manner in which the Council collects data on which to base its policy, and suggests some aspects of this work which may he of interest to the makers of educational films. the C.C.S.B. was set up and is financed by the B.B.C. It is composed of representatives of the principal educational organisations and certain members nominated by the B.B.C. The power of fashioning the policy behind school broadcasting has been delegated to it. It thus has a more positive function than a merely Advisory Committee. So that it may carry out its task, the B.B.C. provides it with a paid secretariat. As well as a headquarters staff in London, there are Education Officers in the B.B.C. regions. The School Broadcasting Department of the B.B.C. interprets the policy laid down by the Council and is responsible for the detailed educational planning of broadcasts for schools. If an Advisory Council for Visual Education were set up, perhaps a rough parallel might be drawn between film units or companies commissioned to carry out its policy and School Broadcasting Department. On the other hand, it is interesting to notice that there is, in general, an important difference between the training and background of the technicians who have in the past produced educational films and the programme assistants responsible for making school broadcasts. These programme assistants — who handle the detailed planning of series, who brief script writers, edit scripts for the appropriate age-range and so forth — have most of them worked as university or school teachers and have afterwards learned the craft of broadcasting. With few exceptions film technicians have never had this direct experience of the classroom. The policy-making of school broadcasting is thus a direct responsibility of the educational world through its representatives on the Council, while the building of school broadcasts is to a great extent in the hands of people with practical experience of teaching, as well as of radio. ASSESSMENT OF RESULTS The Council determines policy through its Executive Committee and its Programme Committees. The members of Programme Committees are teachers invited because of their experience of the medium, together with subject specialists from universities, training colleges and the Ministry of Education. All teachers who sit on these committees handle in their classrooms the series of broadcasts which are their special concern. As well as providing information to supplement such direct contact as programme assistants have with schools and teachers, it is part of the work of the permanent Staff of the Council to provide these committees with evidence on which to base their decisions. Within the limitations imposed by the war, methods of collecting evidence on school broadcasts have been developed steadily, and are being further developed. At first sight, the problem of collecting this evidence may seem to be entirely different from the assessment of educational films. Broadcasting is an ephemeral medium, more elusive to study than the film. A broadcast takes place "in time"; broadcasts run in series side by side with the teachers' lessons in the term's course. Though scripts, and in a few cases recordings, continue to exist, once transmission is over the moment cannot be recalled. Nevertheless, however different the natures of the two media, the purpose of both is the same — to help the schools. This being so it is reasonable to suppose that there will be certain similarities between the sorts of evidence they both need to discover. THE L.E.A.s It is equally necessary for both to enlist the willing co-operation of the education authorities and the teachers. From the early days of school broadcasting, the Education Officers of the Council have worked with the co-operation of L.E.A.s and teachers who have always most courteously welcomed their visits to schools. They have wide contacts with teachers, officials and local opinion generally, and spend an important part of their time in the schools listening to broadcasts with children. They are thus observers experienced in watching the effect of broadcasts "on the spot". Like the reporting teachers, whom I describe below, they listen, so far as it lies in their power as adults, "through the ears" of children. COLLECTION OF EVIDENCE The regular collection of evidence on school broadcasts was begun in rudimentary fashion very early in the history of the medium. One of the longest established sources of information is the Council's panel of reporting teachers. At present approximately 15-20 teachers, specially invited because of their experience of the medium, report each week on each series of broadcasts— which means that about 400 reports are received every week by the Council from 350 teachers who handle broadcasts in the classroom. These teachers work on blank postcards assisted by brief notes sent to them at the beginning of term. The function of these weekly reports is to provide immediate reaction for those planning the broadcasts and thus to take the place of the visible audience which the broadcaster lacks. The reports give valuable information on detailed points of production, on the response of children with a known background and on the methods by which known teachers use individual broadcasts to illustrate their teaching. That broadcasting takes place within a limited band of time would seem to make it more difficult to study than the film. But out of this very difficulty, I believe, comes one of the advantages of the panel, namely, that teachers who report must listen, if they are to do so at all, in their classrooms with children present. "From the life" reporting of this kind has had so far, as I understand, very little influence on the development of educational films. "Appraisal Panels" of teachers who meet after school hours to assess films may provide useful opinion, but in the study of broadcasting it has been found by long experience that the reaction of the adult listening alone is likely to be different from that of the adult listening "through the ears" of children. Yet another source of information are teachers' conferences and meetings of all kinds held both in the regions and in London to discuss particular problems of school broadcasting, e.g. the future of "News Commentary" now that the war is over. These opportunities for officials and teachers to meet and discuss have been most illuminating and suggest a promising line of development for the future. Conferences of this kind, like reports from the panel and the observations of Education Officers, do not give representative evidence in the statistical sense, but from all three sources comes information which helps to bring statistical findings to life. Certain information to guide the making of policy must be collected on a large scale so that a reliable picture of the audience may be built up. Approximately 13.000 schools in England, Wales and N. Ireland are registered users of school broadcasts and there are 1,300 schools on the register of the Scottish Council for School Broadcasting. It is known from investigation that few schools listen without registering, since the Councils' registers provide mailing lists for essential publications. The registers were the first source of information about schools which used radio, and today they provide the basis for statistical enquiry into questions of fact about the audience. The following are typical questions to which answers are required. What types of school listen to each series? What is the age and intelligence composition of the audience for each series? Do the schools listen regularly each week or less often? What sort of syllabus is commonly followed in a subject and what relation have the broadcasts to it? From answers to questions such as these it is possible to build a picture which shows how far a series of broadcasts is finding the audience for which it was intended. This evidence is an important factor in determining future plans. SAMPLING To discover the answers to such questions the Council uses ordinary sampling methods which have been developed in the last few years on the adv ice of a statistical expert. A random sample of approximately 500 (the size is adjusted to the purpose) is taken of the potential audience for the series to be investigated (i.e. of all listening