Movie Makers (Jun-Dec 1928)

DECEMBER I92S EDUCATIONAL FILMS News of Visual Education in Schools and Homes Tests A Success MARKED superiority of children taught with films over children taught by other classroom methods was demonstrated recently when the most extensive experiment ever undertaken in education was formally completed. A thirty-three per cent gain in geography and a fifteen per cent gain in general science were scored by approximately 5,500 children taught with films over 5,500 taught the same subject material without the aid of motion pictures. The trial was directed by Dr. Ben D. Wood of Columbia University and Dr. Frank N. Freeman of the University of Chicago, in the public schools of twelve widely scattered cities. If properly planned classroom films can raise pupils' marks by an average of twenty-four per cent as was done in this experiment, the report indicated many failures can be turned into passing marks, since the great majority of failures are by less than twenty-four per cent. Thus the time required in repeating courses will be saved for many children and the large costs thereof be eliminated from the school budget. The average expense of keeping a child in school for a year is one hundred dollars. In Chicago, for instance, where there are 30,000 failures a year, this would mean a saving of $3,000,000 annually if each failure could be completely eliminated. Edited by Louis M. Bailey The experiment, which represents the first time a nation-wide investigation has been made into the controversial question of the value of films in classroom teaching, was sponsored by the Eastman Kodak Company under the sanction of a committee of the National Education Association. The superiority of the class work done by children taught with films was determined by Dr. Wood and Dr. Freeman on the basis of 107,870 test papers written by the 11,000 children before and after the ten weeks of the experiment and periodically during the course of it. Both the classes taught with films and those without, used the same "study guides" and were given identical tests. The school authorities in the twelve cities cooperated with the investigators by selecting classes of children and teachers for the two groups equal as nearly as possible in ability, and the experiment was a regular part of classroom work. The films used were 16 mm. size and of "safety" material so that they could be shown in the classrooms without the use of projection booths. "In this experiment," the report said, "we have studied the films not as a panacea to be substituted for present instrumentalities of the schools, THE IDEAL COW As Conceived for Childhood in the Eastman Juvenile Films. nor as a means to revolutionize the aims of education, but as an addition to the present padagogical devices which may help in the attainment of currently accepted goals." In addition to the final advantage that the written tests showed for the film-taught children, reports from the teachers who used the films in their classes demonstrated that a large majority believed the use of classroom films to have been "more effective in arousing and sustaining the children's interest, in improving the quantity and quality of their reading, and in aiding them to correlate features of the lessons with personal experiences and community conditions." The twelve cities that participated in the experiment were Rochester, N. Y.; New York City; Chicago, 111.; Detroit, Mich.; Newton, Mass.; Atlanta, Ga. ; Winston-Salem, N. C; Lincoln, Neb.; Kansas City, Mo.; Denver, Col.; Oakland, Cal., and San Diego, Cal. Juvenile Films A SERIES of motion pictures for children done from the nursery point of view, has been announced by the Eastman Kodak Company. In them the fantasy world of child psychology is given free play. Restrictions in the form of titles, meaningless to the juvenile mind, are eliminated. The actors themselves (Continued on page 825)