The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 84 Educational Screen Putting "Participation" Into the Film Intellectual participation is the only worthwhile participation that should be built into the teaching film OF LATE we have heard much concerning the necessity of building into the teaching fihn a quahty or factor called "student participation." Several experimental attempts have been made in this direction, none of which has led as yet to results satis-, factory enough to be carried very far into actual practice. This writer believes that such attempts have been unsatisfactory because they have been made on the erroneous assumption that "participation" required physical activity on the part of the audience. A great many of the people who have tried to discuss and explain "student participation" have assumed it involved stopping the film for practice exercises of some sort. The thesis held here is that the only worthwhile participation that can or should be built into the teaching film is intellectual participation. Let us look for a moment at the inherent qualities of the motion picture. When we seat a student in a darkened projection room, we are encouraging him to concentrate his attention upon the illuminated screen. When we project the motion picture upon that screen, we are striving deliberately to give him a sense of reality and continuity that is unique to the motion picture. His senses are being influenced: (1) by an especial environment which is conducive to his concentration, (2) by an especially selected stream of visual images designed to monopolize his attention, and (3) by the combination of screen and sound especially planned to capture his senses and pull him into the screen situation. The viewing of a well constructed teaching film is a dynamic process. There is a feeling of adventure as it starts, a complete identity with film as it progresses, and a sense of dramatic satisfaction as it ends. It goes without saying, to those familiar with the motion picture in any of its forms, that one of the film's most important qualities is its ability to command the attention of the observer and, through a deliheratelv planned continuity of action and thought, to encourage him to project himself into the situation portrayed on the screen. When we interrupt this continuity of thought and action on the screen, we automatically interrupt the continuity of thought in the student's mind. We place ourselves in the undesirable position of giving him in piece-meal fashion a mental and emotional experience which derives its very strength primarily from the continuity which we are breaking. It would seem, then, that to break this continuity of the motion picture is to take away from the film one of its chief powers and to make of it a teaching instrument of entirely different character. Tt is of no great significance that we are able to devise different ways of making such a break in the film, for the result is alwavs the same. On GODFREY ELLIOTT Young America Films, New York one hand, the lireak may amount to turning ofT the projector and turning on the room lights ; on the other hand, it may be accomplished by inserting appropriate leader or other dead space footage in the film in order to give specific instructions for activity. In any case, we begin and end with the same desire to have the student leave the film momentarily in order to engage in physical activity, to solve a mental problem, to perform paper and pencil exercises, or to participate in group discussion. In either case, the net result is that we have stopped the flow of the film, and in doing so have destroyed one of its major powers. When we attempt to pick up this flow again, whether it is within a matter of seconds or minutes, we are in effect starting another film. Let us assume, for example, that we are making a teaching film on the digestive system and that we plan to build paper and pencil "participation" into it. ^Ve divide the film into five sequences, each dealing with an important concept or with a major aspect of the same concept. Immediately following each sequence, we insert two or three questions which the student will answer by checking a response sheet handed to him at the beginning of the period. Our procedure does not call for physical interruption of the film, since the questions will remain on the screen long enough for him to check his answer. What have we accomplished? We have physically divided the film into five sections, each of which is followed by related questions. We are, thereby, concentrating the student's attention upon the five separate sequences. In doing so, we have split the subject into five distinct segments, and have lost the sense of orientation which is all-impprtant to an understanding of the digestive system as a whole, ^^'e have extended the footage of the film, and thereby made it more expensive. It is open to question whether or not we have improved the ultimate teaching effectiveness of the film. As another example, let us assume that we have a teaching film whose purpose is to teach the student howto use the try-square in the woodworking shop. It is essentially a skills film, for it includes specific directions in using the try-square and gives several demonstrations of its use. This film is planned so that it is stopped at three difl^erent points and the room lights turned on. At each such point, the observer is instructed to go through the demonstration shown him in the film. In other words, the film is stopped to permit practice of the skill just demonstrated. In this case, we have attempted to build participation into the film. What we have really done, is not make one