The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 2 54 Educational Screen Experimental Research and The Improvement of Teaching Fihns How can teaching effectiveness be increased through improved film production and by improved film utilization? IT IS generally agreed that many existing classroon films fall far short of attaining maximum effectiveness as teaching materials. Opinions dififer as to how the quality of the films themselves can be improved, and also as to the way in which existing films can be most eflFectively utilized in the classroom. Thus, the broad question of what can be done to increase the effectiveness of audio-visual education breaks down into two related problems : first, how can teaching eflfectiveness be increased through improved film production, and second, how can it be increased through improved film utilization? One of the tools which could be employed more widely to help in the solution of these two related kinds of problems is the research technique of controlled experimentation. Experimental Film Research The kind of "research" referred to does not mean the important preparatory work that goes into a film in its planning stage — the looking up and verifying of factual material. Nor does "research" in the .sense used here refer to the use of surveys such as those designed to find out the status of current usage of audio-visual aids or the consensus of teachers as to what kind of visual aids they would like to have available for teaching a particular subject. Rather, the term "experimental research" as here used is essentially synonymous with the idea of measurement of the effects on pupils produced by filni instruction. Measurement of a Film's Effects How are these "eiTects" of films on pupils to be determined? If one seeks more than reliance on opinions — often contradictory — he is led inevitably to a problem of measurement. If the success of a film is to be determined by measuring the efifects it produces, we have to decide what to measure, and this decision leads directly to the need for specifying the purpose of a film.. We need to know quite explicitly what the film will have to accomplish in order to be regarded as successful. Criteria of "Success" The "success" of a theatrical film is its popularity as entertainment, generally measured by box office receipts. The success of a teaching film, unlike that of a film designed primarily for entertainment, cannot l)e assessed merely in terms of its popularity or even in terms of judgments about its artistic merits. In saying that an educational film is "successful" in accomplishing something, there is the implicit assumption that pupils who have seen a film are expected to be somehow di liferent from what they were before they saw the film. Obviou.sly, within the broad framework of an educational program, there is room for A. A. LUMSDAINE Motion Picture Research Project Institute of Human Relations Yale University films having a variety of purposes. The main purposes of a large number of films, however, may be classified under the headings of imparting factual information, developing skills, or modifying attitudes or interests. Although a particular film may have more than one of these purpo.ses. its success may be examined separately with respect to each. How. then, can measurements be made to determine whether a film is successful in accomi)l!shing its purpose? The staff of the Motion Picture Research Project (page 256). Left to right: A. A. Lumsdaine, R. S. Hadsell, Mark A. May, and Gardner L. Hart. How Can Effects Be Measured? In general terms, the answer is sini])le although in application considerable technical difticulty may be encountered. First of all, we need a measuring instrument. For a film designed to convey factual information, the instrument needed is an appropriate test ; pupils' scores on this test will indicate how much they know about the subject. But in the case of a film designed to modify attitudes an appropriate measuring instrument might be an attitude scale of some kind which can measure the extent to which attitudes or opinions are held ; in the case of a film primarily designed to arouse interest in a subject, techniques must be devised to give a reliable assessment of "interest" or the actions which indicate interest. Given an appropriate measuring instrument, the basic method of measuring effects produced by a film is also straightforward. The measuring instrument must