How to use educational sound film ([c1937])

CHAPTER III TECHNIQUES OF TEACHING WITH SOUND FILMS S3 FAR the discussion of method has been concerned principally with the teacher's purpose in using the film—with the part the film may be made to play in specific learning situations. But of equal importance is the "how" of the film-lesson procedure: how the film may be adjusted to the current interests and the abilities of the class; how it may be introduced in the day's lesson; how the film showing itself may be manipulated as a teaching device; and how the film presentation may be utilized as a springboard for the learning activities which follow. These techniques exhibit the teacher's craftsmanship in building the film- centered unit, step by step, into an experience yielding the desired outcomes. A problem of interest to the supervisor and to the teacher intent upon improving his skill in film instruction is that of evaluating the effectiveness of particular techniques used in a film lesson. The general criteria for good teaching apply of course to the film lesson—purposes clearly evident both to teacher and to pupils, a well-organized attack upon the sub- ject matter, activities which engage both individual and group interests, resourcefulness in turning unexpected situa- tions to good account, and the like. But how is the teacher's use of the film, that learning experience in which the student participates both as an individual and as a member of a group, to be judged? For example, was the picture intro- duced at precisely the right point in the discussion? Had the students acquired a questioning attitude which focused their attention upon salient features of the film? Did they begin to work immediately upon the facts the film had contributed 42