Poster #238 - The Effects of Previewing on Children’s Learning from Educational Television Programs

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Technology, Media & Child Development

Integrative Statement

How can TV creators maximize the impact of educational TV? Several theories suggest that previewing (i.e., presenting a synopsis early in the program) should support learning from TV (Anderson & Lorch, 1983; Crawley et al., 1999; Fisch, 2000; Hoijer, 1990; Huston & Wright, 1989; Meadowcroft, 1986). However, research has been mixed as to the effect of previewing on children’s gain from TV (Calvert et al., 1987; Neuman et al., 1990; Mares & Acosta, 2010). This study explores the fine-grained effect of previewing on children’s comprehension and learning from an educational program. To illuminate underlying mechanisms, we 1) created two types of previews (narrative versus educational) based on different theories, and 2) distinguished between children’s comprehension of narrative content and their learning of educational content.

The repetition theory predicts that preview effects are content-specific: a narrative preview will increase children’s story comprehension while an educational preview will promote educational content learning. Conversely, schema-, representation-, and capacity-based theories predict that a schema-based narrative preview (versus non-schema-based educational preview) will better support both narrative comprehension and educational content learning.

In this study, 101 preschoolers aged 3-5 years (57.3% girls; mage = 4.3 years) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: no-preview control, educational preview, narrative preview. They watched a 15-min episode of a PBS program on math basics, which was preceded by a 1.5-minute synopsis in the two preview conditions. A series of assessments measured program familiarity and prior educational knowledge at pre-test and educational content learning and story comprehension at post-test.

We found a main effect of preview condition on both story comprehension [F(2, 95) = 7.33, p = .001, η^2 = .143] and educational content learning [F(2, 95) = 3.81, p = .026, η^2 = .077], controlling for age, program familiarity, and prior educational knowledge (Figure 1). Post-hoc pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni correction showed that children who watched the narrative-preview episode outperformed the other two groups (Figure 1). Countering the repetition theory, our results demonstrated that the schema-based narrative preview benefited both comprehension and learning whereas the non-schema-based educational preview had no effect on comprehension or learning. Additionally, an interaction between age and narrative preview (p = 0.009) suggests that older (versus younger) preschoolers benefited more from the narrative preview, perhaps because older children can capitalize on more advanced story schema. We also verified that prior knowledge of the educational content (but not familiarity with the television program) was a positive mediator of the age effect on educational content learning (Figure 2).

Our findings are consistent with schema- and capacity-based theories: The narrative preview provides a well-developed story schema that scaffolds processing of the story, reducing the demands of comprehending the narrative, thus freeing resources for processing educational content. These findings elucidate mechanisms that underlie preview effects, and they demonstrate that previews, particularly schema-based narrative previews, are effective tools to enhance the educational impact of television. The results also help to explain the inconsistency in earlier literature on previewing, and they highlight the utility of well-designed screen media for informal math learning.

Authors

• Mengguo Jing, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Presenting Author

• Heather Kirkorian, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Non-Presenting Author