La Televisiom

THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF VALUES

THROUGH TELEVISION

CONCEPCIO´ N MEDRANO SAMANIEGO and ALEJANDRA CORTE´ S PASCUAL

Abstract – THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF VALUES

THROUGH TELEVISION

CONCEPCIO´ N MEDRANO SAMANIEGO and ALEJANDRA CORTE´ S PASCUAL

Abstract – This study is based on the hypothesis that television contents themselves constitute a source of learning through television narratives. In specific terms, we defend the idea that it is possible to teach and learn values through said narratives. Some of the research dealing with the relationship between television and values is categorized from a three-fold standpoint: the contents themselves, the medium itself and the language. As a result of this review, we maintain that reiterated attacks on television, blaming it for the majority of problems suffered by young people today, are not supported by the studies carried out by psychologists over recent decades. We believe that viewers incorporate the information provided by television from different contexts and that the enculturation is not unidirectional. There is an interrelation between development contexts and messages. We are specifically interested in analyzing the implicit and explicit values underlying television contents. Thus, based on the model developed by

Schwartz and Bilsky, we have compiled a questionnaire (Val-TV 0.1) with the aim of classifying values and interpreting the behaviours visualized in television texts, and relating them to adolescents’ own values.

Resumen – LENSEIGNEMENT ET LAPPRENTISSAGE DES VALEURS

TRANSMISES PAR LA TELEVISION – Cette estude part de lhypothese que les contenus de la television constituent eux-meˆmes une source dapprentissage a travers desrecits televises. Elle defend specifiquement lide equilest possible denseigner et dapprendre des valeurs atravers ces recits. Une partie de la recherche traitant durapport entre la television et les valeurs est classe´e par categorie sous trois angles: le

Review of Education (2007) 53:5–21 _ Springer 2007

DOI 10.1007/s11159-006-9028-6

contenu, le milieu et la langue. En consequence, les auteurs maintiennent que les attaques

reiterees contre la television, qui la blaˆme pour la majorite de problemes dont

souffrent les jeunes aujourd’hui, ne sont pas corrobore´es par les estudes effectue´es durant

les dernie`res de´cennies par les psychologues. Ils croient que les spectateurs absorbent

l’information fournie par la te´ le´vision a` partir de diffe´rents contextes et que le processus

d’enculturation n’est pas unidirectionnel. Il existe une interde´pendance entre les

contextes de de´veloppement et les messages. L’article se concentre spe´cifiquement sur

l’analyse des valeurs implicites et explicites sous-tendant les contenus de la te´ le´vision.

Les auteurs ont e´tabli un questionnaire, dans le but de classifier les valeurs et d’interpre

´ter les comportements visualise´ s dans les textes te´ le´vise´ s, et de les relier aux propres

valeurs des adolescents.

Resumen – LA ENSEN˜ ANZA Y EL APRENDIZAJE DE VALORES A TRAVE´ S

DE LA TELEVISIO´ N – Este estudio esta´ basado en la hipó tesis de que los contenidos de la television, como tales, constituyen una fuente de aprendizaje a traves de la narrativa televisiva. Específicamente, defiende la idea de que es posible enseñar y aprender valores a traves de estas narrativas. Una parte del estudio sobre la relació n existente entre televisión y valores se realiza desde tres enfoques diferentes: los contenidos, el medio y el lenguaje. Como resultado, los autores sostienen que los reiterados ataques a la televisión, a la que se achacan la mayor parte de los problemas de la juventud actual, no encuentran fundamento en los estudios realizados por los psicólogos durante las últimas décadas. Ellos creen que los televidentes toman la información suministrada por la televisión extrayéndola de sus diferentes contextos, y que el proceso de enculturación no es unidireccional. Existe una interrelación entre contextos de desarrollo y mensajes.

El artículo enfoca particularmente el análisis de valores implícitos y explícitos subyacentes a los contenidos televisivos. Los autores elaboraron un cuestionario, con el objetivo de clasificar los valores y de interpretar las conductas visualizadas en textos televisivos para luego relacionarlas con los propios valores de los adolescentes.

6 Concepcio´n Medrano Samaniego and Alejandra Corte´s Pascual

Television and its educational power

Should we continue to think that television encourages habits of passiveness, impedes the development of creativity, takes time away from reading and other children’s activities and is linked to low levels of achievement at school? These and many other similar questions have, over recent decades, raised many different, sometimes contradictory, responses from both a theoretical and empirical point of view. In accordance with Bronfenbrenner (1986), television is a true American institution and could be used as a means of dissemination that actively promotes educational programmes.

If the above assertions are true, then why do professionals in the field of education not try to turn television viewing into an opportunity for studying the values and counter-values that are explicitly or implicitly conveyed? If we want to deal with the values and counter-values transmitted in a systematic way, it is important to amplify the positive messages and try to ‘‘turn’’ the negative ones around.

In the United States, Calvert and Kotler (2003) have carried out a recent and exhaustive review of the influence of the agreements reached in the 1990

Act on Children’s Television (in which four American channels were requested to include 3 h a week of educational and informative programmemes) on children’s learning. Through both qualitative and quantitative transversal and longitudinal studies, these authors show that nursery and preschool children gained significant learning in relation to social behaviours.

Television discourse: a parallel discourse to school

We base our work on the assumption that viewers are not just passive beings, but rather incorporate television contents from different contexts, especially their family and school environments. In each of these contexts (family, school, the media, etc.), viewers are in touch with specific aspects of their culture, as well as with other people, who help them, in different ways, to come closer to them. In Bronfenbrenner’s words (1986), they become ‘‘cultural mediators’’.

We can therefore assert that television favours a new discourse and communication style, mainly based on the properties of image. Certainly, images are also present in the texts used by schools, and in this sense are nothing new. However, with television, associative, primary and non-reflexive thinking is given priority over logical or rational thinking, which is why we believe that it generates a different discourse. In fact, the intellectual effort involved in reading a book or even a comic is considerably greater than that required by television viewing.

Although, as we have already explained, children do not incorporate television texts mechanically, we should not forget that the socializing potential of the vast majority of the messages conveyed is based on seducing mechanisms, given that they seek to exploit emotional, rather than rational

The Teaching and Learning of Values Through Television 7 channels. In itself, as a medium, television is neither good nor bad and the influence of its discourse will depend on how it is used. Knowing the limits and advantages of television may constitute a first step towards studying television narratives from a critical standpoint in class. (Rosenkoetter, Huston, and Wright 1990; Petty, Priester and Brin˜ ol 2002).

In our opinion, the fact that children watch television either on their own or with somebody else, may, when used properly, constitute a good resource for the learning of values. To this end, teachers’ active involvement is required in order to explain the reasons, intentions and context of television narratives (Watkins, Huston-Stein and Wright 1980).

In a research project carried out in the United States focusing on African,

Latin American and Caucasian immigrants, involving a sample of 527 parents with children aged between 2 and 17, Gentile and Walsh (2002) demonstrate that family habits concerning the mass media are directly related to school performance. Despite the fact that there are strong links between poor academic achievement and a greater number of hours devoted to television per week, these links vary widely depending on whether or not parents watch some specific programmemes together with their children, intervening in their understanding and interpretation.

Television as a source of learning: content, medium and language

When we refer to television as a source of learning, we take into account three different dimensions: (a) its contents; (b) the medium itself and (c) the language used. Different research studies in this field have focused on some of these dimensions.

Firstly, and in relation to television contents, many research projects have clearly demonstrated the influence of television as a learning model on infant and adolescent perceptions and behaviours. However, many of these works focus on the field of violent action viewing and were carried out in North American contexts (Bryant and Zillmann 2002; Ward 2003). In their respective conclusions, these works emphasize the increase in or tendency

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