Proyecto Plaza Sésamo como Apoyo al Programa de Educación Inicial: Summary of SEP Research Findings

This 6-page document provides an English-language summary of the Spanish-language research study "Proyecto Plaza Sésamo como apoyo al Programa de Educación Inicial (Plaza Sésamo Project as support to the Initial Education Program)", which was conducted by SEP (Secretaria de Educación Publica - Mexico's Ministry of Education). Funded by UNICEF, the study was motivated by SEP's interest in using television as an early childhood education resource within the public school system of Mexico City. Specifically, the purpose of the research was to examine the use of Plaza Sésamo, Mexico's version of the Sesame Workshop entertainment-education television series Sesame Street in preschool settings. This summary document focuses on the study's methods and findings, with an eye toward culling out key themes and recommendations about Plaza Sésamo's potential to support educational activities and encourage learning in 4- and 5-year-old children who take part in SEP's Initial Education Program.

The author begins by detailing the study methodology. A total of 96 4- and 5-year old boys and girls from middle-income Mexico City homes participated. Prior to initiating their viewing of Plaza Sésamo, trained researchers gathered data on individual children's performance on a test of their symbol representation skills, knowledge and attitudes towards environmental conservation, and Plaza Sésamo character recognition. Children in the sample then viewed 7 Plaza Sésamo videos: One video per day was shown to groups of children at each of 3 public preschools, or CENDI [Centro de Desarrollo Infantil]. Researchers observed children's behaviour during the sessions, which were led by individual classroom teachers. In addition, a parents' survey was carried out to explore basic lifestyle issues, such as children's television viewing habits and preferences.

Selected findings include:

• Access: After viewing Plaza Sésamo, 76% of children recognised 4 to 5 characters from the programme; this is a significant increment from the pre-test. The results of the behavioural observations indicated that 4-year-olds seemed to be more attentive to and involved in the episodes than 5-year-olds.
• Knowledge: A comparison of children's pre- and post-viewing performance indicated positive change across all the skills measured, except for counting objects and recognition of geometric shapes. (Regarding the latter two exceptions, the authors of the original SEP study explain that this may be due to the fact that children's pre-test performance was high in these areas and there was little room for growth.) In short, children performed better on number and letter identification tasks after viewing Plaza Sésamo. There were also notable changes with regard to children's performance on a "conserving the environment task" after viewing the programme.

An Excerpt from the Conclusions and Recommendations section follows:

"The researchers conclude that the use of Plaza Sésamo in the classroom does result in learning gains among the children in the sample. This is based on the following:

1. Both parents and children are receptive to viewing the program. Children are watching between 14 and 21 hours of television per week, with the majority viewing with someone else. Since most children co-view with adults, adults can enhance the viewing experience by highlighting or pointing out specially attractive elements, or helping children understand content.
2. Personnel of the CENDI - cooperated fully with the study and inclusion of Plaza Sésamo in classroom activities. This experience did, however, demonstrate a need for organization, redistribution of activities, and adequate physical spaces in order to effectively use the video material.
3. Broadly, the study established a possible educational effect of Plaza Sésamo from the presentation of the programs....More specifically:
   
   • Four-year-olds had more significant increases than five-year-olds. This difference may be related to the differences in initial knowledge and understanding, as well as to the novelty and attractiveness of the program itself.
   • It is also important to note that the biggest differences in learning were observed in the most attractive and colorful elements of the program.
4. Analysis of the attention data shows that children were very involved with the program. They were happy, attentive and, in general, demonstrated the high appeal of the program. This is particularly true of the four-year-olds.

The role of the teacher was very important; their mediation was essential to better attention to the program and learning. Often times teachers referred to something on the program, to comments made by the children while viewing and generally used program content to carry out activities in the classroom.

SEP recommended the inclusion of educational television programs in preschoolers’ classrooms. They point out, however, that additional research should be conducted prior to the use of video in order to evaluate how children are responding to the material and how best educators should use it..."