Abstract:
Since its introduction as an alternative medium for conveying
messages, television has become a popular teaching aid in the
academe. The familiar scenario that depicts the teacher talking in
front of the class while the students listen and jot down important
points and ideas has been transformed into one that is similar to
that of a theater. With the use of a 21-inch television and a video
compact disc, teaching is deemed possible. The class which was
formerly viewed as highly interactive, due to the many social
dynamics between the teacher and the students, has been transformed
to just one direction--between the television and the students. One
may even doubt if there is any social interaction at all ina
classroom that uses television.
Television-aided classroom communication has been studied by
educational experts in the past. Their common findings reveal that
television-aided communication is a promising tool, especially in
science teaching. However, when these findings are analyzed from a
communication perspective, the weaknesses of using television do
emerge. As communicators claim, feedback plays a vital role in the
success of any communication process. If feedback is neglected,
communication becomes less interactive and therefore, less
effective.
To establish the claimed strengths or weaknesses of
television as an instructional communicative aid, this research
aimed to compare the performance of high school students in science
lessons when taught in both face-to-face and television-aided ways.
The pre-test and post test quasi~experimental research design was
used. Two classes of high school students from Cuayan National High
School were involved who were found to be generally aged 12 to 13
years, mostly females, honor students in their elementary grade,
and residents of the same city. The only factors or variables that
were held constant were the teacher, the lessons, the classroom
setting, the number of test items and the duration of the study. The
lessons during the experiment which were alternately taught using
face-to-face and television-aided communication were about the earth
and space exploration. The statistical tests used to analyze the
pre-and post-test results in order to compare the mean gain in
knowledge among the students was the test of significance between
mean gains.
The analysis of the pre-test and post test scores of the
students revealed that the average score of students who were taught
using face-to-face communication was significantly higher than those
taught in the television-aided way. Even though both classes scored
higher during the post-test, either of them consistently scored
higher than the other whenever they were taught using face-to-face
communication. On the whole therefore, it is concluded that faceto-
face communication is better than television-aided communication
in teaching general science to the freshman students of Cauayan
National High School
