This study examines the nature of elementary school children's preconceptions toward media, the role of teachers to them, and the effect of such preconceptions on learning from instructions in multimedia utilizing situations. This problem is drawn from a shemata model for learning from media by Salomon (1981; 1983; 1984) in which "perceived demand characteristics of the task, material, and context are possibly related to perceived self-efficacy, and both affect amount of invested mental effort." It was also based on recent instructional practices led by the concept of "Media Mix" which is advocated to improve the use of educational television. Subjects were three teaches in Kanazawa City and their fifth grade pupils (n=109). These three teachers used commonly a television program from a NHK's series, "We Are All People on the Earth," and varied sub-media including an online computer database according to their identified aims which differed one another. Children's preconceptions toward watching television, using a computer, reading, writing, and listening to a teacher were evaluated in three dimensions of preference, difficulty, and learning expectancy. A quantitative analysis revealed firstly that pupils' preconceptions about media activities were generally similar to those of American samples (Krendl, 1986). It was repeatedly found that in general the more an activity is preferred, the less difficult it is perceived to be, but the more likely one is to think one will learn from it. However, sex differences found in American sample were not seen in this study. Rather significantly, children's attributions to media differed according to their classes, which suggests possible roles of teachers' varied patterns of media use for how their pupils think about each medium. The difference among children in the three classes for their preconceptions toward media were related to teachers' different patterns of media use in their classes which were reported by themselves and an adviser who led their group. It was also found, although not very clearly, that such preconceptions were connected with pupils' learning outcomes which were measured by questions asked for contents of the subject television program. Moreover, children's preconception toward media were relatively independent to their intellectual levels. An overall evaluation suggests that there is a reciprocal interaction among learners' perceptions on media, teachers' media utilization, and learning performances from media.

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1 Problem : It is necessary to clarify qualitative and quantitative changes in children's attitude for viewing TV after viewing a film. This study is to examine the qualitative and quantitative behavioral changes in the selection of TV programs. 2 Purpose : It was to examine children's attitudinal effect from viewing the film "The Boy Who Was Embarrased by TV" and to clarify it by the measurement of a attitude scale (VA), the amount of TV viewing (VH) and the values for selecting TV programs (VP). 3 Working Hypotheses : (1) Children's VA will be desirably changed through viewing the film "The Boy Who Was Embarrased by TV". And their VH and VP scores will be decreased through viewing this film. (2) This change will persist for two weeks. 4 Procedure : (1) Subjects : 165 of 4th grade children from an elementary school in Morioka City, who were divided into an experimental and a control group. The 103 children who were assigned the experimental group were shown the film. The 62 children in the control group were not shown the film. (2) Research Content : Measurement of the scale value on viewing attitude (VA), the amount of TV viewing (VH) and the values for selecting TV programs (VP) on the 4 scale points. The scale points were allocated in the following manner: 1 to news program, 2 to educational ones, 3 to sport ones, 4 to entertainment ones which the children viewed on the previous day. (3) Sequence : Sept. 6, 1985 Measurement of VA, VH and VP (Pre-test) Sept. 12, 1985 Film and measurement of VA (Post-test) Sept. 13, 1985 Measurement of VH and VP (Post-test) Sept. 27, 1985 Measurement of VA, VH and VP (After-2-weeks-test) 5 Result : (1) The VA, VH and VP scores of the children in the experimental group tended to decrease. These tendencies, with the exception of the VP scores of the boys, were statistically significant. The control group, however, showed no change in VA scores, but their VH and VP scores tended to increase through the three measurements. Both sets of tendencies persisted for two weeks. (2) The VA, VH and VP scores of heavy viewers in the experimental group tended to decrease. On the other hand on the VP scores of heavy viewers in the control group, there were no change in their VA and VP scores through the three measurements. The tendencies also persisted for two weeks. 6 Conclusion : (1) The film "The Boy Who Was Embarrased by TV" had the significant effect on the formation of the desirable attitude for viewing TV. It effected a decrease not only the VA scores but also in the VH and VP scores. The results show that viewing the film effected the children's TV viewing behavior. (2) The effect of the film persisted for two weeks. (3) Greater changes were observed in the behavior of heavy viewers.

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The author has developed an integrated database storage and retrieval system based on a microcomputer. It would assist classroom teachers to obtain and process audio-visual materials and information on teaching materials for the purpose of realizing their teaching objectives and conducting effective classroom management. First, the central feature of this system is to be able to convert integratedly the numeric data in the file to pictorial and statistical ones through combining some application softwares based on the relational database system. Second, it is composed of six databases, that is, two kinds of audio-visual instructional materials databases, an achievement test scores database, a guidance database, a learner responding behaviors database, a sociometry database, and a file-processing utility. These all are easily and promptly presented and processed on a menustyled form. Third, the basic hardware composes of an 16-bittype microcomputer , an 80 x 40 character CRT display, a 20-megabyte type hard disk, two 5-inches type floppy disks, a 24-dotprinter, and a 2400-baud type modem. The aim of this study is to develop and evaluate the system described above. The survey was conducted to evaluate how this integrated system realized the aim of this study both before and after demonstrating and operating of this system. The participants of this survey was 11 graduate students who were elementary or secondary teachers from different areas in Japan. The results included the followings: (1) They showed positive attitudes to the integratedness of data-processing of this system. (2) But, they showed negative attitudes to the total collectiveness of different kinds of instructional information to perform the educational objectives.

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Little empirical research has been conducted on the effects of pictures in the field of language education (including L2 English education), though it is possible to use various kinds of pictures at any point in the flow of courseware. In order to develop effective courseware using pictures in micro-computers, the effects of pictures should first of all be empirically investigated. The primary purpose of this study was to compare the effects between learning with pictures and that without pictures. The second purpose was to clarify which factors of pictures deemed important : 1) construction. (Pictures showing background information on the prose vs. ones showing partial information) ; 2) style. (Line drawings vs. photographs) 3) Location. (Pictures before the prose vs. after the prose). Before the experiment, the prose, "A Strange Shopping Center" was selected from an English textbook for junior high school students. The prose consisted of about 250 words. Two black-and-white pictures used in the textbook were chosen, and two black-and-white line drawings were made based on each picture. Combining the elements of style, construction, and location of pictures, nine types of learning materials were prepared, as well as material without pictures. The experiment was conducted in July of 1988 with 347 junior high school students in Niigata Prefecture, who were divided into 10 groups using the 10 different types of learning materials. As a pretest, the results of their mid-term English examinations were used. The subjects read the prose, followed by the posttest (which was, in effect, a comprehension test). It consisted of twelve multiple-choice questions. Finally, subjects were asked to complete an eight-item questionnaire. The results of the comprehension test were analyzed by the t-test, ANOVA, and Scheffe's test, while the results of the questionnaire were analyzed by the chi-square test. After the experiment, ANOVA was conducted on the points of the post test, showing no significant difference. So, the ten groups proved to be comparable. Secondly, ANOVA and Scheffe's test were conducted on the results of the pretest. There was significant difference among the ten groups, but it was not clear which factor was the most important. However, comparing the effects between learning with pictures and that without pictures by the t-test, the difference of means was significant, demonstrating that learning with pictures was much more effective than that without pictures. Thirdly, the t-test was administered to compare the learning effects of these different factors of pictures. It was found that : 1) When comparing the effects between the pictures of background information and those of partial information, no significant difference was seen, which proves that the construction factor did not affect students' understanding of the prose ; 2) When comparing the effects between line drawings and photographs, the difference of means was significant, proving that photographs were more effective than pictures in helping students understand the prose ; 3) When comparing the effects of the location of pictures, the difference of means was not significant, proving that the location factor did not affect the students' understanding of the prose. Fourthly, after combining the factors stated above, ANOVA and Scheffe's test were employed. From these results, the subject group using photographs learned more than the subject group not using pictures. Also, the subject group using background photographs learned more than the subject group not using pictures. Thus, we can conclude that photographs seemed to be most effective. Finally, the chi-square test was administered on the results of the questionnaire. Though subjects felt pictures were not so helpful in answering the posttest, they showed positive attitudes toward the existence of pictures in the prose.

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Recent developments of computer hardware have brought opportunities for programing more complicated teaching materials in CAI. New AV equipment makes it possible to give instruction using sounds and pictures with computers. Use of visual materials is popular in foreign language teaching for the purpose of setting foreign-like situations, inhibiting the use of native language, retaining long-lasting memory, and making the foreign culture interesting. These effects of visual materials, however, are hardly verified scientifically although they have played an important role in the classroom since early days. In order to improve CAI courseware, it is necessary to study the effects of visual materials used in the foreign language classroom. This study attempts to clarify whether pictures have a greater effect on learning than words only, to compare the effects using two kinds of pictures (drawings and photograghs), and to examine the interaction between learners' traits and three different types of stimuli (words only, drawings, photographs). Subjects were 127 male high school students. Teaching content was 21 English prepositions, selected by a test beforehand and ranked from one to five on their level of difficulty to learn. Drawings and photographs corresponding to these prepositions were prepared as teaching materials and made into programed booklets. In these booklets the prepositions were presented in each of the following modes : in a single sentence with or without pictures ; with only a drawing ; or with only a photogragh. Each frame required subjects to fill in a blank, choose a right answer, or compose a single English sentence using a preposition. Items were counterbalanced across presentation modes. A posttest was administered five days later. The results showed that records during the step by step learning process indicate significant effectiveness of pictures and drawings. However, the scores of the posttest proved that there were no significant differences in learning effects among the three different modes. Nor was any interaction found between learners' traits and the different modes of presentation. The results of this study suggest two implications. First, if a learner already possesses one concept, it makes no difference whether or not pictures are used in teaching that concept in a foreign language. The native language may be more precise and efficient than pictures in defining the meaning. Second, photographs may fail to represent the intended information because of too many distracting details. Effectiveness of pictures during the learning process can be interpreted as due to the novelty effect of pictures. Further study is needed to scrutinize the effects and use of pictures in the foreign language classroom.

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