Student Ratings of Televised Classroom Demonstrations

Student attitude toward classroom observation experience in an educational psychology course were explored as a function of whether observations were made in person, by closed circuit television, or kinescope recordings. Two hundred fifty-seven college juniors were randomly grouped to observe the same classroom demonstrations by different means or to receive a control lecture. At the conclusion of the course mean subject ratings of the special observation (or lecture) experience were significantly different for the four treatment groups. Highest ratings were given by students who observed In person, next highest were given by "live" television observers, next highest by kinescope observers, and lowest by those who received the control lecture. No significant differences were observed between groups on ratings of the course of which the observations were a part.