ABSTRACT
This study investigated the impact of intense, moderate and low Television Viewing Habit (TVHa) on the development of basic cognitive and social skills among primary school children in Nsukka urban, Enugu State. The design of the study was Ex post facto. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The sample for the study was 429 primary five pupils purposively drawn from six public and four Government- approved privately owned primary schools in Nsukka Urban. The instruments used for the study – Personal Television Viewing Profile (PTVP), Test of Acquisition of Basic Verbal Reasoning Skills (TABVRS), Test of Acquisition of Basic Arithmetic Skills (TABAS) and Scale of Acquisition of Basic Social Skills (SABSS),were developed by the researcher. The research questions were answered using descriptive statistics and the hypotheses were tested using Analysis of variance statistic (ANOVA). Findings of the study indicated that moderate television viewing (TV) habit engendered the development of basic verbal reasoning, arithmetic and social skills among primary school children. Intense TV habit was found to be detrimental to the development of basic verbal reasoning, arithmetic and social skills among children. Low TV habit did not promote the development of basic cognitive and social skills among primary school children. Comparatively, moderate TV habit was found to have significant positive impact while intense TV habit had significant negative impact on the development of basic verbal reasoning, arithmetic and social skills among primary school children. Based on these findings, the researcher concluded that, encouraging children to develop moderate television viewing habit may enhance their development of basic verbal reasoning, arithmetic and social skills. Also that complete denial or low access to television viewing may limit the children’s world of experience thereby hampering their basic cognitive and social skills development. Among the educational implications are that primary school children need as an educational requirement a moderate amount of television viewing time to expand their experiential base on global issues, adult and peer language, as well as social etiquette and nuances, routine processes, life skills and social display rules exhibited by models and stars in television which otherwise would not be accessible on routine activities in the home or school. It also implies that children will not only view television, they need help from significant adults to adequately appropriate prime time to academic activities, physical activities, interactions with people, events and object in their social environment as well as getting enough sleep. Some of the recommendations made were that: parents, care-givers and teachers should be available to examine closely the TVHa of children in order to understand the emergent impact television viewing has on their children’s cognitive and social skills development so they can exercise timely interventions. Children should be helped by parents, care providers and all who are concerned with children development to tap from the opportunities offered through regulated television programmes to access global experience needed for adequate development of basic life skills. Children should be helped to develop moderate TVHa early in life.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Every human being needs to have acquired some basic and critical life skills to be able to live productively, be it within the school environment or in the larger society. These basic skills include social skills, cognitive skills and emotional skills. Social skills refer to those competences which enable an individual to live a responsible life within the society. It relates to the acquisition of appropriate life skills such as communication, etiquette, nuances and psycho-motor skills which enable a child to effectively function as a person in a group of interacting and inter-relating human beings (Ngwoke and Eze, 2010).
In this study, basic social skills were taken to include relational skills, personal care and hygiene skills. Relational skills comprised punctuality, attentiveness, perseverance, carrying out assignments, organizational ability, politeness, honesty, self control, spirit of co-operation (sharing resources and working well with others), and obedience. Personal care/hygiene skills included cleanliness, tidiness, orderliness, neatness of self and study materials and care of body parts (nails, hairs, and teeth).
Cognitive skills were conceived as verbal reasoning and arithmetic skills. Verbal reasoning skills included reading proficiency, word meaning and word usage, while arithmetic skills included number and numeration, basic operations (addition, subtraction and multiplication) and basic geometry (two and three dimensional shapes).
The development of these basic life skills is often influenced by two major factors: nature and nurture. According to Berk (1998), nature or hereditary endowment refers to the biological givens – the genetic materials one receives from parents at the moment of conception that control growth and the development. Nurture refers to the complex forces of the physical and social environment that people encounter in their homes, neighbourhood and communities that impact on genetic potentials. The issue of whether nature or nurture has stronger influence on basic skills development has been an age long debate among developmental psychologists (Watson, 1930). However, the contemporary psychologists and researchers are today coming up with evidence that points to the relatedness of the two factors in determining development (Baumnrid, 1993, and Jackson, 1993 and Berndt, 1997). They tend to believe that nature and nurture interact intricately to determine human development.
It means therefore that inherited factors set the limit within which the individual can achieve his potentials but the inherited factors cannot function optimally unless the environmental forces are able to play their roles. Hereditary potentials are givens, therefore the onus on parents and care providers is to harness nurture for the child to ensure that the child attains the highest level set by innate endowment in developing the necessary basic life skills.
Children acquire much of these life skills during early and middle childhood. Early childhood stage spans the period between two and five years. During this stage there is a remarkable change in height and weight. Significant changes in the central nervous system and other organs crucial to the child’s development have also been observed to be taking place during this stage. According to Tarner cited in Ngwoke and Eze (2010), the brain at this stage develops faster than any other parts of the body and at the age of five years, the child’s brain has attained 90 percent of the adult weight. This rapid brain development makes possible the many abilities exhibited by children by the age of five years. Middle childhood stage, the focus of this study, spans the period between six and eleven years. The period is characterized by steady increase in height and weight though not as much as observed in the early childhood. This stage is critical as it coincides with the period children start formal primary education.
In Nigeria the legal age at which children start primary education is six years. The National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004) defines primary education as the education given in institutions for children aged six to eleven years plus. The Policy articulates the goals of primary education as to:
- inculcate permanent literacy and numeracy, and ability to communicate effectively;
- lay a sound basis for scientific and reflective thinking;
- give citizenship education as a basis for effective participation in and contribution to the life of the society;
- mould the character and develop sound attitude and morals in the child;
- develop in the child the ability to adapt to the child’s changing environment;
- give the child opportunity for developing manipulative skills that will enable the child function effectively in the society within the limits of the child’s capacity; and
- provide the child with the basic tool for further educational advancement, including preparation for trades and crafts of the locality (p14).
In pursuance of the above goals, the National Policy on Education stipulated that teaching in the primary schools shall be experiential and exploratory; and that the medium of instruction shall be the language of the child’s immediate environment for the first three years during which English Language shall be taught as a subject. This stipulation is an affirmation of the nature of children during childhood stage. At childhood stage, children are by nature inquisitive, playful, active, interactive and energetic. They often ask many questions at a time and seek answers to each. Their typical activities are reminiscent of the activities of a scientist. Obviously, the exploratory nature of children at this stage had informed the prescription of the national policy on education that the primary school teaching and learning environment be child friendly.
The critical role the environment plays in child development made Montessori (1912) to advocate for rich, safe, and healthy environment for the growing child. To Montessori, children learn by exploring the environment, by observing and imitating. In total support of the critical influence of environment in the acquisition of basic life skills, Watson (1930) boasted thus:
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed and my own specified world to bring them up in, and I will guarantee to take any one of them at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant, and yes, even beggar man and thief, regardless of his talent, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors (p. 104).
The social environment impacts tremendously on children’s development of basic life skills which in turn influence their general adjustment in school. Politeness, for instance is acquired through identification with and imitation of parents who are themselves polite. Pro-social and compliant behaviors promote classroom learning indirectly by facilitating achievement oriented behavior. For example, being co-operative and helpful can result in positive academically relevant interactions with teachers and peers (Kutner, 1991). Conversely, non compliant behavior can be highly detrimental to classroom learning and instruction by distracting pupils from engaging in academic activities (Feldman and Wentzel 1990).
Evidence from literature suggests that teachers prefer pupils who are co-operative, cautious and conforming. Teachers have reported that negative and aggressive behavior was highly detrimental to classroom order (Rothbart, Ahadi and Evans, 2000). As a consequence, teachers spend an enormous amount of time teaching pupils how to behave and act responsibly (Rothbart et al). At a general level, responsible pupils allow teachers to focus their efforts on teaching rather than classroom management. The development of basic social skills is important therefore for ensuring that children acquire early in life the rudiments for effective social contact and intercourse which are the pre-requisites for productive and happy life at school, adulthood and other stages of human development (Eisenberg and Strayer, 1987).
The development of cognitive skills begins at birth and continues through all stages of development. Cognitive skills are developed through the child’s own actions on the environment which produce consequences that modify the child’s perception of reality. Development of cognitive skills is a process of simultaneous mutual interaction (SMI) between the child and his physical environment. Therefore, what goes on within the child’s physical and socio-psychological environment has tremendous impact on his cognitive skills development.
Verbal reasoning skills, an aspect of cognitive skills development, are anchored in language. Language development or acquisition requires some skills which are developed early in life. Such skills include: semantics, phonemes, grammar, pragmatics, vocabulary, syntax, morphology and others. Phonology for instance enable infants to understand other people by understanding sounds of speech even before they understand language. This also helps them to identify the “voice signature” of significant people in their lives such as their parents (Studdert–Kennedy, 1993). Semantics and grammatical development helps the child to be better understood and to be able to effectively satisfy his needs. The development of language is an essential part of acquiring a culture and becoming a member of the society. This according to Studdert–Kennedy is acquired through the innate Language Acquisition Device (LAD) which every normal child is born with.
The child’s innate language acquisition device according to Bruner (1983), is supplemented by a language acquisition support system (LASS). The ‘LASS’ according to Bruner included all the social interactions that, in infancy provide a cognitive foundation for language development. It includes all the practices of parents, such as object naming and story books reading that contribute to semantic and grammatical development in early childhood. For instance, when adults talk face-to-face with young children, the children do a kind of lip reading, watching how the adults place their tongue and mouth when making different sounds. This lip reading according to Studdert–Kennedy may enhance the children’s speech production. The implication is that parents who actively engage their babies and young children in reading, singing, and playing with them on a regular basis are building a foundation from which the children can flourish intellectually. Babies learn their first lesson about the world from their parents and other family members.
In Nsukka urban for instance, children especially primary school children may be disadvantaged in terms of the supplementary role LASS plays in child development. Many parents within Nsukka urban area are civil servants who spend greater part of their day in the office. Children appear to be left on their own or at most at the mercy of day care providers. Many day care centers and privately owned primary schools within Nsukka urban dismiss around 4.00 pm and parents appreciate the arrangement because it helps them to relegate responsibility of taking care of the children after school. Even in the case of public primary schools which dismiss by 1.30 pm, children are still left to take care of themselves till the evening time when parents would return from offices or from business centers. The University of Nigeria situates in Nsukka urban. Therefore, there is a fairly adequate complement of municipal infrastructure such as regular supply of electricity. There is also the global effect of a plethora of information and communication technological (ICT) gadgets. In view of the above children within Nsukka urban may appear to be precocious over children in rural or even other urban areas in terms of the access to and the use of ICT gadgets. Television viewing for example has become a pervasive and ubiquitous pass-time in the home. Most families no matter the socio-economic status or academic background strive to procure a television set so long as electrical power can in one way or the other be made accessible.
Television viewing according to Van (1990) refers to the act of spending time in front of a television screen while participating actively or passively in what is being displayed. Studies have indicated that television viewing (TV) can have some positive impact in the development of basic life skills. Evra (1998) indicates that television, if properly used in moderation can stimulate a child’s development and creativity. It can promote pro-social behavior, stimulate the imagination, teach letters and numbers, can enhance pre-reading and voluntary reading skills. In other words, television viewing can be an effective form of communication medium that has the potential to introduce children to a much wider range of experience and ideas than would otherwise not be possible. Such experiences and ideas may include archeology, architecture, music, science and technology and others. According to Rosenberg (1994) and Murray (2003), television has been the most effective of all the mass media in making people aware of a wide range of human problems ranging from pollution to homelessness. It also increases awareness and acceptance of various kinds of illness both physical and mental.
Despite the merits of TV in relation to the development of basic life skills, TV may have a deleterious impact on the social, cognitive and emotional development of the child. Learning is a continuous process, and the development of basic life skills at any stage, always leaves an indelible mark on the child and affects development during the next stage. Television viewing may effortlessly transmit huge quantities of information not thought about at the time of exposure. Worse still, it may place the viewer in a kind of hypnotic trance. In such situations, the brain waves of the viewer are almost entirely in an alpha pattern. This means that while children are viewing television programs, they are not likely to be reacting, orienting or focusing. They may just be spaced out. In other words, the viewer looses beta waves from the brain. The beta waves indicate sound thinking that involves dynamic frontal lobe activity. The implication is that intense television viewing habit (TVHa) may impede children’s cognitive activity.
