In 1969 a radical new children's program appeared on television, one that was specifically designed to blend education with entertainment (characterproducts.com, 2004). Sesame Street, which has been on the air continuously for 35 years, uses puppets, live action, and cartoons in an effort to teach children basic skills such as identifying colors, the ABCs, and counting. According to McMullin (2001, p. 1) "The show employed principles of learning and developmental psychology in its presentation of academic and social skills." The show itself is highly researched, with a child psychologist in charge of research and evaluation of material that appears on the show (characterproducts.com, 2004; McMullin, 2001). McMullin argues that Sesame Street is "single largest educator of young children in the world."

Despite the popularity and success of the program, Education as Entertainment Theory (EET) suggests that there is a dark side to educational programming such as Sesame Street. Specifically, the theory asserts that children who are exposed to television programming that seeks to blend education and entertainment are less likely to be motivated to learn when alternative instructional methods are used in an actual classroom setting. This paper will explain and develop Education as Entertainment Theory. First, the central concepts and predictions of EET will be described, incorporating appropriate literature. Next, we will explain some connections between EET and other communication theories. Finally, a brief research study meant to test EET will be described, as well as conclusions that can be drawn based on the results of that research.

Education as Entertainment Theory
As described earlier, the main idea of EET is that children who are exposed to educational television programming that uses entertainment as a teaching tool will come to expect learning to be fun, and will be less motivated by other instructional styles when in class, and less likely to learn when other styles are used. There are five key concepts associated with this theory: entertainment-education television programming, instructional style, expectations, motivation, and learning.

Entertainment-Education Television Programming
In 1990 the Children's Television Act (CTA) was approved by Congress (Federal Communications Commission, 2002). This act states that every broadcast television station in the United States must include educational programming, with at least three hours per week considered "core programming." Core programming, according to the FCC, is specifically designed to meet the educational needs of children under the age of 16, it must appear during the hours between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., and it must be regularly scheduled. The CTA also limits the amount of commercial programming geared towards children.

Research indicates that more children today are watching television at a younger age; a national survey found that 25% of children under the age of two have a television in their bedroom, and almost half watch television on a daily basis (Odland, 2004). This is partly because so much television is aimed at the pre-school audience, with an educational bent. Yet, "researchers are uncertain what the long-term implications will be of this media exposure; however, many studies have demonstrated that school performance improves when television viewing is limited," according to Odland (2004, p. 206B). EET would say that the reason school performance improves with limited television is an openness to instructional styles that are not focused on entertainment.

Instructional Style
Instructional style refers to the techniques that are used in the education process.
According to Forrest (2004, p. 74) "A review of the research regarding learning processes suggests that instructors use a wide variety of teaching methods, believing that this affords all students an opportunity to gain the necessary knowledge, regardless of their learning styles."

The research makes a distinction between instructor-focused and student-focused teaching (Andersen, Nussbaum, Pecchioni, & Grant, 1999). Instructor focused teaching is the traditional model, wherein the teacher is in charge of the pace and content of the class. This is usually found in the traditional lecture. Student-focused instruction encourages greater student participation, for example cooperative learning (where students are put into groups or teams, and teach and motivate each other), and class discussion (Andersen et al., 1999).

The particular focus of EET is on an entertainment instructional style. This refers to efforts to make learning "fun." The entertainment instructional style relies on music, role playing, games, and visual stimulation, among other things. The goal is to increase interest and reduce boredom. Efforts are made to have students participate in the learning in an informal style (Handfield-Jones, Nasmith, Steinert, & Lawn, 1993).

Expectations
Expectations are what we anticipate will happen. According to Expectancy Violations Theory, expectations are based on context, the relationship, and communicator characteristics (Dainton, 2004). In the case of EET, we are referring to expectations based on context; specifically, the learning context. According to Staton (1999) "Both instructors and students bring with them to the classroom certain expectations for the kind of speech that should and should not occur, for the kind of behavior that is and is not appropriate, for the roles that the instructor and students should and should not take, and for the nature of the social atmosphere that should and should not develop" (p. 35). In this case, we are specifically talking about expectations for entertaining instruction.

Motivation
Motivation refers to a students' desire for learning (Kerssen-Griep, Hess, & Trees, 2003). It is a drive for achievement in a particular course or content area. We presume that expectations influence motivation, such that when expectations are met, a student will be more motivated to learn. This is supported by research, which has found that instructional methods influence student motivation (Kerssen-Griep et al., 2003).

Learning
Learning is defined as "a process of progressive change from ignorance to knowledge, from inability to competence, and from indifference to understanding" (Fincher, 1994, as cited in Forrest, 2004, p. 74). According to Rubin (1999), learning is typically measured through assignments such as skills performance (e.g., a speech), or written assignments (exams, papers).

The Model
EET proposes that early childhood experiences with entertainment education programming (such as Sesame Street) increase an individual's expectations for an entertainment-instructional style. If such expectations are met the student will be more motivated and will learn more. If the expectations are not met, the student will be de-motivated, and will therefore learn less. This can be illustrated as follows.

EET and Other Theories
Three communication theories are closely associated with EET: Technological Determinism, Social Learning, and Social Judgment Theory. Each of these theories will be described, and links will be made to EET.

First, Technological Determinism argues that new technologies alter the way people think and behave (McLuhan, as cited in Griffin, 2004). Specifically, technological determinism says that the medium used for communication causes major changes in society, culture, and the individual. To illustrate, McLuhan argued that the growth of the print media created individualism, specialization, and detachment, among other things (Chandler, 2000). This happened because prior to the growth of the print media, people had to rely on others to gather information. However, with the development of the printing press and growing literacy, people became less dependent on oral forms of information dissemination. Reading is a solitary activity, and so individualism and detachment were fostered. Accordingly, technology "shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action" (Finnegan, 1975, p. 75).

EET is consistent with Technological Determinism, as the central argument of EET is that the form of educational television causes people to have different expectations for the educational experience. Specifically, the argument is that the medium used for communication (in this case short vignettes, songs, endearing characters, puppets, etc.) changes individual preferences and motivations towards entertainment-based instruction.

The second theory that can be associated with EET is Social Learning Theory. Social Learning Theory is a general theory about how humans learn (Dainton, 2004). However, the theory has frequently been applied to mass communication (Dainton, 2004). Specifically, social learning theory says that people learn through imitation. The process of social learning involves three steps: attention, retention, and motivation (Bandura, as cited by Griffin, 1991). Attention references the necessity that before people can learn, the source has to gain the audience's interest. In terms of the mass media, Griffin suggests that the media gets people to pay attention by being simple, distinctive, prevalent, useful, and depicted positively. This is certainly the case with entertainment education television programming such as Sesame Street, which is intentionally simple, is unique among programs, appears daily, and is marketed positively as being very useful. It is no surprise that Sesame Street gains attention among its intended audience.

The second part of the Social Learning process is retention (Bandura, as cited by Griffin, 1991). This stage requires that the audience member store the steps necessary for an action that appears in the media. Bandura says that media images are stored both visually and verbally (Griffin, 1991). The more frequently a person thinks about the media product, the more likely it is to be retained. Again, this is a part of the Sesame Street method of instruction. Familiar characters appear regularly, and familiar songs are repeated (we can still sing "One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong"). Before children learn to want their MTV, they learn to want Sesame Street.

The final stage of Social Learning is motivation. Motivation refers to the rewards or punishments that are associated with particular media images (Bandura, as cited in Griffin, 1991). People imitate behaviors that are rewarded, and avoid behaviors that are punished. In the case of Sesame Street, people are rewarded for emulating the academic and social lessons preached by the program.
Accordingly, the link between Social Learning Theory and EET is that children exposed to entertainment-education programs will have learned that this is a rewarding way to learn.

The last theory that can be connected to EET is Social Judgment Theory. Social Judgment Theory argues that successful persuasion occurs when the audiences' predispositions are accounted for (Dainton, 2004). The theory says that messages that appear in the audiences' latitude of rejection (i.e., ideas that the audience disagrees with) will not be persuasive. In fact, such messages are likely to cause the contrast effect, wherein they appear to be further from the audiences' beliefs than they actually are (Griffin, 2004). However, messages that appear in the audiences' latitude of acceptance (i.e., ideas the audience agrees with) are likely to be assimilated, which means that the audience will be persuaded by that message (Griffin, 2004).

Social Judgment Theory can be linked to EET, since the central idea of EET is that students will not be motivated to learn when non-entertaining teaching methods are used; such methods would be considered to be in students' latitude of rejection. Accordingly, the contrast effect will occur and the student will perceive the instructor as more boring and less motivating than they might actually be. However, instructors who use entertaining instructional styles would be sending a message in the students' latitude of acceptance. This instructional style would be assimilated, motivating/persuading students to learn.

Testing EET
In order to test EET, we conducted a survey. We created a questionnaire, which is attached in Appendix A. The questionnaire asks about age, sex, the frequency of viewing Sesame Street and other educational programming, expectations for instructional style, motivation, and perceived learning.

We distributed the questionnaire to 15 current college students and 15 adults over the age of 40. We choose the age of 40 since those individuals would have been in school already when Sesame Street appeared. There were 8 female and 7 male college students. There were 10 female and 5 male adults.

Our results showed that the average amount of educational television viewing was 3.7 out of 5 for the college students, corresponding to viewing such programs every week. The average amount of educational viewing was 2.2 for the adults, corresponding to very little viewing. Accordingly, the college students viewed more educational programming than the adults did as children.

The remaining answers are calculated on the following chart.

Style	Expect	Expect	Motivate	Motivate	Learn	Learn
	College	Adult	College	Adult	College	Adult
Lecture	4.7	4.8	2.4	3.2	4.1	4.2
Discussion	3.9	3.6	3.6	4.2	4.3	4.2
Group	3.4	3.2	2.9	3.2	2.6	3.2
Entertain	3.2	2.9	4.4	3.2	2.6	2.8

Dainton (2004) says that there has to be at least a .5 difference in group scores in order to consider the difference "significant." In looking at the chart, the only significant difference when considering entertainment education is in motivation, with college students reporting being motivated by entertainment education to a larger extent than adults. However, neither group seems to expect a whole lot of entertainment education, and neither group reports learning a lot from entertainment education. Thus, the predictions of EET are not fully supported.

Conclusions
As described above, our research did not fully support our theory. This is probably because the theory proposes cause and effect relationships, but we conducted a survey instead of an experiment. Experiments are the only way to determine cause and effect (Dainton, 2004). However, we could not do an experiment because the experiment would have to take place over many years (tracking people from before watching Sesame Street until college). The survey did not find the answers we were looking for, probably because people tend to distort their answers in surveys (Dainton, 2004). Our students probably didn't want to admit their actual expectations for entertainment education, nor that they didn't learn using all educational styles.

Despite the lack of research support, we think EET is still accurate. Perhaps many more experimental studies, focusing on particular parts of the theory at a time might find the relationships we predicted. Maybe preschoolers who do and don't watch Sesame Street could be surveyed prior to entering school to find out their expectations. Then maybe students' expectations could be compared to their motivation in a second study, and a third study could focus on motivation and learning.

Alternatively, the theory might be overly complex. Maybe watching entertainment education television influences expectations, and expectations influence learning, regardless of motivation. Also, other outcomes besides learning might be the final step. Maybe the problem is not that students don't learn, but that they are dissatisfied with non-entertainment instruction. Future research should consider these possibilities.

In conclusion, EET says that children who are exposed to educational television programming that uses entertainment as a teaching tool will come to expect learning to be fun, and will be less motivated by other instructional styles when in class, and less likely to learn when other styles are used. In this paper we described each of the main ideas of the theory, including research to support them. We then described how EET is related to three theories: Technological Determination, Social Learning, and Social Judgment. We then described a small survey we conducted. The survey failed to support the theory.

Appendix A: Our Survey
Age _____ Sex ______
On average, how much educational television (for example Sesame Street) did you watch when you were a child? (circle one)
None
Very Little
Occasional
Every Week
Every Day

To what extent do you expect college professors to use the following teaching styles:
1. lecture (circle one: not at all, very little, occasionally, frequently, always)
2. class discussion (circle one: not at all, very little, occasionally, frequently, always)
3. group activities (circle one: not at all, very little, occasionally, frequently, always)
4. entertainment (films, games, etc.) (not at all, very little, occasionally, frequently, always)

To what extent would each style motivate you to want to learn?
1. lecture (circle one: not at all, very little, occasionally, frequently, always)
2. class discussion (circle one: not at all, very little, occasionally, frequently, always)
3. group activities (circle one: not at all, very little, occasionally, frequently, always)
4. entertainment (films, games, etc.) (not at all, very little, occasionally, frequently, always)

To what extent do you think you actually learn using the following styles?
1. lecture (circle one: not at all, very little, occasionally, frequently, always)
2. class discussion (circle one: not at all, very little, occasionally, frequently, always)
3. group activities (circle one: not at all, very little, occasionally, frequently, always)
4. entertainment (films, games, etc.) (not at all, very little, occasionally, frequently, always)

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