The Value of Movie-Learning

Abstract

A chronology showing features of the twins’ viewing behaviour during the 20 months of the author’s research indicates how their movie-learning developed. This learning might be valued simply in terms of “transferable skills”, but the author emphasises the value of learning to engage critically and enjoyably with an important cultural form. She cites evidence from teachers who incorporated movie-learning into their curricula and were staggered by their pupils’ unexpected levels of knowledge and skills that were not revealed by following the mainstream curriculum. This failed to impress policy-makers who could not envisage movies as worthy of study. She argues that this is selling children short: that we are failing to recognise and build on this “astonishing achievement” of toddlers’ largely self-driven cultural learning.