Open AccessEVALUATION OF AL MANAAHIL
Author(s) -
Murphy Richard T.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
ets research report series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.235
H-Index - 5
ISSN - 2330-8516
DOI - 10.1002/j.2330-8516.1988.tb00301.x
Subject(s) - arabic , test (biology) , psychology , reading (process) , vocabulary , literacy , series (stratigraphy) , mathematics education , developmental psychology , pedagogy , political science , linguistics , paleontology , philosophy , law , biology
Between April 1985 and January 1988, Educational Testing Service conducted an evaluation of AL MANAAHIL (The Sources), a children's television series in reading for Arab children. The series, produced and broadcast in Jordan, contained 65 half‐hour shows in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) designed for children in Grades One through Four. The shows were intended to expose children to modern vocabulary and examples of accurate uses of MSA in everyday situations. More than 5,000 children in Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia were tested in the evaluation. Based on the Jordan test data, AL MANAAHIL had a positive impact on children's reading skills. The positive findings were replicated in Government schools, United Nations schools, and Private schools. The findings were similar for boys and girls. They held up across different tests. The positive results were more pronounced on items more clearly related to specific goals of the series than on items less clearly related. The majority of children who participated in the testing program reported that they watched the AL MANAAHIL series and liked it. Responses of teachers, parents, and other adults to an ETS survey about the series were also positive. The majority of teachers (65%) indicated that they liked the series or liked it very much. Most (74%) noted that the series had a positive or very positive impact on the children. When asked about AL MANAAHIL's effect on their teaching, a majority (54%) of teachers indicated that AL MANAAHIL had a positive or very positive effect. In several adult literacy programs, participants were asked to take the AL MANAAHIL tests and respond to questions about how frequently they viewed the series and how much they liked or disliked it. Of 83 adults in the literacy sample, 33 (40% of the sample) reported that they watched the programs on a regular basis. That group of 33 performed better on the AL MANAAHIL test battery than a group of 28 who did not watch the series at all ‐ a result that supports the overall positive findings of the evaluation. In summary, based on the data gathered in 1986 and 1987, AL MANAAHIL had a positive effect on children in this study. It is likely to have a similar effect on children who view the series in the future in Jordan and other Arab countries.