Advantages and Benefits of Film in the Classroom

As early as 1911, when the National Council of Teachers of English was founded, English teachers recognized the educational significance of motion pictures.

(Constanzo, 1992, p. 73) The usage of motion pictures in education is nothing we have not seen before. Films and videos have been used as a teaching material ever since the technology became readily available, due to its distinctive properties of engaging more senses than a novel or even a lecture could. Film has become an essential part of life and popular culture, especially for the generation which grew up surrounded by already advanced technology and social media (Russell, 2009, p. 1). Considering how much of their time students spend in front of TVs and computers watching films and TV shows, it is only understandable that teachers use this interest in media to their advantage. In this chapter, I am looking for the advantages and disadvantages of using films in the classroom. I am anticipating there are more benefits than there are issues with the usage of films as a teaching tool due to their unique aspect of including more senses than a traditional one would.

In Reading the Movies, Constanzo describes the properties of films and their benefits in accordance with the lesson:

Films appeal more directly to the eye and ear. [...] To verbal language, film adds the languages of color, movement, music, and natural and artificial sounds. To the linguistic conventions of diction and syntax, film adds principles of framing, lighting, editing, visual transitions, and montage. This is not to say that film is somehow superior to literature; on the contrary, it is often argued that literary codes are far more precise and elaborately developed than those of film. The point is simply that film covers a wider range of direct sensory experience.

(Constanzo, 1992, p.15-16)

3 A film can provide many learning materials to the lesson due to its features, namely, it conveys both visual and audio cues, equipping students with more elements than they would receive while reading a novel. While novels bring to the attention the meaning of conversation as well as detailed descriptions of motifs that are shown through characters and their actions, films create a shortcut of not needing to describe the elements in detail to portray their meaning. In relation to sensory experience, films show certain elements via visual cues as well as speaking and even background sound. We have all encountered movie scenes where the background sound emphasized the emotions and feelings of the scene, which is a significant detail a novel cannot provide.

1.1.1. The Five Benefits

When the lights go down and the movie starts, moving images, dialogue, and sounds bombard students. No other medium is more effective at engaging so many senses simultaneously.

(Kuzma and Haney, 2001, p. 34) When speaking of benefits a film can bring to the classroom, it is important to mention the article “And . . . Action! Using Film to Learn about Foreign Policy” by Kuzma and Haney (2001) where they claim that “[the] film stimulates the senses, grounds abstract concepts, engages the emotions, contextualizes history, and facilitates an active-learning classroom environment” (ibid., p. 34). These five elements are vital to productive learning when it comes to discussions about films, studying the events or characters presented in the film, or studying the film as a medium.

Stimulating the senses

As already mentioned by Constanzo (1992), watching a film stimulates the senses, which is a teaching strategy used by many teachers. As the film provides color, music, sound, diction, lighting, etc. (ibid., p. 15-16), Kuzma and Haney elaborate on the influence these senses add to retaining memory and learnt information. They reference that the information is stored in visual and verbal form, meaning that the information acquired through both forms is retained longer and more efficiently with more senses being incorporated into the learning process (Kuzma and Haney, 2001, p. 35). Simply

4 comparing novels to films, a film instantly provides more sensory experiences than a novel, yet novels remain the primary medium used in schools.

Grounding abstract concepts

The following point Kuzma and Haney make is that the film grounds abstract concepts.

They explained it as “to provide referents so that students can ‘see’ what instructors are trying to explain” (ibid., p. 35). Grounding foreign and abstract concepts helps students to connect what they see in a film with their own personal experiences, however different they might be to what is shown in the film. It can also help to visualize difficult concepts with the assistance of actions, emotions and ideas shown in the film, which students can then transform to their own beliefs and ideas. “Films can transform concepts into quasi-lived experiences that students may therefore retain long after class is over” (Kuzma & Haney, 2009, p. P35).

Engaging the emotions

Next, Kuzma and Haney emphasized the importance of engaging emotions while watching a film. “Films engage emotions - a process that has a strong impact on students' ability to learn” (Fishback, 1998-99 as cited in Kuzma & Haney, 2009, p. 35).

When we watch movie scenes that play on the strings of the heart, we memorize it better; music, scenography, lighting, and transitions all increase the susceptibility to picking up the nuances and meanings behind emotionally charged scenes. When portraying scenes that are difficult for an average viewer to accept – such as racism, bullying, or triggering topics such as suicide, self-harm, illness, etc. – films can portray social and personal issues many people are unaware of. Students learn and memorize these topics more easily because lessons including emotionally provocative topics

“provide the ‘hook’ that engages a student’s attention” (Jensen, 1998 as cited in Kuzma

& Haney, 2009, p. 35).

Contextualizing history

Another benefit of using films in the classroom according to Kuzma and Haney is that they contextualize history. Films can either be fictional or based on real events to some extent. When portraying a specific era in history, the directors have an important and difficult job to symbolize and present this era as factual and as close to reality as possible. Historical costumes, scenery, music and language create an effect which

“pushes” the viewers into this era and makes them more captivated. The events having

5 passed ages ago are now brought closer to home and are not as alien to the students (ibid., p. 35).

Facilitation of an active-learning environment

The last benefit Kuzma and Haney mention is that the film “facilitates an active-learning classroom environment” (ibid., p. 34). The usage of film is yet another one of the teaching methods teachers can choose. Some methods of teaching can be quite passive, e.g., lectures where students do not have much to say, whereas other methods which the teacher can use create an active learning environment. Active learning strategies help students to be actively involved in the lesson, to participate, ask questions and get feedback whenever they require it. The usage of films in the classroom encourages students to participate and partake in discussions, share their own opinions and debate with their peers over themes and topics that engage their development in learning and creating arguments. Kuzma and Haney, however, do warn that only using films cannot create an active learning environment by itself as films can also be taught using “a traditional lecture mode” (ibid., p. 36); teachers need to work alongside their students to actively engage them into participation and lively discussions. “[W]ell-chosen and well-introduced films and videos enable a transcendent cognitive and affective advantage in the international studies classroom:

appropriate and skillfully introduced films and videos simultaneously elicit learning at different levels of student understanding” (Boyer et al., 2002, p.89).

1.1.2. Further Benefits

There are many other advantages and benefits a film can bring into the classroom. In connection to facilitating an active-learning environment, Constanzo (1992) claims that

“[d]iscussing a film enables students to articulate their personal experiences, to compare their first impressions to other points of view, to connect what they have seen to larger social, political, and cultural events” (ibid., p.77).

Connection to personal lives enables students to understand films more clearly than a fictional connection would. Real-life applications are relevant tools to use during the lessons since, as students connect film scenes with their personal lives, the interest in the topic increases and students relate to the characters emotionally (Driscoll, 2005,

6 as referenced in Russell, 2009, p, 1-2). In regard to an emotional connection to the film scene or a character, Russell adds that controversial topics engage students more actively, as it teaches students to develop critical thinking and decision-making skills.

At the same time, students’ interest will boost with the portrayals of social and cultural issues, which then promotes the involvement students have in discussing and potentially solving the issues (ibid., p. 13-14).

Boyer et al. (2002) also add that a good film can help less-advanced students to understand and grasp the meanings and topics at hand without overwhelming them.

Following a film is easier than trying to understand foreign and abstract concepts, which is of great aid to students who cannot visualize these points by themselves.

Moreover, advanced students strengthen their already acquired knowledge as the film provides more elements, such as visual and audio input alongside the storyline (ibid., p. 92).

Besides the benefits already shown, there are many other advantages to using a film in the classroom. Dr Bosnič (2006) conducted a survey, asking secondary school students whether a film should become an obligatory part of the curriculum, and 72%

of students answered with “yes”. Some of the replies as to why they would prefer films during the lessons were that films make the lessons interesting; they learn the language more easily, they prefer to watch films over reading, they are more familiar with films and this medium in general, it’s a good motivation, they can connect the topics to their lives, and they can memorize the lesson better (ibid., p. 37).