Liking and learning to hand-in-hand

Discusses the use of media to instruct, tells how media influence attitudes, and suggests guidelines for media selection. Research indicates a positive link between attitude and achievement, and learners display a preference for mediated instruction. Four media types ranging from abstract to concrete, which have been studied and reported in the literature, are analyzed, indicating that (a) instructional media types have varying impact on a learner's liking for the content; (b) more concrete forms, such as film and TV, seem to lead to more predictable attitude formation and more favorable attitudes; (c) when more concrete forms are used there is more likelihood of attitude change; (d) less concrete forms, such as print and photographs, seem less likely to produce favorable attitudes and more likely to produce negative attitudes toward content. It is concluded that learner attitude is an important variable to consider during instructional planning