(11/4) Sesame Street: Educational Impact and Global Adaptation

Sesame Street Educational Approach

Teaches skills beyond letters and numbers.

For ex: It teaches hygiene, death, divorce, safety like wearing a helmet, etc.

Global Reach

54 seasons and 4,701 episodes worldwide.

Takalani Sesame

South African version addressing AIDS and inclusion.

Local Language Incorporation example in Sesame Street

Zulu is the native language of South Africans, and Takalani Sesame incorporated a character that spoke in Zulu to represent and include those children who primarily spoke that language.

Brazilian Versions of Sesame Street

Brazilian versions incorporate local languages and themes.

For ex: Singing about water conservation in Portuguese, the native language of Brazil.

Research-Based Development

RESEARCH: Kids had to be 80% engaged before the episode aired.

INTERACTIVE REFINEMENT: If children were too distracted, the researchers would send the content back to the writers to be reworked and improved.

EXPERT COLLABORATION: Had psychologists/religious leaders help write an episode about loss/death.

1982 Mr. Hooper’s Death TECHNIQUES

• Addressed death directly: “Hooper’s dead Big Bird.”

• Collaboration: Psychologists/religious leaders helped write the story.

• Concrete language: Mr. Hooper was "dead" and "not coming back."

• Coping strategies: Like being able to remember Mr. Hooper and think about him.

• Modeling for parents: The episode provided a model for how parents can have these difficult conversations with their children about death.

1982 Mr. Hooper’s Death SIGNIFICANCE

Sesame Street's use of research-backed techniques to help children understand and cope with loss demonstrated the show's commitment to tackling challenging subjects in an educational and supportive way.

Tough Topics covered in Sesame Street

• Divorce

• Racism

• 9/11

• Incarceration

• Adoption

• Autism

Why is Sesame Street airing on HBO Max streaming services?

• Declining funding

• Accessibility concerns because lower-income kids can’t afford streaming services.

• Compromise: Episodes become available on PBS and the Sesame Workshop's own platforms, restoring that broad accessibility.

Accessibility Importance

Maintains availability for all children whether they have streaming services or not.

Formative Research (forming/foundation)

Research you do BEFORE the product comes out.

Summative Research (summary/outcome)

The OUTCOME of the formative research.

Meta-Analysis on Sesame Street

The meta-analysis found that exposure to Sesame Street was associated with positive gains in:

• Literacy, numeracy, shapes, and understanding

• Science, culture, health, and safety knowledge

• Pro-social reasoning and positive attitudes toward social outgroups

Positive Effects of Sesame Street

Supports their cognitive, academic, and social-emotional development.

Long-Term Impact

Kids had long-term impacts:

• High grades in high school

• Read and had more books

• Higher reading, math, and science scores

• Pro-social and less aggressive

Inclusion Challenges in cartoons

"Famous study about three-legged dog episode of Clifford"

• The children in the study said the lesson was just about being nice to dogs with three legs, and they did not make the connection to including humans who are different.

• Cartoons often do not get to the life lesson until the last 3 minutes of the episode.

Moral Lesson Priming

Improves children's attitudes toward inclusion.

Sofia the First initially excluded a witch character (a research study example).

Researchers found that children in the moral lesson condition:

• Showed increased pro-social intentions (wanting to be helpful to others)

• Had decreased stigmatization or exclusion of different characters

• This effect was strongest for children who were lower in "theory of mind" skills

Human Characters in cartoons

Enhance comprehension and moral lesson learning.

• Don’t teach kids lessons through animals. For ex: don’t exclude a three-legged dog! (taught by dogs).

• They need to see humans act out life lessons so they can apply them to the real world.

Cultural Differences and how effectiveness of lessons varies by culture.

NO SIGNIFICANT EFFECTS on moral outcomes (care, fairness, inclusion) for children in:

• US and the Netherlands (both highly individualistic cultures)

EXPECTED EFFECT on moral outcomes (care, fairness, inclusion) for children in:

• South Korea (has collectivist cultural values rooted in inclusivity)

Media Design Implications in cartoons

Cartoons must be researched and designed wisely, but potential implications must be considered:

• FORMATIVE research helps ensure episode effectiveness.

  SUMMATIVE research evaluates the impact of that released media.

• DESIGN: Have a brief “moral lesson primer” before the plot starts, and it must include humans so kids can apply lessons to reality. Don’t summarize the inclusivity lesson in the last three minutes of the episode.

• CULTURE: collectivist or individualistic?

• PARENTS: Include celebrities, cultural references, and adult humor.

Collectivist Cultures and effectiveness of cartoon lessons

More receptive to inclusion lessons in media.

For ex: South Korean children tend to benefit MORE from inclusivity stories because they come from a collectivist culture.