Media Education Technology at Preschool Educational Institutions

Volodymyr M. Chaika

1 a

, Iryna I. Kuzma

2 b

, Oleksandra I. Yankovych

1,3 c

Kateryna M. Binytska

4 d

, Oksana T. Pysarchuk

1 e

, Tetiana V. Ivanova

5 f

Halyna I. Falfushynska

1 g

and Iryna A. Lyakhova

6 h

Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University, 2 Maksyma Kryvonosa Str., Ternopil, 46027, Ukraine

Ternopil Regional Municipal Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education, 1 V. Hromnytskoho Str., Ternopil, 46027,

Ukraine

Kujawy and Pomorze University in Bydgoshch, 55-57 Toru

nska Str., 85-023, Bydgoshch, Poland

Khmelnytskyi Humanitarian-Pedagogical Academy, 139 Proskurivskoho pidpillia Str., Khmelnytskyi, 29000, Ukraine

Mariupol State University, 129a Budivelnykiv Ave., Mariupol, 87500, Ukraine

State University of Economics and Technology, 5 Stepana Tilhy Str., Kryvyi Rih, 50006, Ukraine

Keywords:

Media Education, Media Educational Technology, Forming Media Literacy of Children of the Senior

Preschool Age, Media Educational Tale.

Abstract:

The article substantiates the media educational technology at preschool educational institutions, in which

diagnostic-target, integration and analytical stages are distinguished. The problems in media education im-

plementation at preschool establishments have been identiﬁed and the prospects for their solving have been

determined. The psychological factors of forming media literacy of children of the senior preschool age have

been highlighted. Diagnostic toolkit has been developed and indicators of high, sufﬁcient and low levels of

media literacy of preschoolers have been determined. The experience of conducting media educational classes

“Grains of media education”, the use of media educational tales in working with children have been high-

lighted. The expediency of media education for kindergarten teachers of preschool educational institutions

of Ukraine, formation their motivation for media educational activities with children has been proved. The

effectiveness of implementing the media education technology at preschool educational institutions has been

conﬁrmed on the basis of positive dynamics of levels of preschoolers’ media literacy formation.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Problem Statement

Media threats as manipulations of consciousness, fake

messages, dangerous acquaintances, the emergence

of dependence on new media, provoking aggression

through the media, cruelty, violence, etc. are increas-

ing in the modern Ukrainian society. In such condi-

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3665-0403

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1219-8216

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4253-5954

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2111-5275

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0110-9174

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1432-4893

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3058-4919

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7589-8351

tions, media education is becoming increasingly rel-

evant, primarily for children, since the age of a child

is constantly decreasing when child ﬁrst contacts the

mass media. It is necessary to begin to form media

literacy as early as preschool age. There are several

reasons for this.

Back in 2016, Ukraine adopted the Concept for

the Introduction of Media Education in Ukraine (new

edition) (ms.detector.media, 2016), which focuses

on preschool media education. In January 2021, a

new Basic Component of Preschool Education was

adopted, in which critical thinking is deﬁned as

a cross-cutting skill of preschoolers (MON, 2021).

Critical thinking is often equated with media educa-

tion (Savchenko et al., 2020). Thus, the need to form

media literacy of preschoolers is provided by the new

State Standard of Preschool Education. However, me-

dia education in preschool education is not limited to

224

Chaika, V., Kuzma, I., Yankovych, O., Binytska, K., Pysarchuk, O., Ivanova, T., Falfushynska, H. and Lyakhova, I.

Media Education Technology at Preschool Educational Institutions.

DOI: 10.5220/0010930300003364

In Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology (AET 2020) - Volume 2, pages 224-235

ISBN: 978-989-758-558-6

critical thinking. There are more than ten of them

in the Catalogs of Media Competences, and they are

formed during several types of preschool activities,

primarily by educational lines: “Child’s personality”,

“Child’s game”, “Child in society”, “Child’s speech”,

“Child in the world of Art” (MON, 2021; edukacja-

medialna.edu.pl, 2014).

Another reason for early media education is that

media literacy in preschool is not perceived as a sub-

ject, but as a way of life. Later, teenagers have to be

re-educated, changing skills and style of behavior in

the media environment. It is much more difﬁcult to do

that than to organize properly media education from

the very beginning.

Given the relevance of media education in the

modern society, the Ministry of Education and Sci-

ence of Ukraine approved an all-Ukrainian experi-

ment on media education for 2017–2022, which in-

volves 153 educational institutions, not only schools,

gymnasiums, lyceums, regional institutes of post-

graduate education, but also preschool educational

institutions (Dorosh, 2017). However, the question

concerning the format of the media education imple-

mentation remains controversial, as well as whether

preschool age is sensitive to the formation of critical

thinking. The creation of teaching and methodologi-

cal support for media education in preschool is a prob-

lem. There are few such publications. Among the ﬁrst

there is primarily “Media literacy and critical think-

ing in the preschool education” (Volosheniuk et al.,

2020).

Despite the fact that preschoolers learn about the

world, moral values in play and fairy tales, media edu-

cational fairy tale is an innovative media product that

is insufﬁciently known or unknown to preschoolers,

kindergarten teachers and parents.

1.2 Literature Review

The inﬂuence of the mass media on the development

of a child is reﬂected in (Chorna, 2007; Danyliak,

2017; Tereshchuk et al., 2019; Waters et al., 2016).

Scientists focus on the insufﬁcient use of media po-

tential, print media in particular, for the upbringing

of children; on the necessity to eliminate the low-end

media products.

The issues of the preschoolers’ media education

are investigated in (Ashytok, 2017; Brzyszcz, 2018;

Drzewiecki, 2013; Kachura, 2017; Kondratenko,

2013; Krutiy, 2013; Oliinyk, 2013; Polievikova, 2013;

Semeniako, 2016; Sotska, 2013;

Sup

akov

a, 2016).

The scientists pointed to the positive functions of the

modern media in preschool education: didactic, ed-

ucational, diagnostic, entertaining, etc. At the same

time, they focus on the threats of the modern me-

dia to a child and the relevance of media education

precisely in preschool, particularly in this context,

Kachura (Kachura, 2017) notes: “The average child

is already from two years under the inﬂuence of the

information ﬂow coming from the TV, at the age of

three a child shows fairly stable preferences in the

choice of cartoons, and to ﬁve years, begins to master

computer skills. These resources carry so much infor-

mation that it is difﬁcult to master even for an adult,

what to say then about a child. The key to the forma-

tion of a person capable of active and safe function-

ing in the modern media space is media education”

(Kachura, 2017).

However, in the works of these scholars forms,

methods of media education are not reﬂected as com-

ponents of the system of media education. Media ed-

ucational activities were researched comprehensively

by Yankovych et al. (Yankovych et al., 2019), who

substantiated the technology of formation of media

literacy of older preschool children. However, not all

issues have been resolved. The need for a media that

combines traditional and innovative approaches to ed-

ucation remains relevant.

The problem of the low level of parents and

kindergarten teachers’ media literacy, who have to

help children to become literate, remains in preschool

educational institution. It is obvious that it is impos-

sible to form competence in a child, if you do not

possess it yourself. Parents often do not know what

media, media education, media literacy are and they

associate them with the mass media – radio, televi-

sion, the Internet. Kindergarten teachers also feel the

need to improve their own media culture. In Ukraine,

methodological materials for the formation of chil-

dren’s media literacy have only just begun to appear

(Volosheniuk et al., 2020). Such developments for a

decade are intensively created abroad, in Poland in

particular, where the “Media Education” (Edukacja

Medialna) web-site operates, with scripts, exercises

and additional information for conducting classes in

preschools, schools, houses of culture and libraries

(edukacjamedialna.edu.pl, 2021).

The materials are elaborated in accordance with

the Catalogue of Media and Information Compe-

tences deﬁned within the framework of the “Digital

Future” project. In addition, other interesting devel-

opments for conducting workshops, media education

classes for preschoolers and their parents were cre-

ated (edukacjamedialna.edu.pl, 2014). The system-

atic work on creating such resources has only begun

in Ukraine.

The need for an innovative media product, which

would be used with interest by parents with children

Media Education Technology at Preschool Educational Institutions

225

and thus increase the level of media literacy, was iden-

tiﬁed.

The relevance of the problem of implementing

media education at preschool institutions, the need to

perform tasks aimed at the formation of media liter-

acy of children arising from the Basic component of

preschool education (MON, 2021), the need for inno-

vative, interesting to children and adults, media prod-

ucts, the need to resolve these controversies led to the

deﬁnition of the purpose of the study: to prove and

experimentally test the media educational technology

at preschool educational institutions of Ukraine.

The object of the research is institutions of

preschool education of Ukraine; the subject is the me-

dia education of preschoolers (age 5–6).

1.3 Material and Methods

Theoretical and empirical methods were used to real-

ize the purpose of the study.

Among the theoretical ones, primarily are such

as functional and structural, interpretive and analyt-

ical, comparative analysis of literary and informa-

tional sources, through which the investigated prob-

lem was studied, forms, methods, means of realiza-

tion of media education and formation of children’s

media literacy in Ukrainian pedagogy were revealed.

An interview method was used in order to deter-

mine modern problems and ways to solve them in

a preschool educational institution in relation to the

implementation of media education. During the re-

search, the specialists of the Academy of Ukrainian

Press (founded in 2001, one of its tasks is the promo-

tion of media education in Ukraine) were interviewed:

Oksana V. Volosheniuk – a manager of media educa-

tion programs of AUP; Yuliia O. Huza – an editor of

the “Media Education and Media Literacy” site.

One of the leading methods of the research is

modelling – to develop a model of the media educa-

tional technology at preschool educational institutions

of Ukraine.

In the process of scientiﬁc research, empirical

methods were used: testing, observation, interviews,

experts’ assessments, questionnaires, polls to mea-

sure the level of media literacy of the experiment par-

ticipants, as well as pedagogical experiment to verify

the efﬁciency of the media educational technology at

preschool educational institutions of Ukraine.

Scientiﬁc research was carried out at preschool

educational institutions and educational complexes of

Ukraine (Kyiv, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi city and re-

gion, Kherson, Mukachevo).

2 RESULTS

2.1 The Peculiarities of the

Implementation of Media Education

in the Preschool Educational

Institution

A comprehensive study on the formation of media lit-

eracy of older preschoolers involves the deﬁnition of

“preschool media education”. Often, the very differ-

ent interpretation of the concepts leads to differences

among kindergarten teachers, teachers regarding the

forms and methods of media education.

In our opinion, preschool media education is a part

of the educational process characterized by a three-

component structure (education about media, edu-

cation through media and for media) that is imple-

mented through the partnership of kindergarten teach-

ers, parents and children, involves the formation of

critical, conscious, responsible perception of infor-

mation to all members in the partnership (Yankovych

et al., 2019).

Surely, preschool media education has its own

characteristics and is fundamentally different from

media education of a student or an adult. This differ-

ence lies in the speciﬁcity of mental activity, think-

ing, insufﬁciency of life experience in preschooler.

It is characteristic for a preschooler to thoughtlessly

absorb information, which is transmitted from TV

screens, computer monitors, radio receivers. Immers-

ing into the informational and virtual world, a child

is often not even thinking about the content of what

child sees and hears, if they are not prepared for the

critical, conscious, responsible perception of informa-

tion. However, such abilities are difﬁcult to form.

There are factors that become an obstacle, but there

are those that are favorable.

Thus, the problems will be highlighted at the be-

ginning.

1. According to the periodization of the intellectual

development of children by Piaget (Piaget, 1977),

a child aged 5–6 years (2–7 years old period) is

at the stage of preoperative representations, dur-

ing which intuitive, visual-effective and visual-

imagery thinking develops. Psychologists say that

“thinking speciﬁcally, preschoolers tend to liter-

ally understand a lot. Therefore, they often mis-

understand the words used in abstract and ﬁgu-

rative meanings” (Brailko, 2010, p. 15). Since

preschoolers are characterized by weak abilities to

perform abstract mental operations, their thoughts

often turn out to be very naive and unrealistic.

Therefore, media literacy formation is problem-

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

226

atic.

2. Children have limited life experience, they are

easily exposed to, and therefore do not real-

ize when it is worth checking information and

whether it is true. The main criterion still remains:

“familiar-strange” (one can believe a familiar per-

son); authoritative and non-authoritative (parents

and kindergarten teachers are authoritative, peers,

and often somewhat younger or elder brothers and

sisters are non-authoritative). To ﬁnd errors in the

media is an unreal task for an average child to per-

form.

3. Media education involves its implementation

through the media (including TV and computer).

At the same time, a child should spend little time

at the TV, especially computer (MON, 2021).

At the same time, the potential of preschool age

for the formation of media literacy should not be un-

derestimated. In this context, the work of Brailko

(Brailko, 2010) are of great interest, who found out

that cognitive activity and constant cognitive interest

as the foundation of future educational motivation in

preschool age (5–6 years) develop. All mental opera-

tions actively develop in children.

Liubchenko (Liubchenko, 2014) shows that when

children are taught with a kind of purpose (even for a

short period of time), the mental process changes very

quickly. If 5–6-year-old preschoolers are taught to ob-

serve and draw conclusions (for example, to differen-

tiate which things ﬂoat and which sink, under which

conditions leaves appear earlier on the cut brunches of

poplars, to compare the shape of a tool with the con-

ditions of its use), signiﬁcant changes in their mental

development occur.

Children learn to search for and identify the most

peculiar features of things and phenomena, to ﬁnd

signiﬁcant dependencies, relationships between them,

and thus logical forms of thinking develop rapidly in

children (Liubchenko, 2014, pp. 213–214).

The criticality of mind is characteristic for older

preschoolers, that lies in the ability to objectively

evaluate their own and others’ opinions, to thoroughly

prove and comprehensively check all the hypotheses

put forward. Children who have developed this fea-

ture tend to check everything thoroughly before doing

anything, and if one opinion does not pass the test,

they reject it without hesitation and look for a new,

more correct, one (Brailko, 2010, p. 10).

Studying the work of psychologists on the devel-

opment of mental activity of preschoolers indicates

that the formation of critical thinking can only be

started in preschool institution, and it is necessary to

continue this work at school age. At the same time,

it is necessary to implement the pedagogy of partner-

ship (children will not become media literate without

the help of parents and kindergarten teachers).

It is advisable to take into account the role of fairy

tales in shaping the personality of the preschooler.

But for the formation of children’s media literacy it

is necessary to use it in the combination with cogni-

tive activities.

2.2 Media Educational Tale as a Means

of Forming Media Literacy of

Preschool Children

A media educational tale is an effective component of

the educational and methodological complex “Seeds

of media education”. In preschool age, play is a

leading type of children’s activities, and a fairy tale

is one of the most effective means of development.

We consider a special kind of a fairy tale – media

educational tale, which gradually turns into dramatic

games: small dramatic actions, where everyone plays

the role of a certain hero, are played out by the plot

of the fairy tale. But special feature of the media edu-

cational tale is not only in this. We have noticed that

children love those fairy tales, in which they act them-

selves as heroes. And that is why in our fairy tales a

kindergarten group acts as the hero of the fairy tale.

We have created media educational tales in the

following directions: deﬁnition of basic terms (what

is media), search for information, differentiation of

truth and falsehood, safe use of media, communica-

tion in media, moral, economic, legal aspects of me-

dia (copyright).

For example, the fairy tale “Wonderful word me-

dia” tells about a meeting in the Forest Kingdom,

where a group of children from the kindergarten is

present.

“On the meeting, the animals said that they would

like to know everything about their Kingdom: who

lived, who and what ate, how many huts the inhabi-

tants of the Kingdom had, and so on.

Owl, Wolf and Squirrel were involved in collect-

ing such information. Animals and the Owl, a large

clever bird, worked for a long time.

And later they wrote about everything they had

found out in a book, as well as in a magazine and

newspaper of the Forest Kingdom. They also reported

on the Forest Radio and Television.

Just from magazines, newspapers, television, and

radio the forest dwellers learned about everything that

interested them. Not everyone has the opportunity

to see Owl, Wolf or Squirrel to ask them questions.

However, everyone could use a newspaper, magazine,

radio or television program to ﬁnd out how many huts

Media Education Technology at Preschool Educational Institutions

227

is in the Kingdom, who and what dishes cooks and

what food likes.

In the Forest Kingdom, newspapers, magazines,

radio, and television were called a wonderful word

media. The media, having received information about

the life of the Forest Kingdom inhabitants from Owl,

Wolf and Squirrel, retold the animals about what they

heard and saw”.

But more in the Forest Kingdom there was the

group of children from the kindergarten. And they

told the fairy-tale inhabitants that they could also get

information. . . (children supplement: from a com-

puter, tablet, mobile phone).

And then the kindergarten teacher with the chil-

dren summed up. Newspapers, magazines, radio,

television, tablet, Internet are called the word media.

Media transmit information from those who have re-

ceived this information to those who want to use it

(Kuzma, 2020, p. 78).

Obviously, the safe use of media is the most

painful problem that children face. Nobody really

wants to limit himself/herself in time to play with a

smartphone, a tablet. The fairy tale “A Hare and a

smartphone” is devoted to this topic (Kuzma, 2020,

p. 85). It tells the story of a Hare, who found a smart-

phone and completely devoted himself to the game.

In this tale, the moral motives and security of the use

of new media are closely intertwined. The Hare did

not go to the Bureau of Finds, but played hard. At the

same time, he ignored the rules of being in the For-

est: he forgot about carefulness, fell into the clutches

of the Wolf. The fairy tale also educates the ability

to help and support each other (the animals freed the

Hare as a group). In connection with the emergence

of such a dangerous situation, preschoolers learn not

to succumb to temptation (temptation and danger of-

ten walk together) (Kuzma, 2020, p. 85).

A fairy tale takes on a completely different mean-

ing if the child is its hero.

In this fairy tale, the kindergarten group created

advices for the forest animals, advised not to get car-

ried away with smartphones, but to play on play-

grounds, to help parents in the garden or at home.

Exactly media educational tale, in which a group

of children and each child are the heroes of the fairy

tale, strengthens the motivation for media education,

which we used in the experimental model of the tech-

nology.

Thus, the enrichment of the educational complex

has necessitated the speciﬁcation of diagnostic tools

for the formation of media literacy of older preschool-

ers. Identical to the term media literacy, we consider

media competence.

2.3 Diagnosis of the Formation of

Media Literacy of Preschoolers

On the basis of study of the works on the problems

of diagnosing the formation of the preschool chil-

dren personal qualities, the implementation of me-

dia education, analysis of media education competen-

cies of preschool children, identiﬁed in Poland in the

framework of the “Digital Future” project (Cyfrowa

przyszło

c, 2010), empirical studies, we presented the

ideal result ideal result high level of media literacy

formation), that we expect to achieve in preschool-

ers, as a result of media education. A preschooler

with the formed media competencies is aware of the

importance of learning about media and education

through media and for media, analyzes media edu-

cational tales with interest, responds positively to the

announcements about media education classes, com-

puter as a media means, is aware of the diversity

of media, knows how to receive information, how

to distinguish truth from untruth in media messages,

how to verify information authenticity, existing me-

dia threats; knows what property is that responsibility

ensues for assigning the work of another author; crit-

ically analyses the media products for children is fa-

miliar with a computer, acquires basic techniques of

working with it; is able to create media means (pic-

tures, photo galleries, comics), showing creativity, an-

alyzing it adheres to the rules of safe media usage.

Children of a sufﬁcient level of media literacy for-

mation, although not aware of the diversity of me-

dia, do not know how to receive information, how to

distinguish truth from misrepresentation in media re-

ports, how to verify the authenticity of information,

that liability is incurred for the appropriation of the

work of another author, but they are aware of the

importance of learning about the media and educa-

tion through media and for media. Their only me-

dia product, created independently, is a picture. They

are experiencing positive emotions when using me-

dia products, agree to proposals for reading and dis-

cussing media educational tales, critically analyzing

with their parents the media, adhere to the rules for

the safe use of the media.

Without special educational inﬂuence the low

level of media literacy prevails in children (misun-

derstanding of the importance of media education

lessons, its beneﬁts to the child, ignorance of the types

of media, their functions, the choice of the source of

information, ways of verifying the truth of the source,

the ways of distinguishing the truth and lies in the me-

dia. Such children use mobile phones, tablets, gad-

gets without permission from parents, experiencing

positive emotions when using media products, but do

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

228

not want to analyze it, or analyze superﬁcially. They

show no interest in media educational tales. They do

not show creativity while drawing (pictures are the

only media work).

Formation of media literacy of older preschool-

ers is a complex process that involves a certain algo-

rithm of actions for children, kindergarten teachers,

parents, the implementation of special forms, meth-

ods, media education activities, diagnostic tools for

checking whether the result corresponds to the aim.

These actions and components are inherent to educa-

tional technologies. Thus, the actual task is to reﬂect

the media educational technology at preschool educa-

tional institutions in the model.

2.4 The Model of the Media

Educational Technology at

Preschool Education Institutions

The research on the development and experi-

mental veriﬁcation of the media educational at

preschool educational institutions was conducted dur-

ing 2017–2020 (two stages: 2017–2018 – the ﬁrst

stage; 2019–2020 – the second stage) at the preschool

education institutions of Ternopil (No 3, 16, 18, 19,

Educational complex No 35), Khmelnytskyi (No 28,

29, 46), Kolkivtsi Educational complex (Khmelnyt-

skyi region), Kherson (Educational complex No 7),

Mukachevo (Educational complex No 1). Totally 384

respondents were involved in the conﬁrmatory exper-

iment (Yankovych et al., 2019). 225 children were

involved in the formation experiment (2019–2020): 5

control and 5 experimental groups.

Some principles of the study of media liter-

acy of preschool children were veriﬁed at Ternopil

Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University

at the Department of Pedagogy and Methods of Pri-

mary and Preschool Education and Khmelnytskyi Hu-

manitarian Pedagogical Academy at the Department

of Preschool Pedagogy, Psychology and Methods of

Professional Disciplines.

A number of questions were asked to the children

at the stage of the conﬁrmatory experiment. The list

of questions and answers to them is given in table 1.

On the basis of the analysis of answers to the ﬁrst

question “Do you know the word “media”? What do

you think it is?” we concluded that the essence of the

word is incomprehensible to children. 37 preschool-

ers out of 384 answered that the media is a TV, other

12 added that this is also a computer (but not a chil-

dren’s magazine, book or theater).

Older preschoolers were asked: “If you want to

learn about something how would you do it?” How-

ever, they could not answer this question without help.

And only after the prompts “From the TV show ...”,

“From the children’s magazine”, the answers were

“from the computer”, “from the mobile phone”.

All children are aware that TVs often display dis-

torted information, especially when it comes to adver-

tising. However, they could not answer how to distin-

guish truth from untruth.

When asked how to check out whether what hap-

pens in life is described in fairy tales, children did not

immediately answer that you need to ask your dad,

mom, teacher. There was also such an answer: “One

has to go with a mother or a father to the forest and

check there, for example, whether a fox is talking to a

hare”. What is said by a child is vivid conﬁrmation of

the fact that children have developed visual and effec-

tive thinking. Consequently, no child independently

gave the correct answer to this question.

During the experiment, kindergarten teachers

were asking: “Should children know that unusual

events are reﬂected in fairy tales? Maybe, it is bet-

ter for them to grow up with faith in the reality of

the fair world”. We were answering that stereo-

types formed in childhood often accompany people

throughout their lives. For example, in adulthood,

many adults are convinced that hedgehogs are wear-

ing apples on their thorns. Such pictures were seen

in books and magazines in childhood and remained

in their memories as such that correspond to reality.

Who deﬁned the age when it comes to ﬁnding out the

truth?”

During the experiment, we found that there is

a direction in the ﬁeld of media education, which

kindergarten teachers give a lot of attention to in

preschool education: child safety in the media and

during contact with the media. Kindergarten teach-

ers in preschool institutions talk about the threats of

the modern digital means for the child’s organism.

However, preschoolers often do not want to perceive

and respond positively to such information, share it

with their parents, who also prohibit the use of mobile

phones, gadgets, tablets, etc. However, such devices

increasingly attract children’s attention.

During the survey, all children answered that they

like to read children’s books, magazines, watch TV

and could not give preference to any single media

product. Similarly, everyone answered that they like

to talk about fairy-tale heroes, their acts, what they do

well and what is wrong, but we have found in indi-

vidual conversations that there is a need for a deeper

critical analysis of such works, for example, whether

the reﬂected events, in children’s opinion, are reliable.

Unfortunately, the only media product of

preschoolers is the drawings, but they did not set

the goal of using them to transmit information. In

Media Education Technology at Preschool Educational Institutions

229

Table 1: Survey results of preschoolers during the conﬁrmatory experiment.

Content of the question Number of pos-

itive responses

and % of gen-

eral quantity

Number of

negative re-

sponses and

% of general

quantity

Note

1. Do you know the word “media”? What do

you think it is?

384

100%

49 (13%) answered inaccu-

rately, incompletely

2. Do you know what are the ways to learn

something, to get information?

384

100%

(children with the help of

tips partially answered the

question)

3. Have you ever heard that what is written in

newspapers, magazines, books, or shown on

TV screens (for example, advertising) is not

always true, and the authors of books, articles

can make errors?

322

84%

16%

Only from television

screens, mostly advertising

4. Do you know how to check the truth of

what is written in children’s books, maga-

zines, is shown on TV screens?

384

100%

5. How to check if what is described in fairy

tales happens in life?

384

100%

6. Do you have a mobile phone? For what

purpose do you use a mobile phone?

200

52%

184

48%

Phones are used for commu-

nication and entertainment

7. Do you know that you can use a computer,

tablet, mobile phone to watch TV following

certain safety rules?

384

100%

8. Do you play a mobile phone, do you use

a computer, a tablet, watching TV violating

security rules?

257

67%

127

33%

9. Do you read children’s books, magazines? 384

100%

10. Do you love talking with your parents

about fairy tales, their acts, what they do

well, and what is wrong?

384

100%

addition, the children did not create together with

their parents or kindergarten teacher’s newspapers,

comics, as a means of conveying information. The

role of a fairy tale is underestimated, in particular one

that would acquaint with the media world, how to

get the necessary information, distinguish truth from

falsehood, and so on.

During the experimental study, a group of experts

was created: a methodologist of an educational in-

stitution, a teacher and one of the parents who dis-

tributed the children by levels.

According to the results of the conﬁrmatory exper-

iment, conducted in 2017–2018, it was found that 246

(64%) children (in control and experimental groups)

are at a low level of the media literacy formation; 138

children (36%) – at a sufﬁcient level. Preschoolers

of a sufﬁcient level of media literacy had several ad-

vantages over low-level children: they followed the

rules studied while using the media, showed creativity

when creating pictures as a means of transmitting in-

formation, and critically analyze the media. However,

in order to obtain a high level of media literacy, they

lacked knowledge about the variety of media, how to

distinguish truth from lie, how to verify the authen-

ticity of information, the inadmissibility of appropri-

ating the work of another author, lacking the ability

to create newspapers, comic books and other media

products, analyze them, and also realize the necessity

of organizing special classes for the formation of such

knowledge and skills. The results obtained during the

conﬁrmatory experiment determined the relevance of

the development and implementation of the media ed-

ucational technology.

As the technology, ﬁrst of all, we understand a

system, which has a clear algorithm of actions, we

have identiﬁed the stages of it: diagnostic-target (set-

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

230

ting the goals), integrational (work on the implemen-

tation of goals), and analytical (analysis of the results

of the experiment on the implementation of technol-

ogy).

The technology model is depicted in ﬁgure. It

demonstrated the process of implementing media ed-

ucation of preschoolers in partnership with parents

and kindergarten teachers from the goals to the result,

using forms, methods, and means of media education

activities, including the media educational tale as in-

novative media product (ﬁgure 1).

One of the main elements of the substantiated

technology is the cycle of classes “Grains of Me-

dia Education” (supplemented by media educational

tales), which is a part of the procedural component.

The organization of the experiment to test the

model of technology provided for the methodical

training of kindergarten teachers. For this purpose,

special methodological guidelines and recommenda-

tions for kindergarten teachers were developed and

used, in which both theoretical principles and prac-

tical approaches to the organization of the process

of media literacy formation of children of the older

preschool age in preschool institutions were devel-

oped and used. Kindergarten teachers, involved in

the experiment, were instructed in detail about the

essence of the experimental work in control and ex-

perimental groups. Traditional methods and programs

were used in control groups; experimental groups im-

plemented the developed technology model (Kuzma,

2020).

At the ﬁrst stage, the diagnostics of the formation

of children’s media literacy in the control and exper-

imental groups was carried out. In control groups

and in experimental groups, no child was at the high

level of media literacy. In control groups, 41 chil-

dren (37.3%) out of 110 were at a sufﬁcient level,

69 (62.7%) – at a low level of media literacy. In the

experimental groups – 44 (40%) out of 115 children

were at a sufﬁcient level, 71 (61.7%) – at a low level

of media literacy.

At the ﬁrst stage, according to the diagnostics

of the formation of media literacy among older

preschoolers, the goals of media education were set.

At the second stage – integrational – the inte-

gration of actions of all the subjects of the edu-

cational process of preschool educational institution

took place, the inseparability of the processes of mo-

tivation formation to media education, knowledge

about media, their functions, a computer as the latest

media tool, danger of the modern technical devices;

skills of critical thinking and creation of the simplest

media together with parents and kindergarten teach-

ers.

At this stage, children with parents and kinder-

garten teachers read and analyzed media educational

tales, media education classes were conducted for

children: “Where do we get information from?”,

“Truth and untruth: how to distinguish”, “Does Little

Red Riding Hood really exist?”, “What do you know

about the copyright of the authors of books?”

During the media education class “Where do we

get information from?” preschoolers found out about

the essence of media, its types; how beneﬁcial they

are to a child, realized that there are many sources

of information; learned to choose the source of in-

formation according to their needs; tried to ﬁnd an-

other source of information than from an older per-

son. Since preschoolers are thinking speciﬁcally, it is

not necessary to demand from them to remember the

meaning of the word media.

Therefore, the knowledge of the essence of the

concept of media was not tested during the exper-

iment. However, as a result of experimental work,

preschoolers have learned that not only TV, but chil-

dren’s magazines, booklets, theater is also media. Ev-

ery day a preschooler is receiving a variety of new

information. The kindergarten teachers told children

that they could learn a lot, not only by asking par-

ents or adults, but also ﬂipping children’s magazines,

watching television programs. The class helped to

ﬁnd out what are the ways to ﬁnd information.

The media education class “Truth and Untruth:

How to Make a Difference?” was difﬁcult for older

preschoolers. Its goal was to get the children to know:

not all that we learn is true; therefore, one has to learn

to check information. After completing the training,

preschoolers developed the ability to formulate sim-

ple questions to verify the accuracy of information;

knew whom to contact to verify truthfulness of infor-

mation; critically perceived information.

The media education class “Does Little Red Rid-

ing Hood really exist?” was an interesting one for the

children. The kindergarten teachers told the children

that not everything described in the fairy tale is true.

After the class, the children knew that the actors from

TV screens or magazines and books with whom they

got acquainted could be ﬁctional; heroes of fairy tales

are also ﬁctionalized.

Children can often distinguish between truth and

untruth in fairy tales. But they do not always suc-

ceed. During the class, they become convinced that

the author of fairy tales is inspired by the real world,

for example, the world of animals. Preschoolers can

create their own hero through their imagination.

When the experiment began, we thought that the

main problem in implementing media education in

preschool is the lack of interesting educational and

Media Education Technology at Preschool Educational Institutions

231

Figure 1: Media educational technology at preschool educational institutions.

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

232

methodological support. Therefore, by substantiat-

ing the media educational technology, we developed

it and named as “Grains of Media Education”.

The name of the methodological support “Grains

of Media Education” itself testiﬁes that children de-

velop elementary knowledge and skills that will be-

come the basis for media education in elementary

school. We implemented various media education

trends, borrowing the experience of Polish pedagogy:

using information, relations and communication in

the media environment, media language, creative use

of media, ethics and values, legal and economic as-

pects of media use (edukacjamedialna.edu.pl, 2021).

It has already been pointed out that the problems

of media education are challenging not only for chil-

dren, but also for parents. When reading the method-

ological development “Grains of Media Education”,

parents had possibility to ﬁnd out what media edu-

cation is. Parents together with children and kinder-

garten teachers acted on the principles of pedagogy

partnership, using the information environment of a

preschool educational institution.

During the experiment, promising ideas of the ex-

perience of the children’s media literacy formation

in preschool institutions of Ukraine were realized, in

particular, the creation of a photo-paper “My Family

Tree”, a comic book “One day from my child’s life”.

Children not only acted as the authors of comic

books, but also as their characters. For example, one

of the preschoolers performed as a doctor, and the

kindergarten teacher (his father) was taking photos of

him during his work. Then a series of comics was

created from the photos.

A child, due to the comics, learned to distinguish

between two types of text information: language and

thought.

One of the comics topics was: “A TV is My

Friend”. At the same time, children found out that the

TV did not only a medium that transmits information

and affects children. It was illustrated as the follow-

ing: a father calls his child to eat, or to read a book,

to wash, but the child had the only answer: “No, let’s

watch the cartoons”. In the end, the children saw the

result of such behavior: a pale, frustrated face, poor

eyesight, headaches, distorted spine. In the picture the

child is yelling: “OK, let’s turn off the TV and go to

the garden”.

During the experiment, we trained preschoolers to

avoid extremes: not to consider everything seen on

the TV as untruth, and not to believe everything en-

tirely what they saw or heard in the media; to choose

elder people (parents, kindergarten teachers, etc.) to

verify the correctness of the information.

At the analytical stage, the media education ac-

tivities of the subjects of the educational process of

the preschool educational institution were analyzed.

After the experiment was carried out, the positive

changes in the dynamics of levels of media literacy

formation were observed: in experimental groups, 24

children (20.9%) were at a high level of media liter-

acy, 71 children (61.7%) were at a sufﬁcient level; 20

children (17.4%) were at a low level of media literacy.

In control groups, 44 children (40%) were at a sufﬁ-

cient level, 66 children (60%) had low levels of media

literacy.

In the control groups, the distribution of children

in the groups, which was recorded during the conﬁr-

matory experiment, has almost not changed.

The dynamics of the formation of media literacy

levels is presented in table 2.

Thus, the research has proved the effectiveness

of implementing the media educational technology at

preschool educational institutions.

After the experiment we came to the conclusion

that children are more likely to analyze media pro-

duction with their parents and kindergarten teachers,

they are more interested in magazines.

Signiﬁcantly (by 44.3%) in the experimental

groups decreased the number of low-level media lit-

eracy. Instead, one in ﬁve children has a high

level. Compared to the ﬁrst stage of the experiment

(2017–2018) during the second stage (2019–2020),

the number of representatives of the low level of

media literacy in the experimental groups decreased

by 10.6% (it was 28% during the ﬁrst stage, it be-

came 17.4% after completion of the second stage)

(Yankovych et al., 2019).

However, during the experiment, we realized that

a new form of work – reading and analysis of media

educational tales – increase the motivation of kinder-

garten teachers to media educational activities. At

the same time, the problems have remained. Kinder-

garten teachers are primarily trying to implement the

State Standard for Preschool Education (it is gratify-

ing that critical thinking is now mentioned as a cross-

cutting skill of preschoolers), and also do everything

to meet the expectations of parents. Traditionally, par-

ents want their children learn to read, write and count

in preschool educational institution. Consequently, it

is precisely for this purpose that their main efforts are

directed. The obstacle for media education is the high

level of groups ﬁlling (up to 35 children in a group)

in the preschool educational institution. Tired of the

difﬁcult work, during which it is necessary to con-

stantly meet the requirements of parents, methodol-

ogists, managers, kindergarten teachers often do not

want to assume additional responsibilities for the im-

plementation all directions of media education. And

Media Education Technology at Preschool Educational Institutions

233

Table 2: The dynamics of the formation of media literacy levels of the older preschool children.

Levels

Control group (110 children) Experimental group (115 children)

Before experiment After experiment Before experiment After experiment

High – – – 24 (20.9%)

Sufﬁcient 41 (37.3%) 44 (40%) 44 (38.3%) 71 (61.7%)

Low 69 (62.7%) 66 (60%) 71 (61.7%) 20 (17.4%)

after that we look forward to enthusiasts, especially

those who were trained, attended the courses at the

Academy of Ukrainian Press.

Studies conducted in higher education pedagog-

ical institutions among undergraduate part-time stu-

dents (more than 90% of them are kindergarten teach-

ers) have shown that they do not know what media

and media education are. Only 2% of the polled mas-

ters are familiar with the Concept of Media Education

Implementation in Ukraine. Approximately 50% of

the masters-kindergarten teachers who are part-time

students are convinced that media education is edu-

cation with the help of the state-of-the-art computer

technology (Yankovych et al., 2018).

All the students we have interviewed were women

aged 23 to 46. Studies were conducted only in absen-

tia, since more than 90% of the students of this form

of study work as kindergarten teachers and must im-

plement media education. But in reality, they have a

very low awareness of media literacy.

Consequently, on the one hand, kindergarten

teachers need to increase media literacy, on the other

hand – they have insufﬁcient motivation for this. The

exception is such a direction of media education as the

prevention of threats of the modern computer equip-

ment for a child, which is not surprising, because this

is one of the tasks of the kindergarten teacher, deﬁned

by the State Standard for Preschool Education.

Thus, the research has shown, on the one hand,

the feasibility of implementing the media educational

technology at preschool educational institutions, on

the other – the need for further education of future

kindergarten teachers; creating better working envi-

ronment for them. However, the fulﬁllment of the

latter task depends on the economic development of

Ukraine; of the funds that will be invested in the edu-

cational sector.

3 CONCLUSIONS

The manipulation of the consumers’ media con-

sciousness, the saturation of television programs by

the scenes of aggression and violence, the uncon-

trolled use of modern technical devices by children

already at preschool age, determine the relevance of

media education, which results in the formation of

media literacy (preschooler’s awareness of the feasi-

bility of media education classes and their positive at-

titude towards their realization, knowledge of media

diversity, its functions, computer as the latest media

tool, awareness of the threats of modern technology,

the ability to choose sources of information, create

photo papers, comics, drawings, fairy tales, critically,

consciously and responsibly perceive information).

The research has proved the necessity of im-

plementing the media educational technology at

preschool educational institutions, the cycle of classes

“Grains of Media Education”, the content of which is

supplemented by media educational tales as a printed

innovative media product. The effectiveness of the

technology is conﬁrmed by the positive dynamics of

the levels of media literacy formation. Before the ex-

periment, 61.7% of children were at a low level of

media literacy, 38.3%) – at a sufﬁcient level. No child

was at a high level of the media literacy formation.

Due to the implementation of the developed technol-

ogy, 20.9% of children achieved a high level of media

literacy development (61.7% were at middle and only

17.4% – at low levels). The number of children at low

level decreased by 44.3%.

The analysis of the results of experimental work

conﬁrms the necessity of raising the level of media

literacy of the kindergarten teachers themselves who

need to improve the conditions of professional activ-

ity, as well as ﬁnding non-starting solutions, devel-

oping innovative products for the implementation of

media education.

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