I would like to thank everyone who has played a role in my personal and professional development. To all my graduate professors and supervisors at Alfred University: thank you for challenging me and supporting my growth. Furthermore, I would like to thank my cohort members for their encouragement and friendship throughout graduate school.
To my family, thank you for your constant support, unconditional love, and celebrating every milestone. To my parents, Chuck and Bonnie Spaulding, thank you for choosing to prioritize and invest in my education. Every sacrifice made to support me and set me up for success, from childhood until now, has led to this.
To my best friend and husband, Lee Wascher, who witnessed more of the time and effort put into this project than any other person.
INTRODUCTION
Powers (2017) completed a study on youth understanding of the Internet and the effectiveness of direct instruction in media literacy concepts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a classroom-based, direct teaching of media literacy concepts with children. Specifically, media literacy comprehension was measured prior to the implementation of direct instruction and after the direct instruction.
Analyzes were conducted to assess the effectiveness of a direct instructional intervention on media literacy comprehension. What are descriptive assessments of fourth and fifth grade students regarding media/device access, ownership, use, parental rules, and understanding of media literacy concepts. Is participation in direct media literacy instruction associated with increased levels of understanding of media literacy concepts.
Furthermore, young students (i.e. fourth and fifth grade students) will demonstrate minimal media literacy understanding (i.e. technical and social understanding). The media literacy education intervention implemented within this study was found to be significantly correlated with increases in media literacy understanding in fourth and fifth grade students.
RELATED LITERATURE
However, it is important to note the sociocultural context for digital natives related to the presentation of the media literacy curriculum. Specifically, it is important to consider the individual's level of understanding in the context of developing media literacy skills. One of the main goals of media literacy is related to promoting accurate understanding of media in various ways.
This has resulted in a collection of a sparse, but loosely related literature base of media literacy programs. Another model of media literacy programming is used as an intervention for a specific at-risk group. Furthermore, the technical and social complexity of the Internet has been identified as an important factor in assessing media literacy skills.
Similarly, an assessment and focus on critical thinking skills related to literate use of the Internet may be beneficial when considering methods of media literacy education. Therefore, it presents a potential gap in the field of media literacy: direct instruction within school-based settings. To illustrate, Powers (2017) completed a study on adolescent understanding of the Internet and the effectiveness of direct instruction of media literacy concepts.
Ultimately, these results suggest that direct instruction of the media literacy curriculum is effective and engaging for students.
RESEARCH METHODS
In addition, declarations of consent were handed out to students prior to the start of studies (June 2021). Therefore, a number of steps were taken to assess whether the measures fit the target sample age. A detailed description and copy of the media use and access questionnaire can be found in Appendix H.
However, the majority of the questions on the MUAQ were not directly related to the research questions of the current study. Therefore, a new questionnaire (i.e., QTMU; see Appendix I) was developed based on the questions of the original MUAQ (see Appendix H). A copy of the NYS Computer Science and Digital Fluency (CSDF) Learning Standards for fourth through sixth grades can be found in Appendix L.
Therefore, the NYS Learning Standards were used as a framework from which items with specific skills or competencies were developed to create the Media Literacy Scale. Any content not mentioned in the videos was specifically written into the discussion script (see Appendix F). In the second phase of creating the MLS scale, content from the Common Sense Media curriculum was added to the list of potential scale items.
After that, each item was linked directly to one or more NYS computers. In the second session of the current study, direct media literacy instruction was conducted prior to the posttest measure. After the administration of each of the three videos, a brief discussion was led by the author.
Before the start of the second session, the class teacher introduced the researcher to the class. A copy of the summary statement (see Appendix N) was sent home to the student's parent/guardian along with the media literacy resource pack (see Appendix D). Increased understanding of media literacy was represented by higher scores on the Media Literacy Understanding (i.e., MLS) construct measure.
RESULTS
The procedures of the current study were predetermined to ensure that all. Missing data found in the rest of the data were identified and coded as such within the data set. A summary of the frequencies and percentages of specific devices owned can be found in Table 9.
A summary of the overall total of additional devices within the home can be found in Table 10. A summary of the frequencies and percentages of specific devices available to be accessed within the home can be found in Table 11. A summary of the frequencies and percentages of total device access can be found in Table 12.
A summary of the participant's reported use of media and devices can be found in Table 13. It was the hypothesis of the current study that participants would demonstrate a minimal understanding of media literacy (i.e., MLS pre-test mean of. A summary of the mean scores for the MLS pre-test items can be found in Table 15.
A principal axis factor analysis was conducted on the 23 items of the MLS scale with oblique rotation (direct obliteration) using MLS posttest scores. An individual plot partition ANCOVA was conducted for each of the three measures of device accessibility (see above). The variable of interest was the level of media literacy of the participants (ie, minimal, partial, sophisticated).
There was no significant interaction effect between any of the three measures of the device access covariate and media literacy scores at the pre- or post-test level. A first split-plot ANCOVA was conducted to analyze the effect of the number of owned or available devices on media literacy outcomes. The covariate was parenting rules (ie, the sum of QTMU item 5 scores); media literacy scores (ie, MLS scores) before (IV 1) and after (IV 2) direct instruction were the independent variables.
SUMMARY, IMPLICATIONS, AND CONCLUSIONS
In addressing fourth and fifth grade students' understanding of media literacy concepts, the study hypothesis was that minimal understanding would be demonstrated at pretest. In general, this means that children have more knowledge of media literacy concepts than might be expected. The intervention results of the current study suggest that such media literacy education is likely to result in an increase in media literacy understanding for these populations.
Possible advances for in-school media literacy education can be found below (see Areas for Future Research). Overall, this implies that the MLS was an accurate measure of media literacy within the participants of this study. To date, no known media literacy education has been implemented with fourth and fifth grade students as Level 1.
In addition, the study did not account for long-term retention of media literacy concepts. Additionally, this media literacy curriculum should be tested in short (one session), short-term (several weeks), and long-term (several months) formats. In terms of media literacy understanding, the majority of students showed partial understanding of media literacy concepts.
Further, the study examined pre- and post-intervention differences in media literacy comprehension within students. Additionally, the current study was the first to use a comprehensive scale of media literacy (i.e., the author-created Media Literacy Scale). Overall, the findings of the current study suggest that the implementation of media literacy education interventions is effective with fourth and fifth grade students.
