Table Of ContentCOMMUNITY RESOURCES IN TEACHING
A SOUND MOTION PICTURE
by
John Edwin-.Dahl;
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
in the Department of Education* in the Graduate
College of the State University of Iowa
August* 1950
ProQuest Number: 10902149
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to express hia deep appreciation
to Dr* James B* Stroud for his many valuable suggestions in
directing the preparation of the script and in the writing
of the thesis* To Mr* Lee Cochran# sincere appreciation for
his help in analyzing the script and in the administering of
the production of the film* To Dr* Ernest Horn# Dr* John E*
BoAdam# Dr* L« A* Van Dyke# and Dr* Albert N* Hieronymus#
grateful appreciation of their criticisms and suggestions*
The writer is Indebted to the Graduate College and
to the Bureau of Visual Instruction for making financially
possible the production of the film*
Further acknowledgment is given to Mr* Vernon Put
nam* Staff Cinematographer* Mr* Stanley Nelson, Sound Tech
nician# Mr* Richard C* Setterberg* Barrator, Mr* Jack Robert
son and Mr. Robert Lightner, Motion Picture Technicians*
Acknowledgments are gratefully made to all persons
who appear in the films Mr* James Curtin* the teacher* and
to the boys and girls of the fifth and sixth grades of the
University Elementary School, who participated.
Additional acknowledgement is made to the
personnel of the Press Citizen of Iowa City for providing
facilities for the newspaper plant scenes.
To his wife, Wilma Gardner Dahl, the writer^ most
gracious thanks, aporeciation and affection*
Hi
TABLE OP CONTENTS
Chapter pap©
I Introduction to the Problem . . . . . . 1
Value of Community Besource
Use in Education • • • • • • • • 1
Reasons for Lag in the Use of
Community Resources in
Teaching • • • • • • • • • • « « 7
Necessity for Teacher Training in
the Use of Community Resources • 10
Statement of the Problem * . . . . 15
Reasons for the Choice of a Film
for Such Training • » • » • • • 16
Principles Involved • • • • • • • 19
Psychological and
Educational Principles • • 19
General Principles • • . * • 23
II Review of Related Films • * • • • • • • 2 7
Near Home • • • • • • • « • • • • 27
Field Trip * . ............ . . 29
The Junior Citizen . • • • • « • • 30
A United States Community and
its Citizens • • • • « • • • • • 31
School in Centreville . . . . . . 32
Justification of isy Film . . . . . 34
III Procedure • • • • • . • • . . . • • • . 3 7
Script Preparation * • • • • • • • 3 7
Treatment Outline . . . . . . . . 42
A Pictorial Sequence Outline • • • 43
IV Summary of the Film
Community Resources in Teaching . . . 45
Appendix A • • • • . • • • • . . • • • 5 4
The Seriot of the Sound Motion
Picture Film Community
Hesources in Teaching . . . . 55
iv
Appendix B • • • • • • • « • • • • • • 76
Teaching Guide • « • • • • • • • • 77
Appendix 0 81
The Survey of Community
Resources • • • • • • • • • • • 8 2
Bibliography................... . ♦ 87
v
1
Chapter I
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM
Value of Community Hesource Use in Education
In using community resources In education, the
community can be as large or as limited as the transporta
tion facilities, or the budget of a school permits. The
resources depend uoon the community, and the use of them
will depend uoon the training and resourcefulness of the
school staff, and upon the cooperation of the citizens of
the community.
Each school community Is a rich store-house
of instructional materials*--facts* Ideas, social
practices, traditions, institutions— that when
studied at first hand are oaoable of yielding edu
cational returns of prime importance. Making pro
vision for frequent and effective contacts on the
part of the pupils with this material tends to
keen education close to real and concrete experi
ences and avoids the dangers of having the schools
too exclusively concerned with ” things to be read
about in books.” 1
This Is but one of many possible direct quo
tations of authorities on the value of community re
source use in education. From the same source we read this:
Many rich educational experiences can result
from direct contact v/ith material found in the
local community. If the school Is primarily
1. Survey Work-Book for Community Analysis. Alabama Education
Association, p. 1.
2
concerned with the development of the child in the
existing society and with the progressive Improve
ment of this society, then the community, the tan
gible .embodiment of society to the child, assumes
a place of prime importance#2
Many authorities in the field of educ tion have
felt for some time that restricting instruction of the
school ohlld to the textbook or the lecture is a mistake*
The concrete experience and actual contact w3th community
resources in varied ways has been found of great value#
If opportunity exists for substituting direct
community contacts for a brief textbook treatment,
the wise teacher will choose the former because it
offers greater possibility of developing permanent
interests and of opening a wide vista of meanings#3
Indiscriminate use of the concrete experience is
quite inadvisable# The use of a community resource is
worthwhile only if It offers a greater contribution to the
learning of the students than would otherwise be possible#
One educator, In research into the value of the
excursion procedure, found "an average of twenty minutes of
excursion procedure, employed in a summary technique, re
sulted in approximately twice the understanding obtained by
the average hour of classroom instruction.”
<2# ifVjd'*p'#*“S'#'1* * " rr"" ".." 1 »
3# Fourteenth Yearbook. Department of Superintendence of the
Ii# E# A., p* ^8.
4# Dwight K# Ourtis, "The Contribution of the Excursion to
Understanding", Unpublished Ph# D# thesis, University of
Iowa, p# 538#
3
He further recommended that "where the Illustra
tion of subject matter is readily accessible in the commun
ity and especially where the concrete experiences have been
5
limited" the major part of instruction time be given to the
excursion*
Where the school field trio or excursion has been
tried, it has been proclaimed successful:
..•a large majority of principals, from whose
schools trips are taken, consider them of high
value* A few consider trips of medium value, but
it fa interesting to note that none of the replies
rated them of low or no value*6
And, when properly used, the trip into the community becomes
regular school procedure* "***most of the schools In which
trios are taken they are considered a regular part of the
7
school program and not an extracurriculurn activity*"
Using the community as a real laboratory of learn
ing can be a wise use of school time and money, even a very
necessary port of the school schedule*
♦..for oup51s to leave the classroom and go on
such an expedition is to enlarge their concept
of the school, cause them to look uoon the com
munity as a laboratory where truth may be discov
ered and where they will see that not all learning
5. Ibid., p. 658.
6* R. 11* Price, A, Study of the Vnlue of Field Tri os, p* 302.
7. Ibid*, p. 303.
4
la to bo found between the covers of books.8
Without eviscerating education, schoolmen
must find methods of schooling which will avoid
pedagogical verbalism and theorising and provide
Common sense, firsthand contacts with the prevail
ing patterns of life throughout the school experi
ence of all children,9
Some educators express very strongly the importance
of exploring the community. Julian Aldrich, says, "The com
munity should be the laboratory in which the children in the
school learn; only in this way can the greatest educational
10
gain be achieved." He continues.
Carefully chosen community activities should
have a part in the classwork of every teacher. On
whatever the level of difficulty and in whatever
the curriculum organisations every teacher can
utilize community resources. To fail to do so is
to neglect the richest educational material avail
able. 11
Many administrators are realizing the importance
of relating the life of the community to the school Ilf© of
the children*
ft. L. W. kindred and 0. W. Stephens on. S do i al Education,
p • 21.
9. Edgar C. Bye, National Association of Secondary School
Principals* p. ft4?.
10. Julian C. Aldrfch, National Council for Social Studies,
Ninth Yearbook* vol. 9, p. 23.
11. Ibid., p. 25.
