Research / Articles
Useful, interesting and provocative materials including articles, essays, and more. Click on title to see PDF.
The Beginnings of Sesame Street Research
Written by Edward Palmer and updated by Children's Television Workshop's Shalom Fisch, this article was our starting place for Sesame Street research. It provides historical context, and ample information about the groundbreaking processes employed, particularly in the early years.
"Sesame Street is the Perfect TV Show"
Less of a gushing celebration, more of analysis of what makes "Sesame Street" work so well. Also: how "Sesame Street" differs in intent and process from most television fare.
A History of Project Zero as recalled by Howard Gardner
Howard Gardner, David Perkins and other young scholars at the Harvard School of Education began to examine connections between learning, arts education, creativity, and related matters. From these roots, Gardner and his collaborators generated a solid foundation on which we now rely.
Economics of Higher Education by U.S. Dept. of Treasury
Full disclosure: the Treasury Department shared the workload with the U.S. Department of Education. Written to support an Obama administration pitch for widespread higher education as a key to personal income growth, the team dug deep and explained, for example, the history and justification for high school (a hundred years ago, high school was considered to be "elitist"). The expected charts, graphs and analysis fill most of the pages: intergenerational mobility, tuition, financial aid, community college and state funding, and more.
Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2012
One of the better global views of education available on the web (no doubt, better material is available elsewhere). Highlights for the U.S.: we rank 14th in the world in the percentage of 25-34 year olds with a higher education (42%); the odds that a young person in the U.S. will be in higher education if his or her parents do not have an upper secondary education are just 29%--one of the lowest levels among OECD countries. The U.S. ranks 28th in the percentage of 4-year-olds in early childhood education, with a 69% enrollment rate. Teachers in the U.S. spend between 1,050 and 1,100 hours a year teaching--much more than in almost every country.
Public Media Models of the Future
Written by Ted Krichels, just before he became CPB's Senior Vice President of System Development and Media Strategy, a compendium of good ideas for sustainable creation of social value through public media. Here, the public media models are more modern versions of local public television stations.
A late 2014 New York Times article reminds us of parallel developments in the adult learning space. Looking at nearly 3 million students who took 300 courses, edX, a large MOOC player, found that nearly 3 in 4 have a college degree (including many advanced degrees); 26% of their students were in Asia; the idea of just-in-time education for those with an immediate need to know; and the importance of the largest universities, which tend to dominate the field.
Christopher Vogler provides writers with an extensive (book-length) explanation of the cycle of the hero's journey. Here, our notes summarize the journey for our unique purposes.
That Was the Week That Was - Viewing Notes
Based upon the BBC series, TW3 debuted in the US, on NBC, in January 1964. Copies of several episodes are available at The Paley Center.
Avenue Q - Reverse Engineering
A close look at the creative elements used in the popular musical, "Avenue Q."
How and Why Adults Learn: A Preliminary Inquiry
Internal document written to collect our thoughts about the paths that adults pursue in order to gain different types of education. Includes Common Knowledge; Religious and Spiritual Knowledge; Practical and Functional Knowledge; Knowledge Associated with Jobs and Careers; Knowledge Associated with Personal Interests; Journalistic, Expert and Scholarly Knowledge; and Knowledge through Stories.
This internal document immediately preceded the development of this website. It includes a more extensive review of The CTW Model used by "Sesame Street," other similar models, and our evolutionary path that led to the current Curriculum Model.