Primary school pre-service teachers’ perception of documentary films as educational resources

Oct 15, 2026

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Primary school pre-service teachers’ perceptions of documentary films as educational resources are investigated within the framework of initial teacher training. A five-dimension questionnaire was administered to 213 Education degree students at the University of Murcia (Spain) using ease of access to the sample population. Findings show that future teachers recognize documentary cinema as an educational resource and value documentaries for their forthcoming teaching practice, yet report limited contact and training during their studies, highlighting the need to strengthen higher-level media competence in universities.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Article History

Keywords

Introduction

Documentary cinema and educational value

Teachers’ training and audiovisual competence

Results and implications

International Journal of Education and Practice 2023 Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 14-22 ISSN(e): 2310-3868 ISSN(p): 2311-6897 DOI: 10. 18488/61 . v11i1 .3243 © 2023 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. Primary school pre-service teachers’ perception of documentary films as educational resources Manuel Fernandez-Diaz1+ Maria Victoria Sanchez-Giner2 1,2 University of Murcia, Spain. [1](1Email: manuelf. ernandez2@um.es)[Email:](1Email: manuelf. ernandez2@um.es)[ ](1Email: manuelf. ernandez2@um.es)[manuelf. ernandez2@um.es](1Email: manuelf. ernandez2@um.es) 2Email: [chezner@um.es](chezner@um.es) (+ Corresponding author) ABSTRACT Article History Received: 12 October 2022 Revised: 17 November 2022 Accepted: 5 December 2022 Published: 27 December 2022 Keywords Audiovisual communication Documentary film Education Media competence Primary school Training teachers. In today's society, audiovisual resources represent a fundamental form of relationship with the world and the acquisition of information and knowledge. In this sense, several scientific studies recognize the usefulness of audiovisual in general, and documentary film in particular, as an educational resource. Research indicates that cinema is not aresource widely used by teachers. This research is conceived within the framework of the initial training of teachers of Primary Education. To this end, and with the criterion of ease of access to the sample population, a questionnaire organized in five dimensions was designed. The questionnaire was administered to 213 students of Degree in Education of the University of Murcia (Spain) . The results point at the documentary cinema as an educational resource known by future teachers. They also recognized the interest of documentaries for their future teaching practice. However, throughout their educational career they had not had much contact with documentary film nor were they great consumers of this type of resource. These results should make us reflect on initial teacher training in universities. Efforts should be increased to promote the acquisition of higher-level media competence that allowed teachers to analyze and select good resources for use in the classroom and that has an impact on the competence of their future primary school students. Contribution/Originality: The main contribution of the paper is that pre-service teachers recognize the importance of the use of documentary in school. However, they have not much contact or much training on this resource. It is necessary for the university to adopt measures to improve the media competence of future teachers. 1. INTRODUCTION With the birth of cinema in the late nineteenth century and its subsequent development throughout the twentieth, and with the development of television in the twentieth century as well and its subsequent boom, systems of production and exhibition of audiovisual products have come to our days, among which numerous documentaries have a place, genus that in recent decades experiences a notorious flowering (León, 1999, 2002, 2010). The success of documentary cinema is based, in part, on the ability to bring the viewer closer to realities that are difficult to achieve otherwise (Burgos Risco & Mayor Iborra, 2012; León, 2002) . Research shows that the use of documentary films for educational purposes have favorable learning outcomes (Alyaz, Isigicok, & Gursoy, 2017; Arroio, 2007; Arroio & Faría, 2011; Culloty & Brereton, 2017; Janpol & Dilts, 2016; Seckin Kapucu, Cakmakci, & Aydogdu, 2015; Valenti, 2018) . This educational potential lies in the fact that the documentary alerts us to the world we know, or think we know, but shows it from other perspectives, triggering interests and emotions that invite us to a critical transformation of our own understanding of the world (Smith, 2014) . Considering the above, it is difficult to doubt the didactic value of cinema. For Jordán Sierra and Méndez Cestero (2017) of the

FAQs

What is the study’s focus regarding documentary films in education?

The research examines how primary education pre-service teachers perceive documentary films as educational resources and how they view their relevance for teaching practice.

How was data collected for the study?

A questionnaire organized into five dimensions was administered to 213 Education degree students at the University of Murcia (Spain).

What do the results indicate about future teachers’ media competence?

Future teachers recognize documentary films as valuable, but their limited contact and training suggests universities should strengthen higher-level media competence so teachers can analyze and select suitable resources for classroom use.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Ivy