Walton 1

Liz Walton

Professor Jan Reiman

English 1103

Feb 17, 2011

Preliminary Inquiry: Searching the Depths

My working inquiry question is as follows: What are the positive and negative aspects

of switching from textbooks to films in college classrooms and how does that effect learning?

What first lead me towards learning more about replacing literature in the classroom with film

was my enrollment in a class where the switch has already taken place. The class is Liberal

Study of the American West and the main material used for quizzes and tests comes from the

HBO series, Deadwood. The series is a fictional work based on true events. Though

Deadwood is used primarily throughout the class, it isn’t the sole reference for course

information. The short novel, ‘All the Pretty Horses’ by Cormac McCarthy, is also required

material for the course. What I’m interested in researching with this inquiry question is

whether or not some professors have switched entirely to using film to teach a subject. I

would also like to see what the positive and negative effects of this switch would have on

learning. Would it be better to use films for supporting materials or could they be used in

some places as the sole reference for the course? Theses are additional questions that my

inquiry question has raised and I will do my best to answer and search for additional queries

that could be supportive.

Walton 2

Despite the difficulty in finding many articles on this subject, it isn’t an impossible task. I

found a wonderfully informative article called Finding the Right Film for the History Classroom
by Donald Mattheisen. He stresses the interest and captivating pull students have towards

film rather than text, but also explains the downside of showing films without classroom

discussions to put it into context. A response to Mattheisen’s article was posted on the

College Student Journal by Ryan Sprau and Larry Keig. They discuss the origins of using film

in the classroom and well as expand on the ideas given in Mattheisen’s paper by analyzing

classrooms that have already begun to incorporate films into the learning material.

This is the amount of information that I have found so far concerning my inquiry

question. I plan to expand my research to other sources to search for additional articles. My

research has entered into an ocean of information not immediately apparent to the casual

researcher. And so, the search continues...

Works Cited

Mattheisen, Donald. "Finding the Right Film for the History Classroom." Perspectives 27.9

(1989): 1-3. Web. 17 Feb 2011. < HYPERLINK

"http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/1989/8912/8912TEC.cfm"

http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/1989/8912/8912TEC.cfm>.

Sprau, Ryan, and Larry Keig. "I Saw It In The Movies: Suggestions For Incorporating Film

And Experiential Learning In The College History Survey Course." College Student Journal

(2001): 1-4. Web. 17 Feb 2011.