Cinema as a Transmitter of Content: Perceptions of Future Spanish Teachers for Motivating Learning

Abstract

In recent decades, the diverse changes produced have accelerated the relationships regulated by media. Cinema was able to bring together moving image and sound for the first time, and as a result of its audiovisual nature, it is a particularly suitable resource for motivation in education. In this light, the teacher’s perception for its application in its initial formal stage is highly relevant. The main objective of our research, therefore, has been to analyze the perceptions of cinema as a didactic resource for the transmission of content in preschool and primary education by students who are studying to become teachers themselves. The sample was composed of 4659 students from Spanish universities, both public and private. In addition to this, the PECID questionnaire was elaborated ad hoc and a comparative ex post facto design was adopted. The result showed that over 87% of students recognized the diverse educational potentialities of cinema, with motivation being an important factor. Furthermore, significant differences were found in perceptions according to different factors such as the type of teacher training degree, the Autonomous Community in which the student studied, as well as film consumption habits. On the basis of these results, future application of cinema needs to be applied using the different potentialities detected in our study.