Teacher Prep When Using Popular Cinema in the ...

Journal of Health Education Teaching Techniques Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 36–46

Teacher Prep When Using Popular Cinema in the Classroom Stephen F. Gambescia, Drexel University

Abstract Using popular cinema in a classroom is a common teaching tool in health education; however, there is risk of controversy from students, parents, administrators, and others because the topics often deal with sensitive and personal matters.

Objectives The purpose of this teaching technique is to 1. describe components of a student learner activity guide to use when teaching with cinema, especially when presenting sensitive subject matters; 2. prepare responses to potentially controversial comments by students or others (parents, administrators) if a controversy arises; and 3. ensure that assessment activities tie directly to student learner outcomes. This guide is designed to temper challenges of teacher indoctrination, lack of good judgment, political party favoritism, or teacher bias.

Primary Audience This teaching technique is designed for secondary teachers and college faculty teaching health-related material.

Stephen F. Gambescia, professor, Health Administration Department, Drexel University. Please send author correspondence to [email protected]

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Using Popular Cinema in the Classroom

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Using clips, or all, of a major motion picture can be a powerful and effective teaching tool to emphasize challenging concepts with students at a range of grade levels, including those in college. Showing movies in class is a common, and often perfunctory, teaching technique educators use. Periodically, parents of secondary school students raise concern over the appropriateness of content in the popular movies used by teachers (Kelly, 2014b). For example, a few parents took umbrage with R-rated movies used in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, high schools (Gambescia, 2010). Parental concerns typically range from too much, or any, profanity, violence, sex, innuendos, lewd behavior, or materials seen as promoting a political party’s policy position. Similarly, there are enduring charges from members of community groups, including parents, that university professors overextend their public policy, political party, and ideological positions, especially when those positions or issues raised have little to do with the subject matter taught (Fisher, 2006; Horowitz, 2007; Kurtz, 2005; Menand, 2010). Instructors who teach health-related courses, especially at the secondary school level, find that controversies emanate from three major areas: sex, religion, and money (usually in the form of someone not wanting to pay more taxes). Many public health issues are inextricably linked to controversial issues, as public health policy measures may affect directly or indirectly people’s behavior; the regulation of organizations—often businesses; and raising of money via taxes, fees, and fines levied for transgressions (Beauchamp, 1988). Educators, especially in the health education/promotion field, should take pause and not be too quick to dismiss parents, and even mature students who express concern, as being naive, unsophisticated adults. Whenever parents become involved in the education of minors, whether or not teachers agree with their position, it should be seen as good because results from research consistently show that parental involvement improves student success (Chubb & Moe, 1990). Educators ideally hope parents give them reasonable latitude that they have not simply assigned a book or shown a movie for entertainment or shock value. The teacher likely has given much thought and consideration about the purpose of the teaching tool and already has anticipated concern but, nevertheless, sees value in the provocative artistic piece. Most teachers do not find indoctrination of their students, of any kind, valuable or interesting in what they aim to accomplish as educators (Gambescia, 2010). In a comprehensive literature review, including recommendations in using video clips in college-level courses, Berk (2009) included “offensiveness of the video” (p. 7) as one of three selection criteria in deciding what to show in the classroom. Therefore, when cinema is used in the classroom at postsecondary and collegiate levels, more thoughtful prep will be useful to articulate a clear purpose and student learner objectives, especially if students, parents, administrators, or outside groups challenge the appropriateness of the movie.

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Objectives •

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Teachers using cinema in the classroom will be able to create a student learner activity guide with important components that give students * context for why the movie was selected and used, * a disclaimer including movie rating and permission for students to opt out of the viewing, * overall purpose of the learner activity, * hints on what to look for in the movie, * the setting of the movie, and * questions for class discussion and assessment after viewing the movie; prepare responses to potentially controversial comments by students or others (parents, administrators) if a controversy arises; and ensure that assessment activities tie directly to student learner outcomes.

Materials and Resources • • •

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Movie(s) in proper format to match available audiovisual equipment Audiovisual equipment for high-quality showing Student learner activity guide: This guide is a hard copy or electronic file (about 3 pages), with components explained in the Procedure section. Components of Student Learner Guide When Using Cinema in the Classroom P Review movie for context and appropriateness for learner objectives P Student handout should include the following sections: * Disclaimer * Overall Purpose * What to Look for * Setting the Stage * Learning Objectives * Class Discussion * Assessment Review of several online resources on teaching with cinema: * Frieden and Elliott (2014) * Kelly (2014a) * Mateer, Purdom, Ghent, and Porter (2014) * Zim (2014)

Using Popular Cinema in the Classroom •

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Berk’s (2009) comprehensive treatment of multimedia teaching with video clips.

Primary Audience This teaching technique is designed for secondary teachers and college faculty teaching health-related material.

Procedure Review the Movie for Context The instructor should review the complete movie, or movie scenes, even if he or she has seen it before to make sure a clear idea is formed of the context and purpose for the student learner activity. The context for a movie includes variables such as the time period of the movie, age of the students, the work’s relation to the subject matter, including the local, regional, or national mood at the time the movie is shown. Teachers can use popular movies to emphasize important concepts, show the complexity of the human condition, or present current or enduring psychosocial and health problems (Berk, 2009). For example, an inspiring film to show future teachers the affect they have on students could be the film the Renaissance Man (Colleton, Abbott, Marshall, Greenhut, & Marshall, 1994). Starring Danny DeVito, this film shows the transformation of a middle-aged business man, Bill Rago, educating scholastically lowperforming recruits in a U.S. Army boot camp. Bill had little hope for the ability and interest of these enlisted soldiers to learn, but a metamorphosis took place for him and the students, and by the end of the film, these eight future soldiers where playacting Henry V. The film is rated PG-13 and has coarse language, but in the context of an Army boot camp setting, the film is appropriate because it demonstrates how educators may stumble upon the “lever” that changes a student’s outlook on learning (Delbanco, 2012, p. 12). The movie Breakfast Club (Tanen, Hughes, & Hughes, 1985), showing the day-in-the-life of Saturday detention for high schoolers, has a slew of questionable actions and words by the actors but can be used to teach topics such as use of stereotypes, effects of bullying, peer pressure by student cliques, parent–teenager communication, challenging authority, and overall awkwardness of the teenage years. Saving Private Ryan (Bryce, Gordon, Levinsohn, Spielberg, & Spielberg, 1998) caused a national stir when several networks chose not to show the movie during prime time 10 years ago (Tompkins, 2004). Although a graphic and coarse war picture (much bloodshed and profanity), the movie is powerful to show students the lengths soldiers go to complete what appears to be a futile mission among the madness of wartime. Having an acute understanding and being able to articulate context of the movie is key when using cinema to teach controversial material in a classroom.

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Without a clear and explicit context for showing the movie, the instructor may risk students and others judging the film as inappropriate for showing in class. In contemplating potential controversy, teachers should explain up front to students that they should do more than look at the words, acts, and deeds in the film and instead look at the work within the context of its artistic meaning and use. Teachers can explain that, typically, not all parts of a major motion picture are factually accurate, contrary to most documentaries, but that part of the learning is seeing how controversial issues are portrayed in popular culture media outlets.

Disclaimer A good practice is to state orally and in a handout the rating of the movie and give an upfront disclaimer before showing the clip/movie in case a student finds the material objectionable. For example, a disclaimer such as the following could be printed on the student learner guide: Please know that this film was carefully chosen for educational purposes. I have seen this film and have thought about it in an educational context. In my educational judgment, the film and scenes selected have an appropriate context; any coarse action, language, violence, or sexual innuendo is not meant to be offensive in light of the intended learning. This film is rated ___. If the scenes shown make you uncomfortable in any way, you may leave the room with no questions asked; this absence will be excused. Stating the movie’s rating does not mean the teacher agrees with the rating (e.g., some educators may believe the rating is too low or too restricted), but this practice of declaring up front the movie’s rating is evidence that the instructor reviewed and thought about the movie before showing it to students.

Give the Overall Purpose for the Student Learner Activity In the student learner activity handout, the instructor designs a section to explain to students what concepts or lessons are communicated in using the film. In a few paragraphs, the instructor needs to point out the major concepts, explain how these relate to course material learned, and give questions to consider. For example, to challenge students to think about what code of conduct or ethics they are willing to follow in their personal affairs, or what will they do when they face conflicting codes in the workplace, or what they will do if actions conflict with their ethical code as a health professional, the teacher could show clips of (a) the edgy court scene when Tom Cruise interrogates Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men (Reiner, Brown, Sheinman, & Reiner, 1981); (b) the courtly discussion that Ian Charleson, playing Eric Little, had with the 1924 Olympic Committee in Chariots of Fire (Puttnam & Hudson, 1981); or


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(c) the rise-to-your-feet closing statement that Al Pacino delivered at a prep school during a student judicial affairs hearing in Scent of a Woman (Brest & Brest, 1992). The following is an example of a purpose background written on a student learner activity handout: Many people believe their jobs are important. Most people want to feel good about what they do for a living or how they volunteer their time. What if you had a job with the type of responsibilities for which someone’s life depended, and there was little room for error? Earlier in this course we learned about the signature characteristics of a profession. One of these characteristics is a code of ethics. What code of ethics are you willing to follow in your work life? There is an adage about the meaning of character such that “Character is doing the right thing when nobody is watching.” There is a lot of talk about character today—who has it and who does not and how character is built. Notice that we say that you need to build character. Character and integrity are not innate. Somehow we learn it, often the hard way. This week’s readings, more than others, bring out the human factor in the healing arts. Health care providers make a myriad of decisions, and for each decision, the stakes are high for getting it right. As you can understand, these are often life and death decisions. What if someone suffered—even died—from a decision that you made? The tragic outcome could not be foreseen, and in your heart you know you did the right thing. In fact, you may have followed your code of conduct.

What to Look for In the student learner activity handout, the instructor should point out to students what to look for related to the learning objectives. For example, the instructor can give descriptors of an actor’s action, interaction among actors, or an actor’s possible thoughts and motives. From the three movie clips mentioned in the prior section, the following are examples of concepts for what students should look: This evening, you will look at three vignettes from major motion pictures. See how the action relates to our previous class discussion about the importance of a code of ethics or a code of conduct. Specifically look for demonstrations of

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Gambescia tough decision making, personal sacrifice for a greater good, personal responsibility for one’s actions, role/status conflict , deciding when to use or break a code of conduct, and integrity.

Setting the Stage When using a short clip from a movie, the instructor should set the stage so students know “what is going on” in the overall picture. This information is easily available by looking up reviews, trailers, and other material via the Internet. The instructor should invest time in rewriting the material found; however, there is an important need to shift the writing from the promotional language of the film to teacher–student language. Common components include overall plot, time period, setting, and a description of major characters and their roles. If showing multiple clips in a class period, the instructor can assign selected students to help write the copy for setting the stage of the movie.

Learning Objectives As with any learning activity, the instructor should have in mind learning objectives for the activity. A best practice when using cinema in the classroom is to state the learning objectives in a student handout. For example, for the movies explained in the Overall Purpose section about competing codes of conduct, the learner objectives are as follows: After this class students will be able to • to look up their official code of ethics in the health promotion profession; • read carefully and think about their official code of ethics; • give an example of how personal codes, workplace codes, and professional codes of conduct or ethics could be at variance between and among each other; • imagine a potential conflict between a personal code and professional code in current activity as a student and beginning professional in the health care or public health field; • sympathize with those faced with competing codes of conduct.

Class Discussion Instructors need to think about how to best structure a class discussion for students after they have viewed the movie. Discussion could be open-ended among the full class of students, or the instructor could set up groups of students to first discuss the questions and then ask a representative of each group


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to give their responses to questions assigned prior to showing the movie (What to Look for). Showing popular films typically fosters a more casual classroom environment, but the instructor should emphasize to the students that they should take notes as they think about the questions presented. If there are sensitive or potentially controversial scenes, the instructor should be prepared to comment on them, using his or her best judgment and working from students’ reactions to sensitive issues. Although potentially controversial, these moments could be powerful teaching moments, which is the point of showing the movie clips.

Assessment Techniques Assessment of success in using a constructed student learner activity guide can be accomplished at several levels. (See online resources in the Materials and Resources section.) First, and naturally, teachers will develop their assessment instruments based on testing knowledge gained and attitudes changed before, during, and after viewing of the film. This assessment can begin during the discussion portion of the class, after students have viewed the movie. The overall assessment is, do the students understand the learning objectives set for the class? This assessment goal is common for any learner activity. However, what is interesting when using cinema in class is testing the ability of students to “pick up on” the subtleties in cinema. For example, in the movie Chariots of Fire (Puttnam & Hudson, 1981), students may not get the subtle anti-Semitic remarks given to English-born Harold Abrams, even as he wins fame for his college and country. In the film Philadelphia (Demme, Saxon, & Demme, 1993), the filmmakers show the spiritual side of Andrew Becket (played by Tom Hanks) soon before he dies. The lawyer, dying of AIDS, looks up to the heavens while listening to opera in his apartment. The scene is shot from cameras positioned above, thus alluding to him watched over by a Higher Order. Students in health administration courses find the movie John Q (Burg & Cassavetes, 2002) disturbing, as a young boy is not given the chance to receive a heart transplant because his father’s insurance will not cover it. The hospital administrator, Rebecca Payne (Anne Heche), has a change of heart late in the film and works to find the boy a donor. Students often “paint her” as a cold, greedy administrator and miss the subtle change she makes late in the movie. Many controversial issues in the health field are normative in nature; thus, assessments to see whether students agree or disagree with the main characters’ words and deeds are useful. Students’ opinions and feelings can be measured initially via the class discussion previously explained, but it is more powerful to ask for a written reflection or position paper. Considerations for students using this structured reflection assessment could be as follows: • What assumptions did you have about this issue prior to viewing the movie?

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Gambescia Write a few sentences articulating the dilemma in which the main character found himself or herself. How realistic do you find this dilemma? Is this something you will find in your future (life, job, etc.)? In your opinion, did the main character “do the right thing?” Explain. What conditions or variables would change your mind about what you decided in the latter question?

Many students writing news reports or commentary for a school or college newspaper are quickly socialized that their role is to be objective purveyors of the news and to convey “just the facts.” The movie Absence of Malice (Pollack, Schwary, & Pollack, 1981) is an example of what journalists write in a newspaper that has a dramatic effect on people’s lives. Newspaper reporter Megan Carter (Sally Field) believes readers “will be understanding” of a single teacher in a religious-sponsored elementary school having an abortion. The teacher served as an alibi to prove that the main character, Michael Gallagher (Paul Newman), could not have been in the place of interest in a criminal investigation, as he was caring for her during the woman’s out-of-town medical procedure. The school teacher killed herself when this information appeared in the news story. Similarly, in the movie The Paper (Grazer, Koepp, & Howard, 1994), the editor of a big city tabloid (Tom Hanks) literally yells “Stop the press!” as he discovers that two young males, whom the police have implicated for a murder, are convenient suspects. All are furious at the editor, but he cannot deny his conviction to “get the story right,” even if they are running a big city tabloid and no one would care if they were expeditious in their news reporting. Many of these questions for students to consider after viewing the clips of the movie lean toward the student’s opinions, but the instructor could create a rubric for grading using the following criteria: • Ability of the student to clearly articulate the potential controversy in the movie • Ability of the student to take an empathetic position with one of the character’s in the movie • Ability of the student to see the real-world application of the issues in the movie, especially as it relates to professional practice • Ability of the student to use an ethical, moral, or legal framework to analyze a sensitive or controversial issue Grading would certainly depend on students’ grade level and purpose of the learner activity (e.g., introductory concepts, reinforcement, or summative concepts); an excellent, good, fair, poor rating could be used for each student response.


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References Beauchamp, D. E. (1988). The health of the republic: Epidemics, medicine, and moralism as challenges to democracy. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Berk, R. A. (2009). Multimedia teaching with video clips: TV, movies, YouTube, and mtvU in the college classroom. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning, 5(1), 1–21. Brest, M. (Producer), & Brest, M. (Director). (1992). Scent of a women [Motion picture]. USA: City Lights Films. Bryce, I., Gordon, M., Levinsohn, G., Spielberg, S. (Producer), & Spielberg, S. (Director). (1998). Saving Private Ryan [Motion picture]. USA: DreamWorks Pictures. Burg, M. (Producer), & Cassavetes, N. (Director). (2002). John Q [Motion picture]. USA: Evolution Entertainment. Chubb, J. E., & Moe, T. M. (1990). Politics and America’s schools. Washington, DC: Brookings Institute. Colleton, S., Abbott, E., Marshall, P., Greenhut, R. (Producers), & Marshall, P. (Director). (1994). Renaissance man [Motion picture]. USA: Touchstone Pictures. Delbanco, A. (2012). College: What it was, is, and should be. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Demme, J., Saxon, E. (Producers), & Demme, J. (Director). (1993). Philadelphia [Motion picture]. USA: Clinica Estetico. Fisher, L. (2006, January 15). One side isn’t enough for a state university. The Philadelphia Inquirer, p. C7. Frieden, J., & Elliott, D. (2014, December 22). Who are we. Retrieved from http://www.teachwithmovies.org/who-we-are.htm Gambescia, S. F. (2010, November 21). When parents object to using film in the classroom. Bucks County Courier Times, p. 4. Grazer, B., Koepp, D. (Producers), & Howard, R. (Director). (1994). The paper [Motion picture]. USA: Universal Pictures. Horowitz, D. (7 February 2007). Is it teaching or is it venting? The Philadelphia Inquirer, p. A17. Kelly, M. (2014a, December 22). Movie lesson plans ideas: Ways to effectively use movies in class. Retrieved from http://712educators.about.com/od/ curriculumandlessonplans/tp/Movie-Lesson-Plan-Ideas.htm Kelly, M. (2014b, December 22). Pros and cons of using movies in class: Looking at the use of movies in lesson plans. Retrieved from http://712educators. about.com/od/curriculumandlessonplans/a/Pros-And-Cons-Of-UsingMovies-In-Class.htm Kurtz, H. (29 March 2005). College faculties a most liberal lot, study finds. The Washington Post, p. C01.

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Mateer, D., Purdom, R., Ghent, L., & Porter, T. (2014, December 22). Using media to enhance teaching and learning. Retrieved from http://serc. carleton.edu/sp/library/media/index.html Menand, L. (2010). “Why do professors all think alike?” In The marketplace of ideas: Reform and resistance in the American university (pp. 129–155). New York: W.W. Norton. Pollack, S., & Schwary, R. L. (Producers), & Pollack, S. (Director). (1981). Absence of malice [Motion picture]. USA: Columbia Pictures. Puttnam, D. (Producer), & Hudson, H. (Director). (1981). Chariots of fire [Motion picture]. United Kingdom: Studio. Reiner, R., Brown, D., Sheinman, A. (Producers), & Reiner, R. (Director). (1981). A few good men [Motion picture]. USA: Castle Rock Entertainment. Tanen, N., Hughes, J. (Producers), & Hughes, J. (Director). (1985). The breakfast club [Motion picture]. USA: Universal Pictures. Tompkins, A. (2004, November 9). Thursday edition: “Saving Private Ryan” controversy. Retrieved from http://www.poynter.org/news/ mediawire/27276/thursday-edition-saving-private-ryan-controversy/ Zim, M. [Putting Ed Tech Into Practice]. (2014, December 22). Making the most out of movies in the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.teachhub. com/making-most-out-movies-classroom