Prof Jon Scott (Academic Registrar, University of Leicester) gave a short presentation at the Making the Most of Broadcast Media in Your Teaching day conference. Jon outlined an assessed activity conducted with final year bioscientists, in which they prepare a critical review of a designated TV science documentary. The day conference was sponsored by the Higher Education Academy and took place at the University of Leicester on January 14th 2014.

1. Critical Reviews of TV Science
Documentaries
Jon Scott
School of
Biological Sciences

2. Aims
To encourage students to:
• think critically about and analyse documentary
material presented in the media
• research the background to the documentary
• as a group discuss their views about the
programme
• work as a group to prepare and deliver an oral
presentation
• critically evaluate the presentations of the other
groups

3. Exercise Brief
• Working in Groups (4 or 5 students)
• Provided with a DVD of a recent TV programme
on a Neuroscience topic – sourced via TRILT
• Provided with the Marking Scheme
• 3 weeks preparation time
• Required to present a 15 minute critical review of
the programme

4. Marking
• Content
– Overview of the programme content (10 %)
– Evaluation of the scientific accuracy and currency of the programme
(20 %)
– Evaluation of the objectivity of the programme (20 %)
– Evaluation of the quality of the presentation (10 %)
– Effectiveness in targeting the audience (10 %)
• Presentation
– Clarity of the presentation (10 %)
– Quality of the delivery (10 %)
– Quality of the visual aids and their usage (10 %)

5. Student Feedback
• Students’ Comments:
• ‘..was good to do a critical review on something
other than just a research paper, making the
exercise more interesting.’
• ‘..improved the way I observe tv documentaries. I
think I will be more critical in future and not just
sit back and watch.’
• ‘It was interesting to see the differences in styles
of thinking and evaluation between students in the
group’.
• ‘…gave us an understanding of exploring the
information and criticising the information given’

6. Student views on the review exercise
100
% Respondents
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0