Adaptive teaching for every learner: the power of film, TV and radio

How can we make mainstream teaching more responsive to the different needs, prior knowledge, and barriers present in every classroom? This is what the Department for Education (DfE) is aiming to improve with the mainstream education fund, so that institutions can provide high-quality adaptive teaching.

For 16–19 providers, the ambition is clear: adaptive teaching should not mean creating a different lesson for every learner. Instead, it means strengthening mainstream teaching so that educators have a richer range of evidenced ways to help all learners access, understand, and participate in the same curriculum. And there is a compelling case for looking beyond text as the default route into that source material.

Film, television and radio can give educators another way to make mainstream teaching more responsive while helping to anticipate and reduce barriers before they block participation.

Adaptive teaching starts before learners fall behind

The evidence for purposefully combining words, images and sound is substantial. It includes foundational theories of cognition, controlled experimental research, large-scale studies and meta-analyses, as well as evidence relating specifically to learners with lower prior knowledge, literacy barriers, neurodivergence and those learning in a second language.

This matters because learners do not enter the classroom with identical prior knowledge, confidence, literacy skills, or familiarity with academic language. If written text is consistently treated as the primary route to knowledge, some learners may have to overcome an additional barrier before they can even begin to engage with the subject being taught.

For much of modern education, written text has been treated as the default route into learning. Yet decades of research across cognitive psychology, learning science and education demonstrate that relying too heavily on a single mode of communication can underuse the ways in which people process, understand and retain information.

Across this research, four benefits are particularly relevant to the ambitions of the Inclusive Mainstream Fund:

Engagement: creating the conditions for learning

Attention is a prerequisite for learning. Research shows that well-designed multimedia teaching can increase interest, attention and persistence rather than simply making lessons more entertaining.

A meta-analysis of 105 studies, for example, found a moderate positive effect of multimedia instruction on learner engagement and achievement compared with text-only instruction.

Wider research suggests these benefits can be particularly important for learners with lower academic confidence and those for whom sustained engagement with dense text creates additional cognitive demands.

The implication for inclusion: film, television and radio can help create the conditions in which a wider range of learners are ready and able to engage with learning.

Memory: helping learning stick

The evidence that film, television and radio have the potential to aid memory recall and retention is underpinned by some of the most established theories in learning science.

Paivio’s Dual Coding Theory demonstrates that verbal and visual information can be processed through separate but connected systems, while Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning shows how appropriately combining words and images can support the processing and integration of new knowledge.

Cognitive Load Theory, developed by Sweller and colleagues, further explains why reducing unnecessary demands on limited working memory can be particularly important when learners encounter complex or unfamiliar material.

The implication for inclusion: providing more than one route through which learners can process and connect information can make knowledge more accessible without reducing its complexity.

Understanding: making the abstract more accessible

Research shows that visual and screen-based explanations can support learners in building more accurate mental models and applying knowledge to new situations. A meta-analysis found an average effect size of 0.67 for visual and multimedia representations in STEM conceptual understanding, with particularly strong benefits for novice learners.

Mayer’s research similarly demonstrates substantial improvements in transfer when learners encounter appropriately designed multimedia explanations. This matters for equity because prior knowledge is not evenly distributed. Learners who already possess the relevant schemas and academic conventions have more resources with which to interpret an unfamiliar text. Those who do not can face an additional, often invisible, barrier.

The implication for inclusion: film, television and radio can provide context and make meaning more explicit, reducing dependence on prior knowledge and familiarity with academic language as the only routes to understanding.

Inclusion: multiple routes into the same learning

Universal Design for Learning emphasises multiple means of representation, while evidence and guidance from organisations including the EEF, CAST, the British Dyslexia Association and the National Autistic Society support varied, visual and multimodal approaches for reducing barriers to comprehension and participation.

Research with second-language learners also demonstrates the value of contextual and visual information in supporting comprehension and confidence. The significance is that these approaches are not confined to a particular diagnostic group. The same teaching practice that reduces a barrier for one learner can enrich and strengthen learning for everyone.

One curriculum, many ways in

The wider research evidence is reinforced by what learners themselves tell us.

Learning on Screen’s Teach Beyond Text research gathered responses from almost 1,150 students, including 939 qualitative responses, providing both quantitative evidence and insight into learners’ lived experiences.

The findings are striking:

82% said access to film and television makes learning more engaging and enjoyable.
80% said it helps them understand their course subject.
80% said it helps them remember or retain information.
77% said film and television had helped them overcome learning challenges.

Learners who identified as neurodivergent reported stronger benefits across all these measures.

The qualitative responses add needed context to the statistics. Learners described film and television as clearer, more manageable and less overwhelming than text-heavy approaches. They connected their use with greater confidence, motivation and willingness to participate.

These findings do not suggest that film and television should replace reading, writing or other forms of teaching, but their assimilation into current teaching techniques.

A deeper look into the past

Consider a history lesson on the end of the Cold War.

For some learners, understanding the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the events of 1989 and German reunification can feel highly abstract. A written explanation may provide the political narrative, but it does not necessarily make the human experience of those events immediately accessible.

A short clip from Changing Berlin: Changing Europe, for example, can introduce learners to people who actually experienced life in divided Berlin.

The teacher can then combine three complementary representations:

Watch: encounter first-hand accounts and lived experience.
Read: explore the political developments that led to the opening of the border and German reunification.
View: use maps to establish the geographical and geopolitical context.

The question remains the same for everyone:

Why was the fall of the Berlin Wall such a significant moment for Germany and the ending of the Cold War?

What changes is the way learners are supported to access the knowledge needed to answer it.

For learners who need more context, the combination of film, text and visual information provides multiple entry points. For those with stronger prior knowledge, the same resources create opportunities to interrogate contrasting perspectives and connect individual experiences with wider political change.

From “what can I see?” to “how can I explain it?”

The same principle can be applied to subjects where concepts are abstract or difficult to visualise.

Take Physics: understanding forces, acceleration, air resistance and terminal velocity requires learners to develop scientific models that may initially be unfamiliar and highly abstract.

A short clip from Top Gear showing a parachutist attempting to land in a moving car offers an immediate, concrete starting point.

Before introducing the physics, the teacher can ask:

Will he make it?

Every learner can make a prediction.

They can watch what happens and discuss what they observe:

What happens to the parachutist’s speed?
Does he continue accelerating?
What forces might be acting on him?
What changes when the parachute opens?

At this stage, learners do not need to know the formal scientific terminology. They have something concrete to observe, discuss and reason about.

The teacher can then introduce the relevant concepts, such as weight, air resistance, resultant force, acceleration and terminal velocity, and return to the clip.

The learning journey becomes:

Observation → initial explanation → scientific knowledge → disciplinary explanation

For learners with less secure prior knowledge, this reduces the barrier created by unfamiliar terminology and abstract models. For learners who already understand the concepts, it provides an opportunity to test and refine their hypotheses.

Everyone is working towards the same outcome.

Why this matters for inclusion

The power of this approach is that it does not require educators to create a separate curriculum for every learner.

Universal Design for Learning and wider evidence on inclusive practice emphasise the value of multiple means of representation. Research with learners who have lower prior knowledge, literacy barriers, neurodivergent learners and those learning in a second language similarly points to the value of contextual, visual and multimodal approaches. The same teaching practice that removes a barrier for one learner can enrich learning for everyone.

A visual representation might help a learner who finds dense text difficult. A first-hand account might provide the context another learner needs to understand an abstract concept. A video demonstration might make a process visible before learners are expected to describe it in technical language.

The important point is that these supports do not have to be reserved for learners with identified additional needs. They can form part of a strong universal teaching offer.

This is what makes film, television and radio particularly relevant to the DfE’s vision of adaptive teaching. They can help educators anticipate variability rather than waiting for difficulty to become failure.

The teacher remains at the centre

Of course, a film clip does not automatically make teaching adaptive. Effective audiovisual teaching is purposeful and teacher-led.

The teacher decides what prior knowledge they need, which questions will deepen thinking, when to introduce new terminology or concepts, and how to challenge learners who are ready to go further. This is why access to resources alone is not enough. Educators also need the knowledge and confidence to use them effectively.

Box of Broadcasts

Box of Broadcasts (BoB) provides the access. It is an educational streaming service giving institutions access to decades of copyright-cleared film, television and radio from 75 channels, with more than 4 million shows to choose from and around 100 new hours of programming added every day.

One platform can support teaching across the curriculum, making audiovisual resources available to educators in every department rather than restricting them to specialist provision.

Alongside this, Teach Beyond Text: Master teaching with film, TV and radio builds educator capability.

The evidence and pedagogy are translated into practical classroom application through guides, ideation tools, planning templates, reflective activities, and teaching tasks.

The focus is not simply on understanding why auditory and visual media can support inclusive learning. It is on giving educators the confidence and practical strategies to embed these approaches into their own subjects, curricula and classrooms.

BoB provides the access. Teach Beyond Text builds the capability. Together, they provide a practical route from evidence to consistent classroom practice.