The use of concept cartoons in the biology classroom

Abstract

Concepts cartoons are visual multiple-choice questions that illustrate alternative viewpoints to a scientific concept. These can be used to probe students’ ideas and develop their understanding of concepts. The use of concept cartoons in biology teaching was investigated using a triangulation approach. Biology teachers’ awareness, familiarity and views on concept cartoons were collected through a questionnaire. The results which were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively show that teachers with less teaching experience were more familiar with this pedagogy. In general, biology teachers agreed that students can benefit from the use of concept cartoons. The majority of teachers also indicated that they were willing to use this pedagogy in their classroom. To test whether concept cartoons can be utilised to address students’ misconceptions, action research was conducted by using concept cartoons with Form 3 students. Discussion templates and concluding drawings were collected for feedback. Through qualitative research, misconceptions were observed in discussion templates and drawings. The results show that concept cartoons together with group discussion templates motivated students to critically think and reason out scientific phenomena in an active manner. Results of individual drawings additionally show that concept learning had taken place. Moreover, the versatility of concept cartoons emerged from the action research. Results also show that using such pedagogy for assessment purposes motivated the students.