This document discusses using concept cartoons in science classrooms. Concept cartoons are visual tools composed of characters proposing ideas or discussing concepts through dialogue. They are based on everyday situations and can stimulate discussion and argumentation among students. Concept cartoons align with constructivist learning theory and make classrooms more engaging. They help improve students' critical thinking, influence attitudes positively, and may improve academic achievement.

1. Concept cartoons in science
classroom
ARUN RAJ
Faculty,
North East Regional Institute of Education, NCERT
Shillong, Meghalaya. arunillam2000@gmail.com

12. REASONS FOR TEACHING/LEARNING SCIENCE
1. Personal Needs
Utilize sciences for improving lives and for
coping with an increasingly technological
world.
2. Societal Issues
Produce informed citizens prepared to deal with science
related social and environmental issues.
3. Academic preparation
Allow students to pursue critical thinking.
4. Career awareness
Provide the nature and scope of related careers and jobs.

14. Affective domain…..

15. • Senses are the source of stimuli that cause a response in
the nervous system. It gives us the information we need to
function in the everyday life (Kranowitz, 1998).
• Perception is the way in which we interpret the
information gathered (and processed) by the sense (Shefner,
1981).
• Sensation and perceptual process are very much vital in
Science learning because, it plays different roles in how we
interpret our ideas.

16. Sensory perceptual experiences of children
Some of the prominent types of unpleasant sensory perceptual
experienced faced by the children's are
• Sensory overload: Children facing sensory overload experience
too much of information coming in at once which is overwhelming.
In this case the brain might not be able to filter out anything
irrelevant.
• Gestalt perception: Children with gestalt perception possess
poor ability to filter foreground and back ground information and
thus everything is perceived as a ‘whole’ rather a combination of
different items.

17. • Fragmented perception: In this kind of sensory
experience, children with autism feel difficult to break
down the whole picture into meaningful units when
information is overloaded and when it is required to be
processed at the same time.
• Delayed processing: children with this kind of sensory
experience will take longer time to process, understand
and respond to what he is seeing/hearing/feeling.

18. How to identify..?
Children with sensory integration dysfunction can be
identified easily by the dysfunction like
• Unusual high or unusual low activity level
• Poor organization behaviour
• Coordination problems
• Delay in speech or language skills
• Tendency to get easily distracted
• Lacks creativity and variety in play

19. Why Cartoon…?
• It is worth that 83% of learning takes place through
seeing as opposed to only 13% from listening (Veenakumar,
1998)
• It is suggested that information aimed at both halves
through text and visual aids the reader’s
comprehension appreciation and retention

20. Cartoon…..
• A carton is a visual medium and a two dimensional
illustrated visual art with humour that can be in
either the form of a single picture or a series of
pictures, captioned or non-captioned, that appears
in magazines, newspapers or books (Arunraj et al., 2014).

21. What are concept cartoons?
• Concept cartoons were first developed in the 1990s by Keogh and
Nayloras a result of endeavour to enlighten the relationship between
constructivist approach and epistemology and classroom applications
These cartoons combine visual elements with the texts written in the
form of dialogues (Keogh and Naylor, 1999).
• Concept cartoons are visual tools composed of three or more characters’
proposing ideas, discussing or thinking on a subject, an incident or a
concept in daily life.

27. SignificantfeaturesofConceptCartoons
• They are based on everyday situations that don’t appear to be
scientific, so students lacking in confidence are less likely to be
intimidated by the science and more likely to engage with them.
• act as an effective stimulus for argumentation, including
enabling students to construct arguments.
• They can bridge the gap between formal and informal learning
settings because they are based around everyday situations that
appear to involve ordinary characters doing ordinary things.
• Concept Cartoons have been found to be highly motivating for
groups of learners of all ages and backgrounds and in a variety of
circumstances, including those students who have emotional and
behavioural difficulties.

28. • Each Concept Cartoon can be used to stimulate a free standing
discussion and enquiry. Alternatively, the Concept Cartoons can
be linked together to form a larger topic or to create a project
related to science.
• Provide an opportunity for learners to explore, challenge or
consolidate the ideas raised through the Concept Cartoon(s).

29. Applications….
It has to align it with the constructivist learning
theory, makes the classroom more interesting and
entertaining and students become more actively
involved in the classroom activities , creates
discussion environment where student can improve
their critical thinking skills, influences in positive way
students attitudes towards lesson in particular and
school in general may have an important role in
improving students academic achievement