Abstract:

The following paper describes a case study on the conceptual representations about the role of gender. Eighty, twelve years old students of two Greek primary schools used comics and concept maps in order to document their representations. Because of the complexity of the topic and the high range of stereotypes that usually brings along, the research team considered that comics and concept maps would be the proper tools in order to reveal children’s representation in all its depth, unconstrained and naturally. The study of the representations would serve our final aim, the implementation of a curriculum on the role of gender customized to our student’s needs. The study of the conceptual representations is a crucial practice that should precede the designing of a curriculum according to the theory of constructivism. A person develops cognitive models that serve future thinking or acting. The process of knowledge construction depends on our conceptual representations. Effective learning means structuring new knowledge models by using, expanding, revising or erasing the pre-existing representations. Thus, the study of representations is a crucial matter in order to design appropriate educational environments. On the other hand comics are widely used in everyday class as an educational tool that enhances knowledge construction thanks to their visual characteristics but also thanks to their popularity among young students. As far as concept maps are concerned, they are a popular way to represent knowledge and to reveal the representations of the person that takes part in the learning process.

Keywords:

Conceptual representations, role of gender, comics, concept maps, curriculum design.