Abstract:

Concept cartoons are visual representations of scientific ideas. The simple cartoon drawings show different points of view on scientific ideas to stimulate students' motivation and interest in scientific topics and their discussion and argument. Previous research has shown that concept cartoons are a highly visual and stimulating approach that helps in the identification and elimination of students' misconceptions, provides students' participation in classroom discussions, motivates and activates students, promotes a better understanding of scientific ideas, has a significant impact on student critical thinking and learning, and contributes to the concept of problem-based learning. Previous research has also shown that the concept cartoon approach minimizes classroom management problems by promoting focused discussions and keeping children on task. This paper analyzes the challenges and opportunities of concept cartoon application in primary science classes and shows the results of research aimed to determine if there is a connection between the use of concept cartoons and the development of students' interests in primary science classes. The quasi-experimental study with initial and final testing of students' interest in primary science classes was conducted for that purpose. The research objective was to investigate the effect of concept cartoon strategy versus lecture-based teaching on students’ motivation to learn science. The research involved 114 fourth-grade students. The research results show that, after applying the concept cartoon strategy in teaching and learning primary science, students express an increasing interest and positive attitudes about primary science classes, and that the concept cartoon approach affecting positively on their engagement in reasoning about scientific ideas. Based on the obtained results, it can be concluded that the application of the concept cartoon strategy in primary science should be more frequent.

Keywords:

Students' interest, concept cartoons, primary science classes, scientific literacy, problem-based learning.