Developing an instructional material using a concept cartoon adapted to the 5E model: A sample of teaching erosion

Concepts are the basic parts of knowledge, and they help human beings to organize and categorize the learning outcomes. In order to learn a concept, students should adapt their knowledge, attitude and skills previously acquired with new learning (Yürük, Çakir & Geban, 2000). In this instance, students’ pre-existing knowledge may be characterized as misconceptions when they will be conflict with the scientific realities (Yilmaz, 1998; Ürey & Çalik, 2008). Determination of students’ prior knowledge and misconceptions about a subject is a very important issue in acknowledging students. Additionally, scientific realities in books and the formation of their negative results can be so complex for students (Francis, 1993). For this reason, it is an important issue to consider which appropriating methods for teachers to use in their lessons. There are many kinds of approaches, one being the constructivist approach.

The constructivist approach points a shifting paradigm towards learner-centered or learner-focused instruction. In this approach, the teaching and learning paradigm has shifted from traditional classrooms where a teacher is at the center of the classroom. Constructivist epistemology assumes that students learn from their interactions with their environment. According to constructivist theory, learning is an active process that individuals construct meaning and interpret situations from their previous knowledge and experiences (Driver & Bell, 1986). Constructivism draws on the developmental work of Piaget (1977) and Kelly (1991). Twomey (1989) defines constructivism as a reference to four principles: learning depends on what we already know; new ideas occur as we adapt and change our old ideas; learning involves inventing ideas, rather than mechanically accumulating facts; meaningful learning occurs through rethinking old ideas and coming to new conclusions about new ideas that are in conflict with our old ideas. In the constructivist class environment, the teacher’s role is to provide students activities actively involving and facilitating this process (Gray, 2007).

In a constructivist learning environment, the teachers play the role of a guide and helps students to connect their prior knowledge with new information. Students play an active role by actively involving themselves in the learning process and constructing their knowledge by taking a part in activities (Kroasbergen & Van Luit, 2005). Instructional materials that are developed for learning and teaching a lesson also have an important role in creating a constructivist classroom environment. In this stage, most teachers have a problem with the restriction of utilizing perceptible instructional materials in a classroom environment (Metin & Özmen, 2009). Thus, it is important for students to be actively involved in the learning process. Proper learning materials must be prepared and used for meaningful learning outcomes (Özalp, 2006; Ugurel & Morali, 2006; Balim, Inel, & Evrekli, 2008). One of these learning materials is the concept cartoon.

Concept cartoons are a new approach to teaching, learning and assessing in science, created by Keogh and Naylor (1999). They feature cartoon-style drawings, showing different characters arguing about an everyday situation and are designed to intrigue, provoke discussion and stimulate scientific thinking, and may not have a single so-called right answer (Keogh & Naylor, 1999). A typical concept cartoon has the following features: visual representation of scientific ideas; minimal text in dialogue form; alternative viewpoints on the situation; scientific ideas are applied in everyday situations; the scientifically acceptable viewpoint is included in the alternatives; and the alternatives are given equal status (Keogh & Naylor, 1999). Concept cartoons can be prepared as posters or worksheets that can be distributed to students in a classroom (Kabapinar, 2005).

Concept cartoons, which have the aforementioned features, can be used in different ways in educational settings. They are seen as tools that allow teachers to gain students’ attention, visually focus them on the lesson and create an environment where students can construct or reconstruct their views on a certain topic (Balim, Inel, & Evrekli, 2008). These cartoons can be used at the beginning of a lesson to examine students’ prior knowledge, reveal their thoughts and force them to discuss a certain concept (Keogh et al., 2001; Keogh, Naylor, & Downing, 2003; Kabapinar, 2005; Duralp, 2006; Balim, Inel, & Evrekli, 2008).

Utilizing concept cartoons in the classroom can reveal misconceptions and uncertainties on different kinds of subjects by helping students question their ideas, improve their thinking ability, look at events from different angles and connect and widen different concept activities (Dabell, 2004). One of these subjects with misconceptions is environmental problems (weather, water pollution etc.). Among these problems, the most misconceptions are in the subject of erosion (Pinar, Dikmenli & Buldur, 2000; Bozkurt, Akin & Usak, 2004; Gaither, 2008). Misconceptions are that:

Students don’t fully know the description of erosion;
Students confused the description of erosion with concepts such as landslide, earthquake;
Students have incomplete and wrong knowledge about factors that effect erosion; and
Students have incomplete knowledge about the correlation between structure of soil and erosion.

In order to cope with environmental problems, a great importance must be given to education. In the course of lessons, gaining sensitivity and concerning on erosion students’ attention must be attracted to lessons by taking advantage of different kinds of instructional materials up to different problem types. For further researches, investigating students’ prior knowledge and misconceptions or correcting and improving uncertainties about erosion in the same way, an instructional instrument was developed and introduced in this study.