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Concept cartoons: a new perspective on physics education

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1998 Phys. Educ. 33 219

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Concept cartoons: a newperspective on physicseducationBrenda Keogh†, Stuart Naylor† and Catherine Wilson‡† Manchester Metropolitan University, UK‡ Institute of Physics, London, UK

Cartoons used to promote the publicunderstanding of science have provedpopular and can be usefully applied in theclassroom, where improved motivation isjust one of their benefits.

Readers travelling in London recently may havebeen surprised to see the Institute of Physicslogo on some eye-catching posters displayed inadvertising spaces in the Underground carriages.These posters, carrying prominently the question‘What do you think?’, represent an innovativeaddition to the campaign to promote the publicunderstanding of science. Childlike figures posesimple yet fascinating questions about everydaysituations which will appeal to every traveller,young or old. The posters help to show theimportance of physics in our lives and the power ofphysics to explain why things are as they are, fromsmall-scale everyday matters to issues relating tothe origins of the universe.

Posters with four different designs weredisplayed in every carriage (4000+) of theUnderground trains in March this year. Therewill be a repeat programme using four differentposters in August and again in 1999. The postersare, of course, intended to be more than ‘fun’,the intention being to set travellers wonderingabout the explanations of everyday situations. Itis for this reason, among others, that the Institutehas been pleased to support and part-sponsor thecampaign. Raising the public’s awareness ofphysics is a central part of the Institute’s work.

The posters use an approach called ‘conceptcartoons’ (Keogh and Naylor 1997a). Theseconcept cartoons have been used in various waysand in diverse situations—to teach science, toassess pupils’ (and student teachers’) levels ofunderstanding of scientific matters, to engagedisaffected teenagers in scientific discussion, andto stimulate interest in science questions inmuseums and other exhibition centres. Variousaspects of the concept cartoons are explored inwhat follows.

The concept cartoon approach

The concept cartoons consist of cartoon-styledrawings showing everyday situations. The car-toon characters put forward alternative viewpointsabout the science involved in the situation, and theformat invites learners to join in the debate withthe cartoon characters. Typically a concept cartoonwill be used as the focus for a group discussion,which can then lead on to investigations to decidewhich of the viewpoints put forward is most ac-ceptable. Examples of concept cartoons are shownin figures 1 and 2 (Keogh and Naylor 1997b).

Although the concept cartoons appear tobe very simple and straightforward, each onenormally contains the following features:

• minimal amounts of text, so that they areaccessible and inviting to learners (of any age)with limited literacy skills

• scientific ideas are applied in everydaysituations, so that learners are challenged to

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Figure 1.

make connections between the scientific andthe everyday

• the alternative ideas put forward are basedon research that identifies common areas ofmisunderstanding, so that learners are likelyto see many of the alternatives as credible

• the scientifically acceptable viewpoint(s) willbe included amongst the alternatives

• the alternatives put forward all appear to be ofequal status, so that learners cannot work outwhich alternative is correct from the context.

The concept cartoons have rapidly proved tobe a popular teaching and learning approach that isapplicable in a wide variety of settings. They arebeing used increasingly in primary and secondaryschools and teacher education; outside the formaleducation system they are being used with parents,

Women’s Institute groups, members of the publicin interactive science centres—and, of course, onthe London Underground.

Research into the concept cartoons

Research that may be of relevance to physicseducators has been undertaken from a number ofdifferent perspectives.

1. An evaluation of the concept cartoonsas a teaching and learning approach. Thisresearch involved teacher educators, primary andsecondary teachers and student teachers plusnumerous groups of pupils. Data have beencollected through observation of teaching, writtenreports, evaluation questionnaires and interviewswith teachers, student teachers and learners. The

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Figure 2.

main focus was on aspects such as manageability,motivation and providing a suitable stimulus forinvestigation.

2. Use of the concept cartoons to challengestudent teachers’ perceptions of approaches toteaching and learning.This research was carriedout by enabling student teachers to carry out someclassroom-based research in which they use theconcept cartoons as a teaching approach, thenreflect on whether their understanding of teachingand learning has been modified as a result oftheir experience. Data have been obtained fromstudent teachers through group discussion, writtenfeedback and in-depth interviews with a sample ofthem.

3. Use of the concept cartoons as an assess-ment strategy. This research is still in its early

stages. Concept cartoons are being used withstudent teachers to assess their understanding ofscientific concepts at the beginning of their course,encouraging them to use the concept cartoons asan assessment strategy in school, then asking themto reflect on the value and manageability of thisassessment strategy. Four University Schools ofEducation are involved in this research. Data arebeing collected by group discussion, questionnaireand interviews with a sample of the studentteachers.

4. Public access to science through Scienceon the Underground.The project began in March1998 and an independent evaluation was carriedout by Education Extra during that month. Thepurpose of the evaluation was to gauge the impactof the project on public awareness of and interest

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in the posters displayed in the Undergroundcarriages. Data have been collected by monitoringthe calls to Science Line (a telephone service forscience-based questions), monitoring contacts tothe project web site, interviews with membersof the public in the London Transport Museum,observation of passengers on the Undergroundtrains and an evaluation questionnaire available atthe London Transport Museum and on the website.

Evidence from research

The evidence available from the first two phases ofthe research is fairly extensive. Only preliminarydata are available from the third phase, and thedata are not yet available from the Undergroundproject. The main outcomes that may be of interestcan be summarized as follows.

From the first phase motivation emerged asone of the key findings. Teachers consistentlyreport that the pupils are highly motivatedwhen they are using the concept cartoons.Teachers working with pupils with behaviouraldifficulties or pupils who are reluctant learnershave often made the most positive commentsabout motivation. They claim that pupilswho are generally reluctant to become involvedin discussion or to put their views forwardfind it easier to join in the debate with thecartoon characters. Certainly the pupils expressthemselves in no uncertain terms—e.g. ‘they beatwritten work any day’—and one group in an innercity school described how the naughtiest boy inthe class had wanted to stay in at break to carryon discussing the concept cartoon.

Another key finding was the way that theconcept cartoons provided a manageable wayto promote pupils’ investigations. Because theconcept cartoons appear to promote such activediscussion and debate they generate a context and apurpose for further investigation. Pupils frequentlydescribed how they were unable to wait to beginto investigate their ideas and find out more aboutthe cartoon situation. The teachers’ perceptionswere that classroom management problems wereminimized by ‘promoting group work which hadthe children working towards the same goal’ andthat the focused discussion kept the pupils on task,so freeing the teacher’s attention from questionsof classroom management. Being able to predict

the kinds of investigations that emerged fromdiscussion of each concept cartoon also helped tominimize problems of organizing equipment andresources.

These points overlap with the main findingsfrom the second phase. The principle oftaking pupils’ ideas into account in planning forteaching is generally viewed as uncontentious, butmanaging this process is a serious issue for manyteachers and student teachers. Comments suchas ‘. . . this is a very difficult concept to achieve.How can you plan and teach 36 different lessonsat the same time?’ indicate a real concern abouthow to translate science education theory intopractice. The principle is often taken to meanthat it is necessary to find out the pupils’ ideasbefore planning any specific activity that willchallenge and develop their ideas, and that eachactivity should be targeted to specific ideas heldby the pupils. Clearly this is unworkable in mostclassrooms.

Figure 2 illustrates how this issue might beresolved. In order to find out which of thecartoon characters has a better understanding ofthe situation it is necessary to do some kindof investigation to determine whether the bottleof lemonade gains or loses weight once the topis removed. Whichever cartoon character iscorrect—and whatever ideas the pupils hold at thestart—the same type of investigation still needsto be carried out. Rather than having to set updifferent investigations according to the differentstarting points of the pupils, they are able to setup similar investigations even though they holddifferent beliefs. One group of pupils would testtheir hypothesis that the lemonade would loseweight; another group that the lemonade wouldgain weight; and a third group that the weightwould stay the same. All of them would carry outa similar investigation, even though their purposewould be different. In this way the principle oftaking pupils’ ideas into account seems to becomea more realistic prospect by reducing the problemsof classroom management.

Figure 2 also illustrates how other importantprinciples of putting research into practice areembedded in the concept cartoons. Access tothe scientifically acceptable ideas is guaranteed byensuring that these are included in the alternativepossibilities. The extensive data on alternativeconceptions that are now available can be used

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in a purposeful way in the concept cartoon. Inthis instance the research data suggest that aboutthree-quarters of 12 year-olds believe that air hasnegative weight or no weight (Driveret al 1994).These conceptions are taken into account in thestatements made by the concept cartoon characters.

Teachers and student teachers have been veryconsistent in their views on the value of theconcept cartoons as an approach to assessment.Without exception they have spoken positivelyabout the use of this approach for finding outthe pupils’ ideas. By providing a stimulus fordiscussion the pupils’ views are very readily madeexplicit; whole class discussion can lead to pupilsmaking a commitment to one or more of thecharacters before they begin any investigation, orwritten records of their views can be obtained veryeasily if this is seen as desirable.

Only preliminary data are available about howstudent teachers view the concept cartoons as anapproach for assessing the level of their ownscience background knowledge. Early indicationsare that they view this approach as user-friendly—‘ the kindest way you could have done it’, to quoteone student teacher. The relationship betweenthe science and real-life situations seems to beparticularly significant for many of them, so thatthey are forced to reflect on situations that theyhad never thought about before and consider howtheir scientific knowledge might be applied in thatnew situation.

Implications for physics teaching

There seem to be a number of implications fromthe research for how the concept cartoons mightbe used in physics teaching and learning. Theseinclude:• enhancing motivation

Although levels of interest in science, includingphysics, are generally high in the primary school,this interest tends not to be sustained in secondaryschool and beyond (statistics show a decline inA-level physics numbers from 46 786 in 1989 to33 508 in 1997, in spite of the overall increasein A-level entries through that period). Use ofthe concept cartoons offers one possible way tosustain this interest for longer, particularly withthose pupils who do not learn easily from text-based resources or who are already somewhatdisenchanted with school.

• providing a purpose for practical workThere is some debate about the nature and purposeof practical work in schools (Woolnough 1994)and how practical work is perceived by pupils.When pupils use the concept cartoons there isa context and a purpose for investigating thesituation, with the use of scientific skills closelylinked to the development of scientific ideas. Theinvestigations carried out are directly linked to thelearner’s existing ideas.• emphasizing the applications of science

One of the reasons why physics is perceived asdifficult (and frequently male-oriented) by manylearners is that it is viewed as dealing with abstractconcepts that apply only in ideal theoreticalsituations. Some learners feel that they have tolearn a lot of theory without ever considering howthis theory might apply to the real world. Conceptcartoons represent an attempt to ask some of thequestions that learners might like to ask if theythink about their everyday lives. Through thesecartoon situations physics concepts can be given abreath of life.• enabling learners to assess their own level of

understandingIn an earlier volume of this journal Adamczykand Willson (1996) described how concept mapscan be used with trainee physics teachers to helpthem to identify gaps in their knowledge. Conceptcartoons offer an alternative technique that can beused in exactly the same way with student teachersand with pupils in school. Part of the value of theconcept cartoon technique is that it links togetherthe stages of identifying areas of uncertainty andfinding out more in those areas. In this respectthe technique also acts as an ‘active learning tool’(Adamczyk and Willson 1996, p 374) rather thansimply as an assessment strategy.• promoting public awareness, interest and

understanding in scienceThe Science on the Underground project is alarge-scale example of an approach that can bevery successful on a smaller scale. The conceptcartoons provide physics educators with a strategythat can speak to the public in ways that they findinteresting, accessible and challenging.

Underground travellers are not renowned fortalking to each other, and the Underground mightnot be the most obvious place to set aboutimproving the public understanding of physics.However, early indications are that the concept

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cartoons appear to be bringing about changeswith regard to raising science awareness andpromoting dialogue about science. The Institute isconfident that Science on the Underground will beas successful as Poems on the Underground havebeen. We look forward to lively conversationsabout science among a somewhat jaded travellingpublic!

Background to the problems posed on theposters is available from the London TransportMuseum, through Science Line (0345 600444) andon the Web (http://www.mmu.ac.uk: click on thelogo at the bottom of the page).

Received 13 February 1998, in final form 5 May 1998PII: S0031-9120(98)91642-2

References

Adamczyk P and Willson M 1996 Using concept mapswith trainee physics teachersPhys. Educ.31374–81

Driver R, Squires A, Rushworth P and Wood-RobinsonV 1994 Making Sense of Secondary Science(London: Routledge)

Keogh B and Naylor S 1997aStarting Points forScience(Sandbach: Millgate House)

Keogh B and Naylor S 1997bThinking About Scienceset of eight posters (Sandbach: Millgate House)

Woolnough B 1994Effective Science Teaching(Buckingham: Open University)

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