IMPACT OF EDUCATIONAL COMICS ON DIVISION CONCEPT IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Abstract

Comics engage students in learning mathematics through their interactive nature and the relatively simple language they use. Not only that, it also helps expand students’ thinking through the introduction of contextualized mathematics. This is also in line with the latest math education trend to engage students with math problems in a real-world context. As a result, there is a great potential for the use of comics as a teaching tool in primary school mathematics lessons. The current research works pointed out that comics increase the efficiency of teaching and strengthen the relationship between teacher and students. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of educational comics-supported instruction on academic achievement of primary school students in division concept. The study used quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group. The study group consists of 42 second grade pupils (21 for experimental and 21 for control group) studying in a public primary school located in Niğde, Turkey. As for data collection, academic achievement test was developed based on the learning outcomes of the mathematics curriculum. The pilot study was conducted to determine the statistics and the quality of test items. In order to ensure the validity of this test, evidences were collected and the reliability of the test calculated. The results of this study showed that the students who learn division via educational comics-supported instruction is more successful than the students who learn division via traditional instruction. Two of the reasons could be listed as (1) division is a complex and abstract concept so that traditional instruction have some difficulty in making the understanding easier, (2) educational comics strengthen the communication between student and teacher, attract attention of the students. This study is considered important in terms of emphasizing that educational comics are a preferred tool for some concepts of mathematics instruction.