Department of Biology, Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA 16652, USA.
CBE Life Sci Educ. 2011 Fall;10(3):309-17. doi: 10.1187/cbe.10-07-0090.
Comic books employ a complex interplay of text and images that gives them the potential to effectively convey concepts and motivate student engagement. This makes comics an appealing option for educators trying to improve science literacy about pressing societal issues involving science and technology. Here, we report results from the first systematic assessment of how a science comic book can affect student learning and attitudes about biology. We used pre- and postinstruction instruments to measure students' attitudes about biology, attitudes about comics, and content knowledge about evolution before and after using the science comic book Optical Allusions in their classes. On the preinstruction instrument, nonmajors reported the lowest scores on the content test and attitude surveys relative to the other groups. However, on the postinstruction instrument, nonmajors' content scores and attitudes showed a statistically significant improvement after using the comic book, particularly among those with lower content knowledge at the start of the semester. The improvement in attitudes about biology was correlated to attitudes about comics, suggesting that the comic may have played a role in engaging and shaping student attitudes in a positive way.
漫画书运用了文本和图像的复杂互动，这使它们有可能有效地传达概念并激发学生的参与度。这使得漫画书成为教育工作者的一个有吸引力的选择，他们试图提高关于涉及科学和技术的紧迫社会问题的科学素养。在这里，我们报告了第一个系统评估科学漫画书如何影响学生学习和对生物学态度的结果。我们在使用科学漫画书《光学幻象》（Optical Allusions）之前和之后，使用预指令和后指令工具来衡量学生对生物学的态度、对漫画的态度以及对进化的内容知识。在预指令工具上，与其他群体相比，非专业学生在内容测试和态度调查中的得分最低。然而，在后指令工具上，非专业学生的内容得分和态度在使用漫画书后显示出统计学上的显著提高，特别是在学期初内容知识较低的学生中。对生物学的态度的改善与对漫画的态度相关，这表明漫画书可能以积极的方式参与并塑造了学生的态度。
