Effect of using culturally responsive and differentiated concept cartoons on students' academic success and attitude in science teaching

In this study, we investigated effect of using of culturally responsive and differentiated concept cartoons in science teaching on students' academic achievement in 'Our World, Moon and Our Source of Life: Sun' unit and attitudes toward astronomy. The study has been conducted in quasi-experimental designs; The Matching-Only Posttest-Only Control Group Design for academic achievement, The Matching-Only Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design for attitudes of students. Study group of the research includes 80 voluntaries 6th graders selected from two different schools in Akçakale province. '6th Class Our World, Moon and Our Source of Life: Sun Achievement Test' and 'Astronomy Attitude Scale' were utilized to determine academic achievement and attitude levels of students respectively. Culturally responsive and differentiated concept cartoons supported lectures have lasted for 4 weeks. Only attitude scale at the beginning of the study, both attitude scale and achievement tests were used the end of the study to collect data. To observe whether treatment and control group scores show significant difference each other, independent samples T test and Covariance Analysis were applied respectively for achievement and attitude scores. In addition, data was analyzed according to various variables – gender, educational status of father, educational status of mother to be able to draw a profile of the study group. Findings revealed that group scores are differentiated in treatment group's favor. As a result, it is concluded that concept cartoons which are developed with multicultural understanding are effective instructional tools to increase academic achievement in regarding unit and develop positive attitudes toward astronomy.