The effect of concept cartoon technique on students' academic achievement in geometric shapes and objects

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of teaching activities supported by concept cartoons used in 3rd-grade elementary school mathematics classes on students' mathematics achievement. The research was conducted using a weak experimental model with a pre-test and post-test design without a control group. The study group of the research consists of 13 (6 girls, 7 boys) 3rd-grade students studying in a district in the Central Black Sea Region during the 2021-2022 academic year. The implementation period of the research is 4 weeks, 18 lesson hours. As data collection tools, a "achievement test" and "concept cartoon activity pages" developed by the researcher were used. The multiple-choice achievement test, consisting of 23 items and prepared by the researcher, was administered twice: as a pre-test at the beginning of the process and as a post-test at the end of the process. The achievement test was administered to the study group before and after the application. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and Mann Whitney U test were used in the analysis of the data of the research. The analyses indicate that teaching based on concept cartoon activities improves achievement in geometric shapes and figures in mathematics classes, there is no significant difference between genders, but the average achievement of male students is higher than that of female students. Based on these findings, educators have been advised to expand the use of concept cartoons in mathematics teaching at the elementary level and to apply this method in other learning areas as well.