A study on implementing the technique of caricature in science and environmental education

IXABSTRACTA STUDY ON IMPLEMENTING THE TECHNIQUE OF CARICATURE IN SCIENCE ANDENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATIONIŞILAY ÖZALPThe aim of the present study was to examine the effects of environmental topics givenin science lessons to the 7th grade students of primary schools on the success of the students inscience lessons, their attitude toward the environment and toward the books of science lessonand to compare these effects with traditional educational methods.Semi-experimental study design with pre-test and post-test control groups was used inthe study. Experimental phase of the study was carried out in the context of the lesson unitnamed ?Let?s recognize and protect our world where we share our life with all living beings? on15 students chosen for their success in the first educational season of the study period from 307th grade students attending on Çiçekli Primary School and 22 students from Begel Primaryschool in Gördes County of Manisa. As the study was an experimental one, no sampling andpopulation determining was made and only study group was used in the current study. Thestudy lasted 8 weeks. Illustrated textbook with caricatures prepared by the investigator andapproach of educational cycle were used in the experimental group whereas science bookprepared by the Ministry of Education and conventional educational techniques were used inthe control group.The data required to inquire the sub-problems in the study were achieved by theinvestigator using Success Test in Science developed by the investigator, scale of attitudetoward the environment and scale of attitude to science books. Data were analyzed usingarithmetical mean, standard deviation and t-test for comparing groups, idem difficulty for thesuccess test for Science lesson, item discriminative indexes, reliability coefficient (KR-20). Foranalyses of scale of attitude toward the environment and scale of attitude to science books, itemdifficulty, item discriminative indexes, Chronbach alpha reliability coefficients, t-test and analysisof covariance (ANCOVA) were used. These statistical calculations were made using SPSSStatistic Software (version 11.0). Whether the caricature technique enhanced the interest intothe science lessons was attempted to be determined by taking the views of the students aboutthe lesson into the consideration.The study drew the following conclusions: (1) Caricature technique is more efficient inelevating the students? success in Science Lesson than conventional methods. (2) Permanencylevel in the caricature group is higher than in the group of conventional method. (3) It wasobserved that caricature technique was not efficient in improving the attitudes of the studentstoward the environment compared to the conventional methods. (4) The caricature technique ismore efficient in improving the attitudes of the students into the Science Lesson than theconventional methods. (5) It was determined that the caricature technique facilitated learning inthe students, rendered the students more effective and provided the chance of cooperation andworking in the group. It was also concluded that it increased the interest of the students into thescience lesson.