No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 1999. / Title from document title page. Written by Susan F. Walsh. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 67 p. : ill. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 40-45).

This study is made to determine any educational values to be derived from the use of the comics. The problem shall be to show (1) what those values are, (2) how they shall be attained, and (3) which comics are best suited to aid in the attainment of those values, as shown by the data to be assembled.

In this creative project, I propose that comics can be used fruitfully to introduce undergraduates to the image-word dynamic, helping them become betters critics, more thoughtful consumers, and more effective creators of images. In addition, I argue that such a course of study be housed in an undergraduate rhetoric and composition major. Therefore, this project accomplishes three goals: it explores the rhetorical function of comics; second, it justifies the inclusion of comics in an undergraduate rhetoric-composition program; and, third, it provides a master syllabus for four classes that would provide the experience necessary to students wishing to study visual, verbal, and visual-verbal rhetorics. / Department of English

The problem under consideration attempts to answer the question: Will an original comic cartoon story used in classroom study of sixth grade arithmetic influence the amount of learning as much as the use of the ordinary text book?

It is the purpose of this study to (1) determine the history and status of the comic book; (2) to find out how many and what kinds of comic books two groups of fourth graders of the Perryton school are reading; (3) to set up a well-planned reading program in one of these groups; (4) to compare the amount and kinds of comic books read by the two groups at the end of the experimental period.

My dissertation interrogates the role played by teachers, professors, researchers, administrators, and librarians in comics activism in the years before the establishment of the Comics Code Authority. Teachers occupied a unique space: public servants in one sense, subject matter experts in another. At the same time, they were not impervious to the media’s treatment of the anti-comics crusade, nor were they immune to the sway of religion, politics, and race in the conversation. Using teachers’ professional journals and local newspapers, I find that educators existed on both sides of the debate as drivers of the action—sometimes as actors, but also as proxies and participants. In addition, as arbiters of kids’ free time, keepers of literacy, imparters of citizenship, developers of good taste, and specialists in the behavior and needs of students, teachers had a special vantage point from which to observe the effects of comics on young readers. Theirs was a valuable position, and it was coopted by any number of factions jockeying for influence. Probing the records of the comic book industry’s regulatory body, I determined that educators were targets of the industry’s campaign to legitimate the genre. My dissertation also situates universities as key sites of pro-comics activities and expands the actors in the anti-comics campaign to include independent scholars, as well as university faculty, administrators, and students. Peer-reviewed research was used by parties on both sides of the debate. Evaluating this scholarship, I conclude that unaffiliated researchers made consequential contributions to the debate, speaking directly to the public in ways that more traditional researchers could not. Finally, my project establishes the nuance in educators’ role in the anti-comics campaign and surveys the ways they were actors, subjects, and instruments in the movement. Utilizing textual analyses of key Silver Age comics, I find that the comic books created in the wake of the anti-comics crusade were direct outgrowths of the anxieties and aspirations of educators—a deliberate effort by comic book publishers to gain their endorsement.

Many people assume that editorial cartoons are easily understood by the bulk of the population. For this reason, editorial cartoons are often used as teaching materials in the classroom. Recent research, however, raises doubts as to the effectiveness of this practice. Investigations by Bedient (1971) and DeSousa & Medhurst (1982) determined that the majority of students (grade 5 through college) could not interpret editorial cartoons. These investigators went on to suggest that a logical next step would be to determine if editorial cartoon literacy can be taught. The cognitive style of the participants was examined to determine if the different teaching strategies were differentially effective vis-a-vis field dependence and field independence. Two presentations (treatments) were designed to model methods of reading editorial cartoons. The Whole Cartoon Analysis presented 25 editorial cartoons along with a 100-200 word interpretation of each cartoon. The Parse Analysis Treatment was accomplished in three steps rather than the one for the Whole method. In step one, the whole cartoon is presented with a short gloss of the meaning. In step two all of the cartoon is visually suppressed except for one visual meaning element. This element of the cartoon is discussed and then the next element of the cartoon is added, and so on until the entire cartoon is back on the screen at which point the overall meaning is discussed. The dependent variable of the investigation was the two-part Editorial Cartoon Interpretation Task. Part A asked each participant to enumerate the symbols in the cartoon and define them as to meaning. Part B asked the participant to write a short thematic interpretation of the cartoon. A two-way Analysis of Variance on the data revealed no significant differences in either the main effects or the interaction. / Ed. D.

Acompanha: Sugestão de roteiro para a produção de histórias em quadrinhos no ensino de ciências / As Histórias em Quadrinhos (HQs) caracterizam-se pela linguagem próxima da realidade dos alunos, pela aparência lúdica, o que as torna um veículo de comunicação poderoso que, além de ter riqueza de conteúdos e possibilidade de explorar muitos significados, é bem aceita pelos estudantes, que se sentem estimulados a aprender. Assim, a presente pesquisa objetivou identificar as contribuições desse gênero textual no Ensino de Ciências, especificamente para o estudo do Sistema Nervoso, no 5º ano do ensino fundamental I. O trabalho foi desenvolvido com um grupo de dezessete alunos em uma escola da rede privada do município de Ponta Grossa – PR. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida por meio de uma abordagem qualitativa, de natureza interpretativa e aplicada, tendo como suporte teórico os estudos de Waldomiro Vergueiro, Miriam Krasilchik e Nélio Bizzo. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram a importância da leitura, do uso e da construção de HQs na consolidação de esquemas mentais que organizem o aprendido. A riqueza de detalhes das histórias produzidas pelos alunos são um indicador de que a confecção e uso de HQs estimula e desperta a vontade de aprender do educando, configurando a aprendizagem. Como produto final dessa dissertação, confeccionou-se um roteiro com sugestões para os professores do Ensino Fundamental I de como utilizar Histórias em Quadrinhos no Ensino de Ciências. / Comics are characterized by a language that students recognize as part of their reality, as well as a ludic appearance, which makes them a powerful medium. Other than that, comics offer richness of content and are well accepted by the students, which feel encouraged to learn. Thus, the present study has as a purpose to identify the contributions of this genre in Science Education, specifically to study the nervous system, in the 5th grade of an elementary school. The study was conducted with a group of seventeen students in a private school in Ponta Grossa city, Paraná State, Brazil The research was conducted through a qualitative, interpretative and applied approach, based on Waldomiro Vergueiro, Miriam and Krasilchik Nelio Bizzo studies. The results depicted the importance of reading, using and constructing comics in the consolidation of mental schemes on the students, who can organize what they have learned. The details of the comics produced by such students indicate that the manufacture and usage of comics stimulates and awakens the desire to learn on the student, setting a Meaningful Learning. As a final product of this dissertation, a script with suggestions for teachers of elementary school to use comics in Science Teaching is presented.