Can we use comics in education? The answer is yes. Comics can serve as a fun way to learn beyond the entertainment they provide. The combination of images and text in comics offer a better learning medium than the simple text found in many textbooks. The brain interprets images faster than it processes text, which means that young scholars can learn faster through comics than plain text.
Comics offer a creative way to learn; for people interacting with a new language. The combination of text and image makes it easy to understand the events in each picture frame. Young scholars learn by observing their world and connecting sound to images. Comics offer the same experience to a person just beginning to learn a new language, hence expedites the learning process.
Children process their world visually. Studies show that kids remember more of what they see than what they hear. By using comics in education, tutors can quicken children’s understanding of new topics, and boost their recall capacity. Teachers continuously embrace the use of comics to teach their children; consequently, they can speed up their learning process.
Jabari Sellers, a language tutor, teaches literary analysis using comics, mainly superhero comic books. Sellers intimates that using comics in education espouses the understanding of complex concepts among learners, mainly when used as an introductory reading activity. Using comics in education also increases student engagement by introducing an interactive format that students find enjoyable.
Lauren Fardig Diop uses comics to help students with special needs. Her students suffer from behavioral problems attributable to the unstable family backgrounds from which many of them hail. They are prone to anger, anxieties, among other behavioral challenges. Diop uses comics and online games to strengthen students’ communication skills. Comics also assist the students to process their emotions, an important activity, considering their behavioral challenges. Many tutors with special needs’ learners recognize the potential that comics have in education, and are incorporating more activities that use comics as a learning tool in their pedagogies.
In her studies on the application of comics in science among preschool children, Marta Koutnikova propounds that educators can improve the use of comics in education by designing material that is appropriate for the learner’s age. Younger scholars understand concepts better through simple image and text combinations and may struggle with too much information in a single frame. The conceptualization of information through images is more important when the material is scientific.
Comics can also improve the writing and creative skills of learners. When learners are encouraged to express their ideas through images and words, they gain practical storytelling skills that enhance their creativity. Their learning experience is enhanced when the learners share their art with others or work in groups. Tutors can gain a deeper understanding of their students’ needs through these exercises.
Tutors are using comics to teach abstract subjects like sciences and math.
Benefits of Comics in Education
- Improves learners’ comprehension of complex topics
- The combination of images and text makes recall easier
- Can boost creative writing skills among learners
- Can offer special needs students an avenue to express themselves
- Improves the speed of learning new languages
- Communicates to young learners from their perspective
- Can boost class attendance and the engagement levels of learners
Challenges of Using Comic for Education
Not all educators embrace the use of comics in their classes. Many tutors who would like to use comics to teach their classes face discouragement from their colleagues, who assume that comics are a form of art that cannot have any value apart from entertainment. Apart from colleagues, some teachers fear the reaction of parents if they discover the use of comics in their children’s’ classes.
Other tutors face a problem sourcing age-appropriate material for their learners. Age-sensitive content is a problem for teachers with junior or middle school classes. The search for appropriate material takes a lot of time, which many teachers are not able to find. This problem will reduce as more websites emerge to fill the gap.
Lack of information on how comics can serve as an education tool also hinders its adoption. Many teachers state that they are unfamiliar with comics because they did not grow up reading them. As such, they are unwilling to experiment with something about which they have little information. The use of comics for education is a recent creation; it is, therefore, understandable that it will take some time before scholars embrace them. Contemporary essay writer has embraced the use of comics to espouse the visualization of the narrative.
As more teachers realize the advantages of using comics in education to enhance their classroom content, their role only grows. Comics have key benefits, mainly when used as an introduction to more complex subjects. Scholars learning a new language may also benefit from the combination of text and images, as it can speed up their comprehension. As the adoption of comics grows, many creative ways to utilize comics for education will increase.
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