When it comes to comics, let’s put literary criticism back on the shelf

Why do comics work?

You will find good theoretical reasoned explanations why comics may be better at imparting information to students. Lots of which includes regarding what the influential cognitive psychologist, Allan Paivio, called “dual-coding theory&rdquo ;. 1ST KISS MANGA

Comics: not merely for the kids. Shuttertsock

This is actually the idea that we deal better with material which is presented in both a verbal and a visual manner. And Paivio has argued that teachers should make more use of both types of information in educational settings.

Comics are an ideal “dual-coding medium&rdquo ;.The images and text combine to form your final product that is greater than the amount of its parts. Skilled writers and artists will make even probably the most abstract material clearer to understand.

This means that what and pictures act to guide each other so your memory for the material is stronger. And our study supports the “dual-coding” part of comics.

Unique teaching tool

As part of the research, we used pages from my textbook: Biological Psychology – An illustrated Survival Guide which is written in comic book format and directed at teaching undergraduate students the rudiments of biological areas of psychology. And there are several other books similar to this already available – that make use of a comic format to teach.

Page from Biological Psychology – An illustrated Survival Guide. Author provided

Books like Optical Allusions by Jay Hosler, who uses comics very effectively to teach how vision works to college age students, and the cartoon guide books by Larry Gonick, which cover topics as diverse as statistics, physics and the annals of the universe.

There is also an extended history of comics being used as supplementary materials in school settings. And these have ranged from using comics as tools for teaching different subjects like sociology, perceptual skills, and reading. While more recently the use of comics has been suggested in several different disciplines including geography, linguistics and even medicine.

Some authors have suggested the huge benefits of using comics to show children with learning difficulties. The reason being the context from the images can help students to read the words. Students with learning difficulties will also be known to accomplish better with upper case plain fonts, which are generally found in comic book word balloons.

More than words and pictures

While this is the first time a study has shown how the utilization of comics can indicate an improvement in the recall of information, other studies also offer support for the utilization of comics in an academic setting.

Previous studies also have unearthed that students tend to enjoy learning using comics – which of course is half the task when attempting to teach students.

So all in all, it would appear that comics might be helpful in enhancing educational experiences. Comic books produced designed for school-use – that fit in with the curriculum – could be of real value to students, and might actually be much better than traditional books.