EFFECT OF CARTOONS ON PUPILS’ INTEREST AND ACHIEVEMENT IN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN BASIC SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effect of cartoons on pupils’ interest and achievement inenvironmental education (EE) in Basic Science and Technology. The specific purposes of thestudy are to determine the mean achievement scores of primary school pupils taught EE byconventional method and by using cartoons; find out the mean interest scores of pupilstaught EE by conventional method and by cartoon method; determine the effect of genderon the mean achievement scores of pupils taught EE by conventional method and byusing cartoons. Find out the effect of location on the mean achievement scores of pupilstaught EE by conventional method and by using cartoons; determine the mean interestscores of rural and urban pupils taught EE by conventional method and by usingcartoons; determine the mean interest scores of male and female pupils taught EE byconventional method and by use of cartoons; The design of the study was quasiexperimentalnon-randomized pretest-posttest control group. The sample consisted of onehundred and fifty seven (157) primary three (3) pupils in four public primary schools inEnugu South Local Education Authority in Enugu Education Zone. The instruments usedfor the study were a researcher developed achievement test, Environmental EducationAchievement Test (EEAT) and interest scale, Basic Science Interest Scale (BSIS) whichwere validated by five (5) experts. The reliability method used for determining thereliability was Kudrar Richardson (K-R21) formular. Mean, standard deviation andanalysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used for data analysis. Major findings of thestudy showed that using cartoons as instructional materials greatly enhanced achievementand interest in environmental education. Those pupils exposed to the use of cartoonsperformed significantly better than those exposed to conventional method of teaching.Gender and location had no significant effect on the mean scores of primary three pupilsexposed to cartoons. Urban pupils performed better than rural pupils. Urban and ruralpupils taught with cartoons showed more interest than pupils taught with the conventionalmethod. Based on the findings, conclusions were drawn and the educational implicationswere extensively discussed. Major recommendations from the study were that Federaland State Ministries of Education should make available quality cartoon books to primaryschools both in the rural and urban areas, and teachers should be encouraged to adopt anduse them, since the use of cartoons has been proven to enhance interest and achievementin environmental education.