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Concept cartoons were developed by Brenda Keogh and Stuart Naylor in 1991 as a strategy to
elicit learners’ ideas, challenge their ideas and provide pointers for how these ideas might be
developed. At first sight, concept cartoons can be viewed as teaching/learning materials but this will
not be a complete definition. However, by probing students’ ideas and providing a purpose for
discussions and investigations of ideas, concept cartoons will work as teaching/learning method as far
as the constructivists approach is adopted.

Also, according to Baysari (2007), concept cartoons are made up of characters reflecting
different perspectives regarding events and encouraging pupils’ to discuss the science subjects of
daily life. As understood, concept cartoons are visual tools composed of three or more characters’
suggesting ideas, discussing or thinking about a subject, an accident or a concept in daily life.
However, in concept cartoons teaching, alternative ideas, which include scientifically accepted one
regarding a scientific phenomenon are presented in a form of cartoon-style drawing in a poster. Ideas
are put forward by a cartoon characters in a discussion format, then the learner is invited to join the
debate with the cartoon characters.

Gunstones (1988) underlines that the methods used to probe students’ are also excellent
teaching/learning strategies in the constructivist view. In his view the term “concept cartoons” will be
used to mean a teaching method where students are invited to air, debate and test their ideas in the
classroom learning environment. They are visual tools expressing scientific concepts or problems
about daily life through character cartoon style and presenting different views related to these
concepts or problems (Keogh and Naylor 2000, Downing and Keogh 2001, Stephenson and Warwick
2002, Coll, France and Taylor 2005).

Cartoons are a kind of an art production, which includes entertainment, humor, satire,
thinking and visuality for all ages used to improve pupils’ learning and class participation (IIikci
2003). Cartoons used cartoon style format to represent a discussion dialogue between the characters
(Keogh and Naylor 2000). Cartoons have two or more caricatured characters. The characters which
describes and discusses a problem about real life finds out the learners ideas through discussions,
aims to promote argument (Keogh and Naylor 1996). In concept cartoons, the opinion accepted
scientifically and the alternative opinion which is closer to this take part together and these opinions
are presented with characters in a poster (Stephenson and Warwick 2002, Kabaprinah 2005, Ekici,
Ekici and Aydin 2007).

Ms-Farah made use of concept cartons in her lesson as cartoon-style drawings presenting
characters with different view points around a particular situation to clear misconceptions of the topic
“Matter” (Roesky and Kennepohl 2008). The purpose of concept cartoons is to provide stimulus for
positive thinking knowing they do not provide correct responses (Martinez 2004). The use of dialogue
creates opportunity to provide and present alternatives ideas including one or more views
scientifically acceptable (Keogh and Naylor 1999). Researchers who used the concept cartoon
approach in primary science teaching stated that teaching via concept cartoons minimizes classroom
management problems and provides a manageable way to base teaching on each individual pupils’
ideas (Naylor and Mcmurdo 1990, Keogh Naylor and Wilson 1998). In order words, every pupils’
should be provided an opportunity to air, debate, and investigate his/her own idea to develop a more
scientifically acceptable idea in the teaching learning process.

However, Dabell (2004) said concept cartoons help the students to question their thoughts,
solve the problem they encounter in their everyday lives, broaden their horizons and provide different
perspectives for the events at hand. Also, in concept cartoons, the opinions taken from everyday life
related to the topic are presented in an argumentative manner. The learners are then asked to argue
with the characters (Kabapmar 2005). Hence, concept caricature may conveniently be used in
classroom in order to promote the participation of the pupils’ and create a motivating atmosphere
(Keogh and Nayor, 1999; Chambers and Andre 1997, Keogh et al., 2000).

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Moreover, these tools provide opportunities for feedback in the classroom against alternative
ideas throughout the learning process and give information regarding how students ideas are changed
(Dabell, 2008). In this respect, making use of concept cartoons for assessment purposes and self-
evaluation is said to be essential for encouraging students to be responsible for their learning and for
following-up changes in their development.

In concept cartoon teaching, alternative ideas which include the scientifically acceptable one,
regarding a scientific phenomenon are presented in a form of cartoon-style drawing in a poster and

ideas are put forward by cartoon characters in a discussion format. Then, the learner is invited to join
the debate with cartoon characters. By probing pupils’ ideas and providing a purpose for discussion

and investigation of ideas, concept cartoons will work as teaching/learning strategies as far as
constructivist approach is adopted.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to investigate the effect of concept cartoons on pupil’s academic
performance in primary science. Specifically, it is designed to achieve the following objectives to.

1. compare the academic performances of pupils’ taught with concept cartoons with those
taught without concept cartoons in Basic Primary Science concepts.

2. examine the extent to which the use of concept cartons teaching will enhance the academic
performance of pupils with low ability level and those taught without concept cartoons
(conventional method) in primary science.

3. compare the academic performances of male and female pupils taught with concept cartoons
and those taught without concept cartoons in Basic Primary Science concepts.

Null Hypotheses

1. There is no significant difference between the academic performances of pupils’ taught with
concept cartoons and those taught without concept cartoons in Basic Primary Science.

2. There is no significant difference between the academic performances of low ability Basic
Primary Science pupils’ taught with concept cartoons and those taught without concept
cartoons.

3. There is no significant difference between the academic performances of male and female
pupils’ taught with concept cartoons in Basic Primary Science.

Methodology

A quasi experimental design (a pre test-posttest control) was used for the study. The

population of the study comprised of all the primary 5 pupils in all the 25 coeducational primary

schools in Ogbia Local Government of Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The population was 850 senior

primary school pupils learning primary science. A total of 100 pupils learning primary science were

used for the study selected from 4 State Schools and this consists of 52 males and 48 females. The

criteria used to select the schools from the population were:

i. State Primary Schools funded by United Nations Children’s Education Fund(UNICEF).
ii. Schools with basic materials and equipment for teaching.
iii. Schools that have at least N C E teachers with five years teaching experience.
iv. Schools that are currently presenting candidates for the First School Leaving Certificate ( F
S L C). Of all the schools, 10 schools met the criteria but only 4 schools were randomly selected
and assigned to experimental and control groups.
Two researcher made instruments for data collection were Basic Science Performance Test
(BSPT) and Basic Science Ability Level Test (BSALT). Each of them comprised of 50 multi-
choice item questions drawn from the concept of safety and accident in our environment. Each
item had five options (A-E) with only one correct answer. To establish reliability, the
instruments were trial tested on one of the schools that met the criteria but was not used for the
study. The reliability of the test was estimated by the use of Kuder-Richardson formula 21 (K-R)

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and the reliability coefficient of the two instruments were found for BSPT and BSALT as 0.72
and 0.83 respectively.

Research Procedure

In this study, concept cartoons questions were prepared related to safety and accident. Characters
used in the cartoons were found on Internet and text books. Three experts were consulted in the
preparation of the concept cartoons as seen in the appendix. The Basic Science Performance Test
(BSPT) was initially administered to the groups as pre- test and scores were used for
comparability. The Basic Science Ability Test (BSLT) was administered to the treatment groups
and the results were used to classify students into different groups as high ability, average ability
and low ability levels. The two groups were taught the concept of safety and accident in the
environment in Basic Science using the same content course outline for 8 weeks. Basic Science
teachers were used as research assistants to teach each of the groups to ensure quality teaching. A
period of four weeks was used to teach each of the groups. After the treatment, post –test was
then administered to the groups and their scores were analyzed using statistical tools.

Data Analysis

The statistical tools employed for analyzing the data was Mean, Standard Deviation (S D) and t-
test at p < 0.05 alpha levels.

Results

Testing H1 : There is no significant difference between the academic performances of pupils’ taught
with concept cartoons and those taught without concept cartoons in Basic Primary Science concepts.

The result is presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Mean, SD, and ‘t’ value of Experimental and Control group.

S/N Categories NM S D t-cal Df p-value

1 With Concept Cartoons 50 71.20 12.40

2 Without Concept cartoons 50 64.12 13.92 2.30 98 0.02

(Conventional)

The results above indicated that there exists a significant difference in the results of primary
school science pupils between the experimental group and control groups at 0.05 level of
significance. Therefore, the null hypotheses stating a non significant difference between the academic
performances of pupils’ taught with concept cartoons and those taught without concept cartoons in
Basic Primary Science was rejected. This showed that there was a positive effect on the experimental
group taught with concept cartoons than on the group taught without concept cartoons (conventional
methods). It means that there was development in the competency of the experimental group which
confirms that the unit scores for the group taught with concept cartoons were higher than the group
taught without concept cartoons

Testing H2 : There is no significant difference between the academic performances of low ability
Basic Primary Science pupils taught with concept cartoons and those taught without concept cartoons
(conventional method). The result is presented in Table 2.

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Table 2: Analysis of no significant difference between the performances of low ability Basic
Primary Science pupils taught with concept cartoons and those taught without concept
cartoons( conventional method).

Categories N M S.D DF t-cal t-crit Dec at P<0.05
With Concept 43 32.84 3.25 64 4.93 1.96 *
cartoons.
Without 32 28.75 3.46
concept
cartoons.

*= Significant at P<0.05 alpha level

The result of the above table showed that the calculated t value of 4.93 is greater than the
critical t value of 1.96. Therefore, the null hypotheses stating no significant difference between
the performances of low ability pupils in Basic Primary Science taught with concept cartoons and
those taught without concept cartoons (conventional methods) was rejected. This means that there
existed a significant difference in the performances of low ability pupils taught with concept
cartoons and those taught without concept cartoons in Basic Primary Science concepts.

Testing H3: There is no significant difference between the academic performances of male
and female pupils taught with concept cartoons in Basic Primary Science. The result is shown
in Table 3 below.

Table 3: Analysis of there is no significant difference between the academic performances of
male and female pupils taught with concept cartoons in Basic Primary Science.

Categories N M S.D DF t-cal t-critical Decision

Teaching

with

Concept

Cartoons

Male 58.0 74.90 8.89 98 0.71 1.96 NS

Female 42.0 74.20 8.23

Ns= Not significant at P<05 alpha level

The result in the table above showed a t-calculated value of 0.71 is less than t-critical value of
1.96. Therefore, the null hypotheses stating that there is no significant difference between the
academic performances of male and female pupils taught with concept cartoons in Basic Primary
Science was retained and accepted. This showed that male pupils do not differ significantly in their
performances than their female counterparts taught with concept cartoons.

Discussion of Findings

The analysis in Table 1 revealed that Basic Science primary pupils taught with concept
cartoons performed better than those taught with the normal conventional methods. This result is in
line with those of Keogh and Naylor (1999), Rae (2000), Clark (2000),

Doing (2005) and Rule and Ague (2005). They found out that concept cartoon approach in
science teaching enhances motivation, provides a purpose for practical work, minimizes classroom
management problems by the focused discussion that keeps pupils on task which increases pupils
participation thereby making the learning pupil-centred.

The result in Table 2 showed that a significant difference existed in the performances of low
ability pupils in Primary Basic Science taught with concept cartoons than those taught without

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concept cartoons. This is in line with Roessky and Kennepohl (2008), Martinez (2004), that reported
that concept cartoons serves as a trigger to get pupils to tune in, as an activity to elicit pupils’
responses and generate discussions, clearing misconceptions or as a means of summarizing different
concepts.

Also, the result in Table 3 showed that gender do not have any significant difference in the
academic performances of pupils taught with concept cartoons in Primary Basic Science. This
confirms the works of Akinbobola (2004), Taber (1991), Ireogbu (1998), Ikitde (2008) and Afolabi
(2009) that learning does not discriminate both sexes in teaching and learning of science concepts.

Conclusion

The main findings of this study showed that concept cartoons are:

Highly motivating across all range with learners of different levels of understanding. Effective at both
revealing and challenging learners’ ideas and linking together the process of elicitation and
restructuring ideas. Effective in integrating learning and assessment into a single strategy. Viewed as
very easy to manage in the classroom and potentially offering a valuable strategy for differentiation.
Able to influence teachers’ practice without the need for an extensive professional development.

Powerful for generating peoples’ talk, helping them to co-construct arguments and
contextualizing science learning opportunities.Also identified in the study are some set of teachers
pedagogic principles that can be easily implemented using the concept learning strategy in the
teaching/learning. These include: presenting learners with conceptual challenges and cognitive
conflict, promoting mata cognition, locating learning within everyday contexts, supporting
collaboration and social construction of understanding, presenting problems in the form that is easily
accessible, being non-judgmental about learners’ ideas.

Recommendations

Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made

1. School administrators and teachers should endeavour to use concept cartoons to facilitate
learning in schools.

2. Furthermore, instructional methods that engage students in the teaching and learning process
should be encouraged by school teachers.

References

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Naylor S., Keogh B. & Downing B. (2001). Dennis likes a good argument: Concept Cartoons,
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Educational Benchmarks and Economic Recession in Nigeria:
A Critical Analysis

Hauwa’u Mohammad Mainoma (Ph.D

Department of Educational Foundations,
Administration and Planning Unit,

Nasarawa State University Keffi, Nigeria,
[email protected]
08037132314

Tolutope Idowu Oke (Ph.D)

Department of Educational Foundations,
Administration and Planning Unit,

Faculty of Education, University of Jos
[email protected]
08036042951

Aminu, Abubakar Danladi

Department of Educational Foundations,
Measurement and Evaluation Unit,

Nasarawa State University Keffi, Nigeria,
[email protected],
07065532264

Abstract
This paper discusses the effect of economic recession on standard of educational
system in Nigeria. It gives an insight into the concept of economic recession and
attempts a comprehensive description of the effect of economic recession on
educational system. The factors that cause recessions and details of the various
periods of great recessions in the Nigerian educational system were also highlighted.
Some studies on the effect of economic recession on educational system in Nigeria
were reviewed. Secondary source of data collection method was employed through
the use of published books, journals and periodicals. It was concluded that economic
recession has direct effect on educational system benchmark since most of the parents
live below the poverty line. It was therefore suggested among others that, schools
should look inward to generate more funds to execute school programmes since the
government grant; subvention and allocations seemed to be going on the low side on
yearly basis due to economic recession.

Keywords: Economic Recession, Nigerian Educational System, Educational
Benchmark Critical Analysis.

Introduction
Education is universally acknowledged as a vital tool for socio-economic,

political, cultural and technological transformation of a nation. Any nations that are
deemed to be developed and largely considered as civilized have in the main achieved

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this status through purposeful and strategic education for their citizens. The hopes of
every country of the world to develop human capital for effective functioning of the
society are hinged on education, being an instrument of change. Among the levels of
education in Nigeria, secondary education which is the pivot of the entire education
system is fast losing its relevance which among other factors is due to unsatisfactory
and poor performance of students in public examinations (Alaka & Obadara, 2013).

Stakeholders in the education sector have continued to express serious
concern about the poor academic performance of students at all levels of education
system especially in the recent times. Education in Nigeria is regarded by the
government and the entire citizenry as capable of achieving rapid development and
national integration and to bring about desirable change in all spheres of human
endeavors. This may explain why the various levels of government strive to achieve
the goal of providing qualitative education to the ever rising population of school
aged children in realization of the roles of education in accelerating economic
performances in internal and external examinations which is the yardstick for
measuring the success or otherwise of the education sector. The National
Examination Council (NECO) and the West African Examination Council (WAEC)
are the two examination bodies mandated to conduct external examinations to assess
secondary school students nationwide and the results obtained by the students
determines their progress or otherwise.

Secondary level of education is the worst hit by the down turn in our
economy. The lofty objectives of secondary education might not be achieved due to
myriads of problems affecting it. This development has led to serious comparison
between the academic performance of students between the period of oil boom and
the present state of economic meltdown, hence the need to research on the composite
and independent contributions of economic crisis on educational system.

Overview of the Relationship between Economic Recession and Educational
System

Economic recession is a period of general economic decline and is typically
accompanied by a drop in the stock market, an increase in unemployment, and a
decline in the housing market. Generally, a recession is less severe than a depression.
The blame for a recession generally falls on the federal leadership, often either the
president himself, the head of the Federal Reserve, or the entire Administration. An
economic recession is typically defined as a decline in Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) for two or more consecutive quarters. GDP is the market value of all goods
and services produced within a country in a given period of time. An example of one
type of GDP would be the value of all the automobiles produced within the United
States for one year. GDP only takes into account new products that have been
manufactured (Muhammad and Akanle, 2008).

Education has been in crisis for many years largely due to the fact that the
sector is poorly funded. This results in shortage of material and human resources
experienced in the system. Inadequate qualified teachers, high turnover rate of
teachers, shortage of classroom, and poor remuneration of teachers and a host of other
problems abound in the education sector (Ali, 2004). These problems are more
pronounced at the primary and secondary school levels. The education system has
undergone rapid changes and growth within the context of unstable economy. The
economic crisis experienced in Nigeria and impacted on the education system had

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played a major role in the decline of the quality of Education offered (Olabanjo &
Abayomi, (2010) in Adeyanju and Emmanuel (2013).

In the 1970s, Nigeria experienced oil boom which led to the expansion of the
economy with a Spillover effect in the education sector. The education sector then
witnessed rapid growth and development. However, by the 1980s, in contrast to what
was experienced in the 1970s, it was a period of economic recession. By 1995, the
value of the Naira had fallen to N85 to $1 i.e.85 naira to one US dollar instead of
N1:$1 experienced before. Presently, the exchange rate is N490 to $1. the rate of
inflation remain high and this has a negative impact on the education sector leading to
the transfer of funding responsibilities from one level of government to another as
well as to families to help subsidize education through fee payments at secondary and
higher levels of education. According to Teboho (2000), alternative sources of
funding education have been explored. In 1995, the government established the
Education Tax Fund (ETF) in which companies with more than 100 employees
contribute 2% of their Re-tax to the Fund.

Teboho (2000) further hammered on the financial crisis in the education
sector when he declared that existing facilities in most schools are inadequately
maintained and has retarded progress in building new facilities. This shows that the
rising students’ population is not matched with adequate facilities.

Ollon (1998) as cited in Muhammad and Akanle (2008) made it clear that in
the quest for funding survival in the education sector, the nation has evolved series of
socio-economic and policy measures such as Structural Adjustment Programmed
(SAP), Austerity Measure, Universal Primary Education (UPE), Universal Basic
Education (UBE) and devaluation of naira. Johnson (2010) lamented that as a result
of these hard measures, most parents became poor the more such that they could no
longer provide adequately for the upkeep and education of their children. This
situation led to drop out of many students to engage in menial jobs to support their
academic pursuit. Most of the students, therefore, saw schooling as a secondary
assignment and school attendance was on rotational basis. The resulting problem
posed by this development is poor academic performance in school external
examinations conducted by West African Examination Council (WAEC) and
National Examination Council (NECO).

Shittu (2004) revealed that the quality of parents and home background of a
student goes a long way to predict the quality and regularity of the satisfaction and
provision of a child’s functional, survival and academic needs. In a similar way, poor
parental care with gross deprivation of social and economic needs of a child as a
result of poverty usually yield poor academic performance of the child. Martins and
Emmanuel (2009) declared that the immediate effect of economic meltdown on
organizations and the inability to maintain the current productive capacity leads to
inadequate fund; it raises the possible implication of government’s control measures
such as cutting down expenditure which may likely affect educational expenditure.
Nigerian public secondary school teachers experienced hardship during the period of
economic meltdown as they experienced delay in the payment of salaries and
allowances, payment of net salary only, roof blowing taxation, depletion of the
personal co-operative savings and stagnation on a grade level and step (Maicibi,
2005). This affected the teachers’ morale which prevented them from giving out the
best to the students.

The relationship between educational system and the nations cannot be
overemphasized. The school system is part of the general macro-economy hence

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whatever happens in the system will definitely affect the schools. There is a symbiotic
relationship between the school and the economy of a nation in that whatever happens
in the economy directly affects the school, and also whatever happens in the school
systems directly results in the situation of the economy of a country (Maicibi, 2005).

The school system cannot compromise standards and quality on the account of
poor funding and the rising school population indicates the need for a proportionate
annual increase in school enrolment and its consequent demands on the national
economy and since no economy can survive without human capital stock, all aspects
of the school system must be up and doing to continue the production of manpower at
all levels.

Effects of Economic Recession on Education System
The infrastructure and facilities in most secondary schools remain inadequate

to cope with the rapid student’s population growth pace. School environment is
therefore in general terms not conducive for learning due to the physical condition
and inadequate teaching and learning resources. The annual growth rate estimated at
3.3 percent contributed to children who have to be accommodated in schools.

Most institutions in Nigeria are confronting economic constraints and this
slows down the pace of achieving the institutions’ activities. The expected funds from
funding agencies i.e. government are delayed and in most cases some of the fund are
not released at all and this has negative impact on the effort of the institutional
administration in execution of institution projects. Since the funding of education is
exclusively external at lower levels, it is likely to be mostly affected with the
economic hardship. Staffing situation may be affected as school heads would prefer
to substitute high quality staff with low quality ones. General quality may decline due
to lack of funding for the maintenance of infrastructures, lack of funds to purchase
laboratory equipment and support training and development.

Factors that Cause Economic Recession
The factors that cause recession in the Nigerian educational system

includes: High interest rate is a cause of recession because they limit liquidity, or
the amount of money available to invest. Another factor is increased inflation.
Inflation refers to a general rise in the prices of goods and services over a period
of time. As inflation increases, the percentage of goods and services that can be
purchased with the same amount of money decreases. Reduced consumer
confidence is another factor that can causes recession. If consumers believe the
economy is bad, they are less likely to spend money. Consumer confidence is
psychological but can have a real impact on any economy. Reduced real wages,
another factor, refers to wages that have been adjusted for inflation. Falling real
wages means that a worker's pay check is not keeping up with inflation. The
worker might be making the same amount of money, but his purchasing power
has been reduced.

Many studies on the effect of economic recession on educational system in
Nigeria have been carried out. Adeyanju and Emmanuel (2013) investigated the effect
of economic crises and poverty stricken society on students’ academic performance in
Ogun state Public Secondary Schools. Descriptive research design was used for the
study. Forty (40) secondary schools were randomly selected and 10 teachers were
selected from each school. Chi-square analysis was used in analyzing the data. The
instruments used are questionnaire and students’ WAEC results. The result revealed

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significant combined contributions of economic crisis and poverty to the predictors of
students’ academic performance. It was recommended, among other things, that
schools should source for alternate funding through the assistance of Old Students
Association, Parents-Teachers-Association and Corporate Bodies to complement the
meager allocation from government. Government should also key into private and
public partnership in education to reduce its educational responsibilities and
unemployed Nigerians should be assisted through Skill Acquisition Centers and Soft
Loans to help reduce the poverty level of the parents so that students will be provided
with necessary support that will incorporate improved students’ performance.

The economic recession has direct effect on parent’s income since most of
them live below the poverty line. This in turn affects the education of children
because parents could not meet up with the financial responsibility that is attached.
Loss of income during the crisis may cause parents to withdraw their children from
expensive private schools to already saturated public schools. Yusuf (2003), found a
positive correlation between academic achievement and parents’ academic status.
Bello (1987) also found that children from high economic background have a better
chance of succeeding in school than low economic counterpart having homes that
provide physical environment appropriate for child growth, enrolment for extra
lesson, ability to buy necessary textbooks and stationery are the hallmark of children
from high income earning parents. It was also found that parental interest and altitude
as well as support given at home may be a major factor influencing child’s academic
achievement in school.

Conclusion

It is only fair and acceptable to say that education is a weapon for acquiring

skills, relevant knowledge and habits for survival in an ever changing world

especially in times. In this paper, of recessions an attempt has been made to highlight

the gross under performance of Nigerian educational system resulting from economic

recession. In conclusion, it was observed that economic recession has great

influence on Nigerian educational system.

Recommendations
Based on the findings of the study, it was found pertinent to make the following

recommendations:
1. Schools should look inward to generate more funds to execute school programme

since the government grant; subvention and allocations seem to be going on the
low side on yearly basis due to economic recession.
2. Government should key into Private Public Partnership (PPP) in the education
sector to allow well-to-do individuals to participate actively in the provision of
education service to reduce the burden on government.
3. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) should be encouraged in the business of
educational opportunity provisions.
4. Governmental agencies like Education Trust Funds (ETF), Industrial Training
Funds should be involved in the monitoring of funds allocated for the sustainable
goals achievement of education programme in Nigeria.
5. Government to enlist the support and contribution of multi-national companies,
UN organizations and other business tycoons in the country to guarantee that
Nigerian children have access and equal educational opportunities to quality
education.

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