Reflections of “Use of Comics in Social Studies Education” Course: The Opinion and Experiences of Teachers

It is well known that a quality teacher education is necessary for qualified education. Teachers must be well-trained in multiple areas and have an open-minded structure. They must develop strategies based on the lesson and students, which needs effective material development and use. The materials to be used could be prepared by others and can be incorporated into the classroom setting or teachers could design and present them to students, which is essential for the quality of instruction. When a teacher creates and effectively employs instructional materials, his/her self-confidence will increase and teaching will be enriched and made easier. Comics is one of those materials enriching classroom. This study seeks to elucidate the perspectives and experiences of teachers who took course The Use of Comics in Social Studies Education on generating comics as educational materials. The instructor of the relevant course designed and implemented it for the first time in 2019. This is the first and only course of its kind in Turkey. It is an elective graduate course at Yildiz Technical University Faculty of Education, Istanbul, Turkey. The purpose of the courses is to introduce comics, explain the use of comics as an educational resource, and enhance the professional skills and competencies of teachers and teacher candidates. In this study, teachers who completed the course at the master\u27s level were examined. The study group consisted of twelve social studies teachers who took the course between 2019 and 2022, when it was offered for the first time. As a qualitative study, interviews were utilised to collect the data, then analysed through content analysis. The research revealed that the course The Use of Comics in Social Studies Education contributed positively to the academic and professional experiences of teachers. It has been determined that comics, as a medium, had positive effects on the professional experience of the participants, such as increasing student motivation, enabling learning while having fun, facilitating permanent learning, contributing to the development of empathy skills, and encouraging the formation of reading habits

Sosyal Bilgiler Dersinde Çizgi Roman Kullanımı: Teksas Tarihi

Comic books are not only a type of reading material but also a useful educative source for various lessons. Based on this, this study aims to examine the effects of comic books on middle school students’ motivation and academic success in social studies course. Quasi-experimental research design was used in the current study, in which 19 students were in experimental group and 20 students were in the control group. The data gathered by the motivation scale and the achievement test. The study lasted for three weeks in 2015-2016 educational year. Findings revealed that students, who were taught by the comic book, in the experimental group, reached significantly better achievement score and higher motivation than their counterparts, who were taught in traditional classroom environment.Çizgi romanlar sadece bir okuma metni değil aynı zamanda çeşitli dersler için faydalı bir eğitsel kaynaktır. Buna dayalı olarak çalışmanın amacı çizgi roman kullanımının ortaokul öğrencilerinin sosyal bilgiler dersindeki başarı ve motivasyonlarını incelemektir. Yarı-deneysel araştırma modelinin kullanıldığı çalışmada 19 öğrenci deney grubunda, 20 öğrenci ise kontrol grubunda yer almıştır. Veriler başarı testi ve motivasyon ölçeği kullanılarak toplanmıştır. 2015-2016 yılı eğitim döneminde yapılan çalışma üç hafta sürmüştür. Elde edilen bulgulardan çıkan sonuçlara göre çizgi romanların kullanıldığı grup, geleneksel yaklaşım ile öğretim yapılan gruba göre daha yüksek başarı elde etmiş ve motivasyonlarının daha çok arttığı belirlenmiştir

Diagnosis of comorbid migraine without aura in patients with idiopathic/genetic epilepsy based on the gray zone approach to the International Classification of Headache Disorders 3 criteria

BackgroundMigraine without aura (MwoA) is a very frequent and remarkable comorbidity in patients with idiopathic/genetic epilepsy (I/GE). Frequently in clinical practice, diagnosis of MwoA may be challenging despite the guidance of current diagnostic criteria of the International Classification of Headache Disorders 3 (ICHD-3). In this study, we aimed to disclose the diagnostic gaps in the diagnosis of comorbid MwoA, using a zone concept, in patients with I/GEs with headaches who were diagnosed by an experienced headache expert.MethodsIn this multicenter study including 809 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of I/GE with or without headache, 163 patients who were diagnosed by an experienced headache expert as having a comorbid MwoA were reevaluated. Eligible patients were divided into three subgroups, namely, full diagnosis, zone I, and zone II according to their status of fulfilling the ICHD-3 criteria. A Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis was performed to bring out the meaningful predictors when evaluating patients with I/GEs for MwoA comorbidity, using the variables that were significant in the univariate analysis.ResultsLonger headache duration (<4 h) followed by throbbing pain, higher visual analog scale (VAS) scores, increase of pain by physical activity, nausea/vomiting, and photophobia and/or phonophobia are the main distinguishing clinical characteristics of comorbid MwoA in patients with I/GE, for being classified in the full diagnosis group. Despite being not a part of the main ICHD-3 criteria, the presence of associated symptoms mainly osmophobia and also vertigo/dizziness had the distinguishing capability of being classified into zone subgroups. The most common epilepsy syndromes fulfilling full diagnosis criteria (n = 62) in the CART analysis were 48.39% Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy followed by 25.81% epilepsy with generalized tonic-clonic seizures alone.ConclusionLonger headache duration, throbbing pain, increase of pain by physical activity, photophobia and/or phonophobia, presence of vertigo/dizziness, osmophobia, and higher VAS scores are the main supportive associated factors when applying the ICHD-3 criteria for the comorbid MwoA diagnosis in patients with I/GEs. Evaluating these characteristics could be helpful to close the diagnostic gaps in everyday clinical practice and fasten the diagnostic process of comorbid MwoA in patients with I/GEs

Digital Comics in Online Learning During COVID-19: Its Effect on Student Cognitive Learning Outcomes

Comics have been used as an alternative tool to improve student learning outcomes during the pandemic, but not yet for junior high school science learning. The study aims to explore the impact of digital comics in online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic on students' cognitive learning outcomes (CLO). A quasi-experimental research design was used in the study. A total of 42 eighth-grade students participated in the current study. They were randomly assigned to two conditions. The first condition was online learning assisted by digital comic media. The second condition was non-comic online learning. A multiple-choice test developed by the researchers was used to measure students' CLO. Although the number of participants is limited, an independent samples t-test was used to analyze the data because the data was normally distributed.  The results show that students' CLO differs significantly between comic and non-comic assisted online learning in favor of comic assisted online learning conditions. The possible reasons behind the findings were discussed. As a conclusion, several suggestions for researchers and teachers were offered

Headache in idiopathic/genetic epilepsy: Cluster analysis in a large cohort

Objective The link between headache and epilepsy is more prominent in patients with idiopathic/genetic epilepsy (I/GE). We aimed to investigate the prevalence of headache and to cluster patients with regard to their headache and epilepsy features. Methods Patients aged 6-40 years, with a definite diagnosis of I/GE, were consecutively enrolled. The patients were interviewed using standardized epilepsy and headache questionnaires, and their headache characteristics were investigated by experts in headache. Demographic and clinical variables were analyzed, and patients were clustered according to their epilepsy and headache characteristics using an unsupervised K-means algorithm. Results Among 809 patients, 508 (62.8%) reported having any type of headache; 87.4% had interictal headache, and 41.2% had migraine. Cluster analysis revealed two distinct groups for both adults and children/adolescents. In adults, subjects having a family history of headache, >= 5 headache attacks, duration of headache >= 24 months, headaches lasting >= 1 h, and visual analog scale scores > 5 were grouped in one cluster, and subjects with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), myoclonic seizures, and generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) were clustered in this group (Cluster 1). Self-limited epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes and epilepsy with GTCS alone were clustered in Cluster 2 with the opposite characteristics. For children/adolescents, the same features as in adult Cluster 1 were clustered in a separate group, except for the presence of JME syndrome and GTCS alone as a seizure type. Focal seizures were clustered in another group with the opposite characteristics. In the entire group, the model revealed an additional cluster, including patients with the syndrome of GTCS alone (50.51%), with >= 5 attacks, headache lasting >4 h, and throbbing headache; 65.66% of patients had a family history of headache in this third cluster (n = 99). Significance Patients with I/GE can be clustered into distinct groups according to headache features along with seizures. Our findings may help in management and planning for future studies