Describes one teacher's efforts to understand children's aggressive play by reading literature that suggests children use play to construct meaning, viewing the Ninja Turtle cartoon show, and interviewing children about their superhero play. Male and female roles in play, aggression and violence, and television commercialism are discussed. (LB)

Describes a study that was designed to explore the effects of two teaching presentations (parsed and whole cartoons) and cognitive style (field dependent and field independent) on undergraduate students' ability to understand editorial cartoons. Use of the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) is discussed, and hypotheses tested are explained. (32…

Some common themes of cartoons that use science as a subject are identified. Cartoons that deal with the topics of theory, the universe, school, the relationship between science and technology, and the nature of science are included. The sociology of scientific humor is discussed. (KR)

Presents a lesson on the reaction of people in the United States to immigrants as expressed in political cartoons from the turn-of-the-century and the early decades of the 20th century. Includes cartoons, teaching ideas, and suggested discussion questions about the cartoons. (DSK)

Demonstrates how three kinds of pictures--advertisements, calendars, and cartoons--can be used for stimulating and sustaining verbal output in the English-as-a-Foreign/Second-Language classroom. Techniques include discussion, matching, debates, role play, and telling a story. Ten steps to building a language teaching picture file are included.…

Discusses a three-step process for teaching sixth grade students to connect current events to a perennial issue using the Internet. Proposes selecting and collecting information on a current event; producing an editorial and political cartoon on the event; and publishing the work online and in a local newspaper. Includes a sample activity. (CMK)

Children in South Africa learned to do fascinating activities when they were introduced to the "Spider's Place" materials and, in the process, learned valuable science skills and knowledge. "Spider's Place" was initially a series of 13 science programmes for primary-age children from the South African Broadcasting Corporation…

The American biopic is an expression of distinctively American culture. Its story elements mirror the ideologies of mainstream America. The crucial ingredient in a biopic or a cartoon classic is the triumph of an indomitable struggler in circumstances that crush everyone else. "Ray" is an example of the biopic in its strongest and most affecting…

Interviews, questionnaires and tests may fail as evaluations of pragmatic competence in a foreign language because they cannot reproduce contexts in sufficient detail and/or because they cannot constrain discourse options without contaminating the learner response. In this study a cartoon Discourse Completion Test (DCT) prompt was used, providing…

New technologically-oriented cartoons have been developed in the 1980s, and they may influence the attitudes and behaviors of their viewing audiences, who are comprised primarily of male children. A study analyzed "The Transformers" television program (a new robotic cartoon consisting of a mixture of violence, technology, space travel,…

Questionnaires were completed by 96 editorial cartoonists and by 67 of their newspaper editors in a study of the journalistic autonomy and decision making participation of the cartoonist. It was hypothesized that (1) editors and cartoonists would agree on the cartoonist's role, and (2) cartoonists and their editors would differ significantly in…

In an effort to understand why pictures are used to supplement learning material, a study explored (1) the role of humor in recall, and (2) whether the effects of humor are independent of the individual's ability level. Subjects--students from either the high SAT (approximate average of 1200 points) population (HS), or the low SAT (approximate…

A study was designed to determine the particular effects of humorous illustrations on a textbook's teaching effectiveness, appeal, persuasibility, and potential to motivate. Experimental text materials were prepared in two levels of difficulty and six cartoons were drawn to illustrate different educational points that were made in the materials.…

Recommends use of cartoons by political science teachers to stimulate student interest in political, social, and economic issues. Reviews cartoons from 18th century America through the present and gives an annotated bibliography of 24 sources political cartoons. (AV)

Cartoons can be a stimulating and motivational force in the language classroom and, used effectively, can become an indispensible tool in the acquisition of language and culture. (Author/DB)