The graphic novel rises

Traditional textbooks aren’t the most effective way to educate, according to a new study from the University of Oklahoma. I urge IU to take notice, lest I need to bore my way through one more doorstop of a textbook.

The study, which involved 140 undergraduate business seniors, split the participants into two groups. One group learned class material from a traditional textbook, while the other used a graphic novel instructing management skills by way of a fictional story of two young businessmen. Both groups covered the same topics in their respective readings.

Students who learned class materials from the graphic novel were more likely to recognize and remember direct quotes from the reading than students who read from the textbook.

In a similar study, 114 students were given a graphic novel textbook for a business course and 80 percent said they preferred it to a traditional textbook.

Graphic novels have been on the rise as an art form for many years now. While they may not hold the same prestige as the novel, many artists and writers have popularized the format. Frank Miller wrote “Sin City” and “300,” two wildly admired graphic novels that were subsequently made into lucrative films. Similarly, Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” is the only graphic novel to appear in Time magazines “ALL-TIME 100 Greatest Novels” list.

While the use of a graphic novel in the classroom may not speak to everyone, it could be a very smart investment for those who learn visually.

Those of us who are right-brained would most benefit. Right-brained people respond more favorably to images, color, emotions, and creativity. So a graphic novel instead of a textbook would be more than ideal. Not to mention the obvious benefits to students studying subjects such as fine arts, writing, theater, English, design or other creativity-based degrees.

But it’s important to remember the study was conducted with business students, who you could assume are more likely to be left-brained, meaning they respond more strongly to language, logic, numbers and critical thinking. And those students reacted positively to the use of the graphic novel in the classroom.

While the study is brand new and still is years from being put into practice, it’s something IU should consider. As students, we spend more time reading seemingly endless amounts of textbook pages than any other school-related activity. There’s nothing that makes me want to tear my hair out more than page after page of reading, especially when I’m probably retaining less than 20 percent of the content. 

With graphic novels in the classroom, we may enjoy our class reading.

Those students who rarely read may even be more inclined to do so.

Instead of just mechanically listing material and content in a textbook, a graphic novel could present the material in a creative, real-world proficient manner.

Reading — and learning — for school may just be exciting after all.

­— wdmcdona@indiana.edu