Comic books in the American college classroom: a study of student critical thinking

Abstract

American college literature classes often have objectives and outcomes to address needed real-world skills, such as critical thinking, but the methods to teach and measure these skills has been considered outdated. Comic books, as a type of multimodal literature, are perceived to connect to real-world reading and writing better than traditional ‘text-only’ literature; furthermore, comic books are gaining educational merit as their use in the classroom has increased in the twenty-first century. Using a mixed-method embedded design, this study explored how comic books engage critical thinking in a group (N = 17) of American college literature students and how this critical thinking compared to critical thinking engagement in traditional (no images) literature. The study suggests that comic books engage student critical thinking at levels equal to or greater than traditional (no images) literature.

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