Necatibey Eğitim Fakültesi Elektronik Fen ve Matematik Eğitimi Dergisi (EFMED) Cilt 5, Sayı 2, Aralık 2011, sayfa 58-85. Necatibey Faculty of Education Electronic Journal of Science and Mathematics Education Vol. 5, Issue 2, December 2011, pp. 58-85. A Research on the Effects of Using Concept Cartoons and Mind Maps in Science Education Ertuğ EVREKLİ 1,* , Didem İNEL 2 and Ali Günay BALIM 3 1 Celal Bayar University, Manisa, TURKEY; 2 Uşak University, Uşak, TURKEY; 3 Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, TURKEY Received : 08.12.2010 Accepted : 19.10.2011 Abstract – In this study, one group pre-test post test design was used and tried to find out the effects of using concept cartoons and mind maps on students’ achievements, motivations, attitudes, and perceptions of inquiry learning skills. As a result of this study, a significant differences were found in students’ achievements and motivations, however; there was no significant differences in students’ attitudes, and perceptions of inquiry learning skills. When the analysis related to attitudes and perceptions of inquiry learning skills was examined, the analysis related to attitudes and inquiry learning skill perceptions, post test measurement was found higher than pre-test measurement. Besides, in this study, the participant students were separated into two groups according to their achievement levels and examined their results concerning dependent variables. The analysis showed that there was no significant differences between groups concerning their achievement, attitude, motivation and inquiry learning skills perceptions. Key words: Mind maps, concept cartoons, inquiry learning skills perceptions, motivation and attitude. SUMMARY Introduction Many different methods, techniques, and visual aids can be used in the constructivist approach. One of such aids is the mind maps developed by Tony Buzan by the end of the 1960s, and another one is the concept cartoons developed by Brenda Keogh and Stuart Naylor in the 1990s. Mind maps are tools that allow representing the concepts, ideas, and information that an individual has in mind about a certain topic as well as the relationships between them by using graphs, diagrams, keywords, and images etc. in a two-dimensional environment (Balim, Evrekli, and Aydin, 2007; Evrekli, Inel, and Balim, 2010). Concept cartoons can be * Corresponding author: Ertuğ Evrekli, Research Assistant in Science Education, Celal Bayar University, Manisa, TURKEY. E-mail: eevrekli@gmail.com