at the aim of the Children's Learning in Science Project is to "devise, implement and evaluate teaching materials and strategies which attempt to promote conceptual change" (p108), and the Nuffield Primary Science (1993a) materials are a direct outcome of the SPACE Research Project. In both of these major UK projects teachers have had a central role in researching, developing and trialling teaching materials. However Webb (1990) notes the difficulty for teachers working within a research group to question the values, paradigms and frameworks to which that group is committed and points out the danger of
teachers being channelled into certain ways of interpreting their world in forms of research which specifically set out to "emancipate" them (p26).
Thus the involvement of teachers in research projects is no guarantee that the outcomes of the research will be viewed as relevant by teachers outside the research groups. There is no doubt that research into the alternative conceptions held by learners is valuable, but it is unfortunate that much of the research does not take the next step of putting forward specific strategies for developing their ideas. This may help to explain why many teachers have made only limited use of the research data. From an action research perspective (Elliot 1991) it appears that the the priority for much of the research has been to improve understanding of the situation in which practice occurs rather than to improve practice directly (Carr and Kemmis, 1986).
Concept cartoons as an approach to teaching and learning in science
It was in response to issues such as these that we developed our cartoon-style drawings as a means of presenting alternative conceptions in science. On the first occasion that they were used we were looking for alternative approaches to engage a group of students in thinking about science concepts. We hoped that by presenting alternative ideas in a visually accessible and appealing format we would be able to elicit the students' ideas and provide suitable challenges which might lead to their ideas being developed further. Typical examples of the concept cartoons which were generated are shown in Figures 1 and 2 (Keogh and Naylor, 1996).
A positive response from the students concerned led to the decision to research the use of these concept cartoons systematically. The concept cartoons appeared to provide an innovative and effective approach to teaching and learning in science, with considerable potential value for teachers. They also appeared to address some of the issues mentioned above, raising the possibility of offering an approach to teaching and learning in science which took account of the central principles of constructivist perspectives and which was firmly based on typical classroom practice.
Research literature provided a ready source of possible alternative viewpoints which could be presented in a cartoon-style format. Driver et al (1985), SPACE Research Reports (1990-2) and Driver et al (1994) were particularly useful as sources of alternative conceptions. Other sources of inspiration were our own teaching experience, suggestions from colleagues and everyday life experience.
There are some limited references to cartoons and annotated drawings in the science education literature. They have been used for eliciting the learner's ideas (White and Gunstone, 1992; Hayes et al, 1994), for illustrating scientific ideas (Gonick and Huffman, 1990) and as a stimulus to reflection on attitudes in science (Lock, 1991). However the approaches described in the literature do not attempt to explore the use of cartoon-style drawings as a teaching and learning approach in science in a systematic way.
In contrast to much educational research, which is sometimes criticised on the grounds that it is frequently of little practical benefit to teachers (Hopkins, 1987; Day, 1995; Hargreaves, 1996), we believed that the concept cartoons could have a direct and immediate impact in the classroom. They also seemed to promote a purposeful approach to practical work - a "hands-on, minds-on" a