Presenting Safety Topics Using a Graphic Novel, Manga, To

Article Cite This: J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX

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Presenting Safety Topics Using a Graphic Novel, Manga, To Effectively Teach Chemical Safety to Students in Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand Mieko Kumasaki,*,† Takuro Shoji,‡ Tsung-Chih Wu,§ Khantong Soontarapa,∥ Mitsuru Arai,⊥ Takaaki Mizutani,# Ken Okada,∇ Yoshitada Shimizu,○ and Yasuhiro Sugano◆ †

Kanagawa National University, Kanagawa 240-8501, Japan Department of Occupational Safety and Health Management, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitayushu City 807-0804, Japan § Department of Industrial Education and Technology, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua City, ROC ∥ Department of Chemical Technology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand ⊥ Environmental Science Center, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan # Japan Organization of Occupational Health and Safety, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Tokyo 204-0024, Japan ∇ Research Institute of Science for Safety and Sustainability, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Ibaraki 305-8565, Japan ○ Kanagawa Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, Kanagawa 243-0435, Japan ◆ Mitsui Chemicals, Inc., Tokyo 105-7122, Japan ‡

ABSTRACT: Manga are graphic novels that are considered to have the potential to effectively convey concepts and engage readers. The efficacy of manga has been validated for chemical safety education to students in three universities in Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand. Students were asked to examine a photo to identify hazards and hazardous behaviors that can potentially lead to accidents before and after reading a manga that explains the risk of fires and explosions. The identified hazards/hazardous behaviors were classified into seven categories, and the average number of hazards/hazardous behaviors was determined in each category. The differences before and after the lesson were analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of manga as an educational tool. In the students’ answers, in all three of the universities, some common features were observed: Subjects easily identified certain hazardous conditions in the photo, particularly noting deficient or unsuitable personal protective equipment. The hazards/hazardous behaviors that can potentially result in ignitions, fires, and explosions were more likely to be identified after the lesson. Many students found the manga a helpful tool for learning chemical safety. KEYWORDS: First-Year Undergraduate/General, Second-Year Undergraduate, Upper-Division Undergraduate, Graduate Education/Research, Continuing Education, Safety/Hazards, Problem Solving/Decision Making, Mechanisms of Reactions

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INTRODUCTION

combustible vapors or gases, people may, for example, light a cigarette or bring an ignition source close to the vapor which can ignite chemical and cause fatal fires or explosions. Such accidents cannot be avoided unless one has a good understanding of the properties of chemical substances. Second, the procedures used to deal with one substance or situation do not always apply to another. For instance, the safety handling of ethanol may not always be applicable to benzene. While safety training for specific substances or

Safety education fosters risk awareness, which serves as a defense against hazards1 by providing people with important information so that they may better understand different situational dangers rather than safety drills. As for chemical safety education, there are some specific points which must be considered in teaching chemical safety. First, the conditions that lead to accidents are not always obvious or visible. The hazards of chemical substances are often overlooked because the evidence of their existence is not always apparent. Many combustible liquids are colorless, and may appear harmless. Many of chemicals that can lead to fire take on an invisible vapor form. Without noticing the presence of © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Received: July 11, 2017 Revised: January 30, 2018

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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00451 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX

Journal of Chemical Education

Article

Regarding chemistry, Carter15 reviewed the history of chemistry appearing in comics. During the 1930s, a number of publishers attempted to produce comics that would serve as an educational medium. Some of them describe the biographies of famous scientists. A reason to use cartoons is to enhance motivation levels; Roesky and Kennepohl16 provide categories such as developing good laboratory technique, improving writing and thinking skills, and augmenting reading skills and chemical safety. Accordingly, many attempts have been made to use comics for chemistry education. Kim17et al. reported fourcut comic strips to convey scientific messages that gathered positive reception. With regard to chemical safety, Di Raddo18 reviewed comics that depicted chemistry laboratories and emphasized their value as a medium for facilitating safety education. To the best of our knowledge, however, few studies have experimentally examined the effects of manga as educational tools in chemical safety education. This is probably due to the complexity of chemical safety education. If manga are designed to absorb and move the readers too much, they can potentially hinder knowledge transfer. Manga can evoke readers’ sympathy and may lead to their lifelong change, but such manga can fail to let the readers pay attention to knowledge. To ensure essential knowledge transfer, some educational manga tend to only explain the important information through conversations between characters; such manga lack attraction and make story telling monotonous. A good blend of knowledge transfer and attraction is therefore important. Therefore, the authors conducted a piloted study to examine the efficacy of chemical safety education by using a manga that was prepared by the Japanese chemical safety researchers and a professional manga writer. The result showed a successful outcome for Japanese university students.19 However, one issue arose concerning the idea that the understanding of manga can be highly supported by a cultural background shared with a writer and readers. Although manga are now a recognized as a literary genre worldwide, some features may hinder readers’ understanding because manga are also a cultural and generational form of communication. For example, manga rely greatly on contextual cues and metaphors. Adams describes a manga that exhibits rapid and extreme changes among characters in a relatively short space, for instance, several times on a single page, which resulted in a bewildering sense of inconsistency for those unfamiliar with the characteristics of manga. In this study, therefore, we compared the effectiveness of manga in chemical safety education among university students in Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand. Manga in Taiwan and Thailand have large markets, and young people tend to be quickly accustomed to this communication format and genre. In Taiwan, many students are familiar with manga since childhood. Educational tools in the manga format have been available not only for students, but also for adults. The same is true for Japan. In Thailand too, manga are popular, though the preferred types of manga tend to vary by gender. As manga have been quite common as a visual format for communication, it is not a question of whether if he/she likes or dislikes manga, but rather which manga he/she likes or dislikes.

situations is imperative to conducting an experiment safely, knowledge of the fundamental theories of certain safety procedures is essential to judge the substances in a particular circumstance, and what kind of preventive measures are most effective in avoiding catastrophes. Third, physical safety issues caused by chemical substances are often unfamiliar to trainees compared with health issues. Health risks can be easily imagined if they know that certain chemical substances are harmful to their health. It is easy to understand that risks increase the longer people are exposed to the certain substances. Unlike health risks, risks caused by the properties that cause fires and explosions can vary according to the conditions in which the substances are handled and processed in the reaction, distillation, storage, and drying stages. A substance can polymerize to become a useful chemical under a certain condition, whereas it can explode under other circumstances.2 In most cases, the complexity of chemical safety has relied upon lectures and textbooks as methods used to teach information in a structured manner. However, lectures and learning via reading a textbook are passive ways of learning, and the methods are not as engaging for trainees. Accordingly, questions arise regarding how to increase the trainee’s engagement and effectively teach the essential knowledge foundation for chemical safety lessons. To ensure that trainees quickly acquire the necessary safety knowledge prior to performing a certain task, we examined the use of graphic novels in teaching chemical safety education. While various names exist for graphic novels, like comics, manga, and so forth, we examine manga in this study. Unlike traditional comic strips, manga have a long and narrative story. These stories often involve complex and lengthy storylines, providing readers with a means of negotiating with alternative identities and characters. Manga enable readers to experience certain events as if they were actually engaging with the text’s characters. A reader can make connections between the characters and their own life experiences by engaging with a variety of different characters and dynamic plots. This explains why some manga that depict historical events or the lives of historical figures are helpful for students to learn history in Japan.3 Since manga employ a complex interplay of text and images, they can effectively convey concepts and motivate readers’ engagement.4 They are used frequently to convey medical information in Japan.5 In fact, the authors of this paper found that they had shared experiences in having read a manga about a fictional insurance inspector’s adventures when they encountered the concept of dust explosion.6 Some extant studies focus on the effect of comics or manga as an educational tools used in business, 7 AIDS,8−10 biochemistry,11 and biology4 and found that their uses led to improvements in knowledge and understanding.12 A group of Japanese medical doctors produced an animated cartoon and a manga for educating junior high and elementary school children about the risks of stroke, including the signs and symptom.13 The study demonstrated the relative ease of understanding of manga, as well as how they are powerful tools that can convey these messages. Another study reported on the effect of an Internet-based therapy program in manga format.14 The study was designed with the expectation that the program would result in students having a better understanding of the contents of the program. B



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Figure 1. Education tool: (A) prepared in English; (B) prepared in traditional Chinese; (C) prepared in Japanese. (Adapted with permission from ref 23. Copyright 2011 Japan Society for Safety Engineering.)

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MATERIALS AND METHODS

(Figure 1). The original text in the manga, hazard identification test, and questionnaires was created by a Japanese author who has a background in chemistry and chemical engineering.

Material Design

Mayer and Sims claimed that concurrent presentations of visual and verbal explanations presented increase the likelihood that students will be able to build connections between their mental representations of the presented explanations.20 On the basis of the dual-coding theory of multimedia learning, Kogo and Kogo explained the efficacy of learning using manga because it presents visual and verbal information as graphics.21 They separated a typical manga used for educational purposes into two parts: one part that presented and explained the core information for learning and the second part that conveyed a storyline. Their experiments for university students suggested that a storyline was helpful for maintaining students’ motivation and their interest in and understanding of the subject matter. Mayer and Gallini conducted experiments showing that static illustrations accompanied by captions resulted in less effective and creative problem solving than lessons utilizing dynamic illustrations.22 Consequently, the Japanese team comprising members from universities, public research institutes, and chemical companies discussed and carefully created a storyline that aims to teach core chemical safety objectives and to provoke the interests of readers. The plot begins with a man working in a factory in a mountainous area. He finds a fireball outside of the facilities, but his colleague does not believe him. They assume that the man is simply imagining the fireball, and they ignore the issue and enjoy their holidays away from work. When they return, the two men encounter the explosion and investigate its cause. Finally, they find that combustible gases have drifted from an abandoned factory and that the explosion was the result of one of the men who had switched on a leaking circuit. The objective that its readers are supposed to learn is that fires and explosions can occur when combustible substances, an ignition source, and air (oxidizer) coexist. To achieve a balance between conveying the learning objective and motivating readers to engage in the lesson, the story featured two ordinary men who worked to identify the cause of the accident through trial-and-error. For this study, three types of materials in different languages were prepared: English (for a Thai instructor), traditional Chinese (for students in the Taiwan), and Japanese (for Japanese students)

Data Collection

The goal of these educational materials is to teach readers the risks of explosions that can be triggered when an ignition source comes in contact with combustible vapor. To examine whether the goal was achieved and manga function as an educational tool, the following three points were verified for students with different cultural backgrounds. (a) Readers can understand through the manga how an explosion occurs. (b) Readers can apply the knowledge obtained from the manga in risk assessment. (c) The manga can be accepted by readers as a tool for chemical safety education. Points a and b were verified using a hazard identification test, and point c was examined using a questionnaire. The experimental procedure comprising manga reading, hazard identification test, and questionnaire was fixed and shared among the three universities. A hazard identification test was conducted before and after the lesson using manga. Examinees were shown a picture that captures a scene in which a woman without protective glasses is pouring liquid from a bottle to a beaker in front of a switchboard (Figure 2). Many cables were hanging from the switchboard. The cable was attached just before taking the photograph, and the bottle was actually empty. Examinees were asked to identify hazards/ hazardous behaviors, conditions that can lead to an accidents. They write down the hazards/hazardous behaviors and conditions as answers to the open-ended questions. After they were given enough time to read the manga, examinees were asked again to identify hazards/hazardous behavior in the picture. Prior to the second round of hazard identification test conducted after the lesson, the subjects were asked to answer questions about their impression of the lesson material. Questions such as the following were asked: “Is this lesson material easy to understand?” “Do you think this material can help you learn information about chemical safety?” “Would you want to read the following episodes of this manga if it existed?” C



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different natures of each hazard listed on each card. Cards are moved and placed close to other cards that represent similar data. Each group of cards was categorized according to a key objective. For quantitative analysis, the number of hazards/hazardous behaviors that can potentially cause an accident were counted and categorized according to concept. The averages were used as variables for each subject and were compared among the categories using one way ANOVA and a post hoc test (Student−Newman−Keuls). Data obtained before and after the lesson was compared and tested using the Student’s t test. Because the subjects in Thailand were instructed to select five hazards and rank them in order of severity, the rankings indicate the order of perceived importance, and the rankings conducted by Thai freshmen and seniors were averaged. The averaged rankings were compared before and after the lesson. Meanwhile, the subjects in Taiwan and Japan were simply directed to list hazards/hazardous behaviors before and after the lesson. After the lesson, they wrote down hazards/ hazardous behaviors that they did not find before the lesson. A one-sample t test was performed to test a null hypothesis and ensure that the number of hazards newly identified after the lesson was zero.

Figure 2. Photo depicts the hazard identification test (Reprinted from ref 19. Copyright 2014 Japan Society for Safety Engineering.)

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The subjects were directed to select a response from a 5-point scale, ranging from 5, “strongly agree”, to 1, “strongly disagree”, for each question. This scale was an interval scale. The selected alternative was treated as the score and analyzed quantitatively.

RESULTS

Structure of Hazards

In the hazard identification test, the hazardous conditions and unsafe behaviors depicted in the photo were identified by 13 of the Japanese subjects, while the Thai participants identified 30, and the students in Taiwan identified 17. Some of their listed items had almost the same meaning or some component of the other items. For example, some wrote “no mask” and some answered “no PPE (personal protective equipment)” because they answered open-ended questions and were directed to freely write the names of the items they identified. In the analysis, these answers were categorized, coded, and structured using the KJ method. The structure of the answers for the hazards/hazardous behavior and hazardous conditions is shown in Table 1. Seven categories were established: 1. electrocution 2. chemical substance 3. ignition 4. fire and explosion 5. psychological environment (environment I) 6. physical environment (environment II) 7. protective equipment. The electrocution category contained one answer, while chemical substance contained seven types of answers related to hazardous chemical natures of substances, such as “corrosion due to chemical vapor”, “liquid leakage”, and “possible

Subjects

The experiments were conducted at three universities in Thailand, Taiwan, and Japan, as part of a lecture. The instructors were either a professor or associate professors who have academic backgrounds in teaching safety and are in charge of the lecture course at their respective universities. In Thailand, 50 freshmen and 23 senior undergraduate students (fourth year) participated in the experiment. The first year students were taking a course titled “Introduction to Chemical Engineering” in which learning about safety in chemistry laboratories was one component of the course contents. The fourth year students were taking a course titled “Chemical Process Safety”, and all already passed a chemical safety-training course as well as a fire extinguishing training course. In Taiwan, 44 university students from the department of industrial education and technology took part in the experiment as subjects. These participants were freshmen and were learning about industrial safety and health. They did not specialize in safety science and engineering. In Japan, 24 students in a chemical engineering course participated in the experiment. They were students in their third year that attended the safety engineering class. The Thai subject group took an English version of the questionnaire; the subject group in Taiwan took the questionnaire written in traditional Chinese language, while the Japanese subject group used manga and answered a questionnaire written in Japanese.

Table 1. Hazard Categories and Student Answer Examples

Data Analysis

The questions identified and listed hazards/hazardous behavior, and these were classified into seven categories according to their major characteristics. The classification was performed by authors using the KJ method. This method was developed for new idea generation and establishes an orderly system, and is often used in data analysis conducted during fieldwork.24 In this method, qualitative data obtained during fieldwork is noted on cards, which are arranged on a table or a wall, according to the D

Category

Name

Examples

G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7

Electrocution Chemical substance Ignition Fire and explosion Environment I (psychological) Environment II (physical) Protective equipment

Electrocution Corrosion due to chemical vapor Possible ignition by cable Flammable vapor Work alone Disordered table No gloves DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00451 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX


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Figure 3. Average number of identified hazards in each category. The students were asked to select 5 things: (A) Thai freshmen (n = 50); (B) Thai seniors (n = 23). Whisker plots on the bars indicate standard errors.

of students. All students answered fewer than five items in each test. The results are shown in Figure 4.

inhalation of chemical vapor”. Ignition was composed of six items concerning the potential risk of ignition that could possibly lead to fires such as “adjacent to electrical/electronic appliance”, “possible ignition by plug”, and :pouring chemical near electrical plug”. Six kinds of answers were categorized under the category f ire and explosion, which directly named the phenomena. With regard to the working environment, the KJ method provided two categories. Three items indicating little or no risk awareness were categorized into the psychological environment category. These items may influence the psychological state, such as “work alone”, “no caution signboard”, and “careless”. Physical environment is a category containing answers that concern a disordered and unsuitable workspace for an experiment: “disordered table”, “conduct an experiment outside of a hood”, “small working space”. Fifteen types of answers were categorized into protective equipment category, including protective shoes, gloves, glasses, a mask, a hat, and a coat.

Figure 4. Average numbers of identified hazards in each category: Taiwan (n = 24). Whisker plots on the bars indicate standard errors.

Before the lesson, hazards categorized under protective equipment were most frequently identified; the results showed that this category had the largest average out of the seven categories while some subjects identified hazards in the electrocution, chemical substance, f ire and explosion, and protective equipment categories. The significant effect of a category was found using a one way ANOVA (F(6,301) = 23.4, p < 0.01). The post hoc test revealed that hazards classified in protective equipment (G7) were the most frequently found among the seven categories, and that the averages of chemical substance (G2) and f ire and explosion (G4) were significantly less than those of protective equipment, while the averages of the aforementioned three categories were exceeded by the other four categories before the lesson. After the lesson, subjects identified more hazards falling into the ignition category than before the lesson. The significant effect of a category was found by using a one way ANOVA (F(6,301) = 12.8, p < 0.01); significant differences for the average number of hazards identified were revealed by the post hoc test, and the average of the chemical substance (G2), ignition (G3), and f ire and explosion (G4) were listed as significantly greater than the other four categories after lesson.

Hazard Identification Pattern by Thai Subjects

The number of hazards which were identified by freshman (first year students) and senior students (fourth year students) in Thailand was counted in each category and averaged; “average” means the number of hazards identified per student for each category. The results are shown in Figure 3. In the experiment, both subject groups were directed to list five hazards in the order of severity. The scores from 1 (least important) to 5 (most important) were added and divided by the number of students who ranked the hazards. The results demonstrate that the average for protective equipment (G7) was the highest among the seven categories, especially before the lesson for both the freshmen and seniors. The tendency was more apparent for seniors than freshmen. Hazards categorized under “physical environment” (G6) were the most frequently identified in the protective equipment category. No students in Thailand identified hazards/hazardous behavior that led to electrocution. The student groups appeared to have knowledge relating to G3. Since they were taking a course on safety in chemistry laboratories, they may have retained knowledge of the category.

Hazard Identification Pattern by Japanese Subjects

Hazard Identification Pattern by Subjects in Taiwan

The number of hazards identified by Japanese subjects was small compared to the number identified by Thai subjects because of the same reason as that found in the case of the subjects of Taiwan. The result was shown in Figure 5. According to one sample t test, it was revealed that some subjects identified hazards classified into chemical substance (t = 6.78, df = 23, p < 0.01), ignition (t = 2.46, df = 23, p < 0.05), physical environment (t = 3.08, df = 23, p < 0.01), and protective equipment (t = 10.1, df = 23, p < 0.01) before the lesson, and

The subjects in Taiwan identified many fewer hazards/ hazardous behaviors than Thai subjects did, because they were not instructed to list five hazards. Subjects freely named and recorded hazards in response to the photo. The authors classified the answers into categories and averaged the number of answers belonging to each category. The data showing how many hazards a student identified was collected and categorized. The sum was averaged on the basis of the number E



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easiness and helpfulness, which means the manga is considered a useful education tool. Significant correlations existed among response patterns to the three questions, indicating that subjects who regarded that the manga was easy to understand tended to think that the manga helps one identify hazards, and that these people wanted to read subsequent episodes. The response to the question about easiness was significantly correlated with the numbers of identified hazards in the ignition category (r = 0.18, df = 139, p < 0.05) and physical environment category (r = 0.33, n = 139, p < 0.01) before the lesson, and chemical substance category (r = 0.18, df = 139, p < 0.05), physical environment category (r = 0.28, df = 139, p < 0.05), and protective equipment category (r = 0.35, df = 139, p < 0.05) after the lesson. Students who considered the manga easy to understand showed a tendency to identify hazards categorized in ignition and physical environment, which may mean that such students have an intrinsic capacity to detect such hazards and to help understand the manga. On the other hand, after the lesson, they categorized items into the chemical substance, physical environment, and protective equipment more than the other students. The lesson might have predisposed such students’ awareness to other types of hazards. Although we expected that students who understood the manga easily identified the hazards in the ignition category, the number of hazards in the ignition category increased after the lesson, despite students reporting that they understand the meaning of what the manga describes and the message the manga delivers. The response for the question on preference was negatively correlated with the number of hazards identified by a student in the protective equipment category (r = −0.26, df = 139, p < 0.01) before the lesson, and positively correlated with that of psychological environment (r = 0.18, df = 139, p < 0.05). These results indicate that students who did not care about protective equipment became aware of the importance of protective equipment due to the lesson with the manga. Considering how well most of the participants performed, some students who may become aware of psychological environment hazards after the lesson hoped to read the following episodes.

Figure 5. Average numbers of identified hazards in each category: Japan (n = 24). Whisker plots on the bars indicate standard errors.

ignition (t = 2.89, df = 23, p < 0.01) and physical environment (t = 1.70, df = 23, p < 0.01) after the lesson. Before the lesson, hazards of protective equipment were found most frequently compared to those from the remaining six categories. There were 41% of the identified hazards related to protective equipment. On the other hand, no hazards were identified for electrocution, fire and explosion, and psychological environment. The significant effect of a category was found using a one way ANOVA (F(6,161) = 59.9, p < 0.01), and the post hoc test revealed that the average number of hazards identified for protective equipment (G7) was significantly greater than those of the other six categories, and that the hazards of chemical substance (G2) was found less frequently than those in protective equipment (G7) but more frequently than those identified in the other five categories before the lesson. After the lesson, the average number of identified hazards of protective equipment decreased remarkably. The significant effect of category was found using a one way ANOVA (F(6,161) = 6.77, p < 0.01), and significant differences between the average number of hazards identified were revealed using the post hoc test. For the category ignition (G3), hazards were identified more often than they were in the other six categories, and the most hazards were identified in the physical environment (G6) category, which follows the ignition category. G7 decreased significantly after the manga reading. Manga may be powerful enough to make students be occupied with G3; this can result in them being less careful of the protective equipment.

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DISCUSSION One of the challenges in education concerns how to encourage students to become active learners. Many researchers have conducted studies to develop methods to motivate learners and to improve how they learn. Knowledge acquisition entails more than fulfilling intellectual curiosity; in safety education, knowledge acquisition can translate to one’s protection from getting in an accident. This study examines how manga can be used to both motivate students and effectively teach students key safety education concepts. In this study, the characteristic features of students’ answers were observed to be independent from their university;

Impressions Survey Results for the Education with Manga

The questionnaire survey was conducted after the lesson. It was designed to gather the perceptions of the subjects toward the lesson material. The results are shown in Figure 6A (asking whether they understand the meaning of what the manga describe and the message the manga deliver: easiness), Figure 6B (whether it helps in learning chemical safety: helpfulness), and Figure 6C (whether participants want to read a following episode: preference). Especially among Japanese participants, the three questions were rated as highly favorable in terms of

Figure 6. Distribution of students’ responses to a question: (A) about [“Easiness”], (B) about [“Helpfulness”], and (C) about [“Preference”]. F



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differences in culture or daily practice, because the manga describes Japanese daily life and refers to Japanese ideologies to convey an objective. In this story, the first appearance of a fireball was viewed mysteriously by man, which is strongly influenced by a traditional Japanese superstition that a human soul sometimes appears in the form of a fireball. Although the scene was added with the intention of creating a certain impact to help readers become absorbed in the story, readers not familiar with this idea would find it challenging to read and understand. Nevertheless, the manga was supported in terms of its helpfulness in learning about chemical safety regardless of the cultural backgrounds of the students that participated in this study. One of the reasons for this may be attributed to its effect of decreasing cognitive load. People have a limited working memory, and instructional representation should be designed to reduce unnecessary cognitive load.28 In an experiment conducted by Mayer and Anderson, students who viewed the narrative animation performed better on tests than students who listened to an explanation or viewed an animation.29 Students using more than one presentation modality can increase the capacity of their working memory.30 In most cases, a manga is expressed on a piece of paper, and is first processed as visual information in their working memory. Initially, narration in text competes with these graphical representations;28 however, the words are eventually transferred into sounds in their verbal working memory. That means that the manga provides more than one modality using both graphical information and spoken language, which can help increase the learner’s working memory. This feature of manga helped students learn in spite of their cultural differences. The results may change for students with bigger cultural gaps among each other; however, in this study, the differences in daily practice did not hinder learning to the extent we expected. As for preference, the answers of three university students were diverse. The story ended, and the mystery was solved, which contributed to decreasing readers’ motivation for reading another story. Therefore, the question can be translated whether or not the story appeals to them. The results showed that more than half of the subjects preferred the manga. The three aspects of students’ perceptions correlated with each other. Subjects who had a favorable impression of the manga thought that it was easy to understand and wanted to read following episodes if they exist. Subjects who found it easy to grasp the story in the manga were interested in this type of educational materials. In this experiment, the lessons using manga resulted in reasonably successful outcomes. After the lesson, many students took into account the possibility of ignition, and the score of G3 (ignition) improved significantly, regardless of the university to which they belonged; the result was statistically supported. The answers relating to G3 reflect on the initial process of fire and explosion and identify what can be the ignition source for fire and explosion. Students who correctly answered the question were assumed to have had a proper understanding of the ignition mechanism. The results before and after the lesson indicated the manga in this study delivered the learning objective and achieved student acquisition. On the basis of the characteristic features of manga, the lesson using with manga should function as a preliminary lesson. Since manga lessons decrease students’ cognitive load, learners should feel that it is easier to start learning using manga. That effect can be utilized to acquire prior knowledge

students identified some problems in a photo before the lesson and tended to identify problems related to the lack of proper protective equipment. The results indicate that students understand that they should wear personal protective equipment during an experiment. Some of the students may not understand the purposes of the protective equipment, because they did not connect how certain hazards necessitate the donning of protective equipment. For instance, protective glasses are supposed to prevent liquid chemicals from splashing into one’s eyes, and some students did not identify the hazards of liquid chemicals, despite their answer that protective glasses are necessary. Because the hazard identification test did not reveal the depth of their understanding, some students may think that wearing protective equipment is just an arbitrary rule. Pogacnik and Cigic explains that, for laboratory exercises, students can have a weak understanding of theoretical knowledge, may not grasp the objective of the work, or may not understand the underlying concepts of the laboratory exercise.25 Since adequate understanding of the properties of chemicals, hazardous phenomena, and triggering activities that cause accidents will be helpful in scenes of chemical handling, it is essential that the lesson teach more than basic rules. The results can be explained by the hypothesis that students are familiar with health hazards. Health hazards indicate that a chemical has permeated an area in which there are carcinogens, toxic or highly toxic agents, reproductive toxins, irritants, corrosives, sensitizers, hepatotoxins, nephrotoxins, neurotoxins, agents that act on the hematopoietic system, or agents that damage the lungs, skin, eyes, or mucous membranes.26 Individuals can be protected from such risks by avoiding contact with the chemicals or by keeping the quantities of the inhaled or absorbed chemicals under control. In the experiments, health hazards were indicated by the G2, chemical substance, category, and students participating in this experiment seem to easily connect “chemicals” with potential “health hazards” depicted in the photo. Meanwhile, physical hazards resulting in fires and explosions must be prevented by controlling both the amount of the chemical vapor in air and being wary of the ignition source. Most of students ignored hazards that can potentially lead to explosions and fires. At the same time, some students answered “Fire” or “Explosion”. Although they may be able to identify apparent fire or explosion risks in a snapshot of papers or a gas cylinder in the vicinity of a lit match, they seem to have difficulty identifying more abstract means by which physical hazards can lead to fire explosion risks, which is presented in this hazard identification test. Thus, knowledge about ignition may have been understood by students in a superficial sense. Understanding something is different from simply knowing it: Wertheimer wrote that understanding makes it possible to determine a solution of one problem and apply it to another.27 The process to achieve a deep understanding should start with fundamental and routine types of tasks that are categorized from the least to the most engaging methods. Safety educators should be concerned about how to maintain learners’ interest until they acquire the necessary amount of knowledge needed to construct a whole picture and elevate learners’ levels of understanding. The manga that the authors prepared had a good impression on the students. With regard to easiness, the manga was wellsupported by Japanese students, but less so by students of the Taiwan. Almost half the Thai students thought that the manga was easy to understand. These differences may reflect the G



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for learners before engaging in an in-depth lesson. Lovett and Greenhouse stated that “learning involves integrating new knowledge with existing knowledge”, a concept which is derived from cognitive theory.31 Appropriate prior knowledge has a positive impact on the learning process and helps one more deeply understand concepts. On the other hand, inappropriate prior knowledge hinders learning because learners may only make use of their pre-existing knowledge and ignore the newly acquired knowledge that does not match earlier acquired knowledge. Therefore, manga as educational materials should be carefully designed to avoid misunderstandings. Although manga are graphic and may allow reading in an unusual way, the comparison among the students in the three universities implied that manga lessons have a high potential for educating students from different cultural backgrounds.

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AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Author

*E-mail: [email protected]. ORCID

Mieko Kumasaki: 0000-0003-3882-3320 Notes

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors greatly acknowledge valuable information and advice from Shinobu Maruno, Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd. REFERENCES

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CONCLUSION

Many researchers have devoted their efforts to justifying the need for safety education and to determining how safety education should be imparted. While effective lessons require trainees’ engagement and motivation, chemical safety education has relied on lectures and textbooks to passively teach such content due to the complexity of the subject matter. To find a balance between providing good understanding of the subject matter and encouraging engagement, this study was designed to examine the potential for using manga as a method for teaching chemical safety education. The data was collected from students in three universities in Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand. Students were tasked with identifying hazard/hazardous behaviors in which they were to identify the protective equipment that can help one avoid contact with chemicals that cause health hazards. After a lesson using a manga whose story discusses the dangers caused when a combustible gas is near an ignition source, they were more likely to identify the hazards/hazardous behavior that could potentially lead to fires and explosions than before they had the lesson. The impression about the manga was predominantly positive across the universities, although Japanese students showed the most favorable attitude toward them. Manga are strongly influenced by one’s cultural background due to its storytelling style. The subjects come from different countries, and they have different demographics. Therefore, we must be careful when we assess the differences among the subjects’ impressions of the survey. If the manga had been tailored to Taiwan or Thai culture, the impression surveyed by questionnaire might have been different. Meanwhile with regard to efficacy, manga resulted in an increase efficiency of learning chemical safety to some extent. Many factors can impact the effectiveness of lesson, and the manga used as a teaching material may be one of the factors. This study revealed the applicability of manga to teach chemical safety education. Lessons using manga have many advantages if manga are well-designed. They can convey complex information, and readers can learn at their own pace anywhere, without needing access to the Internet. They can be even more effective if they are combined with other resources and accompanying learning opportunities, such as supporting materials or discussion opportunities, so that trainees can learn how to apply obtained knowledge to problems. H



Article

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Presenting Safety Topics Using a Graphic Novel, Manga, To

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