Comparing the effects of concept mapping and co-operative instructional approaches on the cognitive achievement of senior high school students in excretion

Abstract

The primary focus of the study was to determine the effectiveness of concept mapping and cooperative learning as instructional approaches on students’ performance in excretion. It was also to explore the extent to which concept mapping and cooperative learning as instructional approaches improved students’ conception in excretion.The quasi-experimental design of non-equivalent pre-test-intervention-post-test with two intact biology classes was employed. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 76 SHS 2 students. The instruments used for data collection were Achievement Tests (General Knowledge in Biology Performance Test (GKBPT)) and Students’ Performance Test in Excretion (SPTE) with K-R 20 reliability coefficients of 0.812 and 0.866 respectively, class exercises and homework/assignments. Point Biserial Correlation, Wilcoxon Signed Rank test, effect size, chi-square and ANCOVA test were employed to analyse the quantitative data collected through the students’ achievement score. The study showed that the students taught with concept mapping approach and their counterparts taught with co-operative learning approach had significant improvement in the performance of the achievement test in excretion, however there was no significant difference in the performance of the two groups. The result rather indicated that the use of co-operative learning as an instructional approach made students perform homogenously in the post-test than the concept mapping instructional approach. The study indicated that there was no statistically significant relationship between the instructional approach the students received and their correct conceptions of excretion. Based on these results, educational implications for classroom practices as well as recommendations and suggestions for further studies were made.