Effect of concept mapping strategy on students’ achievement in the teaching and learning of circulatory system

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of concept mapping teaching strategies, (concept identifying, proposition identifying, student generated) on Colleges of Education students‘ achievement on circulatory system. Five research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. The study was a non-equivalent quasi-experimental design involving one treatment group and one control group. The Sample of the study comprised of 95 first year integrated science students purposively drawn from two Colleges of Education in the Northern part of Ghana. Fifty students from Gbewaa College of Education consisting of 28 males and 22 females as the experimental group and 45 students from Bagabaga College of Education made up of 25 males and 20 females as the control group. Two instruments: Circulatory System Achievement Tests (CSAT) and a structured questionnaire on effectiveness of concept mapping developed by the researcher were used for data collection. Concept maps were assessed using a scoring instrument created by Lomask, Baron, Greig and Harrison (1992). The validity and reliability of these instruments were established. The items on the questionnaire were subjected to item analysis while construct validity analysis was established for CSAT. The reliability of the instruments was established using Pearson‘s test – retest correlation co-efficiency before it was administered. Means, Standard Deviation, Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-Test were used to analyse and interpret data obtained. The study, among others showed that concept mapping instructional strategies significantly enhanced students‘ interest in science. The findings further revealed that the use of concept mapping instructional strategies in teaching was most effective way of improving students‘ performance in the teaching and learning of circulatory system in Integrated Science. In conclusion, the control group had a higher pre-test mean score as compared to the experimental group. However, the experimental group had a higher post-test mean score as compared to the control group due to the treatment. Finally, the findings recommended that Science tutors should use concept mapping teaching strategy to improve their students understanding in difficult topics such as the excretory system.