Project Abstract

Abstract
Concept mapping is a powerful educational tool that has been shown to enhance learning and improve academic performance in various subjects. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between concept mapping and academic performance of students in Biology in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area. The research utilized a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative analysis of students' test scores with qualitative data from interviews and observations. A total of 200 students from different schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area participated in the study. The students were divided into two groups an experimental group that received training in concept mapping techniques and a control group that received traditional instruction. Both groups were assessed using pre- and post-tests to measure their understanding of Biology concepts. The results of the study indicated a significant improvement in academic performance among students who were taught using concept mapping compared to those who received traditional instruction. The experimental group showed higher scores in the post-test, indicating a deeper understanding of the Biology concepts. Qualitative data from interviews also revealed that students in the experimental group found concept mapping to be a helpful learning tool that facilitated their understanding of complex topics. Overall, the findings suggest that incorporating concept mapping into Biology instruction can positively impact students' academic performance. Teachers in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area and beyond are encouraged to integrate concept mapping techniques into their teaching practices to enhance student learning outcomes in Biology. Further research could explore the long-term effects of concept mapping on academic performance and investigate the optimal ways to implement this instructional strategy in different educational settings.

Project Overview

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background to the study

Concept mapping is an instructional tool that is currently gaining popularity in the field of science education. It is a product of recent advances in cognitive science and the new philosophy of science. Contemporary perspectives of cognitive psychologists and the new learning as an active internal process of construction where the learner’s prior knowledge plays a significant role in further conceptual learning (Ausubel, 1968; Novak 1991). These educators consider learners to be architects of their knowledge for they construct their own idiosyncratic meanings of concepts and natural phenomena. They consider learning, therefore to be more than verbatim repetition of what has been presented to the learner or as a change in behaviour They view learning as a process of conceptual change.

The new philosophers of science reject the traditional cumulative view of scientific knowledge and replace it with a conceptual change view as reflected in the works of Kuhn (1970), and Lakatos (1970), among others. In general, it is this newer idea of cognitive psychologists with constructivist epistemological views and the new philosophers of science that formed the conertoul of concept mapping. However, it is the Ausubel’s (2963, 1968) and Ausubel, Novak and Hanesian’s (1978) cognitive assimilation (subsumption) theory that formed the theoretical foundation of concept mapping.

Concept mapping is a process of constructing concept maps. It involves mapping out logical relationships among concepts in a hierarchical order, such that the most general concepts are at the top of the map. A concept map, according to Novak and Godwin (1984), is a schematic advice for representing a set of concept mapping embedded in a frame work of propositions. It is a two-dimensional hierarchical diagram that illustrates the interconnections between and among individual concepts. Concept maps provide a visual road map showing the pathways that we may take to construct meanings of concepts and propositions. It is both a meta-learning and meta-knowledge tool according to Novak and Godwin (1984).

1.2   Purpose of Study

This study aims at investigating concept mapping and academic performance of students in Biology. The study seeks to:

• Establish whether concept mapping has any effect on students’ performance in Biology.
• To find out gender differences in performance in Biology when students are exposed to concept mapping method.

1.3   Statement of the problem

Studies in concept mapping in Nigeria are scanty. Moreover, those available (Abayomi, 1988, Esiobu & Soyibo, 1995) have looked at concept mapping only in terms of achievement on the part of the learners generally. This researcher is not aware of any study that has looked at gender difference when concept mapping is used as an instructional strategy. The problem of this study can therefore be summarized in the following questions. To what extent does concept mapping determine the academic performance of students in Biology in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area? Is the performance of learners exposed to instruction using concept mapping gender-biased?