Effect of Concept Mapping as an Innovative Teaching Method on Senior School Students’ Interest in Chemistry

Abstract

The study was designed to explore the effect of concept mapping as an innovative teaching method on senior school students‟ interest in chemistry. The pre -test post- test quasi experimental design was adopted for the study. The population for the study comprised 1425 senior secondary two (SS2) chemistry students in Agbani Education Zone. A total of 189 SS2 chemistry students were drawn from three secondary schools selected in the zone through purposive sampling method. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. In each of the schools used for the study, all the chemistry students in their intact classes were used. The experimental group was taught using concept mapping while the control group was taught using the lecture method of teaching. The treatment lasted for six weeks. The instrument for data collection was Chemistry Interest Scale (CIS). The CIS was validated by three experts. Before the treatment commenced, a pre- interest scale was administered and a reliability coefficient of 0.72 was established using Cronbach Alpha. The data collected was analyzed using analysis of co variance (ANCOVA). The result of the data analysis showed that there is a significant difference between the mean interest scores of students taught chemistry with concept mapping and those taught with lecture method. The study concludes by recommending that concept mapping method of teaching should be adopted in teaching of chemistry as this has helped to stimulate interest in chemistry which will help to enhance their achievement.