Effect of Concept Mapping Method of Instruction and Expository Method on Students’ Academic Achievement in Chemistry

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the effect of concept mapping method of instruction and expository method on students’ academic achievement in chemistry. Two research questions were posed and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The pretest - posttest non equivalent control group quasi-experimental design was used. The population for the study comprised all senior secondary school class 2 (SS2) chemistry students in a single sex school in Enugu Education Zone of Enugu State. The instrument for data collection was a self developed chemistry Achievement Test on Water as Universal Solvent (CATWUS). Relevant data were collected from a sample of 275 students selected from four secondary schools (two boys’ schools and two girls’ schools). A reliability coefficient of 0.79 was obtained from the instrument using Kuder Richardson formula 20. Mean and standard deviation scores were used to answer the research questions, while two-way analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the three hypotheses at Alpha level of 0.05. The findings show that students taught using concept mapping method achieved higher than those taught using expository method. The achievement of female students was higher than that of the male students. Recommendations and conclusions were made. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n26p80