Effects of Concept Mapping Technique on Nigerian Junior Secondary School Students’ Cognitive Development and Achievement in Basic Science and Technology (Integrated Science)

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of concept mapping technique on Nigerian junior secondary three students’ cognitive development and achievement in Basic Science and technology. Randomized pre-test/post-test control group design was employed. Purposive sampling technique was used in selecting three out of 24 junior secondary schools that had comparable facilities in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. The participants for the study consisted of 622 junior secondary three students drawn from 889 students with proportionate stratified sampling technique. The participants consisted of an experimental group (n = 311) and a control group (n = 311). The experimental group was taught the concepts of atomic structure, acids, bases and salts; energy conversion and transfer, and heredity with concept mapping technique while the control group was taught the same concepts with the conventional lecture teaching method. Data for this study were collected using a Science Reasoning Tasks II and Basic Science and Technology Concept Achievement Test with reliability indices of 0.72 and 0.80, respectively. The findings of this study showed that concept mapping technique had significant effects on students’ cognitive development (t = 30.23 ≥ t = 1.96) and achievement (t = 27.84 ≥ t = 1.96) in Basic science and technology. The implication of the study among others is that science and technology teachers should use activity-based instructional strategies, such as; concept mapping technique to enhance the cognitive abilities of students for improved achievement in science and technology. The findings further showed that there were no gender differences between the science reasoning tasks mean scores and basic science and technology achievement mean scores of students taught with the concept mapping technique. It was finally concluded that the concept mapping technique is effective in enhancing students’ (both males and females) cognitive development and achievement in basic science and technology.