Effects of Concept Maps on Senior Secondary School Students’ Achievement in Ecological Concepts in Ogbomoso South,Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the effects of concept maps on Senior School students’ achievement in ecology in Ogbomoso, Nigeria. Quasi-experimental design was employed. The population for the study was all SSII Biology students in Ogbomoso South. Four intact classes of 267 students (115 males and 152 females) were sampled. The instrument was Biology Achievement Test. The data were analyzed using t-test, and analysis of covariance findings of the study showed that significant difference exited in the achievement of students taught ecological concepts in biology. It was recommended that biology students should be exposed to concept maps in the learning of biology.

Keywords

effect concept maps achievement ecological concepts

Introduction

The present world is more comfortable, modern, beautiful, and easy in term of transportation, communication, agriculture, building and constructions, health services, knowledge acquisition, and other sphere of life. These transformations are made possible through influence of science and technology. Ezeh (2006) stated that the political power and prestige of any nation depends on the level of scientific and technological activities of that nation.

Biology is a branch of science which studies plants and animals. The knowledge of biology is applied in Medicine, Embryology, Botanist, Zoology, Agriculture, Biotechnology, and Ecology of plants and animals (Hellweg, 2009; Joshi & Green, 2013). According to Ndu et al. (2010), ecology is the branch of biology that is concerned with the study of interrelationship between living organisms and their external environment. The knowledge of students in ecology is required for; the perfect understanding of our environment, maintenance of the environment, prevention of health hazards and diseases, prevention of natural disasters among others.

Furthermore, the understanding of concepts of ecology is needed for better achievement in biology. Unfortunately, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015) Chief Examiners’ report stressed that candidates showed poor understanding of the concepts of ecology. The reports also revealed that a lot of candidates did not attempt questions raised on ecology concepts while those who attempted the questions performed poorly (Olasehinde, 2008).

Studies have identified poor methods, approaches, and strategies of teaching to the poor performance of students across various subjects at all levels of academics. Gabel (2003) claimed that lecture method is not appropriate for teaching sciences in high schools curriculum. Similarly, Ezeliora (2000), Adedeji (2002), and Kolawole (2003) explained that the use of inappropriate teaching strategies result into poor performance and lack of interest in the biology by the students. In essence, Gabel (2003) suggested the use of concept maps, analogies, and schematic diagrams among others, as a solution to pending problem of teaching biology. Also, Olasehinde (2008) confirmed that concept maps is an important instructional strategy for improving students’ achievement in biology at senior secondary school level.

Previous studies have explained the term concept maps in diverse ways. For example, Novak and Canas (2006) stated that concept map is a diagram that shows the relationships among concepts. Also, the study of Novak and Canas (2006) explicated that concept map is a graphical tool for organizing and representing knowledge. Concepts usually represented as boxes or circles are connected with labeled arrows in a downward branching hierarchical structure. The relationship concepts can be expressed in linking phrases such as “gives rise to,” “results in,” “is required by,” or “contributes to” (Moon et al., 2011). Therefore, the technique for visualizing these relationships among different concepts is called mapping.

According to Bamidele et al. (2013) concept maps as two- or three-dimensional graphic representation of relationships between pairs of concepts using labeled nodes. But Aderogba (2006) perceived concept maps as a two-dimensional hierarchical diagram that illustrates the interconnections between and among individual concept. Also, Aderogba (2006) argued that concept maps provide a visual road map showing some of the pathways in propositions which are two or more concepts labels linked by words in a semantic unit, while concepts are regularities in events or objects designated by some labels.

The technique of concept mapping was developed by Novak and his research team at the Cornell University in the 1970s, as a means of representing the emerging science knowledge of students. It has subsequently been used as a tool to increase meaningful learning in the sciences and other subjects as well as to represent the experts’ knowledge of individuals and teams in education, government, and businesses. Concept maps have their origin in the learning movement called constructivism which holds that learners actively construct knowledge (Novak & Canas, 2006). Novak’s work was based on the cognitive theories of David Ausubel (assimilation theory), who stressed the importance of prior knowledge in being able to learn new concepts (Villalon & Calvo, 2011).

Frisendal (2012) revealed that concept maps could be used in any subject matter at any level. Aderogba (2006) listed the stages of constructing a concept maps as follows:

Figure 1.

Stages of constructing a concept maps.

The moderating variables in this study are students’ gender and students’ score levels. The researcher is interested in the study of effect of students’ gender on the achievement of students in ecology when taught or not taught with concept maps strategy. This was due to the fact that studies on gender remain inconclusive. For instance, Akintola (2017) concluded that students and teachers’ gender had no significant difference on the knowledge of biological drawings possessed by senior secondary school students. In the same direction, Ayanda (2015) concluded that gender effect did not exist between the performances of students taught ecology using analogy strategy.

Empirical studies on efficacy of concept map as an instructional strategies remained controversial among scholars. Studies have perceived concept maps mode of instruction in different ways. For example, the study of Lin et al. (2004) investigated the computer based strategy which is for concept mapping and the paper pencil of concept mapping strategy. The findings showed that computer based concept mapping was very effective instructional mode than paper pencil strategy of concept mapping. Also, Vakilifard and Armand (2006) researched the impacts of instructional method of concept mapping on the French language. The results revealed that the control group was better than the traditional approach. Similarly, Liu et al. (2010) worked on the effects of Computer Assisted Concept Mapping Strategy on the students reading at the college level, the result shows that students with high level group reading skill dropped lower than low level group. In essence, Ahangari and Behzady (2011) investigated computer-mediated concept mapping on writing skill among the Iranian students, the study concluded the significant influence on the concept mapping based on writing skill. In conclusion, concept mapping strategy of writing, shows that experimental group achieved better than the control group and improved composition scores on Korean language (Fahim & Rahimi, 2011; Lee, 2013).

Furthermore, the studies of Adebayo (2008), and Raimi and Adeoye (2002) revealed that boys performed better than girls in science. Whereas, Osborne (2003) discovered that girls actually achieved better than boys in sciences. On this note, it is pertinent to investigate the effect of gender on students’ achievement in ecology with respect to the use of concept maps strategy.

Statement of the Problem

In spite of the colorful diagrams that elicit learners’ interest and the importance of biology to life, Ayanda (2015) revealed that several senior secondary school students lacked interest in the learning of biology. The WAEC chief examiners report (2014, 2015) also indicated that students are performing poorly in the subject. Among the factors identified for the students’ poor performance in biology are; poor method of instruction (Folayan, 2004). Several teachers taught sciences through memorization rather than the use of instructional strategies that will make teaching and learning real and permanent. While reviewing literatures, fewer studies were carried out on ecology. Also, lesser attention was given to use and development of innovative instructional strategies in teaching of ecology and biology in general.

Based on the forgoing, the researcher considered the investigation of students’ achievement in biology with particular interest in ecological concepts using concept maps instructional strategy crucial in this study. The choice of ecological concepts was due to the facts that students run away from ecological questions as contained in the WAEC chief examiners reports (2014, 2015). It was also reported that for the fewer students who attempted the questions, their performances were poor.

The above menace constitutes worries in the minds of researchers and examiners because if individuals knowledge of ecology is adequate, most of the environmental problems the nation is facing which are flood, pollution, degrading and depletion of natural resources, landslides, earth quake, extinctions of important species, loss of natural ecological zones, fire outbreaks just to mention but a few will be prevented or reduced to barest minimal.

Furthermore, Erinosho (2008), Okwo and Otuba (2007), Olasehinde and Olatoye (2014), Ayanda (2015), Akintola (2017) and these researchers have studied the influence of gender on students’ achievement in biology without conclusive reports. Upon this premise, the researcher considered gender as important moderating variable to be studied in this work.

More so, the students score levels had influence in students’ achievement in biological drawings (Akintola, 2017). Ayanda (2015) also claimed that score level do not have influence on students’ achievement in ecology in Kwara south. While Atotileto (2015) claimed that students’ score level influenced the scientific process skills perceived difficult by the students. The state of inconclusive reports on influence of students’ score level on their achievement made it necessary to be investigated in this study.

Purpose of the Study

Specifically, the study determined the:

Effect of the use concept maps on the achievement of students in senior secondary school biology.

Difference in students’ achievement based on gender when concept maps are used.

Difference in students’ achievement based on scoring levels when concept maps are used.

Research Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were generated and tested in this study:

Hypothesis 1: There is no statistically significant difference in the achievement of students taught using concept maps and those taught in the control group.

Hypothesis 2: There is no statistically significant difference in the achievement of male and female students that were exposed to concept maps instructional strategies in biology.

Hypothesis 3: There is no statistically significant difference in the achievement of low, medium, and high scoring students when taught using concept maps.

Methodology

The research design was a 2 × 2 × 3 quasi experimental, nonequivalent and nonrandomized control group design. This design was adopted because it allows intact classes to be used without disrupting the school programs. One experimental group and a control group were used for the study. Students in experimental group were exposed to concept mapping instructional strategy. The second group was the control group not exposed to concept mapping instructional strategy. The dependent variable was the achievement of students in biology and the independent variable was the treatment, which is concept mapping. The moderating variables were students’ gender (male and female) and students’ scoring levels (high, medium, and low).

Out of 15 public senior secondary schools in Ogbomoso south, two were purposively sampled. These were schools that are coeducational (contained male and female students), have been presenting candidates for WAEC and NECO consecutively for not less than 5 years. The population for the study was all Senior Secondary School two (SS2) students in Ogbomoso south local government area of Oyo state. Two hundred and sixty-seven (267) SS2 biology students participated in the study. These were students available in the intact experimental and control groups from the sampled schools. The instruments for the study were, Biology Achievement Test (BAT) on ecology and concept maps lesson note adapted from Ayanda (2015). Instruments were given face and contents validity through two experts in evolution and a specialist in English language. Reliability index of 0.75 was obtained for BAT using Cronbach alpha. Inform consent forms were given to respondents, parents, teachers, and principals of sampled schools to ensure their willingness to participate in the study. All ethical issues were properly addressed. The treatment lasted for 6 weeks for the experimental group that was taught by the researcher using concept map instructional strategy while the biology teacher taught the control group for the period of 6 weeks as well using conventional teaching method. Both groups were exposed to BAT in the seventh week. The invigilation was done by the researcher, the biology teachers of the two groups and two research assistants. Three hypotheses were generated and tested in the study. Data collected were analyzed using t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Analyses, Results, and Discussions

Hypothesis 1: There is no statistically significant difference in the achievement of students taught using concept maps and those taught in the control group.

This hypothesis is tested with t-test statistics reported in Table 1.

Table 1.

Independent Samples t-Test of the Students Exposed to Concept Maps and Those in the Control Group.

Group	Number	M	SD	df	T	Sig. (two-tailed)	Remark
Control group	82	45.31	9.36
				170	6.15	0.00	Rejected
Concept maps group	89	54.31	9.83

Table 1 reveals the independent sample t-test for students’ achievement test in biology for both students in the control group and concept maps group. The t-test calculated value was 6.15, while the p value is .000 at .05 significance level. Since the p value is less than .05 (.000 < .05); therefore, the null Hypothesis 1 is rejected which implies that there is significant difference (p < .05) between the achievement of senior school students taught biology using concept maps and their counterpart in the control group. It is hereby concluded that students taught with concept maps achieved better than the students in the control group.

Hypothesis 2: There is no statistically significant difference in the achievement of male and female students who were exposed to concept maps instructional strategies in biology.

The hypothesis is tested with t-test statistics revealed in Table 2.

Table 2.

Independent Samples t-test of Male and Female Students Exposed to Concept Maps.

Group	No	M	SD	df	t-value	Sig. (2-tailed)	Remark
Male	37	55.39	11.02
Female	52	53.44	8.69	86	0.91	0.37	Not rejected

Table 2 shows the independent sample t-test for students’ academic achievement test in biology for both students in the control and concept maps group. The t-test calculated value was .91, while the p value is .37 at .05 level of significance. Since the p value is greater than .05 (.37 > .05); therefore, the null Hypothesis 2 is not rejected. This shows there is no significant difference (p > .05) between the achievement of male and female students taught biology using concept maps.

Hypothesis 3: There is no statistically significant difference in the achievement of low, medium, and high scoring students when taught using concept maps.

The third hypothesis is tested with ANOVA statistics showed in Table 3.

Table 3.

ANCOVA on Posttest Achievement Scores of Students Taught Biology Using Concept Maps Group Based on Scoring Level.

Dependent variable: posttest scores
Source	Type III Sum of Squares	Df	Mean Square	F	Sig.	Partial Eta Squared
Corrected model	7,536.147^a	3	2,512.049	219.891	.000	.886
Intercept	172.894	1	172.894	15.134	.000	.117
Pretest (covariate)	1,396.692	1	1,396.692	122.259	.000	.299
Scoring level	60.340	2	30.170	2.641	.077	.032
Error	971.044	85	11.424
Total	271,064.000	89
Corrected total	8,507.191	88

R² = .886 (adjusted R² = .882).

Table 3 shows the analysis of covariance table containing the source of variations, sum of squares, degree of freedom, mean squares, F-test values, and corresponding P-values. From the table F (2, 85) = 2.64 at p = .08, η² = – .032. Since the p value is greater than the level of significance (.05), the null hypothesis was not rejected. The partial Eta square estimate was .032. this means that 3.2 percent of the variance observed in the achievement posttest score was due to scoring level of students. This implies that there was no significant difference in the means of posttest scores of students taught biology using concepts map based on scoring levels. Therefore, the stated null hypothesis is not rejected.

Discussion

Based on Hypothesis 1, it was observed that students taught using concept maps achieved significantly better than their counterparts exposed to conventional method. This is an indication that concept maps have the potential of helping students recapitulate ecology concepts and brings about meaningful learning as a result of integrating information into a progressively more complex conceptual framework. This finding is in agreement with the findings of Kolawole (2003) who reported that the students’ response to one-to-one interview indicated that students developed positive attitude for topics learnt through concept mapping strategies. Similarly, Abaalson (2003), Osborne (2003), Troachim (2004), and Aderogba (2006) reported that students exposed to concept mapping technique of instruction achieved better than those taught with lecture method. Birbili (2006) reported that concept mapping could be used to provide feedback and identify knowledge deficits or gaps in understanding. However, the result disagreed with the findings of Zeilik et al. (2008) that concept maps have weaker relationship with students’ achievement and that it could be used effectively for some aspects of learning while lecture methods would capture other aspects of learning.

On Hypothesis 2, the result indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in the achievement of male and female biology students exposed to concept maps. The results in concept mapping are in contradiction with the findings of Raimi and Adeoye (2002) where male students were found to have higher level of achievement in science, technology, and mathematics than their female counterparts. In these results, females were found to achieve better relatively than their male counterparts (Adebayo, 2002; Osborne, 2003).

On Hypothesis 3, in this study, it was observed that there was no statistically significant difference in the achievement of low, medium, and high scoring students when taught biology using concept maps. The findings also indicated that the students achieved differently. For instance, the mean gain score for the high scorers was 8.08, followed by that of the medium scorers which is 8.00 and the low scorers with 6.82 which is an indication that they all benefited from the study. This result is similar to that of Gbigbadua (2014) and Inyang and Ekpenyong (2000), where it was revealed that the ability level of the learners whether low, medium, or high influences the extent to which it could produce positive or negative impact on the learners. It implies that students with different scoring abilities could be improved upon if appropriate instructional strategies such as concept mapping are rightly employed by biology teachers.

Conclusion

The findings of this study revealed that students taught using concept maps achieved better than the students in the control group. Also, both male and female performed better in biology when concept maps instructional strategy was used. Likewise, the achievements of low, medium, and high scoring biology students improved when exposed to concepts map instructional strategy.

Recommendations

Therefore, the following recommendations were made based on this study.

Teachers should adopt the use of concept maps in teaching biology and other science-related subjects.

Curriculum planners can suggest concept map in the curriculum for the teaching of ecology.

Government through the monitoring unit should enforce concept map for teaching ecology in senior secondary schools in Nigeria.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

David Akinjide Akintola

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