Excellence International Journal Of Education And Research

COMMONWEALTH ASSOCATION FOR

EDUCATION, ADMINISTRATION AND

MANAGEMENT

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3

ISSN NO 2322- 0147

MARCH

2014

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 2

EFFECT OF TEACHING THROUGH CONCEPT MAPPING ON

ACHIEVEMENT IN CHEMISTRY OF IX GRADERS

Excellence International Journal of Education and

Research (Multi- subject journal)

Excellence International Journal Of Education And Research VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 ISSN 2322-0147

EFFECT OF TEACHING THROUGH CONCEPT MAPPING ON ACHIEVEMENT IN

CHEMISTRY OF IX GRADERS

By

Jaya Chawla

Research Scholar

Punjab University, Chandigarh

Dr. Gurmit Singh

Assistant Professor,

Malwa Central College of Education for Women, Ludhiana (Punjab)

Abstract

The Study was intended to investigate the effect of teaching through concept mapping on the achievement in Chemistry. Sample of the study consisted of 162 (81 experimental group and 81 controlled group) IX class students from two Government schools of Ludhiana city.

Experimental group was exposed to concept mapping method and the controlled group was exposed to conventional method (lecture and discussion). Mixed group intelligence test by

Mehrotra (2008) (to match the groups) and achievement test in Chemistry (developed and standardized by the investigator) were used as tool for data collection. The results of the study showed that achievement in Chemistry of the group taught by concept mapping was significantly more as compared to group taught by conventional method.

Key words: Concept mapping, experimental group, controlled group, achievement in Chemistry

Introduction

Human being as an intellectual creature is striving to unfold the mystery of universe throughout the centuries. It is well known fact knowledge of science is essential in order to understand the surroundings, the earth or the universe as a whole. The teaching of science aimed at developing power of reasoning, creative abilities, constructiveness, scientific aptitude, critical thinking etc. It is unfortunate to say that this subject is phobia to majority of students along with mathematics especially at the school level. It is equally applicable to subject of chemistry which

Excellence International Journal Of Education And Research (Multi-subject journal) Page 263

Excellence International Journal Of Education And Research VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 ISSN 2322-0147 is one of the main branch of science and because of this subject, the overall grade of the student falls. But it is sad to say that to raise the graph of academic achievement school teachers are giving stress on the methods like lecturing and drilling thereby piling up of the knowledge without linking the old and new knowledge. There is a need to correlate what the students already know with the new knowledge to be given. It will help them to develop right concepts and to establish the link between various sub concepts, so as to create the clear picture of the content in his mind and thereby to changing his knowledge into understanding and ultimately bringing him in a position to apply his knowledge in his daily life. “The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows, ascertain this and teach accordingly” (Ausubel, 1968). The teachers who use the traditional method exclusively on the presentation of the contents to be learned, with all the imperfections which Ausubel points to the expository teaching, which is used in schools (Ausubel, 2003) in which the teacher uses "pure verbal techniques" too early, presenting information very often in a tactful and arbitrary way, without realizing at all the frameworks. So this clearly indicates there is need to change the methods of transacting the curriculum. We have to shift from teacher centered methods to student centered like cooperative learning, project learning or concept mapping. In other words a strategy that would transform the position of the teacher from being active speaker to facilitator is the need of the hour. This can be best done with the most suitable methods such as concept mapping.

A concept map can be considered as somewhat similar to a spider chart, an organized chart of a flow diagram. These are essential for a successful learning process where the students have to take possession of knowledge actively by seeking experts conceptual linkages between new concepts and those, they already possess. This process of elaborating personal, meaningful knowledge takes place by restructuring the already existing concepts. A concept map for teaching and learning is one, arranged in a hierarchical organization in which the more inclusive concepts at the top of the map and the more concrete and specific ones at the bottom.

Originally developed by Novak, concept maps are used as teaching tools and have generated many positive results in the classroom (Novak, 1980; 1981). This concept emerges in the field of learning after new school of constructivism. Constructivism accepts active participation of learner in construction of knowledge. Concept mapping theory is based on cognitive theory of Ausubel (Assimilation theory). Concept maps are frequently employed in the


Excellence International Journal Of Education And Research VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 ISSN 2322-0147 classroom because they offer a "complementary alternative to natural language as a means to communicate knowledge" (Gaines & Shaw, 1995 a

). This visual approach has proven to be of great benefit to diverse student groups. Also, Concept mapping has been demonstrated as an important tool, as it provides an external representation of structural knowledge in the form of two-dimensional semantic network, which potentially extends working memory, and encourages critical thinking. Thus concept map is a “mind tool” which facilitates strategic actions

(Jonassen1996).

The three features used in creating concept maps are- (1) a list of concepts, (2) lines that represent the relational links between these concepts, and (3) labels for these linking relationships. The procedure of concept mapping starts with the generation of a list of concept through brainstorming. Connecting lines are drawn between these concepts to indicate the flow of interrelationships between concepts which may result in a knowledge structure. These maps can be refined by many rethinking and redrawing processes as more knowledge is accumulated form a search (Novak, 1995).

Well prepared concept maps facilitate both teaching and learning process. These maps facilitate teaching because teachers can use these to prepare and organize lessons by sequencing topics with in lectures (Novak, 1995). Logical sequencing of topics helps to present instructional materials in a more meaningful way. It is proven that "humans are significantly better able to absorb and retain meaningful learning than rote learning" (Willerman & Mac Harg, 1991).

Moreover, during the concept mapping process, teachers will have the opportunity to identify and reduce ambiguities, enabling them to deliver clearer and more coherent explanations to the students. For the students, concept mapping gives new meaning to learning as they organize the acquired knowledge in their own way (Willerman & Mac Harg, 1991). This newly acquired knowledge can be linked to existing relevant concepts in the students' own cognitive structures

(Ausubel, 1963) and be expressed on a single two dimensional diagram. These well-thought-out diagrams represent information in a simple but clear manner, which allows learners to visualize key concepts and their interrelationships in a more integral sense in a short time. Enhancing a student's abilities to comprehend work-ship materials quickly will help reduce the time constraint problem during presentation. Moreover, concept maps communicate knowledge pictorially instead of using lengthy textual explanations. As research points out, that "mental picture may be providing a framework for organizing and remembering information, (Gambrell & Bakes 1987).



Concept mapping also known as Cognitive Mapping or Semantic Networks, is a graphic notation for representing knowledge in patterns of interconnected nodes and arcs (Sowa 2000) whereas according to Asan (2007), Concept mapping is a method to visualize the structure of knowledge. Since the knowledge expressed in the maps is mostly semantic, concept maps are sometimes also called semantic networks.

Emergence of the Problem

Most of the research work, Montiel (1980), Cohn (1987), Jegede and Okebukola (1990),

Stensvold and Wilson (1992), Sungur, Tekkaya and Geban, O. (2001), Chang and Chen (2002),

Novak (2002), Chularut and DeBacker (2004), Preszler (2004), Wang and Dwyer (2004),

Saquma and May (2007), Cakir and Ozlem (2008), Aydin et al. (2009), and Okoye and

Okechukwu (2010) has been done only in foreign countries. A little work has been carried out in

India (Kumar, 2009; Sharma, 2010; and Rani, 2011). But, no study has been found by investigator done on the population of Punjab Government school students. The proposed study thus seems fully justified as it will check the effect of teaching through concept mapping on achievement in Chemistry of grade IX on Punjab Government school students.

Operational Definitions

Concept Mapping:

Various Concept Maps prepared on the Chemistry topics of class IX by the investigator.

Achievement in Chemistry: Achievement is operationally defined as what a student is expected to know, understand or be able to demonstrate at the end of the experimental treatment.

Academically, it can also be termed as academic achievement, affected by various cognitive and non-cognitive factors. Here achievement is indicated by the mean gained scores by the students in the test of achievement in Chemistry constructed by the investigator.

Objective: The study was conducted with following objective in view:

To investigate the significance of difference in achievement in Chemistry of the groups taught through Concept mapping and conventional teaching.

Hypothesis: Following hypothesis was frammed:



There will be no significant difference in achievement in Chemistry of the groups taught through concept mapping and conventional teaching.

Sample : Random sampling technique was employed to select the sample of the study. The study was conducted over a total of 162 (81 experimental group and 81 controlled group) students of

IX class, of Government School P.A.U. Ludhiana and Government High School, Barewal

Awana, Ludhiana, affiliated to P.S.E.B Mohali.

Tools : Following tools werer sued inj the present study: a) Mixed group intelligence test developed by Mehrotra (2008) (to match the groups) b) Achievement test in Chemistry (developed and standardized by the investigator) c) Concept maps related to the syllabus of chemistry prescribed by PSEB, developed by the investigator.

Design : The design of the study was experimental in nature. Randomized groups pre test-post test design was used.

Delimitations of the Study : The study is concerned with: a) Government Schools affiliated to Punjab School Education Board only. b) Students of IX class only. c) All the six topics of chemistry as prescribed in the syllabus of 9 th

class by Punjab School

Education Board are taken as subject matter. (a) Nature of matter, (b) Structure of atom, (c)

Classification of elements, (d) Chemical bonding, (e) Chemical reactions, (f) Coal and petroleum.

Procedure : The present study was conducted to determine the effect of teaching through concept mapping on achievement in Chemistry of secondary school students. For the study, two schools of Ludhiana district were chosen, each with two sections of IX class, thereby making the total sample of 162 students. In the first step two groups one as experimental group and the other as control group were formed by matching them on the basis of scores of intelligence test. In the second achievement test in chemistry of IX class (developed by the investigator) was administered as pre-test. In the third step the experimental group was taught through concept mapping method (with concepts maps concerned with the syllabus of IX class prepared by


Excellence International Journal Of Education And Research VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 ISSN 2322-0147 investigator) for a period of 30 days at a rate of 70 minutes/ day and for the same period control group was taught with the help of conventional methods (lecture and discussion). In fourth step achievement test in chemistry was administered to both the groups as post test. The gain score

(Post test scores – Pretest scores) were used as achievement in Chemistry for both the groups.

The same methodology was adopted in the other school. The extraneous variables like personality of the teacher and the motivation factor was controlled by teaching both the groups by the investigator herself.

Result: t-ratio was used to check the significance of difference in the achievement in Chemistry of the experimental and controlled groups.

Table: Difference in gain score in Chemistry of experimental and controlled groups.

Method Used

Concept mapping (Experimental group)

Lecture and discussion method (Controlled group)

*Significant at 0.01 level of significance.

N

81

81

Mean of gain score

11.888

S.D.

9.021

7.901 7.432 t-value

2.93*

The above table value shows that the mean of gain score in achievement of Chemistory for the experimental and controlled group are 11.888 and 7.901 respectively. The t-value between these two groups was found to be 2.93 which is significant at 0.01 level of significance.

The achievement of experimental group which is taught by concept mapping method is thus significantly more as compared to controlled group which is taught by lecture and discussion method. This leads to the rejection of hypothesis which states that ‘There will be no significant difference in achievement in Chemistry of the groups taught through concept mapping and conventional teaching.’ This finding is well supported by the studies conducted by Asan (2007),

Kumar (2009) and Rani (2011).

Educational Implications: The present study was conducted on Government School students.

The result of the study shows that achievement in Chemistry can be improved by using concept mapping method. The teachers are suggested to use concept mapping technique for teaching science in the schools. The technique of teaching through concept mapping can be included in the curriculum of B.Ed. and prospective teachers can be acquainted with this emerging technique which is very effective.



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Excellence International Journal Of Education And Research

COMMONWEALTH ASSOCATION FOR

EDUCATION, ADMINISTRATION AND

MANAGEMENT

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3

ISSN NO 2322- 0147

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 2

EFFECT OF TEACHING THROUGH CONCEPT MAPPING ON

ACHIEVEMENT IN CHEMISTRY OF IX GRADERS