ABSTRACT
The study was aimed at determining the Effect of Using
Concept Mapping and Experimental Techniques in Teaching Biology in Senior
Secondary Schools in Federal Capital Territory. The design of the study was
quasi experimental pretest posttest control group design. The population
consisted of 6,208 SS2 Biology students of the Federal Capital Territory, from
which 192 were selected from three schools within Karshi zone of Abuja
Municipal Area Council. Intact classes of 64 students each of SS2A & SS2B
students of Government Secondary School Nyanya were used for the experimental group
which consisted of students taught Biology using concept maps and experiments
and 64 SS2A students of Government Day Secondary School Karu were used for the
control group respectively. The choice of the schools were because they shared
similar characteristics like student types (co-educational), number of students
per class and presence of competent and experienced Biology teachers. To guide
the study, five research questions were raised and five hypotheses stated and
test at 0.05 level of significance. The major instruments used for data
collection were Biology Achievement Test pretest and posttest (BAT), Biology
Achievement Retention Test (BART) used after 2 weeks of instruction and Concept
Mapping Attitude Scale Towards Biology Questionnaire (CMASTBQ) and Experiment
Attitude Scale Towards Biology Questionnaire (EASTBQ).The treatment package
included Concept Mapping Instructional Package (CMIP), Lesson Plan for
Experiments and Lesson Plan for Control Group. The items used for the pretest,
posttest and retention test were adopted from Educational Resource Centre (ERC)
Abuja. The items were lifted based on the topics used for the study. The
reliability of these instruments used was 0.65 for concept mapping and 0.78 for
experimental techniques. The data collected was analyzed using comparative mean
and standard deviation for research questions while the null hypotheses were
analyzed using Two sample t-test, Covariance Analysis(ANCOVA) and Pairwise
comparison tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The findings of the
study showed a significantly better academic performance of students who were
taught using experiments than those taught using concept mapping; students
taught using experiments performed significantly higher in retention of Biology
knowledge than those taught using concept mapping and lecture method, no
significant difference was observed between students taught using concept
mapping and lecture method on retention of these concepts; Students showed
positive attitude towards the use of concept mapping over the use of
experiments Based on the findings, experiments are indispensable if the
teaching and learning of Biology is be effective and meaningful.
Recommendations were made to this effect that Science Teachers Association of
Nigeria in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Education should liaise
with stakeholders in the FCT and the Nation in general to provide well equipped
Biology laboratory in all senior secondary schools. Teachers should also be
encouraged to use Concept mapping alongside lecture method in teaching Biology
in Senior Secondary Schools.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
to the Study
The subjects at the Senior
Secondary Schools in Nigeria are divided into Arts, Social Sciences and
Sciences depending on the course each individual intends to offer after the secondary
education. In Nigeria, the sciences are taught in subjects such as Physics,
Chemistry and Biology. As a biology teacher of many years, experience has shown
that even though a large populace of students show interest in offering biology
as a subject and think it to be the simplest of the sciences, there have been a
consistent poor achievement in both internal and external examinations. On the
order hand even though biology lessons are supposed to be taught with practical
lessons I have observed over the years that most biology teachers do not teach
their lessons with praticals. The National Curriculum for Senior Secondary
Schools Volume Three (3) Science in (Ajaja 2009) stated the specific objectives
to be achieved by each subject (curriculum).
The
cardinal objectives for biology include:
Adequate laboratory and field
skills in Biology; Meaningful and relevant knowledge in Biology;
Ability
to apply scientific knowledge to everyday life in matters of personal and
community health and agriculture; and
Reasonable
and functional scientific attitudes. (Ajaja, 2009)
Biology occupies a unique position in the school curriculum;
this is because Biology is central to many sciences related professional
courses such as Medicine, Pharmacy, Agriculture, Nursing, Biochemistry,
Dentistry, Microbiology, Laboratory Technology and all other related courses.
It therefore becomes binding on anyone wishing to offer any of the courses
listed above or any related to such to offer Biology as one of the prerequisite
subjects in the secondary school to gain admission into the University.
Although Biology is a
prerequisite to these courses, poor achievement in Biology is alarming
according to reports from Okebukola (1998), Ajaja (2002), Ahmed (2008) and
randomly collated WAEC results by the researcher from 10 schools in six area
councils of Federal Capital Territory, between 2006 – 2010 in 2011 and also my
experience in students poor performance in biology internal examinations. These
consistent poor performances in Biology external examinations among Senior
Secondary Schools students have given a lot of concern to educators, curriculum
planners and students themselves Okoye (2004). Various teaching methods are
used for instruction in the teaching of Biology. These teaching methods have
been summarized into Expository, Practical or Activity Oriented and
Constructivism. Okoye and Okechukwu (2006), Nwokenna (2010). Expository methods
according to Nwokenna (2010) which include lecture method, demonstration,
project, field trip and discussion methods. They concentrate on presentation of
concepts, facts and principles by the teacher while the students are merely
asked to listen and take notes.
These facts and principles are drawn from textbooks based on
stipulated contents and cognitive levels within the unit of instruction. The
foregoing presents a picture of the use of poor teaching methods used during
Biology instruction, which according to Nwokenna (2010), may not improve the
performance of students in their academic pursuit. The above scenario tends to
suggest that the conventional teaching methods used among others have accounted
for the persistent poor performance of students in internal and external
examinations.
Scientists and science
educators have however come to a conclusive agreement as many researches have
been on going on how to involve students in the learning process and science
educators have come up with concept maps as one of such teaching learning techniques.
Okoye and Okechukwu (2006), Kinechin (2000a,b), Markow and Lenning (1998).
According to Canas and Novak (IHMC 2009) concept maps are graphical tools for
organizing and representing knowledge. They include concepts, usually enclossed
in circles or boxes of some type and relationships between concepts are
indicated by a connecting line linking two concepts. Words on the line,
referred to as linking words or linking phrases specify the relationship
between two concepts. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia defined concept map as a
diagram that depicts suggested relationships between concepts. It is a
graphical tool that designers, engineers, technical writers and others use to
organize and structure knowledge. Giving an overview, the Wikipedia encyclopedia
describes concept map as a way of representing relationship between ideas,
images or words in the same way that a sentence diagram represents the grammar
of a sentence, a road map represents the locations of highways and towns and a
circuit diagram represents the workings of an electrical appliance. In concept
map, each word or phrase connects to another, and links back to the original
idea, word or phrase. Concept maps are means of developing logical thinking and
study skills by revealing connections and helping students see how individual
ideas form a larger whole.
The technique of concept mapping according to
Wikipedia encyclopedia was developed by Joseph D. Novak as a means of
representing the emerging science of knowledge of student by his research team
at Cornell University in the 1970s s. It has subsequently been used as a tool
to increase meaningful learning in the sciences and other subjects as well as
to represent the expert knowledge of individuals and teams in education....
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