Effects of Concept Mapping Strategy on Academic Performance in Genetics among Secondary School Students in Gumel Jigawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of Concept mapping Strategy on academic performance in Genetics concept among secondary school students in Gumel Education Zone, Jigawa State, Nigeria. The study adopts a Quasi-Experimental Design, particularly the pretest, posttest, quasi experimental and control group design. The population comprised all 3555 SS2 Biology students from 17 public Senior Secondary Schools in Gumel Education Zone. A sample of 156 students from two randomly selected out 4 co-educational schools was used for the study. The study involves two groups experimental and control. The experimental group was taught Genetics concept using Concept mapping Strategy while the Control Group was exposed to the same concept using Conventional Method. Instrument were used for data collection, namely, Genetics Concept Performance Test (GCPT). The instrument were validated by experts from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and had a reliability coefficients of 0.88 estimated using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). Two research objectives, two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Research questions were answered using Mean, Standard  Deviation, Mean Rank and Sum of Rank statistics while null hypotheses were tested using Independent Sample t-test at 0.05 level of significance. The major findings revealed a significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups in their academic performance, all in favour of the experimental group. Specifically, the experimental group had a mean score of 31.22, while the control group had a mean score of 20.70, resulting in a mean difference of 10.52. This difference was found to be statistically significant at p = 0.000 level of significance. Based on the findings, the researcher concludes that the Concept mapping Strategy is gender friendly as well as fosters academic performance among secondary school Biology students. It is therefore recommended among others that secondary school Biology teachers should frequently employ Concept Strategy in teaching difficult and abstract concepts in Biology like Genetics.

Keywords: Concept mapping; Performance; Gender