Original Research Article
Year: 2018 | Month: May | Volume: 5 | Issue: 5 | Pages: 193-200
Effect of Concept Mapping Strategy on Students’ Retention in Basic Science in Benue State, Nigeria
Dr. S. A. Adeniran, Dr (Mrs) A.N.O. Ochu, S. F. Atoo
Department of Science Education, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria
Corresponding Author: Dr. S. A. Adeniran
ABSTRACT
The study examined the effect of concept mapping strategy on students’ retention in Basic science. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The study was a quasi-experimental of non-equivalent, pretest, post-test control group design. The population of the study comprised 1,384 while the sample size was 310 junior secondary two students from four government secondary schools in Benue State, Nigeria. Intact classes of students were randomly selected and assigned to experimental and control groups. Basic Science Retention Test (BSRT) developed by the researcher was used for data collection. The items of this instrument were subjected to face and content validations. The reliability of the instrument was established using Kudar-Richars on formula 20. The reliability coefficient obtained was 0.87. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation, while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results from the study showed that students taught Basic Science using concept mapping strategy improved significantly with a mean retention score of 52.72 against 33.21 for those taught using conventional method. The mean difference between the retention gain scores of males and females was -1.58. This implies that the females gained slightly higher in retention scores compared to the males. Based on the finding from the results, it is recommended that concept mapping strategy should be adopted for teaching science and Basic Science in particular in secondary schools as it involves the students actively, which enhance students’ retention.
Key words: Concept mapping, Students’ retention, Basic Science, Conventional method
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