Effects of Concept Mapping and Cognitive Styles on Achievement of Students in Integrated Science

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of concept mapping teaching method and students' cognitive styles of their achievement in integrated science. The performance of field dependent (FD) and field independent (FI) students taught with concept mapping was compared with those of field dependent (FD) and field independent (FI) student taught with lecture expository method. In order to cam out the study, six research questions were asked and six hypotheses were formulated and tested. A quasi experimental design, specifically the non-equivalent control group design involving eight illict class were! used. The sample for the study consisted of 288 junior secondary schools drawn purposively from the twenty-five secondary schools in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State, These students in their intact classes were randomly assigned to the experimental group (concept mapping) of control group (lecture-expository) by simple balloting. Two instruments -Group ' Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) and Integrtated Science Achievement Test (ISAT) were used for the study. The GEFT adopted from Witkin, Oltman and Raskin (1971) was used to categorize the samples into two extreme poles of cognitive style (FD/FI). It's internal consistency using Cronbach alpha was 0.77. The ISAT, which Was developed by the researcher has 'internal consistency of 0.90 using Kuder Richatdson formula 20 (KR-20). Before treatment commenced, GEFT was administered to all the students to determine the cognitive style. Then the ISAT typed in white was admiinistered as a pre-test to the two groups in each of the sampled schools. The treatment lasted for the lesson periods of 40minutes for each group. The regular integrated science teachers who were given special training for both the experimental and control groups did the teaching. The ISAT was retyped on a yellow paper, rearranged and renumbered before being standard deviations were used to answer the research questions. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 significance using Analysis of Co-variance (ANCOVA). A preliminary analysis of the assumption of ANCOVA was also satisfied. The results of the analysis indicated that the main effect of method was significant in favour of concept mapping group. However, the main effects of cognitive style and gender were not significant indicating that the mean achievements scores of field independent (FI) students and field dependent (FD) students an one hand and that of male and female students, on the other hand, were comparable. The interaction effect of treatment and cognitive styles was significant; while the interaction effects of treatment and gender., cognitive style and gender wete not significant. These findings imply that there is need for integtated science teachers to adopt the use of concept mapping strategy in teaching integrated science, since it seemed to be more effective in improving academic achievement of students irrespective of their cognitive styles and getldet. It is therefore recommended among otherss that wotkshops, seminars and conferences should be organized the train serving teachers on the use of concept mapping teaching strategy as effective strategy to help in minimizing low achievement.