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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate affective outcomes and academic achievement for students enrolled in high school biology when instruction included concept-mapping. The research design was quasi-experimental and allowed for a comparison between an experimental group who constructed concept maps and a control group who received traditional biology instruction.
The subjects were 140 ninth-grade students, distributed into six intact biology classes, three honors and three general biology classes. Chapter tests and a textbook generated 9-week comprehensive posttest were used to measure achievement. ANCOVA analysis on the comprehensive posttest indicated no significant overall effect of concept mapping on biology achievement across the whole quarter when controlling for the quarter pretest. Chi-square analyses were performed to measure students' attitude toward biology class and activities. The experimental group indicated higher than expected tendency to be positive about the instructional methods, however, the control group indicated fewer than expected positive responses. T-tests were conducted to determine the differences between the experimental and control groups on chapter tests with or without concept mapping. The group with concept mapping scored significantly better than those with traditional methods.
Honors class comparisons indicated a significant difference between groups at p<.05 level on the chapter pretest. There was also a significant difference on the chapter test after intervention, but this time at p<.001 level. Although the general class comparisons indicated no significant difference on the chapter pretest, the experimental group scored significantly better than the control group on the chapter test following intervention. This suggests that average ability students benefit from concept mapping more than traditional instruction.
In narrative self-evaluations, only a small percentage of participants overall listed concept mapping as the review activity that helped them learn most. Recommendations for practitioners and future research were provided related to the use of concept mapping.
