IMPROVING BASIC PUPIL’S PERFORMANCE IN DIGESTION USING CONCEPT MAPPING AS AN INSTRUCTIONAL TOOL, A CASE STUDY

ABSTRACT 

The research investigated the influence of concept mapping on basic students’ performance in the concept of digestion. The study was a case study in Junior High School using concept mapping as an intervention teaching strategy. The study used 25 Junior High students at Danbesco Firm Foundation School in the Ashaiman Municipality, Ghana. The students were tested with teacher–constructed pre-intervention tests consisting of twenty (20) multiple–choice and five (5) detailed theory test items. The mean scores of the students were calculated compared and analyzed using descriptive and paired t-test statistics for testing research questions. The concept maps were scored using Novak and Gowin’s scoring system. The results revealed that the performance and concept mapping construction ability of students as well as their content knowledge in digestion improved tremendously. It came out that there exists a significant statistical difference in the achievement in digestion of the post-test after the intervention activity with the use of concept mapping. This showed that concept mapping is an effective instructional technique for improving students’ performance in digestion as an aspect of science concept, students’ ability to construct good concept maps was also reviewed.