Concept Mapping Teaching Strategy and Students’ Interest in Basic Science in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of concept mapping teaching strategy on students’ interest in Basic Science in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria. Non-randomized, non-equivalent quasi-experiment design was used for the study. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study was 8551 upper basic II students of 2024/2025 academic session comprising 4001 male and 4550 male students.  Multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select a sample of 286 (138 male and 148 female). Six intact classes constituted the sample. The instrument used for the study –Basic Science Interest Scale (BSIS) was developed by the researchers and validated by three experts in Science Education, Measurement and Evaluation from Rev. Fr. Moses Orshio Adasu University, Makurdi. The instrument was trial tested on 40 students and it yielded reliability coefficient of 0.97 through Cronbach alpha. Data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed a statistically significant difference between the mean interest ratings of students taught using concept mapping teaching strategy and conventional strategy (F1, 283) = 332.136; ρ = 0.000 < 0.05). The findings also revealed significant difference between the mean interest ratings of male and female students taught using concept mapping teaching strategy (F1, 149) = 4.869; ρ = 0.029 < 0.05). Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended among others that teachers should adopt concept mapping teaching strategy in teaching Basic Science to improve students’ interest in the subject.