The Effect of using Concept Maps on Student Achievement in Selected Topics in Chemistry at Tertiary Level

The performance in chemistry at tertiary level in Zambia has not been as expected. It has therefore been a matter of concern. There has been a continuous focus on exploring new teaching strategies to improve the understanding of this difficult subject. This study investigated the effectiveness of composite use of concept maps and traditional method on student achievement in selected topics in chemistry. The study was conducted in view of determining the method which is more effective in enhancing student understanding in chemistry. There were three groups involved in the study i.e. Control, experimental group1 and experimental group 2. The pre-test, post –test true experimental research design was used for the study. The sample of the study consisted of thirty nine (39) first year students at Mufulira College of education. Each of the three groups was randomly assigned 13 students. The treatment took four weeks using the topics “atomic structure” and “chemical bonding”. The control group was treated using the traditional method, the experimental group 1 was treated using the concept map method while experimental group 2 used composite of both the traditional and concept map methods. One way ANOVA at an alpha (α) = .05 was conducted to analyze the results of the pre- test and post test scores. The means of the pre-test scores were; control group = 6.46, Experimental group 1 = 7.07 and experimental group 2 = 6.61. These results show that there was no significant difference in the performance of the students in all groups. This result implied that the entry level performance for all the groups was not significantly different. The means of the post-test results(control group = 4.53,experimental group1 = 5.46, experimental group 2 = 6.61) showed that there was a significant effect on the use of both traditional teaching method and concept map teaching method at p < .05 level for the three groups at F(2,36) = 17.156 , p = 0.00. The experimental group 2 performed better than both control group and experimental group 1 in the post test scores. Post hoc comparisons using the Turkey HSD test indicated that the mean scores were significantly different. The results strongly support that when students are taught using both the concept map teaching strategy and traditional teaching strategy, they achieve the best scores. This study therefore offers an encouraging solution towards improvement of student performance in Chemistry at tertiary level. Key words : Concept map, Traditional method, experimental group, achievement, effective method.