Effect of Concept Mapping and Guided-Inquiry Instructional Strategies on Students’ Academic Achievement in Chemistry

This study investigated the effect of Concept Mapping and Guided-Inquiry instructional strategies on students’ academic achievement in Chemistry. The study used a test-retest quasi-experimental design. The population for the study is 659 Secondary School One (SS I) Chemistry students of 2017/2018 academic session in Jalingo metropolis, Taraba state. The Sample size consisted of 113 students drawn from two schools which use intact classes with equivalent mean scores of 10.22 and 9.76 in their pretest. Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) was used for data collection. The reliability coefficient of the CAT was found to be r=0.84. Data collected was analyzed using means, standard deviation and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The result showed that the experimental group which was taught chemistry using Guided-Inquiry instructional strategy performed significantly better than the Concept Mapping group. The results also showed that there is no significant interaction effect of method of teaching and gender on students’ achievement in chemistry. The conclusions drawn revealed that students taught chemistry using Guided-Inquiry strategy performed better than their counterparts that used Concept Mapping strategy, and both methods were gender-unbiased. The study recommends, amongst others that, Chemistry teachers should incorporate both instructional strategies mostly Guided-Inquiry since it has improved students’ achievement better and is gender-friendly.