Effect of Concept Mapping Instructional Strategy on Junior Secondary School Student’s Knowledge of Multiculturalism in the Global 21st Century Social Studies Classroom

Abstract

This ever-increasing diversity in today's classrooms is prompting teachers to incorporate a multicultural approach to lesson planning. The classroom in the 21st century is also more focused on a proactive learning environment rather than merely dispensing information. Hence, it is vital that teachers offer a rich and varied multicultural curriculum to accommodate the culturally diverse 21st century classroom. This article describes how concept mapping techniques were applied to evaluate the development of a solution-focused, public alternative school programme. Concept mapping appears to be a useful programme evaluation methodology for school workers to consider a valuable tool for examining complex problems and solutions within school organizations. A 30 item achievement test was administered on 50 junior secondary school students purposively selected from two secondary schools in the south-west region of Nigeria. Data were analysed using t- test. Three null hypotheses were raised and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of this study revealed that there is a significant difference between pre and post test scores of the students when exposed to concept mapping instructional strategy (t=10.75;df=98;p<0.05). Therefore, this calls for improved approaches of teaching in culturally diverse 21^st century Social Studies classroom.

Key words: Concept mapping, Multiculturalism, Global, Century, Maps, teaching technique, students, Social Studies.