Influence of Concept Maps on Achievement Retention of Senior Secondary School Students in Organic Chemistry

Abstract

Ausubel’s (1960) cognitive theory held the idea that learning takes place by the assimilation of new concept into concepts frameworks already held by the learner. Ausubel  stated that for learning to take place teaching must go along with  language and examples related to learners prior knowledge. He advocated that rote learning, which is simply memorizing concepts, definition, statements or procedures, does not lead to meaningful learning. For meaningful learning to also take place in the learner there must be motivation, which enables learner to choose to learn by incorporating new learning into the prior knowledge. Concept map  according to Novak and Godwin (1994) is one of the tools or methods which provide motivation to the learner for meaningful learning to take place.

Maps are sketch representing an idea or concept. In Geography maps represent on a paper, an area, country etc showing the towns, cities, rivers, mountains etc. It also shows the distances between towns and the connections from town to town on roads, railways etc. In education, concept maps according to Wandersee (1990) are a construct of a bounded graphic representation that corresponds to a perceived reality. Just as geographic maps, concept map shows sketch of concepts and it uses prepositions to show the direction and relationship among the concepts. Hence Novak and Godwin (1984) described concept map as a schematic device for representing set of concept meanings in a frame work of prepositions. They also described it as a hierarchical representation of concepts. This means that concepts are arrange on a paper, from general to specific, relating one concept to another by use of linking prepositions. The major concept is differentiated from the subordinate ones by use of squares to bind it. The supper-ordinate and sub-ordinate concepts are bounded with circles, while the examples are bounded with eclipses. (see the attached examples). Linking prepositions are formulated in a simple way which gives meaning to the map and makes for easy understanding of the map.

The understanding of the learner and the interest which this understanding builds provide a structure into which the new concept to be learnt can be integrated into the learned concepts that the learner already possessed. That was why Novak (1990) stated that “concept mapping has become an important tool to help students learn to learn meaningfully and to help teachers become more effective teachers”. Mapping is showing a map, or makes a map. Concept mapping as stated by Novak has various uses. As describe by Novak, it is used as advance organizer and it can be used as a powerful evaluation tool. The students construct maps to show the summary of what they have been taught. The teacher goes through their maps and then determines whether the student has learnt what he /she taught them. The students can also use their maps to evaluate their understanding to what they have been taught. It can be used to show prior knowledge about a given topic. This is its use as entry behaviour. The teacher asks the students to concept map a topic before he/she goes into the teaching. The teacher at the end of the lesson can construct a concept map or display an already constructed map to summarize a lesson. The students at the end of the lesson can also construct a map to show the understanding and retention of what they have learnt. Achievement retention is very necessary in the teaching of chemistry in secondary schools in Nigeria.