Effect of Concept Mapping Technique on Academic Performance among Secondary School Geography Students in Katsina State, Nigeria

Abstract

: This study investigated the effect of concept mapping technique on academic performance
among secondary school geography students in Katsina State, Nigeria. Two objectives, two research
questions and two null hypotheses were formulated and analyzed. The study adopted a quasiexperimental design. A sample of 156 (94 males and 62 females) which was randomly selected from
two schools out of 25 schools with a total population of 5953 (3,317 males and 2,636 female) was used
for the study. A 40-item multiple choice titled Geography Performance Test with reliability r = 0.77
was used to collect data. Students in the experimental group were taught using concept mapping
while the control group was taught using lecture method. Research questions were answered using
Mean and standard deviation. Null hypotheses were tested using independent sample t-test at 0.05
level of significance. The results of the study showed that, there is significant difference between the
mean score on performance of students when taught using concept mapping and those taught using
lecture methods in favor of the students taught geography using concept mapping. However, there
was no significant difference between the mean score on performance of male and female students
taught geography using concept mapping. It was concluded that, concept mapping strategy have
significant effect on the students’ performance in geography than the traditional lecture method. It
was recommended that, geography teachers should expose students to concept mapping strategy so
as to improve their performance in geography and both male and female students should be taught
geography using concept mapping in other to equally help them learn and perform better.