Relative Effectiveness Of Concept Mapping And Demonstration Teaching Strategies On Students’ Academic Performance And Retention In Physics In Uyo, Akwa Ibom State
Chapter One
Introduction
Background to the study
Teaching strategy is a plan or program that is extensively used to ensure that lessons passed from the teacher to the students are well understood by the students (Tijjanni, 2003). This plan can be either theoretical or practical. However, different subjects required different strategies because some subjects are more of practical than others (Tijjanni, 2003). As such science teachers are expected to adopt varying innovative teaching strategies, capable of addressing the varying capabilities of students, gender inclusiveness as well as enhance students’ acquisition of basic science process skills and concepts attainment. Siddiqui (2011) stressed that, to teach science in contemporary ways strategies adopted must help students to investigate their world, connect their prior knowledge to observation and actively involved in their own construction of knowledge. Siddiqui considered teaching strategy as an “amplifier” that have the potentials of helping students to listen, read, ask questions and discuss the new ideas taught.
According to Oghenevwede (2009), teaching is effective when strategies used bring about a desirable change in the behaviour of the learner. Oghenevwede finding (2009) also showed that there is a positive correlation between good teaching strategy and students’ performance in sciences. Iji (2005), Okafor and Okeke (2006) also confirmed that an effective teaching strategy bridges the gap between low and high achieving students; influencing students of different abilities to equally achieve high in a learning task. Others reported that teaching strategies can easily be manipulated to bring about positive changes in learners than other factors like gender and age (Okwo and Otubah, 2007; Ogunleye and Babajide, 2011).
Besides difference in performance among students, studies conducted by researchers in sciences have reported disparity in the education of male and female students in science related subjects (Young and Fisher, 2001; Ogunleye and Babajide, 2011). This accounted for females’ low contribution in the area of engineering, medicine and technology (Long and Adedeji, 2003).. Also, studies by Ogunneye and Lasisi (2008) reported that more females are found in Biology and Chemistry classes than in Physics class. To this end, Ogunneye and Lasisi (2008) and Babajide (2010) proposed that innovative teaching strategies can help promote gender equity, improves students’ performance and retention of information
The process of storing and retrieving information is very vital in teaching-learning situation. In Mboto and Ogar (2004), retention is defined as the ability to remember facts and concepts already learned. In this study, retention is measured in terms of the difference between the learners’ post-test and post-delay test (retention test) achievement after the time lag. The significance of retention measurement lies in the fact that forgetting cannot be completely eliminated from teaching-learning situation and the amount of materials or information retained by the learner are determined by the learner’s overall performance in the subject in a given time lag (Egbule, 2000; Mboto and Ogar, 2004; and Ochonogor and Ajaja, 2005). Unfortunately, some of the Nigerian science classroom activities are still dominated by teacher-centred strategies which promote rote learning and short retention as such, students’ performance in science especially Physics fall short of the standard expected of it. The desire and present agitation in our society is that the educational system should be science and technology-oriented so as to foster self-reliance in the students. As such, the role of physics is well acknowledged in a science and technology oriented society (Effiong and Enukoha 2004). It is pertinent at this point to therefore desire the effective teaching and learning of the subject in schools and to examine the performance of students in the subject.
Education according to Isangedighi (2007) has the potentials of helping individuals to be physically, mentally, morally, socially, scientifically and technologically developed. Therefore, science teaching should be such that would meet the demand of the present ever changing educational system, society needs and diverse abilities of science students using innovative teaching strategies.
Concept mapping and demonstration teaching strategies were preferred in this study because it is easier to teach varieties of science concepts using these strategies.
Concept mapping as defined in Ekpo (2011) is the hierarchical arrangement of key concepts to show meaningful relationship among the selected ideas being studied. It consists of lines with arrow to show directions of flow of information. A concept map is also known as flowchart. Ezeudu, (1998) and Obi, (2003) observed that teachers have found concept mapping as useful strategy for selecting the subject matter, help clarify lesson objectives, good for teaching specific scientific facts and basic skills and also organizing and representing subject matter contents. Student have found concept mapping a very useful and powerful strategy for taking notes, summarizing and synthesizing what they are taught/reading. On the contrast, concept mapping can discourage creativity and lacks proficient oral skills if the format is very rigid and the focus is strongly on the main concepts or facts (Damole & Adeoye, 2004).
Demonstration as used in this study is a strategy of teaching science concepts by combining body gesture, oral explanation with illustration or manipulation of real objects/other resource materials by a teacher or student or both to facilitate learning. Demonstration in this study does not necessarily involve the laboratory experimental work with the use of sophisticated industrial-made pieces of apparatus, neither does it serve as a substitute for laboratory experiments but is a strategy used by the teacher for effective teaching of science concepts. Demonstration according to Nwachukwu and Nwosu (2007) offers learner the opportunity to discover scientific facts and concepts for themselves; and provides concrete learning experiences. On the contrary, Udo and Udo (2007) observed that demonstration is not effective in a large class of too many students since some of them may be unable to see and hear clearly what is being demonstrated. Also time consuming and limited facilities deprived other students to participate.
Traditional lecture strategy was considered as the control group in this study. This strategy dominates science teaching in Nigerian secondary schools. It’s limited exclusively to telling, reciting and memorization of information. It is more of teacher- centred than student –centred activities. Many teachers adopt lecture strategy in order to overcome the bulky sciences’ syllabus and cater for overpopulated number of students in the classroom. Hence this strategy causes lack of interest and poor academic performances and retention of students in sciences (Ameh & Dantani, 2012).
This study therefore aims at investigating the relative effectiveness of concept mapping and demonstration teaching strategies on students’ academic performance and retention in physics.
1.2 Theoretical framework
The theories that are going to form the background of this study are;
Theory on “Advanced Organizers”: David Paul Ausubel (1968) theory on “advanced organizers” is based on ideas and materials which consist of a short set of verbal words or visual presentation that is made available to the learner prior to the actual material to be learned. But critics of this theory equated advance orgnizer to intuation; also a controversial argument of whether advance organizer is better suited for high and low ability students. In response, Ausuble explained that the construction of advance organizer always depend on the nature of learning task; and the degree of prior knowledge of the leaner with the learning task and that advance organizer differs from intuition in being relatable to presumed ideational content in leaner’s current cognitive structure. Hence advance organizer can cater to any students irrespective of ability’s level (http://wwwdavidausuble.org/).
However relevant of advance organizer to this study served to provide means whereby a learner is able to generate logical relationship between the known and the new information to be learned thereby ensures a smooth process of encoding. Before the actual learning commenced, various advanced organizers such as flowcharts, concept maps, use of analogies and short verbal explanations that will help the students to understand what they were about to learn were introduced to students.
Before defining waves, for instance, the teacher held the string/rope at both ends and plucked the middle of the rope to generate wave motion. This demonstration showed example of transverse waves. The teacher asked the students to clap hands to produced sound which the teacher used to explain longitudinal waves and the rest of waves concepts were explained using these demonstrations. The flowchart showed the information/concepts the learners were about to learn with generic concepts at the apex and the specific concepts toward the base. In this study, classroom instructions were backed up with more concrete, pictorial, and symbolic teaching aids to facilitate learning and retention.
Theory of Constructivism: Jean Piaget (1980) is the founding father of constructivism. The theory claims that each learner has a body of previous experiences with which he interacts with the new one. Hence learning is enhanced when there is an association between what is already known and the new learning materials. Critics of this theory argued that constructivism goes astray if the child is not mentally developed to meet the learning constraints. As such Kirschner, Sweller and Clark (2006) proposed that leaner should be cognitively active during learning; and the teachers use guided practices to lead the students develop their own conclusion on the subject.
However, this theory is important in this study because the learner is seen as an active processor of knowledge that helps learners to arrive at the version of truth influence by the learners’ background, culture or embedded world view. As such the researcher did not look at students as blank slate; and knowledge was not imparted without the learner making sense of it according to learners’ current conception. The teacher acted as a facilitator; endeavoured to stimulate and review relevant previous learning experiences of the learner, before the actual teaching-learning exercise commenced; learning was interactive and dynamic. There was a great focus on collaborations and exchange of ideas. Units of lessons were began with known to unknown concepts. Teachers posed problems to students to activate students’ prior knowledge on existing and subsequent learning. This involved interesting provoking questions to motivate the learners. Such as: what do you observe when you throw a piece of stone into a stagnant water? What is your observation when you pluck a string tightened at both ends? When you hit an object, what did you hear? Based on the students’ previous experiences, the teacher was able to explain other concepts of waves to the students. Error was seen as an anchor point for more explanation into the topic of the lesson.
iii. Theory of Hierarchical Learning: Robert Mills Gagne (1970) theory of learning holds that hierarchies exist in learning and these hierarchies show that learning is cumulative and that the lower hierarchy learning is required as prerequisite to a higher hierarchy ones. However, Jean Piaget assumed that master higher-order skills do not depend on successfully learned lower-order skills but rather on the specific stage in cognitive development related to age. In response, Gagne (1965) posed that in each age and level, tasks or skills are arranged in such a way that will meet the need of the learner at that particular age or level. However this theory is relevant to this study in that it emphasized cumulative learning as well as hierarchy of learning skills which required instructions that are tailored to meet the needs of the learners. In this study for instance, some concepts/terms such as velocity, period, frequency, amplitude and numerical arithmetic had already been taught in the lower class which are now used to explain waves in a more complex terms. Also concepts in the concepts map were arrange in level in which one level serves as a prerequisite to the next level. Learning objectives were stated in clear behavioral terms to examine the level of intellectual skills attended by the students. Learning units of lesson and its components was organized in a hierarchy and presented in a manner that ensured easy comprehension and effective meaningful learning and retention.
However, the learning theories need not be seen independently as final speculation in teaching-learning process. It is generally most appropriate to take an eclectic point of view with respect to the application of the theories since each of them provides an insight that further illuminates our understanding for effective teaching-learning process.
1.3 Statement of the problem
There is a public outcry in the educational sector concerning the poor performance of students and gender inequality in sciences especially physics. Though there may be other factors such as school administrative style, age and socio economic status of parent that contribute to the poor academic performance of the students and gender disparity, inappropriate teaching strategies adopted by teachers appeared to be the most cited problems.
Specifically, there is a mistaken belief that Physics is a difficult subject as certain concepts and topics in Physics curriculum are tagged difficult, either because teachers find them difficult to teach or students find them difficult to learn.
The problem is not that of non-availability of methods, but how to ensure that science teachers in classroom are able to apply such methods with strategies that are effective in enhancing students’ performance and retention. Successful teaching does not depend only on teachers mastery of the subject matter but also on the strategy employed.
It is on the basis of these that the researcher observesd the following problems:
Does teaching strategies adopted by science teachers affect students’ academic performance and retention of concepts taught in sciences especially physics? Which of the strategies:–concepts mapping, demonstration and traditional lecture strategies would prove most effective in facilitating students’ performances and retention in physics? In sciences related classroom, gender disparity have always been recorded most often in favour of boys, is there any teaching strategy that can enhance gender friendly performance and retention in physics? The present study attempted finding plausible answers to these questions by examining the relative effectiveness of concept mapping and demonstration teaching strategies of students’ academic performance and retention with physics in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
1.4 Purpose of the study
This study was to investigate the relative effectiveness of concept mapping and demonstration teaching strategies on students’ academic performance and retention in Physics in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
The specific objectives were:
To examine the effect of concept mapping and demonstration teaching strategies on students’ academic performance in physics.
To investigate the effect of gender on stuudents academic performance in physics.
To determine the effect of concept mapping and demonstration teaching strategies on students’ retention of concepts in physics.
To investigate the effect of gender on students’ retention of concepts taught in physics.
To examine the interaction effect of treatments and gender on students’ academic performance in physics.
To examine the interaction effects of treatment and gender on students retention of concepts in physics.
1.5 Research questions
Based on the objectives, the following research questions were raised:
What is the main effect of concept mapping and demonstration teaching strategies on student’s academic performance in physics?
What is the main effect of gender on students’ academic performance in physics?
What is the main effect of concept mapping and demonstration teaching strategies on students’ retention of concepts taught in physics?
What is the main effect of gender on students’ retention of concepts in physics?
What is the interaction effect of treatments and gender on students’ performance in physics?
What is the interaction effect of treatments and gender on students’ retention of concepts in physics?
1.6 Statement of hypotheses
In providing answers to the questions raised, the following null hypotheses were formulated for testing:
There is no significant main effect of concept mapping abd demonstration teaching strategies on students’ academic performance.
There is no significant main effect of gender on students’ academic performance in physics
There is no significant main effect of concept mapping and demonstration teaching strategies on students’ retention of concepts taught in physics.
There are no significant main effects of gender on students’ retention of concepts in physics.
There is no significant interaction effect of treatments and gender on students’ academic performance in physics.
There is no significant interaction effect of treatments and gender on students’ retention of concepts in physics.
1.7 Significance of the study
It is expected that the results of the study will be of tremendous benefit to the students.When the concepts and topics in physics are presented in a way that the students can easiy understand and they can create meaning out of the lesson, It will help elude the notion which posed that science especially physics is a difficult subject. Students will learn science concepts with less difficulties and this will encourage more students to have interest to enrol in science related subjects.
The study will also help teachers to adopt innovative teaching strategies which are more effective in enhancing learning of science concepts; help teachers to assume the role of a facilitator instead of a dictator which enhanced rote learning and partial participation of students in teaching-learning situation.
To the counsellor, this study will help determine which of the strategies is more gender friendly; hence advising teachers to adopt them in sciences’ classroom teaching.
It will create awareness to government on the need to retrain serving science teachers to adopt and cope with the current effective teaching strategies for optimal benefit to the student and the nation as a whole.
The result of the study will also update existing literature on the effect of concept mapping, demonstration and traditional lecture teaching strategies on students’ academic performance and retention in Physics; Gender on students’ academic performance and retention in Physics as well as the interaction effect of teaching strategies and gender on students’ academic performance and retention of concepts in Physics.
1.8 Assumptions of the study
The following basic assumptions were made in this research:
That qualified Physics teachers were involved in the experimental exercise
That the students to be used in this study have been exposed to some of the Physics concepts
Concepts to be taught were within the SS 2 syllabus
1.9 Scope of the study
The research was carried out in all the 13 co-educational government-owned secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. Only the senior secondary two A and B Physics students were involved in the study. The learning experiences were limited to the concepts of waves in Physics and the main variables were limited to teaching strategy and gender on students’ academic performance and retention.
1.10 Limitations of the study
The limitation encountered in the course of this study included finance, challengeable attitude from some students, inadequate number of qualified physics teachers in the school to assist the researcher and schools used for the study were distantly located within Uyo L.G.A. Thus, this posed a problem for the researcher to administer the treatment to the schools simultaneously. Amidst all these challenges, the researcher tried as much as possible to obtain reliable and valid data.
These limitation were overcame by getting financial help from, relatives, the treatment exercise was carried by the researcher and physics teachers were used as supervisors during the test administrations.
1.11 Definitions of terms
The underlisted terms are defined as used in the study:
Coeducational: Schools with boys and girls learning together
Concepts: Learning experience, terms and idea taught in Physics class.
Gesture: Head, hands and body movement to draw students’ attention to a particular expression or direction e.g. length, breath, up or down.
Retention: Ability to store physics concept to memory and retrieve them when necessary
Physics: One of the physical science subjects that study matter in relation to energy.
Leave a Comment