Abstract

CONCEPT MAPPING INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY AND SENIOR SECONDARY STUDENTS? PERFORMANCE AND INTEREST IN ALGEBRA IN BAUCHI STATE

Usman, M. A. & Musa, D. C.

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Abstract The study which is a quasi experimental design examined the effect of concept mapping instructional strategy on SS 2 students? academic performance and interest in Algebra. Three research questions were answered and three null hypotheses were tested. Two secondary schools were randomly selected, one of which served as the control group and the other as the experimental group. The experimental group was taught using the concept mapping instructional strategy while the control group was taught using the conventional strategy. The two groups were given a pre-test before the experimental group was taught using the concept mapping strategy while the control group was taught with the conventional strategy. Eighty- eight senior secondary school two students (52 boys and 36 girls) were used. The Algebraic Performance Test (APT) which had a reliability coefficient of 0.86 was used to determine the academic performance of the two groups while the Algebraic Interest Scale (AIS) with was used to determine the interest of the students. . The responses of the subjects to the two instruments were scored and analyzed using mean, standard deviation and the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The posttest achievement scores for the experimental group taught using the concept mapping strategy was higher than those taught using the conventional strategy. The posttest interest rating scores of the subjects in the experimental group was also higher than those in the control group. It is therefore recommended that Mathematics teachers should be encouraged to use the concept mapping strategy to teach algebra as it improves the students? performance in algebra and makes the students have more interest in learning the topic. Keywords: Instructional Strategy, Interest, Performance

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