Impacts of Concept Mapping Strategy on Achievement and Attitude in Social Studies among Secondary School Students in Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the impact of concept mapping strategy on students’ achievement and attitude in Social Studies in Delta State. The study adopted a pretest–posttest non-equivalent control group design, which is a subtype of quasi-experimental design structured into a 2 × 2 factorial matrix involving instructional strategies (concept mapping strategy and conventional instructional method) and sex (male and female). Four research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. The population comprised 72,096 Junior Secondary School students in public secondary schools in Delta State. A sample of 300 students was selected using a multistage sampling technique from four public secondary schools in two local government areas. Data were collected using two instruments titled Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT) and Students’ Attitude towards Social Studies Questionnaire (SASSQ), both developed by the researcher. The SSAT consisted of 40 multiple-choice items designed to measure students’ achievement in selected Social Studies concepts, while the SASSQ consisted of 20 structured questionnaire items used to measure students’ attitudes towards Social Studies concepts. The instruments were validated by three experts in Social Studies Education and Measurement and Evaluation from the University of Delta. A pilot study was conducted using 30 students outside the sampled schools. Reliability of the SSAT was determined using Kuder–Richardson Formula 20 (KR-20), which yielded a coefficient of 0.82, while the SASSQ yielded a Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of 0.86. Data collection lasted six weeks and involved pretest, treatment, and posttest administration. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while paired sample t-test and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) were used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that students taught using concept mapping strategy achieved significantly higher achievement and attitude scores than those taught using the conventional instructional method. The findings also showed significant interaction effects of concept mapping strategy and sex on students’ achievement and attitude towards Social Studies concepts. The study recommended that Social Studies teachers should adopt concept mapping strategy to improve students’ academic achievement and positive attitudes towards Social Studies concepts in secondary schools.