Concept Mapping in Teaching Mathematics in Slovakia: Pedagogical Experiment Results

Abstract

The paper deals with the application of concept mapping in teaching mathematics at the primary level of education (ISCED 1), as well as the experimental verification of its qualitative contribution to the process of education. The authors present results obtained in a sample survey aimed at monitoring possibilities of influencing pupils’ relationship to teaching and mastery of mathematics using digital concept maps within the process of pedagogical intervention. The authors tested the degree to which digital concept maps influence changes in the pupils’ opinions and attitudes to mathematics (subject popularity, interest in the subject, easiness of understanding, fear and apprehension of mathematics) while explaining and fixating the curriculum of selected mathematics topics in the third grade of a primary school. The results of the experiment did not confirm that teaching supported by concept maps contributes to reducing pupils’ negative attitudes towards subjects, particularly in mathematics at the primary level (ISCED 1). Due to the pedagogical intervention of concept mapping, no statistically significant changes occurred in the pupils’ attitudes to the observed factors of mathematics. However, the authors have come up with research findings that may be notable in the field of branch didactics of mathematics and digital technologies.