Effectiveness of Concept Mapping Strategy on Understanding and Retention among Secondary School Students

Abstract

Concept mapping is a tool used for representing knowledge in an organized format. It consists of concepts that are encircled and a connecting line with linking words or phrases represents the relationships between the different sub-concepts. Joseph D. Novak developed the concept maps in the 1970s. Mendia et al., 2008 have used this tool that promotes meaningful learning in math with secondary school students. Sharma, 2014 has used this tool for student’s achievement and concept retention for higher secondary student. This paper is regarding effectiveness of concept maps in concept retention among secondary school students. It is an action research conducted with ten students. The concept map was prepared using software called as Cmap. The institute that has developed this software is Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. The concept of structure of DNA was taken to teach the students using concept map. A pretest, posttest, and delayed test were conducted to observe the students understanding and retention of the concept. The results were analyzed using SPSS software. It was observed that the understanding and retention of the concept among the students was visible after using the concept mapping strategy