Effects of Concept Mapping Strategy on Interest and Achievement of Senior Secondary School Students in History in Plateau North Educational Zone, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of concept mapping strategy on interest and achievement of senior secondary school students in History in Plateau North Educational Zone, Nigeria. Two hypotheses were formulated for the study. The study employed a quasi-experimental design specifically the pre-test – post – test non – equivalent control group design. All the 20 senior secondary schools in the study area that offer History as a subject constituted the population for the study. Two senior secondary schools among the 20 were purposively selected and made into experimental and control groups. History Achievement Test (HAT) and History Interest Inventory (HII) were prepared by the researcher and validated by two senior lecturers from the Research, Measurement and Evaluation unit, one History and International Studies Education Expert, and one senior lecturer from Educational Psychology all of the University of Jos, Nigeria and a reliability coefficient r= 0.70 was arrived at after pilot testing. The instruments HAT and HII were administered to the students by the researcher with the assistance of two research assistants. Data collected were analysed using t-test and z – test statistics. The results indicated that students taught History topics using concept mapped instructional strategy achieved higher than those taught using lecture strategy. It was recommended that History teachers need to diversify their strategies of teaching historical topics such as concept mapped teaching strategy as it will assist in higher interest and academic achievement of learners in the subject.