EFFECT OF CONCEPT MAPPING ON PEACE AND CONFLICT CONCEPTS ATTAINMENT AND TRANSFER IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SOCIAL STUDIES IN ABIA STATE
ABSTRACT
This study investigated the effect of Concept Mapping Instructional Strategy (CMIS) on peace and conflict concepts attainment and transfer in junior secondary Social Studies in Umuahia Education Zone, Abia State. The study adopted a pre-test, post-test, non-equivalent quasi experimental research design. One hundred and seventy five (175) JSS3 students were purposively sampled for the study. The sample distribution of the study includes 92 urban students comprised of 49 males and 43 females and 83 rural students comprised of 44 males and 39 females. Eighty-seven (87) students were assigned to experimental group taught using CMIS while 88 students were assigned to control group taught using lecture method. Eleven research questions and eleven null hypotheses guided the study. Twenty (20) multiple choice items SSAT instrument (which tested the attainment variable) focused on conflict and conflict management and resolution concepts and four (4) essay items SSTT instrument (which tested transferability variable) focused on peace concepts were developed by the researcher and used for data collection. The test blue print, conventional lesson plans, atypical lesson plans, concept maps, SSAT and SSTT developed by the researcher were validated by three experts- one in Measurement and Evaluation and two in Social Studies. The instruments were pilot tested on 35 JSS3 Social Studies of Anglican Grammar School, Nbawsi in Isialangwa L.G.A. The data obtained from the trial testing exercise were used to determine the difficulty index, discrimination index, distractor index, and the reliability coefficient of the study. The items which possessed difficulty index of 0.4 and above, positive discrimination index of 0.10 and above and have effective distracters were used for the study. At the end of item analysis, 3 items out of the earlier 23-item SSAT were discarded and the r20 items which survived the scrutiny of item analysis were used for the study and for establishing the reliability of the instrument. Test retest method was used to determine the stability coefficient of SSAT which was found to be .948 and that of the SSTT found to be .936 using the Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Also, the internal consistency of SSAT was determined using K-R 20 and found to be 1.0 while that of the SSTT was found to be .785 using Cronbach Alpha Method. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to analyse data obtained for research questions 1-10 while Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to analyse data obtained for research question 11. Data obtained for research hypotheses 1-10 were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) while data obtained for research hypothesis 11 was tested using Simple Linear Regression. The findings among others were that: CMIS is more effective in promoting students’ attainment and transferability in Social Studies than the lecture method; there is a significant positive relationship exist between attainment (the predictor variable) and transferability (the criterion variable) in Social Studies; location is significant in students’ achievement but not in transferability in Social Studies; and there is no significant interaction effect of gender and methods on transferability in Social Studies. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher made the following recommendations among others: Social Studies teachers should adopt CMIS in the teaching of Social Studies; the curriculum should be restructured to include CMIS as one of the teacher’s strategies for teaching; and the authors of Social Studies textbooks should make necessary adjustment to their textbooks by concept mapping abstract topics.