Effectiveness of Concept Mapping As an Instructional Strategy for Cognitive Attainment in Early Childhood Lesson Delivery for Sustainable Development in Lagos State

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Date
2019
Authors
Sopekan, O.S.
Akeredolu, O.O.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of Adult Education, Faculty of Education, University of Lagos
Abstract
This paper examined the effectiveness of Concept Mapping (CM) as an instructi8onal strategy for cognitive attainment in Early Childhood lesson delivery for sustainable development in Lagos State. It employed a 2x2 pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design which involves two groups experimental and control intact classes. The experimental group was exposed to the intervention package which is the concept mapping teaching strategy, while the control group was taught using the conventional teaching method. Simple random sampling technique was used to select four schools (two public and two private) from an education district of Lagos State which comprises of four class teachers and two assistants who participated in the concept mapping training exercise. The sample was made up of four intact classes with an average of thirty-five to forty pupils per school. Social Studies topics were selected from lower primary grade one level of the school curriculum. Four research instruments were used namely: (a) Teachers Instructional Guide on Concept Maps (b) Sample Lesson Plan for Treatment Group (c) Cognitive Attainment Test (CAT) and (d) Teachers Structured Questionnaire Schedule (TSQS). The face and content validity of the instrument were ascertained by the supervisor and two experts in the area of Social Studies. The reliability for Cognitive Attainment Test (CAT) was determined using Kuder-Richardson 20 Formula and it gave a value of 0.823. The data generated was analysed using both the descriptive and inferential statistics. Demographics was analysed using frequency counts and percentages. Three research questions and three hypotheses were answered and tested, the hypotheses were analysed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and Scheffe Post-hoc analysis. Level of statistical significance was put at = .05. The research findings revealed that: there is a significant difference between pre and post test scores of the students when exposed to concept mapping instructional strategy because the experimental group had greater achievement scores in the post-test; it equally showed that the technique of concept mapping is unfamiliar to many teachers. The strategy is also capable of improving children’s mastery of content at the higher-order levels of cognition if it is developmentally appropriate. Based on the findings, the study recommended that concept mapping should be added to the teaching strategies at the Early Childhood Education level
Description
Scholarly article
Keywords
Concept Mapping , Cognitive Attainment , Retention , Teaching Method , School Type , Research Subject Categories::SOCIAL SCIENCES::Social sciences::Education
Citation
Sopekan, O.S & Akeredolu, O.O. (2019). Effectiveness of Concept Mapping As an Instructional Strategy for Cognitive Attainment in Early Childhood Lesson Delivery for Sustainable Development in Lagos State. Journal of Educational Thought, 8(3), 138-155