The effect of mindmapping on student achievement in a grade 8 American high school general science class

النوع : Mémoire

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of using mindmapping on student achievement in a general science classroom. The subjects of this study were 62 students in a Grade 8 general science class at the American Community School in Beirut. The subjects were divided into two groups: A and B. Students in Group A developed notes using mindmapping and students in Group B wrote notes without the use of mindmapping. Science achievement was measured by an achievement test that was developed by the researcher who conducted the study following the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) taxonomy of the levels and categories of achievement. Content validity and the test items were checked by the researcher, three science educators and a school principal with background in science. A 2 x 3 Factorial Design for a Post Test Only Control Group was used in the implementation of this study. Data collection was based on quantitative and qualitative data. A multivariate analysis (MANOVA) was used with the treatment (mindmapping ys no mindmapping) as the independent variable, three achievement levels (Basic, Proficient and Advanced) and three achievement categories (Conceptual Understanding, Practical Reasoning and Nature of Science) as dependant variables, and students' prior scholastic achievement, PSA, (High, Medium and Low achievers) as a moderator variable. Qualitative data was collected using a coding procedure based on the elements of a mindmap and developed by the researcher. Results show that students using mindmapping have significantly enhanced their achievement in science on all achievement levels and categories except the Nature of Science. In addition, improvement in achievement was shown to be uniform across all Prior Scholastic Achievement (PSA) levels for both levels and categories of achievement. Moreover, certain elements within the mindmaps such as color, nonsymbolic representations were shown to relate to high students' performance on the achievement test especially on categories of Conceptual Understanding.