Concept Mapping, Field Trip Teaching Methods and Students’ Performance in Basic Science and Technology in Etim Ekpo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria
Keywords:
Concept mapping, field-trip, light energy, performance, basic science and technologyAbstract
This study investigated the effect of Concept Mapping, Field-Trip teaching methods and students’ performance in Basic Science and Technology in Etim Ekpo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Three research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest comparison group design. The population comprised all the junior secondary two (JS2) Basic Science and Technology students in the 2025/2026 academic session in 10 public coeducational secondary schools in the area. The sample size was 190 JS2 Basic Science and Technology students (120 students in experimental group one and 70 in experimental group two). Using a simple random sampling technique, one intact class was sampled from two schools. Basic Science and Technology performance test in light energy (BSTPTLE) used for data collection with a reliability index of 0.82. Three validators from the Department of Science Education, Akwa Ibom State University, validated the instrument. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics to answer the research questions and ANCOVA to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that; there was a significant difference between the performance mean scores of Basic science and technology students when taught light energy using concept mapping and field trip methods; there was a significant difference between the performance mean scores of male and female students in Basic Science and Technology in the concept of light energy and there was no significant interaction between teaching methods and gender on students’ academic performance in Basic science and technology. It was concluded that students’ academic performance could be improved with a field trip rather than the concept map method. Based on these findings, it was recommended that the field trip method should be used in teaching light energy and other concepts in Basic Science and Technology.
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