Effect of Mind Mapping Strategy on Senior Secondary School Students’ Achievement in Geometric Construction in Port Harcourt Local Government Area, Rivers State

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of mind mapping strategy on senior secondary school students’ achievement in Geometric Construction in Port Harcourt Local Government Area, Rivers State, Nigeria. The quasi-experimental research design adopted involved a non-equivalent pretest-posttest control group and a descriptive survey design was also adopted to investigate the attitude of the students. The population was all the 14644 students in 18 public senior secondary schools in Port Harcourt local Government Area. A sample of 84 SS1 students was purposively selected from two public co-educational secondary schools. The experimental group was taught Geometric Construction using the mind mapping strategy, while the control group received instruction using the lecture (chalk and talk) method. Two research instruments, the Geometric Construction Achievement Test (GCAT) and the Geometric Construction Attitude Questionnaire (GCAQ) were used for data collection. The reliability coefficient of the GCAT was established using Cronbach Alpha and yielded 0.82, while the GCAQ had a Cronbach Alpha value of 0.86. Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, Repeated measures ANOVA and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results revealed a significant difference in achievement scores between students taught using the mind mapping strategy and those taught using the lecture method in favor of the experimental group. Gender had no significant effect on the achievement scores of students exposed to mind mapping. Furthermore, a significant improvement was observed in the students' attitudes toward Geometric Construction after being taught with the strategy. The study concludes that mind mapping is an effective instructional strategy for improving students’ understanding and engagement in Geometric Construction. It recommends its integration into mathematics teaching at the secondary school level to enhance conceptual learning and performance, irrespective of gender.