Concept Mapping in Science: A Literature Review

Abstract

Several types of researches have been conducted worldwide  in order to explore, examine and verify the utility and effectiveness of various instructional strategies on students’ learning outcomes.  Concept mapping is one among these evolving teaching strategies which has been subject to exploration since its discovery by Joseph D.Novak in 1972. It is an instructional strategy in which concept maps are used to organise and represent knowledge in graphical form. Through this review paper, the authors have intended to examine seven research studies which were based on the use of concept mapping method in teaching science related disciplines. It was found that all of these studies were experimental in nature. Either quasi experimental designs or fctorial design were adopted for exploring effectiveness of concept mapping instructional strategy on various learning outcomes of the students.  Achievement along with other learning outcomes like motivation for learning science, opinion of students regarding utilisation of concept map etc. have been the prime focus of these researches.  Findings of most of these studies revealed that concept mapping method in comparision to traditional teaching method is able to enhnce achievement and other learning outcomes of the students. However,  contrary results were also being reported by the research studies conducted by Pandey (2019) & Jena (2011) in which traditional teaching methods in comparision to concept mapping method were either could produce better results or was equally effective in enhancing achievement and other learning outcomes in some categories of students. Some other instructional strategy when compared with concept mapping had produced mixed results. Overall, it can be said that concept mapping has been evolved as a promising instructional strategy which is required to be further explored in order to harness its full potential