COMPARISON OF GENERATING CONCEPT MAPS AND USING CONCEPT MAPS ON STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT.

Concept mapping is widely used to facilitate learning tool to help students organize information, improve long-term retention and increases student achievement. Student generated concept maps have been recommended for studying content area materials, because the learner plays an active role in creating and modifying the concept map. It is an important classroom pedagogy that promotes development of self-learning. This study aims to compare the effect of concept maps between construct-by-self, construct-on-scaffold and construct by paper-and-pencil on students' comprehension in electricity. Forty-seven high school students were evaluated by a pre-post-test design. Four tenth grade science classes of students at a high school were assigned to three treatment groups. Assessment tests focused on whether the student has acquired the knowledge that is a part of the objectives using concept maps, but also find out what the students knows, understands, or is able to achieve on his own. Group I, individually concept mapped which was used to track their understanding of electricity. Group II, those who used fill in the blank concept map, within which some nodes and links were set as blanks for the scaffold. Group III, construct by paper-and-pencil with the assistance of the feedback The findings revealed that fill in the blank concept maps on computers positively influenced concept learning compared to those who used individually generating concept maps. The two computer-based procedures are helpful for students in completing their concept maps than constructing with paper-and-pencil. According to interview all students were agreed that concept maps were practical method to determine relationships among concepts, sharpened their conceptual understandings and increased their critical thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]