CONCEPT MAPPING TEACHING STRATEGY AND ACHIEVEMENT IN SCIENCE EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Abstract

Research has shown that many students lack the necessary knowledge and skills in science and technology to function in the modern world (American Association for the Advancement of Science at a time when there is increasing demand for scientifically literate individuals who can analyze and anticipate novel problems, rather than memorize disparate facts, and with the potential to change and adapt (AAAS, 1989; Ogawa, 1998). However, what is happening in schools is not promising. Students’ performance and interest in science are declining (Markow & Lonning, 1998, Pendley et al. 1994, Lee and Fensham 1996) and laboratory work (Stensvold and Wilson 1992) and misconceptions (Nakhleh 1992, Herron 1996, Taber 1997, Sanger and Greenbowe 1999). In order to explain this, relevant research literature (Nakhleh 1992, Pendley et al. 1994) suggests several reasons: the lack of uniformity of concepts and the multitude of notation systems in use; highly fragmented and often very linear character of curricula in which insufficient attention is paid to concept definitions and their interrelationships and to relationships between concepts and phenomena; limited attention in science education to opportunities for synthesis in which students are explicitly taught the links between different concepts and how to visualize the methods; those opportunities would enhance