Computer-based collaborative concept mapping: effects on students’ academic achievement in biology in secondary schools in Kenya

Abstract

Researchers and educators alike have continually made efforts to conduct relevant studies on the effect of various teaching-learning strategies on student’s achievement in science education. This study sought to address the problem of sub-par performance in Biology in secondary school by evaluating the effects of Computer-Based Collaborative Concept Mapping (CBCCM) on students’ academic achievement in Biology. The study had four – fold objectives: determine the effects of CBCCM and conventional methods on student’s attitudes towards Biology; evaluate the gender differences in students’ attitudes towards Biology between control and experimental groups; examine the gender differences in students’ academic achievement in Biology between control and experimental groups; and compare the effect of computer-based collaborative concept mapping and conventional methods on student’s academic achievement in Biology. The study adopted Quasi-experimental research known as Solomon IV non-equivalent control group design. The study sample comprised of 345 forms two Biology students and eight biology teachers in eight secondary schools. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the eight schools from which a single stream per school was selected based on simple random sampling. The eight schools were randomly assigned into four groups where there were two experimental and two control groups. Each one of the four groups comprised two schools, one school for boys and one school for girls. There were two schools for girls and two schools for boys in the experimental group and two schools for girls and two schools for boys in the control group. A Biology Achievement Test (BAT) and a student attitude questionnaire (SAQ) were used for data collection. The research instruments were validated by university supervisors and two Biology examiners while the Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient of 0.9138 (pre-test) and 0.8361 (post-test) indicated that the instrument was reliable. Groups one and two took the pre-test while the post-test was administered to all the four groups. The intervention period was four weeks after which all groups were post-tested. The inferential statistics included t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyse the data generated with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The hypotheses were tested at a 0.05 level of significance. The findings indicated that CBCCM had no significant improvement on the attitude of students towards Biology groups (t = 0.052, p > 0.05), but there were significant differences (t = -2.740, p < 0.05) in the academic performance of students in Biology. The findings further indicate that there were no statistically significant differences in attitude between sexes (t = -0.0820, p > 0.05) but there were significant differences in performance between the sexes (t = -5.563, p < 0.05), whereby girls outperformed the boys in the post-test after the intervention. Based on the results the study rejected the null hypotheses that there is no significant effect of CBCCM and conventional methods on academic performance in Biology. The study concluded that CBCCM enhances students’ learning of school Biology, but does not minimize the gender disparities in the performance of science subjects in secondary schools. The findings provide a basis for the improvement of in-service and pre-service Biology teacher training programmes. The study therefore recommended that teachers in sciences should incorporate appropriate learning strategies for the achievement of intended learning outcomes and higher-order learning. CBCCM be emphasized both in the pre-service and in-service teacher education programmes.