THE IMPACT OF E-MAPPING STRATEGIES ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN BIOLOGY

1.1 Introduction

Education is a preparation for life. This is related to the acquisition of skills to earn a living. Today as always, the definition of education is the ever change and increasing in scope. Our schools are confronted with new pressures arising from changing needs with students; societal expectation, economic changes and technological advancement are to look into.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Education has been described as a vital and indispensable key to any form of development (Offiah and Achufusi, 2010).it is an instrument for economic, political and scientific development of all nations (Olarinoye, 2001 and Otuka, 2006). This could be the reason why the Federal Government of Nigeria emphasised the Teaching of Science (biology inclusive where genetics belong) in its National Policy on Education (FGN, 2008). It has been observed that the major challenges in teaching is to create experiences that involve the student and support of his own thinking, explanation, evaluation, communication and application of the scientific models needed to make sense of these experiences (Afolabi &Akinbobola 2009). In science education, there is an increasing awareness of the importance of learner-centeredness in the teaching- learning situation which has generated a lot of attention in relation to understanding how learners learn and how to help them learn about concepts in sciences (Jegede, Alaiymota & Okebukola 1990).

These efforts according to Cliburn (1990) and Danjuma (2005) assisting learners to learn more effectively have led to the development of meta- cognitive strategies to enhance meaningful learning. According to Novak,(1983) meta-cognitive strategies, are meta-knowledge and meta-learning which are strategies that empower a learner to take charge of his/her own learning in meaningful ways. Novak & Godwin (1984) explained further that meta- knowledge refers to knowledge that deals with the very nature of knowledge and knowing, and meta- learning refers to learning that deals with the nature of learning or learning about meaningful learning.

Malone & Dekker (1984) stated that meaningful learning means that learners can integrate new knowledge into their existing networks of concepts and propositions in their cognitive structures.

Therefore, concept mapping according to Kinchin (2005) is strategies that help learners organize their cognitive frameworks into more powerful integrated patterns. Many researchers such as Okebukola and Jegede (1988); Novak (1983); Bello and Abimbola (1997) have observed that concept mapped can improve meaningful learning and help learners, learn independently. Concept mapping according to Novak & Godwin (1984) is a schematic device for representing a set of concept meaning embedded in hierarchical diagrams that illustrate the interconnections between and among concepts. It can be deduced that concept map provide a visual road map showing the pathways a learner can take to construct meaning of concepts and propositions.

This strategy as observed by Novak & Godwin (1984) and Novak,(1990) serves as both learning tool as well as evaluation tool, which encouraged the students to use meaningful mode-learning patterns. Similarly, Chiou (2008) conducted a research on the effect of concept mapping on students’ learning achievements and interest. It was concluded that those exposed to accounting using concept map performed better than those exposed to accounting using expository method.

Despite the effort of science educators such as Bello (1996); Danjuma (2005) & Jibrin and Abba (2011) towards finding a suitable instructional strategy for effective teaching in secondary schools. There still exist some reports of poor academic performance in public examinations results such as NECO and WAEC in Biology (Lakpini, 2007; Ogbenevwede, 2010; Adebayo, 2011 & WAEC, 2011). The poor performance were attributed to the use of inappropriate method of teaching; poor spelling of technical terms; shallow knowledge of the subject matter; and inability to differentiate between phenotypic and genotypic ratio in genetics among others. Also Omole (2011) was of the opinion that 75 per cent failure in mathematics and sciences is worrisome. There is the need to identify teaching methods that students can relate with share ideas and interact academically within themselves. The present study is designed to look at the effects of concept map instructional strategy on the academic achievement of senior secondary school students’ in genetics.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Impact of E-mapping strategies on academic performance of students in biology in senior secondary schools in Education Districts II, Lagos State.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that E-mapping strategies on academic performance of students, leads to decrease in the students’ interest to go into courses that are related to Genetics which includes Genetics Engineering, Medical Genetics amongst others.

Poor performances in genetics, will lead to decrease in the students’ interest to go into courses that are related to Genetics which includes Genetics Engineering, Medical Genetics amongst others. Osiagbo (1998) in her study discovered that inadequate teaching method makes a topic difficult for students’ to comprehend. Osuofor and Okigbo (2013) affirm that persistent use of traditional lecture method of teaching contributes to students’ poor performances in biology.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to investigate the Impact of E-mapping strategies on academic performance of students in biology in senior secondary schools in Education Districts II, Lagos State. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To determine the differences in the performance of learners introduced to lecture method and those introduced to E-mapping as showed by their pre and post cumulative test scores.
2. To Determine the effects of mapping teaching method on students’ academic results in biology based on gender as shown by their pre-test and post-test scores.
3. To develop instructional material based on E-mapping strategy; in the selected few units of science for students studying in Senior Secondary School.
4. To study the impact of E-mapping on students’ achievement in science.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Does the E-mapping teaching method negatively impact students’ academic results in biology based on gender as shown by their pre-test and post-test scores?
• Does instructional material based on concept E-mapping strategy increase student academic performance?
• Do Biology teachers give high priority in motivating their students than in other science subjects?
• Does the paucity of qualified and experienced Biology teachers affect the academic performance of students in Biology as a subject?
• What are the differences in the performance of learners introduced to lecture method and those introduced to E-mapping as showed by their pre and post cumulative test scores?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant differences in the effects of E-mapping teaching method on students’ academic results in biology based on gender as shown by their pre-test and post-test scores.
• H1: There is significant differences in the effects of E-mapping teaching method on students’ academic results in biology based on gender as shown by their pre-test and post-test scores.

Hypothesis Two

• H0: There is no significant difference between the achievement in science of students taught through the E-mapping strategy and the students taught through commonly used lecture cum discussion method
• H1: There is significant difference between the achievement in science of students taught through the E-mapping strategy and the students taught through commonly used lecture cum discussion method

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1.7 Significance of Study

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The study focuses on the Impact of E-mapping strategies on academic performance of students in biology in senior secondary schools in Education Districts II, Lagos State.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).