An analysis of concept mapping as an instructional technique for teaching advanced technology concepts to at-risk junior high school students

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of concept mapping as an instructional technique for teaching advanced technology concepts to at-risk junior high school students. The students were from three Northern Illinois school districts, 174 students from three junior high schools. The study sought to assess the effects on achievement of students who used concept mapping as part of a carefully designed sequence of instructions. Method and Procedure: Eight intact junior high school technology classes, taught by three instructors, took part in this study. Of the 174 seventh and eighth grade students participating in this study, 87 students were in the treatment groups, and 87 students were in the control groups. The intact groups were formed from two schools with three classes and one school with two classes. Within each school, classes were randomly assigned to be the treatment groups or control groups. The criteria for student selection for the at-risk group were based on (a) students' attendance, (b) students' behavior, (c) personal history, (d) counselor's input, and (e) parent conferences. The at-risk students were identified by a code only known by classroom teachers. The quasiexperimental design used for this study was the pretest-posttest design. A two-way ANCOVA using the pretest scores as a covariate analyzed the posttest scores to determine what effect, if any, distinguished between the instructional methods. Results: There was one main finding of this study. The benefits of using concept mapping appeared for the at-risk students than for the not at-risk students. Conclusion: For this junior high school at-risk population, concept mapping during and after instruction led to greater achievement as measured by posttest.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Department dc:contributor.department

Education

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1992

Author dc:creator

• Gilchrist, Kelvin

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Pinder, Charles A.
• Bame, E. Allen

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Asche, F. Marion
• Burton, John K.
• Deisenroth, Michael P.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-02262007-100004

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/37426