Effectiveness of the use the concept map on students? achievement, retention of knowledge and attitude toward science

It has been observed in many studies performed since the last quarter of twentieth century about science education that students have been experiencing significant difficulties in physical science courses, especially in electricity subjects. Science educators, realizing that the most profound and negatively affecting factor on students is their misconceptions about the subjects, need to determine the most effective teaching methods and techniques to teach electricity subject units to students in order to freeing them from those misconceptions, and to help them construct meaningful and acquire long lasting memory with permanent knowledge gain on those subjects. One of the teaching techniques that help students is to relate between different informative data, to classify them according to those relations and therefore construct a well defined meaningful knowledge structure, as a result to perform meaningful learning.The purpose of this study is to show the effect of concept mapping technique on 7th class primary school students? permanent learning, on their attitude towards science courses subjects and on their success while being taught of ?Electricity in our life? units of science and technology courses.In this research, an experimental pattern with pretest-posttest-control groups was used. Several practices were performed in the frame of Science and Technology Teaching Program by applying the concept mapping technique to the test group and regular verbal narration technique to the control group.The sampling of this study is constructed from the 34, 7th class students of Sarıyar Primary School, in Nallıhan district of Ankara province. The study was performed in the second term of 2007?2008 academic year.Success test and Attitude towards scientific courses subjects scale for the experimental pattern with pretest-posttest-control group were applied two times as one being at the beginning and the other at the end of the practices. Permanency test was applied nearly 3 weeks of time period after the last test execution. Results were analyzed by using SPSS computer program.Statistically assessed results showed the positive effect of education by using concept mapping techniques for ?Electricity in our Life? subject units. It was concluded that the concept mapping techniques affected students? academic success and improve their permanent learning capacity and their attitudes towards scientific subjects positively.Keywords: Science education, concept maps, electricity, primary education, attitude.