The effects of using concept maps on the success of high school ninth class students learning subject of cell in biology class

Ill ABSTRACT In biology teaching, the subject of cell is one of the hardest subjects that students have difficulty. The necessity of teaching that in the first class of high school and its forming a basis for the subjects of the following tenth and eleventh classes have caused to do some researches to prevent the wrongly learnt concepts. To prevent these, it is a must to get rid of the old traditional methods by replacing them with the new and modern ones. One of these is: "The Concept Mapping". In this study the effect of Concept Maps in ninth class students' understanding process of the subject of cell and their success in biology lesson are investigated by comparing with the traditional method. The fieldwork of this study was made in the spring term of 2003-2004 academic year. The sample of this study was constituted by the 72 ninth class students taught by the same biology teacher at Coşkun Onder High School. In the fieldwork, while the subject of the cell is applied to control group by the way of traditional method of instruction, the same subject is also applied to experiment group by the concept maps. In this fieldwork, the pattern of pretest and posttest were applied to the control group. Then the data of this fieldwork was gathered by using the two way scales: the test for capacity of logical thinking as a pre-test, and the test for success in the learning of the subject of cell as both pre-test and post-test. In addition to these, independent samples t-test and paired samples t- test were used to test the hypotheses of this study. The data that gathered from the fieldwork is also analyzed by the using SPSS (Statistical Packet for the Social Science). Consequently, the outcomes of statistically tested data are these:IV 1. The students who constitute the experiment group and are instructed by the concept maps are more succesful than those who constitute the control group and instructed by the way of the traditional method at learning of the subject of cell. 2. It is seen that the success of the experiment group students instructed by the concept maps has remarkably increased. 3. The success of the control group students instructed by the traditional method has also increased. Key words: The Education of Biology, Biology Teaching, Concept, Concept Mapping, Cell The Supervisor of The Thesis Prof. Dr. Mustafa YF.I.