1. 54 RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
International Indexed & Refereed Research Journal, ISSN 0975-3486, (Print) E-ISSN-2320-5482, July,2013 VOL-IV *ISSUE- 46
Introduction:
A concept map is a diagram showing the re-
lationships among concepts. It is a graphical tool for
organizing and representing knowledge. Concepts,
usually represented as boxes or circles, are connected
with labeled arrows in a downward-branching hierar-
chical structure. The technique for visualizing these
relationships among different concepts is called con-
cept mapping.
DefinitionsofConceptMapping:
Theconceptmapscanbe refined byresearch-
ers rethinking and redrawing processes as more
knowledge is accumulated from a search as defined
following:
According to Asan (2007)Concept mapping
is a method to visualize the structure of knowledge.
Since the knowledge expressed in the maps is mostly
semantic,conceptmapsaresometimescalledsemantic
networks. According to Nelson(2007)Concept Map-
ping is a nonlinear, graphic representation of unstable
domains, depicting major concept nodesand the inter-
relationships of those nodes. It is a learning strategy
identified as having a significant impact on retention
and retrieval of information, with continued process-
ing of data over time.
Thus we can conclude that concept mapping is basi-
cally graphical tools for organizing and representing
knowledge and showing relationships among con-
cepts. It is the inclusion of cross-links. These are rela-
tionships between concepts in different segments of
the concept map. Concepts, usually represented as
boxes or circles, are connected with labeled arrows in
adownward-branchinghierarchical structure.Itworks
like a brain; you can store a lot of different ideas and
then connect a relation between them. You can easily
Research Paper—Education
July ,2013
ImpactofTeachingthroughConceptmappingon
AchievementinSocialStudies'Components
*ManojKumar**Dr.Mohd.Rizwaan
This study investigated the impact of teaching through concept mapping in social studies' components.The sample selected
for the study consists of 40 students from class- VIII, of Govt. Senior Secondary schools, Uplana, Karnal.The experimental
method is selected in which the one-Group Pre-test Post-test design was used. The students were taught using concept
mapping teaching technique. The results show that students taught through concept mapping have higher achievement.
In nutshell, concept mapping enhances meaningful and active learning and it also provides wider scope to curriculum
developer and social studies.
A B S T R A C T
Key Words: Concept Mapping, Achievement, Social Studies.
*ResearchScholar(Ph.D)DakshinBharatHindiPracharSabha,Madras.
**Principal,BudhaCollegeofEducation,Ramba,Karnal.
switchoverfromoneideato anotherin caseofconcept
mapping.It also effective in identifying both valid and
invalid ideas held by students as well as teachers.
ConceptmappingandSocialStudies:
Conceptmappingtechniqueislearner-centred
and activities oriented. It actively engages learners in
meaningfulactivitiesprovided.Itistechniquethataids
inschematicorganizationandrepresentationofknowl-
edge. The technique provides an active, creative, vi-
sual and spatial learning activity in their hierarchical
relationship. It provides the opportunity to organise,
analyse, evaluate, summarize and own ideas.
Concept mapping technique can be used to
improve students' learning achievements and interests
in social studies. It is a better technique that signifi-
cantly improved students learning achievement com-
pared to a traditional expository teaching approach. It
can be very useful at every level of teaching-learning
and a well constructed CM reflects student's knowl-
edge and facilitates their sense-making and improves
theirmeaningful learning.It improvesstudent's higher
orderthinkingskillsinsocialstudies.Student'sachieve-
mentsbetterintermsofsubjectmattercontentmastery
when taught with psychological strategies using con-
cept mapping.
Thisclearlyisamanifestationofthepotential
of concept mapping to enhance meaningful learning
and improved achievementinsocialstudies.It isfound
by many researchers significantly beneficial to pro-
mote learning achievements as well as the learning
attitudes of the students.Concept mapping gives also
real-time feedback to the students as well as the teach-
ers. Therefore, Concept Mapping can more effective
than traditional instruction in improving students'
achievements in Social Studies.

2. 55RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
International Indexed & Refereed Research Journal, ISSN 0975-3486, (Print) E-ISSN-2320-5482, July,2013 VOL-IV *ISSUE- 46
Objectives ofTheStudy:
The objectives of the present study are as following:
1. To find the effect of concept mapping on the aca
demic achievement in social studies' components
among elementary school students belonging to
educated parents.
2. To study the effect of concept mapping on the
academic achievement in social studies' compo
nents among elementary school students belong
ing to uneducated parents.
HypothesesoftheStudy:Thehypothesesofthestudy
areasfollowing:
1. Thereexistsasignificanteffectofconceptmapping
on the achievement in social studies' components
among elementary school students belonging to
educated parents.
2. Thereexistsasignificanteffectofconceptmapping
on the achievement in social studies' components
among elementary school students belonging to
uneducated parents.
ResearchMethodology:
The experimental method is selected for the
study in which the one-Group Pre-test Post-test de-
sign wasused forthe study.Thesample selected for the
study consists of 40 students from Govt. Senior Sec-
ondary schools, Uplana, Karnal from class- VIII. The
class has been selected through the simple randomiza-
tions of clusters from Karnal district.
ToolsUsed:
Keeping in mind these criteria like validity,
reliability,practicabilityetc.theresearcherdecided the
following tools used to collect data.
1. Socio-EconomicStatusScale (SESS-US)bySunil
Kumar Upadhyay and Alka Saxena.
2. Concept Maps on different topics in Social Studies
for Class VIII prepared by the investigator.
3. AchievementTeston selected topics ofSocial Stud
iesdevelopedbytheinvestigator(Pre-testandPost-
test).
DesignofExperimentalstudy:
TheExperimentaldesigncanbediagrammed
as below:
ing the answerof each tests (Pre-test and Post-test),
one mark was awarded for each correct response and
zero mark was awarded for each wrong response. The
achievementtestcontainedonlyMultipleChoiceQues-
tions. The answer keys were prepared separately.
StatisticalTechniquesUsed:
It has been used descriptive statistics such as
Mean and Standard Deviation. The t-ratio was used to
find out the difference between mean scores ofpre-test
and post-tests.
Analysisandinterpretationofdata:
Itisrevealedfromthetableno.1thatthet-ratio
came from this area is3.18, whichis significant at 0.01
level of significance. Thus the formulated hypothesis
(H1-1)states'thereexistsasignificanteffectofconcept
mapping on the achievement in 'History' a component
of social studies among elementary school students
belonging to educated parents', is accepted.
See Table 1
Again the table no. 1 reveals that the t-ratio came from
socialstudies'component'Geography'is7.94,whichis
significantat0.01levelofsignificance.Thustheformu-
lated hypothesis(H1-1)states'thereexistsasignificant
effect of concept mapping on the achievement in 'Ge-
ography'a componentofsocialstudies amongelemen-
tary school students belonging to educated parents',
is accepted. See Table 2
It is revealed from the table no. 2 that the t- ratio 3.52
came out which is significant at 0.01 level of signifi-
cance. It implies that there is significant effect of con-
cept mapping on the achievement in social studies'
component 'History' among elementary school stu-
dents belonging to uneducated parents.Thus the hy-
pothesis (H1-2) states 'there exists a significant effect
of concept mapping on the achievement in 'History' a
component of social studies among elementary school
students belonging to uneducated parents', is ac-
cepted. Again table no. 2 shows that the t-ratio came
out from Geography is 3.23 came out which is also
significant at 0.01 level of significance. This means
there is significant effect of concept mapping on the
achievement in social studies' component'Geography'
among elementary school students belonging to un-
educated parents. Thus the hypothesis (H1-2) states
Theone-GroupPre-testPost-testDesign
Pre-test Treatment Post-test
O1
X O2
Here: O1
and O2
Stands for Pre-test and Post-test re-
spectively.
X for experimental treatment
Treatment:
1st
Day and 2nd
Day Introductory session by researcher and
supervisor
3rd
Day Lecture was delivered on effective
communication Skill
4th
Day Pre-test administered
5th
Day to
49th
Day Treatment was given (Teaching
through Concept Mapping)
50th
Day Post-test administered
51st
Day Thanking Party/Tea Party was given
to School Teaching Staff and Students
DataCollectionandScoring:
Attheendofthetreatmentperiod,theachieve-
ment test administered and data was collected. The
scoringkeywerepreparedbytheinvestigatorformark-

3. 56 RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
International Indexed & Refereed Research Journal, ISSN 0975-3486, (Print) E-ISSN-2320-5482, July,2013 VOL-IV *ISSUE- 46
'there exists a significant effect of concept mapping on
the achievement in 'Geography' a component of social
studies among elementary school students belonging
to uneducated parents', is accepted.
FindingsAndConclusions:
Themainfindingsofthestudyarefollowing:
• Thereexistsa significanteffect ofconcept mapping
ontheachievementin'History'acomponentofsocial
studies among elementary school students belong
ing to educated parents.
• The results show significant effect of teaching
through concept mapping on the achievement in
'Geography' a component of social studies among
the elementary school students belonging to edu
cated parents.
• Teaching through concept mapping has significant
effect on the achievement in 'History' a component
of social studies among elementary school students
having uneducated parents.
• Thereexistsa significanteffect ofconcept mapping
on the achievement in 'Geography' a component of
social studies among elementary school students
belonging to uneducated parents.
Discussionand conclusion:
Thus the results of the present study show
thatthereisasignificantdifferenceinacademicachieve-
ment in social studies among elementary school stu-
dents taught using concept mapping teaching tech-
nique. Further researches suggest that a well designed
concept map integrated learning system demonstrates
very promising potential for enhancing both the gifted
and average students (belonging to educated and un-
educated parents). The system developed in this study
could be a useful resource for elementary school out-
door learning design. It is found that the innovative
approach can be significantly beneficial to promote
learning achievements as well as the learning attitudes
of students. This study has yielded similar results in
favorofconceptmapping(Stephanieetal,2012,Hung
etal,2012,WuPo-Hanetal,2012,BouJaoude,Saouma&
Attieh, 2008).Therefore, Concept mapping meets the
assumed assumptions as an effective teaching tech-
nique.
EducationalImplication:
The present study demands effective educa-
tional planning for this area in order to frame the cur-
riculum, how to teach, how to present the concept in
the class using concept mapping, to deliver the con-
tent matter in small units to the students so that they
canoutputinmaximum.Itcansignificantlyuseforfac-
ulty working independently or collaboratively, can re-
designcoursesyllabioranentirecurriculum.Thehier-
archical organization of concept mapping suggests
more optimalsequencing ofinstructional material and
helps students to make the instruction more "concep-
tually transparent".
Table-1: Significant difference among pre-tests and post-tests on 'History' and 'Geography' of social studies achievement among
elementary school students belonging to educated parents
Social Studies Tests N M SD t-ratio Level of significance
Components
History Pre-test 20 4.35 0.48 3.18 0.01
Post-test 20 5.05 0.94
Geography Pre-test 20 4.8 0.52 7.94 0.01
Post-test 20 6.15 0.74
Table-2: Significant difference among pre-tests and post-tests on 'History' and 'Geography' of social studies achievement among
elementary school students belonging to Uneducated Parents
Social Studies' Tests N M SD t-ratio Level of significance
Components
History Pre-test 20 3.35 0.58 3.52 0.01
Post-test 20 3.95 0.68
Geography Pre-test 20 3.6 0.50 3.23 0.01
Post-test 20 4.15 0.67
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