ABSTRACT

This study examined the effects of vee and concept mappings on students’ interest and achievement in Chemistry in Akwa Ibom State. The study was guided by six specific objectives. Six research questions were developed and answered and six null hypotheses formulated and tested for the study. The design of the study was a pre-test -post-test Quasi-experimental research design that involves two experimental groups and one control group. The study was carried out in Akwa Ibom State. The population of the study was all the 3825 SSII chemistry students from the 242 state owned secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State in 2019/2020 session.  A sample size of One hundred and ninety (190) SS11 chemistry students were drawn from three secondary schools used as the sample size for the study. The three secondary schools were drawn out from 242 secondary schools that made up the population of study using purposive sampling technique. The two instruments used for this study is Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) which was adapted from WAEC past questions. The CAT contains 50 multiple choice test items, each containing options A-D, from which the students chose the correct answer and Chemistry Interest Scale (CIS) was developed by the researcher which consists of section A and B. Section A seeks demographic information of the respondents while Section B sought information on students’ interest in Chemistry. Face validation of the instruments was established by three experts, one expert in Chemistry Education, and two experts in Measurement and Evaluation, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. The reliability of the instrument for the study was determined by subjecting the validated instrument to split-half method in which the test was administered to SSII students on 50 senior secondary one SS1 students that were not part of the sample. The data collected was analysed using Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient which yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.72. The researcher and chemistry teachers research assistants administered the pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test to the students. The data collected through the administration of the instruments were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer research questions and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at .05 level of significance.  The results revealed that students taught using the vee and concepts mapping instructional strategies performed extremely better than students taught with lecture method, that there was a significant difference between mean achievement scores of students taught chemistry using vee mapping, concept mapping and lecture method. That students taught Chemistry using vee and concept mapping teaching strategy in experimental groups had more interest in Chemistry than the students taught Chemistry using lecture method, that there was a significant difference between mean interest scores of students taught Chemistry using vee mapping, concept mapping and lecture method. Based on the findings, it was thus, recommended among others that vee mapping teaching strategy should be used more with concept mapping in teaching Chemistry lessons in the classroom.