ABSTRACT

The study investigated the effects of Mind Maps Instructional Strategy on Students’ Achievement and Interest on Measures of Central Tendency. Six research questions and six null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted quasi-experimental design, specifically, the non-equivalent pre-test, post-test control group design. The population of the study comprised two thousand nine hundred and seventy-four (2,974)  Junior Secondary One (JS1) Students in  the (36) Secondary Schools in Umuahia Education Zone. Two hundred and fifteen (215) students drawn from three schools in the  Zone form the sample of the study of which ninety-nine were male students and one hundred and sixteen were female students. The study adopted multi-stage sampling procedure; firstly, purposive sampling technique was employed to sample co-educational schools and simple random sampling technique was adopted in selecting three (3) schools from the zone, from the three sampled schools, simple random sampling technique (toss of coin) was used in selecting intact classes of Junior Secondary one (JS1) Students of 2018/2019 academic session for experimental and control groups. Two validated instruments namely, Mathematics Achievement Test on Measures of Central Tendency (MATMCT) and Mathematics Interest Scale on Measures of Central Tendency (MISMCT) were developed by the researcher and used for the study. The reliability of both instruments was established before commencement of treatment. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to answer research questions while, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was adopted in testing hypotheses at p<.05 level of significance. The analyses of the findings revealed that mind map instructional strategy has statistically effect on students’ interest and achievement in measures of central tendency; it also revealed that gender had no statistically significant effect on students’ interest and achievement and the interaction of teaching method and gender on students’ interest and achievement in measures of central tendency is statistically significant. The study revealed that the use of mind maps teaching strategy enhanced the interest and achievement of students and also mind map teaching strategy boost the interest and achievement of both male and female students. The researcher made some recommendations which include that teachers should adopt Mind Maps teaching strategy in our school system; schools should make provisions for in-service training of their teachers and authors of mathematics textbooks should write their text to be student centered and activity-based.