Effects of concept mapping strategy on learning performance in business and economics statistics

Abstract

A concept map (CM) is a hierarchically arranged, graphic representation of the relationships among concepts. Concept mapping (CMING) is the process of constructing a CM. This paper examines whether a CMING strategy can be useful in helping students to improve their learning performance in a business and economics statistics course. A single factor, between subjects experimental design with three participant groups (collaborative concept mapping (CCMING) versus individual concept mapping (ICMING) versus traditional textbook exercises (TTE)) was employed. The experimental results suggest that adopting a CMING strategy can significantly improve student learning achievement in statistics, compared to using TTE, and adopting a CCMING improves student achievement even more than using ICMING. Furthermore, most of the students were satisfied with using CMING to learn statistics.

Keywords:

• concept maps
• collaborative concept mapping
• individual concept mapping
• business and economics statistics

Acknowledgements

This research has been funded under grant number NSC 92-2413-H-018-010 by the National Science Council, R.O.C. The author also appreciates the reviewers’ detailed, concrete, and insightful comments.