The Effect Of Concept Mapping Strategy Instruction On Science Learning Of Middle School Students

Strategy instruction is the key content of learning strategy training.This study explored the effectiveness of concept mapping strategy instruction for middle school students.In study 1,the middle school students' strategy use were surveyed,and we demonstrated that(a)middle school students' strategy use was in the middle level;(b)middle school students didn't spontaneously master the use of learning strategies;(c)the use of learning strategies affected the academic performance of the science subject,and students with high level of strategy use scored more highly than those with low level of strategy use.In Study 2,a 4 x 2 quasi-experimental design with the independent variables of strategy instruction condition(concep-map drawing,concept-map reading,scaffolding concept mapping,and control group)and prior knowledge(high versus low background knowledge)was adopted.An post-test and a questionnaire were gived to assess the effectiveness of different concept mapping strategy instruction on learning of the science subject.The results indicated that(a)the strategy instruction of concept mapping within the context of classroom teaching improved the academic achivement of the science subject;(b)Compared with the concept-map drawing group and the concept-map reading group,the scaffolding concept mapping group scored the highest;(c)students with high and low prior knowledge both benefited from concept mapping instruction,and there was no interaction between strategy instruction and prior knowledge.In this study,we tried to carry out the concept map strategy instruction experiment within the context of classroom teaching.This study supports the subject strategy instruction for middle school students,and enriches the research fruit of concept mapping strategy instruction.