An Empirical Study Of Mind Mapping In Biology Teaching In Rural Junior High School

With the continuous progress of curriculum reform,the “Compulsory Education Biology Curriculum Standards(2011 Edition)” requires students to have a keen interest in biology and a deeper understanding of biological knowledge,and to learn how to construct knowledge by learning.At the same time,students should not only try their best to improve the ability of analyzing and solving problems in the process of learning,but also cultivate their scientific thinking ability,innovation ability,and their life-long learning ability.Therefore,it is necessary to increase the emphasis of teachers and students on the biology subject,especially in rural schools.In order to change the students' understanding of biology subject quickly,teachers are required to explore a new teaching method to help students build the knowledge system for promoting understanding and improving scores,instead of the traditional teaching methods.As an effective divergent thinking tool,the mind map can be used as a good teaching tool for integrating knowledge and building a knowledge network.Moreover,the use of mind maps can not only improve the students' thinking level but also guide them how to learn,how to innovate and how to think substantially.In recent years,mind maps have been used by more and more Chinese educators in their teaching practice which is fully consistent with the concept of new curriculum reform.According to the actual situation of our school,this article introduced the relevant theoretical knowledge of the mind map which includes the concept,characteristics,drawing steps and theoretical basis and combed the domestic and foreign research situation to find the entry point.By investigating the current state of biological learning in rural students in the county,it was found that many students are not very interested in biology courses,and depend on mechanical memorizing.In order to solve the students' problems in the biological learningprocess,the students of Grade 7 in Niuchuan Middle School were selected as the research objects.The mind maps was used in practical teaching research of junior high school students,to explore the effect on students' interest,scores and creative thinking ability in biological learning.Research indicates that:First,students' interest in biology learning had significantly increased in the experimental class.There was a significant difference in the analysis of the results of the pretest and posttest in the experimental class(P=0.000<0.01),and there was also a significant difference between the experimental class and the control class in the posttest results(P=0.000<0.01).Second,students' creative thinking ability improved in the experimental class from their average,and there was no significant difference in the analysis of the pretest and posttest results in the experimental class(P=0.129>0.05).There was also no significant difference between the experimental class and the control class in the posttest results(P=0.064>0.05).Third,students' biological learning performance was significantly improved in the experimental class,and there was a significant difference in the analysis of the pretest and posttest results in the experimental class(P=0.000<0.01).There was a significant difference between the experimental class and the control class in the posttest results(P=0.029<0.05).In summary,the application of mind maps in junior high school biology teaching can help students improve their academic performance and their interest in biology learning,as well as their innovative thinking skills.It is an effective learning tool suitable for rural junior high school students.