Effects of Animation and Concept Map Visualization elements on Achievement, Retention and Interest in Geography among Secondary School Students in Wuse, Abuja.

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of animation and concept map visualization elements on achievement, retention, and interest in geography among Secondary School Students in Wuse, Abuja, Nigeria. It also examined the influence of gender on students’ achievement, retention, and interest. The research used a pre‐test post‐test experimental and control group design. 120 secondary school students were drawn from three secondary schools within the Abuja metropolis. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 120 students (53 males and 67 females). Nine research questions and hypotheses guided the study;Weather Interest Questionnaire and Weather Achievement Test (WAT) were used as instruments for data collection while animation and concept map visualization was used as the treatment instruments. The treatment instruments, questionnaire, and achievement test were validated by educational technology experts and Geography Education experts respectively. Pilot tests were carried out and a Reliability coefficient of 0.87 was obtained using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) for WAT and 0.75 was obtained using Cronbach alpha for the questionnaire. WAT was administered to students as pre‐test and post‐test. The students’ pre-testand post‐test scores and the questionnaire were analyzed using ANCOVA (F = 8.839, p = 0.004) and t‐test statistics (t (52) = 0.179, p = 0.947) respectively. The results indicated that the students taught weather using animation and concept map visualization performed significantly better in the post-testand retention test than their counterparts taught weather using the lecture method respectively. However, there was no significant difference reported in the post‐test achievement scores of male and female students taught weather using animation and concept map visualization respectively (t= 1.916, p = 0.059). These findings indicated that weather concepts in geography could be taught and learned meaningfully through the use of animation and concept map visualization. Based onthese findings, it was recommended among others that Government and school administrators should make provision of infrastructure that support the learners through the use of technology, this will encourage and enable learners to communicate with each other and give them the opportunity to share and access different teaching materials that can aid their learning