The effect of the use of concept maps on community college students' conceptual understanding of biology course content

Purpose of the study. The major purpose of this study was to measure the change, if any, in students' conceptual understanding of biology course content using concept maps (experimental) or a standard lecture format (control). In addition, the effectiveness of the use of concept maps as advance organizers was measured according to the various subgroups of cognitive development level, age, ethnicity, gender, class time, and educational background. A final concern was the relationships between conceptual understanding of biology course content and the students' cognitive development level.;Procedure. A quasi-experimental design was used to conduct the study during a sixteen-week semester. The study was conducted during the fall, 1997, semester at a community college using 190 students enrolled in General Biology 1406. Major data were collected using a pretest, posttest, and the Test of Logical Thinking. Data were treated through the application of analysis of covariance, Pearson product-moment correlation, and the Fisher Z-transformation technique.;Findings. The findings of this investigation were as follows: (1) Concept maps used as advance organizers had a significant effect on student conceptual understanding of biology course content. (2) The use of concept maps as advance organizers had a significant effect on student conceptual understanding of biology when students are classified according to their cognitive developmental level, age, gender, major, course time, and educational background. (3) A significant relationship between cognitive developmental level and conceptual understanding was also found.;Conclusions. The use of concept maps, as advance Organizers, is an effective method for improving student learning in general biology classes. A positive relationship exists between students' cognitive developmental level and conceptual understanding.