EVALUATION OF CHEMISTRY TEACHERS’ USE OF CONCEPT MAPPING STRATEGY IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN PLATEAU STATE – NIGERIA.

The study was carried out with the objective of evaluating the acceptance of concept mapping as instructional strategy by secondary schools chemistry teachers in Plateau state – Nigeria. It sought to find out the frequency of its usage, the difficulty they experienced and the factors for such difficulties. The study was a survey research and utilized questionnaire for the collection of data. A sample of one hundred and twenty chemistry teachers was selected from the three senatorial zones using stratified random sampling and administered the questionnaire. The responses were analyzed using percentage. The study revealed that even though concept mapping metacognitive instructional strategy was effective in teaching chemistry, the strategy was not popular amongst the chemistry teachers; hence it was not in frequent use. The study also revealed that most chemistry teachers found it difficult to use concept mapping strategy. Some factors were found to be responsible for the negligence of the strategy among which are: ignorance of teachers about the strategy, lack of exposure to concept mapping strategy, difficulty to interpret relationship on concept maps and difficulty of constructing concept maps. The study recommended that efforts be made by the state ministry of education to organize seminars, workshops and conferences to enable chemistry teaches acquire the skills and competences needed for using concept mapping strategy. It also recommended among others that the curriculum content for prospective chemistry teachers in colleges and universities should include the development (or construction) of concept maps.