CONCEPT MAPPING AS A TEACHING STRATEGY: BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES IN HIGHER INSTITUTION

The study is a descriptive survey research designed to investigate concept mapping in education: benefits and challenges in higher institutions. The area of the study is the Federal college of education (Technical), Omoku. The population of the study comprises all teaching practice students in the Faculty of Science. A sample of 100 students was involved in the study. Purposive and stratified sampling technique was applied in the selection process. The Instrument used for the study to collect data from respondents is a structured questionnaire titled concept mapping in education: benefits and challenges in the higher institution (CMEBCHI) with 30-item questions. The reliability co-efficient of 0.72 was gotten. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to answer the research questions while the Z test was used to answer the hypotheses. The study found that concept maps can be used to increase learning by relating new and old knowledge and concept mapping helps students to make meaningful connections between the main idea and other information. Based on the conclusion, the researcher recommended that Teachers should use concept mapping as a useful cognitive tool for enhancing students’ critical thinking by encouraging students to process information deeply for understanding