Composite Effect of Concept Mapping and ICT on Students’ Performance in Organic Chemistry

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Introduction
Organic chemistry as defined by American chemical society is the study of organic compounds (American Chemical Society, 2018). Many secondary school students consider organic chemistry as abstract in nature. This is because, it is perceived to be too theory-oriented and not connected to everyday life. To the contrary, most of the substances in our everyday life are organic compounds. In addition, it also prepares students for different types of careers in chemical industries and vocations at higher learning institutions. Therefore, endeavour should be made to improve the teaching of organic chemistry that provides a better conceptual base leading to enhanced students' performance.
Research shows that students have great difficulty in understanding organic chemistry (Birk & Kurtz, 1999;Childs & Sheehan, 2009;Gaddis, 2001;Gaulich, 2015;O'Dwyer & Childs, 2011;Taagepera & Noori, 2000;Wasacz, 2010). Some documented research reports suggest a number of factors to that effect. Gabel (1999) reports that, this course (organic chemistry) is also full of abstract concepts, resulting from the complex nature of the course. Johnstone (2006) explains that, a lot of the negativity and pessimism that surrounds organic chemistry as a topic is associated with bad experiences students have had with other topics in chemistry.
It is therefore important that, if organic chemistry has to be learnt meaningfully to bring about the much-desired improved performance, it must be presented in a "conceptually transparent" form (Novak & Musonda, 1991). In organic chemistry like in general chemistry, students face what has been termed three levels of representation: 1) the macroscopic, 2) the sub-microscopic, and 3) the symbolic level (Johnstone, 1991). The macroscopic level deals with substances that are visible and tangible while the sub-microscopic level relates to what is molecular and symbolic. On the other hand, symbolic refers to chemical symbols and equations that represent the molecules and atoms (Johnstone, 1991). The underlying chemical concepts can be represented on each level that generally results in students having difficulty transferring the concept from one level to the other (Gabel, 1998). In early organic chemistry education, it is essential to guarantee students' ability to transfer knowledge from the macroscopic level, including concepts from the students' everyday life experiences, to the sub-microscopic level, relating to the underlying concepts of matter like atoms, molecules and other particles (O'Dwyer, 2012). This implies that, for students to explain phenomena on macroscopic level they have to acquire knowledge on the sub-microscopic level. Concept maps can therefore, be one means to facilitate this transfer by either linking concepts on the macroscopic level with those on the sub-microscopic level or help students to link the underlying concepts on the sub-microscopic level only (O'Dwyer, 2012). This process is at all times viewed as constructivist in that the students construct knowledge by connecting the related concepts. However, the composite use of concept mapping and ICT may even better enable the transfer of concepts at a macroscopic level to the sub-microscopic level. The composite use of www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/wjer World Journal of Educational Research Vol. 5, No. 3, 2018 303 Published by SCHOLINK INC.
concept mapping and ICT was therefore in keeping with the goal of designing learning environments based on constructivist theories and meaningful learning.

Statement of the Problem
Performance of students in organic chemistry in senior secondary school certificate examinations in Zambia has not been up to the expectation as evidenced from the Examinations Council of Zambia Chief Examiners' Reports (2007Reports ( -2012 and the Examinations performance reports for Natural Sciences (ECZ, 2013;ECZ, 2014;ECZ, 2015ECZ, , 2016. Some other nations also experience poor performance in organic chemistry as well. A study carried out in Ireland revealed that the performance in organic chemistry was poor (O'Dwyer, 2012). In another study conducted by Mahajan and Singh (2005) on the performance of university students in organic chemistry in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region revealed that the problem of poor performance is not only in secondary schools but also in higher learning institutions. The study by Mahajan and Singh (2005) recommended active learning methods and use of concept maps as some of the factors that can improve performance in organic chemistry. Factors associated with quality education at international, regional and local levels have shown that existing limited teaching methods have not benefited the teaching and learning process (Kelly, 1999;Orr, 2004). In teaching and learning of organic chemistry concepts, teachers should take into account that students are from diverse backgrounds and that they learn in different ways.
For this reason, teaching must not be a linear process with a one-way knowledge provision but rather a combination of learner-centred learning and collaborative process between students and teachers.
Appropriately and rightly applying learner-centred approaches can significantly contribute towards changing and improving the current state of poor performance in national examinations (Mahajan & Singh, 2005). Furthermore, most Secondary Schools these days have ICT facilities and tools but teachers maybe hesitant to combine new techniques in their teaching methods in order to improve student performance. Thus, it is necessary to find thought-provoking ways that can lead towards more meaningful organic chemistry teaching and learning, and eventually improved student performance in the topic. With regard to the above factors, it merits to come up with new ideas to be infused in the teaching of the subject. Therefore, this study sought to assess the composite effect of concept mapping and ICT on students' performance in organic chemistry. Besides, there seems to be few similar studies conducted. This seems to expose a large void in terms of research available in this area. As such, this study sought to help fill this void by investigating the composite effect of concept mapping and ICT on secondary school students' performance in organic chemistry.

Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the study were to assess the composite effect of concept mapping and ICT on students' performance in organic chemistry and to find out if the composite use of concept mapping and ICT is more effective in improving students' performance compared to the use of concept mapping and conventional approach.

Research Hypothesis
There is a statistically significant difference in performance in organic chemistry between students taught by the composite use of concept mapping and ICT and those taught using concept mapping and the conventional approach.

Null Hypothesis
There is no statistically significant difference in performance in organic chemistry between students taught by the composite use of concept mapping and ICT and those taught using concept mapping and the conventional approach.

Significance of the Study
The findings of this research paper may be significant for teachers, students, curriculum designers and architects. The research findings may offer a sound basis for teachers regarding the composite use of concept mapping and ICT. It may encourage them to implement these processes in the teaching-learning process, which in turn may aid in enhancing students' understanding and performance in organic chemistry. The findings of this research paper may also help to improve students' performance in organic chemistry as their teachers implement the processes of integrating concept mapping and ICT. It may also aid and lead students to engage in meaningful learning in so doing enhancing their performance. It may as well facilitate and encourage students take responsibility for learning on their own and inculcate thinking and problem-solving attitude as demanded by the use of concept mapping and ICT processes.
To curriculum designers and architects, the findings of this paper will furnish them with information that may help them make a decision whether or not to include the combined use of concept mapping and ICT as a teaching method in the curriculum. This is likely to help in improving students' performance in organic chemistry and consequently chemistry as a subject.

Theoretical Framework
Constructivists' theories and meaningful learning form the basis of the use of concept mapping and ICT.
Constructivism is a theory that proposes that humans construct knowledge and meaning from their experiences (Novak & Gowin, 1984). The core of this approach is the assertion that cognition (learning) is the result of mental construction (Novak & Gowin, 1984). According to constructivist theorists, people learn best when they create their own knowledge and the learner instead of the teacher is the focus of attention. The theories prefer guided discovery to expository learning, genuine, rootedlearning situations unlike theorized artificial ones. The theory bases on Ausubel (1968) who stressed the importance of prior knowledge in being able to learn about new concepts. Ausubel, Novak, and Hanesian (1978) believed that the most important factor affecting learning is the learners' available knowledge. Novak (1990) also believed that, meaningful learning involves the assimilation of new concepts and propositions into existing cognitive structures. Material learnt meaningfully serves as an anchor for subsequent learning because of its longer retention (Novak & Gowin, 1984;Prosser, 1987).
As highlighted by Becta (2003) some assumptions of the constructivist learning are that learning is an active process and consists of meaning construction and learning is associated with connections the learner makes with others as they socialise. Since learning is contextual, a learner cannot learn facts or theories in isolation, abstraction and separate from the real world situation. Additionally, knowledge is important because new ideas are not comprehensible without some structure developed from prior knowledge to build upon. Bruner (1960) also believed that learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their prior knowledge. The assumptions of these theories are that learners are active agents purposefully looking for and contributing collaborative knowledge within a meaningful context.

Research Design
A pre-test post-test control quasi-experimental design was utilised in this study. According to Nworgu (2006), a quasi-experimental design is a design in which intact or pre-existing groups are used where the random assignment of subjects to experimental and control groups is impossible. This choice was because intact classes were used for the study. Therefore, the selection of whole classes to be the research subjects was purposive in order not to disrupt the running of the school programme. In other words, randomization of participants was avoided in order not to disturb the activities and administrative set up of the classes used. However, the subjects were randomly assigned to the control and experimental groups. This study was comprised of three groups, experimental group 1 that was taught using concept maps; experimental group 2 used ICT and concept maps and the control group used conventional teaching method (discussion).
Equivalency of the three groups in terms of performance was assessed using the organic chemistry performance pre-tests. According to Sherri (2009, p. 323), "a pre-test allows us to assess whether the groups are equivalent on the dependent measure before the treatment is given to the experimental group".
This was the structure of the quasi-experimental design utilised in the study.
In this design; O 1 -were the observations made during the administration of pre-tests to all the three groups (Organic Chemistry Performance Tests).
X 1 -was the treatment given to the experimental group 1, in this case, the use of concept mapping.
X 2 -was the treatment given to the experimental group 2, which was the use of concept mapping and ICT.
O 2 -were the observations made after the administration of the post-tests.

Participants
The sample was made up of one hundred and thirty-four grade 12 students from three intact classes studying the 5124 science syllabus and they were purposively selected. However, the participants were randomly assigned to the experimental and the control groups. The sample constituted students of different nationalities.

Materials
The researcher constructed an Organic Chemistry Performance test to collect data on performance. The performance test items consisted of explanatory questions related to the topic in the study. The questions required the students' personal expression of conceptual understanding. The same test items were used in the post-test to assess the performance of students in organic chemistry after the treatment but the test items were reorganised. In order to ensure the validity of the instrument two specialists in organic chemistry were involved in validation.

Procedure
At the beginning of the study, the experimental group 1 and experimental group 2 were taught how to construct a concept map from a topic which students were familiar with, the topic bonding was picked.
One introductory session was apportioned at the start of the week in order to introduce concept mapping to the students, an example of a concept map was then presented followed by a guided exercise. For that particular week, students in the experimental groups were given some time towards the end of each learning session to practice how to construct concept maps using a list of concepts provided by the researcher. The concept lists were related to the material learnt in the class, they consisted of chemistry concepts known to students in order to assist them to focus on learning the process of concept mapping.

Experimental Group I:
The instructional approach used to teach organic chemistry concepts in this group was concept mapping. During lessons, the method of instruction used was concept mapping together with the explanation. To teach organic chemistry concepts, concept maps were constructed on the chalkboard to show how the concepts in the lesson were related. In addition, the students were asked to construct concept maps in groups and as individuals, which were presented to the class and discussed. The concept maps constructed by the students were scored using a scoring rubric adapted from Novak and Gowin (1984). The maps scored included detailed feedback to aid students in improving their concept mapping skills. In all the lessons, the concept maps were used as assessment and evaluation tools.

Experimental Group II:
In this group, concept mapping and ICT was used as a method of instruction.
Initially, this group was taught using concept mapping as described earlier for experimental group 1. In addition, the group had discussions using the discussion forum using ICT twice a week after lessons.
During these discussions, each student had an opportunity to share questions or problems they had on the topic using cell phones online. The tentative answers would also be shared and discussed within the group and monitored by the teacher online. Finally, the teacher, if required would consolidate answers and contributions. This discussion exercise was carried out after each lesson of experimental group 2.
The discussion forum was one way of engaging students in learning and stimulating interaction as its use went further than the corners and walls of the classroom or the limitations of the class period.

Control Group:
The conventional method (discussion) was used in this group to teach concepts in organic chemistry to the students. The lesson content taught to all the groups was the same. At the end of the treatment administration, the students were post-tested using the same test items as in the pre-test but reshuffled.

Construction of Concept Maps
The procedure employed followed the five phases involved in the Concept mapping method defined by Novak and Gowin (1984). In phase, 1 brainstorming is involved. This stage involved coming up with concepts, items or explanatory words related to the topic at hand. The teacher at the beginning of instruction provided a list of keywords and concepts from a familiar topic to students.
Phase 2 had to do with organizing and identifying the most important word, concept, or challenge over which to construct the concept map such as saturated hydrocarbons, unsaturated hydrocarbons, alkanes, alkenes, fuels, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water. The concepts were then written on the blackboard so that all could read easily. The class was then required to form groups and sub-groups of associated items. Items were grouped to underscore the hierarchies.
Phase 3 was the layout. This phase involved coming up with a design that best represents the shared understanding of the links and associations among groupings. The adopted hierarchy had the most important concepts at the top.
Phase 4 was linking. Lines with arrows were used to join and display the relationship between linked items. A word or short expression by every arrow was written to state the association and finalize the Concept Map. Phase 5 was the revising and finalising stage, where the drafted concept maps were examined. At that stage, some corrections and rearrangements were done.

Analysis
The data was analysed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) statistics version 23. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine if there was a statistically significant difference between the three groups, in performance. The significance level (α-level) was set at 0.05.

Analysis of Performance Scores from Pre-Tests
The sample from which the analysed data was collected comprised one hundred and thirty-four (N = 134) grade twelve students from three intact classes. One class (experimental group 1) had 45 students; the second class (experimental group 2) had 43 students while the third class (control group) had 46 students. The pre-test results were analysed using descriptive statistics and one way ANOVA. Table 1 shows the pre-test results of descriptive analysis from the IBM SPSS for experimental group 1, experimental group 2 and the control group.

Homogeneity of Variances for the Performance in the Pre-Test
A Levene's test of homogeneity of variances was conducted to determine if the groups had equal variances in the pre-test scores. Table 2 shows the results of the analysis of homogeneity of variance for the pre-test.

Test of Homogeneity of Variances
Levene Statistic df1 df2 Sig.
.997 2 131 .372 Table 2 shows that at p > .05 there were no statistically significant differences in the variances between the groups in the pre-test, p = .372 satisfying the assumption of equal variances enabling the researcher to proceed with the statistical analysis chosen.

Normality Test for the Performance in the Pre-Test
Normality in the data set (scores from the pre-test) was assessed using the skewness (asymmetry in a distribution) and kurtosis (how flat or peaked the distribution is). Table 1 shows that the values for the skewness were within the range of + 2, and for the kurtosis values were within the range of + 7 (Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, & Tatham, 2010;Byrne, 2010). Figure 1 shows the distribution of the pre-test scores.

One-Way ANOVA for Performance in the Pre-Test
To determine if the means of the three groups were statistically significantly different before the treatment, one way ANOVA was applied. Table 3 shows the results of the analysis.  Table 3 reveals that there were no statistically significant differences at p > 0.05 between the three groups in the pre-test scores F (2,131) = 2.237, p = .111. This suggests that the students were equivalent in terms of their knowledge in organic chemistry before treatment. This entailed that the groups were suitable for the study.

Analysis of Performance Scores from Post-Tests
The post-test results were also analysed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA. Table 4 shows the results of descriptive analysis from the IBM SPSS for experimental group 1, experimental group 2 and the control group. As shown in Table 4 the mean scores for the post-test for experimental group 1 (N = 45) were .38 and Std. Deviation 11.645, for experimental group 2 (N = 43) the mean score was 61.02 and Std. Deviation 15.519 and 32.26 was the mean score for the control group (N = 46) and the Std. deviations was 13.088.
The standard deviation values show that most of the students' scores were close to the mean scores.

Homogeneity of Variances for the Performance in the Post-Test
A Levene's test of homogeneity of variances was conducted to determine if the groups had equal variances in the post-test scores. Table 5 shows the results of the analysis of homogeneity of variance for the post-test.   Table 5 reveals that at p > 0.05 there were no statistically significant differences in the variances between the groups in the post-test, p = .099. The results show that the groups had equal variances in the post-test scores.

Normality Test for the Performance in the Post-Test
Using the values for the skewness and kurtosis as presented in Table 4 the distribution of scores in the post-tests was considered normal. Figure 2 shows the distribution of the post-test scores for performance.

One-Way ANOVA for Performance in the Post-Test
The post-test scores were analysed using ANOVA. Table 6 shows the ANOVA results for the post-test scores. Note. Df = degrees of freedom. Table 6 indicates that there was a statistically significant difference in at least one of the mean scores at p < 0.05 in the three groups at F (2, 131) =54.910, p =.000. Nevertheless, this does not say which of the groups were statistically significantly different.

Post hoc Tests Analysis
Since there was a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of all the three groups, a post hoc test was performed to determine which of the groups were statistically significantly different.
According to Hayter (1986) and Seaman, Levin, and Serlin (1991) when the means of exactly three groups are to be compared the best post hoc analysis to conduct is the Fisher's LSD as it protects the family wise error rate very well with three groups. Additionally, Sherri (2009) explained that, when sample sizes are not equal the best post hoc procedure to use is the Fisher's LSD. Table 7 shows the results of the LSD post hoc analysis.

Effect Size
To find out the strength of the intervention, the effect size was calculated using Cohen's d for all the possible comparisons of the groups. Effect size is the strength of the difference between groups and indicates the influence of the independent variable (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2013). Cohen (1988) proposed the following guidelines (.2 = small, .5 = medium, .8 = large) and as expanded by Sawilowsky (2009)

Composite Effect of Concept Mapping and ICT on Students' Performance in Organic Chemistry
The study has shown that the composite use of concept mapping and ICT in teaching organic chemistry has a positive effect on senior secondary school students' performance. Particularly, the findings indicate that when concept mapping and ICT are utilised in organic chemistry lessons, secondary school students' comprehension of concepts is improved and in turn, students perform better. The findings are in line with the findings of Lou, Wen, and Tseng (2007) although they had used a different ICT technique.
Additionally, these results indicate that the use of concept mapping and ICT actually do have a huge effect on the performance of students in organic chemistry. Consequently, the study supported the research hypothesis and the researcher concluded that the teaching approach, which involved the composite use of concept mapping and ICT, had a positive effect on students' performance in organic chemistry.

Effectiveness of Combining Concept Mapping and ICT on Students' Performance
The composite use of concept mapping and ICT was effective in improving students' performance. This is evident from the statistically significant differences in the performance of the students in the experimental group 2 which was taught using a combination of concept mapping and ICT and the experimental group 1 which was taught using concept maps only as well as the control group which was taught using conventional methods. On top of that, effect sizes calculated were large for the experimental group taught using a combination of concept mapping and ICT verifying that the intervention was very effective in improving students' performance.

Conclusions
The purpose of this research was to determine the composite effect of concept mapping and ICT on students' performance in organic chemistry. In addition, the study sought to find out if the composite use of concept mapping and ICT was more effective in improving students' performance in organic chemistry as compared to the use of concept mapping and conventional approach. In view of the findings of this study, the conclusion is that, the composite use of concept mapping and ICT approach enhanced students' performance in organic chemistry significantly. Further, the findings reveal that the composite use of concept mapping and ICT is more effective in improving students' performance in organic chemistry as compared to the use of concept mapping and the conventional approach.
Therefore, the study concludes that the composite use of concept mapping and ICT can effectively improve the students' performance in organic chemistry. For that reason, this study concludes that it is relevant to adopt the composite use of concept mapping and ICT in teaching and learning processes.

Recommendations
Basing on the findings of this study, it is recommended that efforts should be made to provide an enabling learning environment that encourages and supports the combination of concept mapping and ICT in the teaching of organic chemistry. The secondary students should have access to cell phones as ICT tools to enable the formation of discussion groups that can help in teaching and learning. Access to the internet will make it easy for students to interact, off course with measures in place to prevent abuse.

Suggestions for Future Studies
1) Similar studies can be conducted but instead of using manually constructed concept maps, computer generated concept maps can be used with other forms of ICT.
2) This study concentrated on senior secondary school organic chemistry, other studies could also be carried out in other secondary schools and tertiary institutions on different subjects and courses.