Effects of Spider Concept Mapping Strategy on Performance and Attitude in Ecology Concept among secondary school students in Katsina State, Nigeria

Effective teaching strategies, such as concept mapping, play a crucial role in boosting academic performance and students’ attitudes in biology. While concept mapping is known to aid understanding of complex topics such as ecology, little research has examined the specific impact of the spider concept mapping strategy in Nigerian secondary schools, particularly in Katsina State. This study examined the effect of the Spider Concept Mapping Strategy on students’ performance and attitude toward ecology concepts among secondary school students in Katsina State, Nigeria. Four null hypotheses were formulated and tested at the 0.05 level of significance. The research adopted a pretest, posttest, quasi-experimental design with a control group. A total of 135 Senior Secondary School II (SSS II) biology students, randomly selected from two schools within the Katsina Zonal Education Quality Assurance, participated in the study. Data were collected using the Ecology Performance Test (reliability coefficient = 0.84) and the Ecology Attitude Scale (reliability coefficient = 0.82). The data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Findings revealed a significant main effect of treatment on students’ performance in biology [F (1,129) = 4.300; p < 0.05], indicating that the spider concept mapping strategy effectively enhanced students’ achievement. However, no significant main effect of treatment was found on students’ attitude toward ecology [F (1,129) = 1.918; p > 0.05]. Similarly, gender had no significant main effect on students’ performance in ecology [F (1,129) = 0.945; p > 0.05], suggesting that male and female students performed comparably.