Nurturing Secondary Schools Students’ Academic Interest in Biology using Mind Mapping Instructional Strategy

The study investigated the effect of mind mapping instructional strategy (MMIS) on secondary school students’ academic interest in biology in Awka Education Zone. Two research questions and three null hypotheses tested at 0.05 alpha levels guided the study. The study is quasi-experimental, adopting the non-randomized control group research design. A sample size of 124 (58 males and 66 females) Senior Secondary year one (SS1) students, drawn from the 3,411 SS1 students in Awka Education Zone, Anambra State, Nigeria, using multi stage sampling procedure were the research participants. The sampled students who were in four intact classes were randomly assigned to experimental (33 boys and 40 girls) and control groups (25 boys and 26 girls) using a flip of a coin. A 30-item Biology students’ interest scale (BSIS), with four response options, adapted from Knekta, Rowland, Corwin, and Eddy’s (2020), was used for data collection. BSIS was validated by three experts and with reliability index of 0.74 established using Cronbach alpha. Data collected, from the administered scales, were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. The findings of the study revealed that MMIS is more effective in fostering students’ interest in biology than CLM, irrespective of gender. Also, no interaction effect of teaching methods and gender on students’ interest was found. The study therefore concluded that MMIS is a gender friendly approach that fosters students’ interest in biology as it uses lines, symbols, keywords, colour and images that appeals to a student’s present knowledge. Based on the findings, recommendations were made among which include that MMIS should be adopted by biology teachers in schools to foster students’ interest in biology.