Impact of Content Supplementary Concept Maps of Science on Self-Efficacy

Abstract

Understanding and improving students’ confidence in their ability to learn science is essential for enhancing their academic performance. Literature supports that concept maping improves learning in a variety of areas, including chemistry, physics, and general science, which eventually raises students' academic achievement. Students can better organize difficult concepts, see how scientific concepts relate to one another, and create meaningful connections that deepen their conceptual understanding, which ultimately may affect their psychological domain. Self-efficacy and academic achievements are strongly related because students who can clearly perceive how concepts relate to one another tend to feel more confident about their capacity to learn, remember, and apply scientific concepts. Students' self-efficacy in their own academic ability rises when they succeed using structured visual aids like concept maps, which boosts their confidence and motivation in science learning. The research aimed to investigate how content supplementary concept maps affect academic self-efficacy in General Science of seventh-grade students. For this study content was delimited to concepts related to chemistry in General Science textbook. The population for this study included 307 seventh-grade female students from two elementary schools in Sargodha City. The sample comprised 143 students from public sector institutions. A quasi-experimental design with pretest and posttest control group was employed for this research. The control group received traditional textbook instructions and concept maps attached at the end of selected content whereas the experimental groups received detailed instruction on concept maps, including their purpose and process, with concept maps attached at the end of the selected content. A self-efficacy scale was utilized for both the pre-test and post-test quantification of self-efficacy. Major findings of the study was Concept maps with understanding of its purpose and process improves student’s self-efficacy along with its component constructs i.e generalized academic self-efficacy and subject specific self-efficacy. On the basis of this study, it is recommended that curriculum designers may use this strategy in content presentation and ultimately into teaching methods in order to successfully accomplish learning goals related to enhance student’s self-efficacy, fostering their motivation and confidence in learning general science.