The Effect of Use of Concept Maps on Problem Solving Performance and Attitude in Mechanical Engineering Course

AbstractThe aim of this study is to investigate the effect of concept mapping strategy on the performance of the students in problem solving. The study was done on a sample of 84 third year undergraduate mechanical engineering students. The subject of the study was Internal combustion engines at a college of engineering of the University of Mumbai. The study used a pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design method on a control group and an experimental group. Each group consisted of 42 students. The study was conducted over a six weeks period. The experimental group was taught the topic of Introduction to internal combustion engines with concept maps as a teaching-learning method. The control group was taught the same topic without the use of concept maps. The experimental group revealed two results. Firstly, adopting concept mapping strategy can significantly improve students’ performance in problem solving compared to using traditional teaching methods. There were significant differences favoring the experimental group for the well structured problem solving performance while there were no significant differences on ill structured problem solving performance. Secondly, most of the students were positive about using concept mapping strategy in an internal combustion engine course. They indicated that concept maps can help them to understand, identify the key concepts, and connect the various concepts