Effects of UsingConcept Mapping in Learning Anatomy and Physiology of the First Year Nursing Students, Shinawatra University

Abstract

          The purposes of this quasi-experimental research were to compare the achievement of learning Anatomy and Physiology between before and after learning concept mapping, and to study the satisfaction of learning concept mapping of the first year nursing students, Shinawatra University. The population was 19 registered students of Anatomy and Physiology courses in the second semester of academic year 2014. The 19 students were taught the concept mapping (CM) by the researcher,who was assigned to be the co-coordinator for teaching and learning of both courses. The learning CM was conducted for the 19 students after the midterm examination of both courses on the 10thweek of the semester, then the students were divided into 5 groups; 3-4 persons per group. They were given the time for 3 hours to write concept mapping about the urinary system, in which they could read the contents of the system before writing the CM under supervision from the researcher. The researcher gave feedback as well   as suggestions. The pretest was done before the learning on the 10th week, while the posttests were done twice on the 12th and 17th week. Between pretest and posttest, the students agreed to write CM without supervision for 6 weeks of 6 body systems; respiratory, digestive, urinary, endocrine, re productive and embryology system. Each week, the students must write CM twice, before and after the class of each system on Saturday. Then both CMs would submit to the researcher on Wednesday for evaluation and gave the points. The feed-back would send back to students on every Friday. Therefore each student would write total 14 CM(s) and received 14 feed-backs throughout the research.

          The results showed that the student had more self-study, self-directed learning and can developed the completion and beautiful CM(s). The complexity of content in some systemscaused the student CM incomplete on the before lecture in the class. After attending the lecturers, the students abled to write better CMs, which showed the linkage of the contents and had more details of each concept in CM. The student who got high CM score got grade A from the examination of both subjects. The student satisfiedfor using CM in Anatomy and Physiology courses with the highest rating. (μ= 4.12, σ 0.53), satisfied for learning CM at the highest rating. (μ  =4.24, σ 0.57), andalso satisfied for writing CM at the highest rating. (μ = 4.10, σ 0.56). The studentsthought thatthey can use CM in studying other courses as well.