




































American International Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences  

Vol. 1, No. 2; 2019 

ISSN 2643-0061   E-ISSN 2643-010X 

Published by American Center of Science and Education, USA 

 

40 

 

 

Creative Map Instruction: An Experimental Effect on Biology 

Students’ Mental Ability 

 

Augustinah Nireti Duyilemi  

Professor 

Department of Science Education 

Faculty of Education 

Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria 

E-mail: Duyilemitina53@yahoo.ie 

 

Grace Titilope Babafemi 

Department of Science Education 

Faculty of Education 

Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria 

E-mail: babafemi.tritilope@gmail.com 

Tel: 08100427311, 08022649536 

Abstract 

The study investigated the effect of creative map on senior secondary biology students’ mental ability. Three 

research questions were raised and answered. The research design was a quasi-experimental pretest, posttest control 

group design. Two randomly selected schools involving a total of 71 biology students participated in the study. 

Biology Achievement Test (BAT) and Attitude towards Biology Questionnaire (ABQ) served data collection 

process. The sample were grouped into three ability levels (High, Medium and Low) using BAT before and after 

treatment administration. The experimental group was taught using creative map package while the control group 

was exposed to lecture method. Data collected was analyzed using frequency count, mean and Analysis of Variance. 

The result (F(1,61) =38.44; p<0.05, partial η2 = 0.39) revealed a positive influence of creative map on students’ mental 

ability with an upward movement from low and medium ability to high ability group. The study recommends the 

usage of creative map which offers to student the avenue to self-manage and actively participate in learning while 

enjoying equal platform to proceed with learning  

Keywords: Creative map, Mental ability, Attitude to biology 

1. Introduction 

Creativity, the ability to produce work that is novel and appropriate (Sternberg, Kaufman & Pretz, 2002), continues 

to relate to the social context as it varies from situation to situation. The creative map, which often emerged from 

engrossed brainstorming, involves generation of ideas, associations and relationships among concepts and 

phenomena being learnt. Introduced by Buzan, creative or mind map offers to its users the platform to construct 

meaning out of the learning materials. The map is termed creative tool as it provides the advantage of inventing 

ideas, internalizing ideas and communicating ideas to students. Also, in order to achieve the goal of teaching for 

creativity, Mind map is more practical to develop learners’ innovative ways of learning activities 

(Khodabakhshzadeh, Hosseinnia, Moghadam & Ahmadi, 2018). Contrary to the report that the classroom does not 

appear to be a place where creativity occurs (Plucker, Beghetto & Dow 2004; Asih, 2014), these maps promises to 
prompt learners to use their cognitive, metacognitive and creative potentials, which are essential skills, for the 21st 

century world. With a shift from teacher-centeredness, mind maps appoint the learner as active participant during 

learning. Students’ engagement, being passionately and successfully engrossed in a task of high quality (Munns, 

2007), continues to be the aim of the cognitive tools thereby enhancing interest, involvement, organization, 

understanding and concentration ( Goodnough &Woods, 2002; D’Antoni & Pinto Zipp, 2005, and Cain 2006).  



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Research has revealed that the prevalent lecture method in Nigerian schools inhibit students’ capacity, involvement 

and competence (Akingbemisilu & Babafemi, 2018; Owoeye, 2016) and is not effective. This ineffectiveness is to 

the disadvantage of educational goal attainment of improving students’ mental ability. The concern for high mental 

ability stems from the fact that the global compatibility and competitiveness that the country, Nigeria, aims to attain 

cannot be achieved without a sound foundation in science and technology. Mental Ability is related to mental 

perception, capacity for abstract thinking and capacity to recognize patterns in things (Onabanjo, 2007).  This may 
further influence citizens’ thought and pattern of data or situation analysis in favour of the nation building. High 

mental ability has shown prove in the improvement of students’ performance (Sangodoyin, 2011; Olagunju, 

Duyilemi and Adesina, 2013) thereby reflecting the aim of education. Students with high memory capacity are 

addressed as high ability learners performing above average in school work, medium ability students revolve around 

average in information processing and interpretation while low learners do not display encouraging efficiency in 

their approach. There is a substantial need to identify pedagogical tools to better enhance students’ mental potential 

so as to offer students with varying ability the equal platform to proceed with learning. This need becomes expedient 

since a typical Nigerian classroom consists of students represented in the three groups. Differences continues to exist 

in the performance of students taught with varying methods of instruction (Akingbemisilu & Babafemi, 2018; 

Owoeye, 2016), therefore indicating the significant role of pedagogical approaches in teaching and learning. The 

procedure employed by a teacher during instruction in addition to techniques and strategies connotes the method of 

teaching. It is therefore no doubt that these methods influence academic outcomes such as performance, attitudes 
and skills among others. Various studies have shown the positive influence of mind maps on self-regulated learning 

(Tanriseven, 2014), brain lobes usage (Brinkmann, 2003), Knowledge construction (Dhindsa, Makarimi & 

Anderson, 2011), disposition (Akinoglu &Yasar, 2007), retention and conceptual understanding (Babafemi & 

Adewumi, 2019) but there is a need to reveal its effect on mental ability.  

Creative map is rooted in Ausubel’s theory of meaningful learning. The requirement for meaningful learning as 

stated by Novak, (1998) are prior knowledge, meaningful material and the willingness to learn meaningfully. Buzan 

initiated mind map, also known as creative map, as an advanced organizer which allows students to subsume or 
harmonize what is already known with what is being learnt. The map therefore becomes the pictorial display of 

students’ mental representation. Figure 1 shows an example of a creative map 

 

Figure 1: A sample of a creative map (source: ThinkBuzan.com) 

 

Figure 1reveals the technique of creative maps which involves a central projection into branches of stimulates, 

keywords, ideas, themes, and facts. The maps furthers harmonizes relationships, connections and associations 
between concepts. Visuals including pictures, images and colours beautify the thinking process requiring active 

usage of both lobes of the brain. The system dysfunction of students not attaining maximum potential (Balduf, 2009) 

necessitated the need to investigate the role of creative map in enhancing students’ mental ability. 



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2. Objective of this Study 

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of creative mapping on biology students’ mental ability in Ondo 
state, Nigeria. It also examined the interaction effect of creative mapping and attitude towards biology on students’ 

mental ability. 

3. Research Questions 

 Does creative mapping instruction significantly influence biology students’ mental ability? 

  Does creative mapping instruction significantly interact with attitude towards biology to influence 

students’ mental ability? 

 Will creative mapping instruction interact significantly with students’ mental ability to influence their 

performance in biology? 

4. Methodology 

The study adopted the pretest posttest control group quasi-experimental design. The population of the study was all 

Senior Secondary school biology students in Ondo State, Nigeria. The target population was all senior secondary 

school two biology students in Akoko South Local Government Area from which Seventy-one (71) randomly 
selected students participated in the study. The experimental group contained 39 students while the 32 students were 

assigned to the control group.  

5. Instrumentation 

Three instruments were used in this study: the Biology Achievement Test (BAT), Student Attitude towards Biology 
Questionnaire (SABQ) and teachers’ instructional guide for each of the strategies. The validated instructional guide 

was developed by the researcher using the mental map model proposed by Buzan. The BAT contained 20 adapted 

multiple choice questions from the WASSCE past questions.  Pest and Disease control and Reproduction were the 

content area of the BAT. BAT reliability yielded 0.85 using Pearson product moment correlation. The SABQ 

contained 15 items on a four Likert-type response ranging from Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (DA), 

and Strongly Disagree (SD). In scoring the SABQ, positively structured statements were done in this order: SA-4, 

A-3, D-2 and SD-1 while negatively structured statements were done in this order: SA-1, A-2 D-3, and SD-4. The 

instruments was trial-tested and Cronbach Alpha was used to obtained r=0.81 

6. Treatment Administration 

The data collection procedure was in three main phases and last for Six weeks. Research Assistants training and 

pretest administration took place in the first week ( BAT and SABQ), Students were exposed to creative mapping in 

the experimental group and lecture method in the control group from 2nd to 5th week and only the BAT (posttest) 

was administered during the 6th week. The pretest score (BAT) was used to group students into three mental ability 

level; High, Average and Low. Students who score 15 and above were assigned to High ability level, 8 to 14 were 

Average ability level and below 8 were low ability level.  

6.1 Treatment Procedure: Experimental group  

The Research Assistant was the facilitator here while students coordinate and reflect on content area. 

Step One: Research Assistant introduced the topic and guided the students in identifying the concepts in the topic 

Step Two: Students embarked on brainstorming activities to understand each concept. 

Step Three: Students create a central idea (starting point of the Mind map) 

Step Four: Students identify relationship and add branches and Keywords to their map (First level branches) 

 



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Step Five: Students colour code the branches and include images and symbol (connection) and add second level 

branches 

Step Six: Research Assistant request students to pause and reflect on the activities  

Step Seven: Each student present their maps in class while other students react to the constructed map. 

 

6.2 Control group 

The treatment for each lesson was in form of lecture. 

7. Result 

The obtained data was analyzed using mean, frequency table and Three-way Analysis of Variance. 

RQ 1: Does creative mapping instruction significantly influence biology students’ mental ability? 

Table 1: Analysis of Variance of students’ mental ability by Treatment and Attitude 

Source             Type III  

                        Sum of Squares       df     Mean Square      F          Sig.    partial Eta Squared 

Corrected  

Model                     8178.728            9        908.748           10.52       .000     .608 

Intercept                38622.351           1       38622.351        447.02     .000     .880 

Treatment              3321.226             1       3321.226          38.44       .000     .387 

Attitude towards 

Biology                   69.219               1        69.219              .801         .374     .013 

Mental Ability         279.511             2       139.756            1.618       .207     .050 

Treatment *  

Attitude towards 

Biology                   4.241                  1       4.241                .049         .825     .001 

Treatment *  

Mental Ability         675.411             2        337.705           3.909       .025     .114 

Attitude towards  

Biology *  

Mental Ability        158.743              2        79.372             .919         .405     .029 

Error                     5270.427             61       86.400 

Total                     79101.000           71 

Corrected Total    13449.155            70 

a. R Squared = .608 (Adjusted R Squared = .550) 

 

The result (F(1,61) =38.44; p<0.05, partial η2 = 0.39)revealed that creative mapping significantly influence students’ 

mental ability with a p-value less than 0.05.  The effect size is 39%; this means that 39% of the variance observed in 

students’ mental ability is due to the treatment. The difference in the mean scores and number of students in the 

three ability group after exposure to treatment is presented below in table 2 

 

 

 

 



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Table 2: A descriptive analysis of students’ mental ability within the treatment group, before and after experiment 

Mental                Mean before     Mean after     (N) before          (N) After        St. D      St. D  

Ability                treatment         treatment       treatment           treatment       before      after 

Low mental  

Ability                        7.69            9.00                 13                       2              1.55         .000 

Medium  

mental Ability             14.00          20.00              16                       2              3.23          .000 

High mental Ability    28.40         41.34               10                      35             2.72         9.834 

Total                             -                 -                    39                       39                -               - 

 

Table 2 indicated that there is a difference in the mean scores of students in the three ability groups in favour of the 

high ability learners. The result further revealed that after exposure to creative mapping, there is a shift from low and 

medium ability groups to high ability group with N- value rising from 10 to 35 at the end of the treatment procedure. 

Also the estimated marginal mean analysis reveals that students exposed to creative map outperformed those taught 

using lecture method as seen in the table 3 below 

Table 3: Estimated Marginal Means of Treatment and Control group 
 

Treatment             Mean                Std. Error 95% Confidence Interval 

Lower 

Bound 

Upper Bound 

Creative Map        38.255               1.771                    34.713         41.798 

Lecture method     20.469               2.145                   16.177         24.760 

 

Research Question 2: Does creative mapping instruction significantly interact with attitude towards biology to 

influence students’ mental ability? 

Table 1 showed that creative mapping does not significantly interact with students’ attitude towards biology to 

influence students’ mental ability (F(1,61) =.049; p>0.05). This implies that the mental map instructional strategy has 

no significant relationship with students’ attitude towards biology in affecting students’ mental ability. 

Research Question 3: Will creative mapping instruction interact significantly with students’ mental ability to 

influence their performance in biology? 

Table 1 indicated that creative mapping significantly interact with students’ mental ability (F(1,61) =.049; p>0.05). 

This implies that after exposure to mental map instructional strategy while considering students’ ability level, their 

performance in biology was aided. 

8. Discussion 

Findings from this study showed that creative mapping instruction had a significant effect on students’ mental 

ability as students in the creative mapping group had enhanced mental ability than the conventional group after 

treatment. This position of significant appears to be associated with the capacity of mental maps in requiring 

students to actively participate in learning while discovering the budding asset embedded in concepts being learnt. 

This budding asset further leads to discovery of meaning and generation of idea in the process of knowledge 



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construction. Also, the advantage of coordinating and self-pacing learning which these maps offers may be 

responsible for this trend. This result is buttressed by Erden (2017) who identified mental map as a lifelong learning 

tool for all levels of education and for any set of people. The research findings of Al-jarf (2009) which revealed the 

effectiveness of mental map in improving students’ writing skills after a 12 week course further supports this study. 

Treatment and students’ attitude towards biology does not interplay to influence their mental ability.  This therefore 

suggests that creative map instructional strategy is not sensitive to students’ attitude towards biology.  

9. Conclusion and Implication 

The study concludes that creative map significantly enhanced students’ mental ability with an upward improvement 

from low and medium mental abilities to High ability level. Attitude towards biology does not influence students’ 

mental ability. Finally, Creative map significantly interact with students’ mental ability to affect their performance 
in biology. 

By implication, employing creative maps in Nigerian classrooms promises to improve citizens’ mental ability which 

is an indispensable necessity in attaining the global compatibility and competitiveness the nation aspires.  

10. Recommendation 

The study recommends the usage of creative map in teaching as it offers the avenue to be actively involved in 

learning while enjoying equal platform to proceed with learning.  

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