The effect of concept mapping on students' learning achievements and interests

The study described in this paper has examined whether concept mapping can be used to help students to improve their learning achievement and interests. The participants were 124 students from two classes enrolled in an advanced accounting course at the School of Management of a university in Taiwan. The experimental data revealed two important results. First, adopting a concept mapping strategy can significantly improve students' learning achievement compared to using a traditional expository teaching method. Second, most of the students were satisfied with using concept mapping in an advanced accounting course. They indicated that concept mapping can help them to understand, integrate and clarify accounting concepts and also enhance their interests in learning accounting. They also thought that concept mapping could be usefully used in other curriculum areas.