THE IMPACT OF CONCEPT NETWORK METHOD ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF IMPLEMENTATION

The purposes of this study are to offer an activity for the use of concept network method ingeography, to reveal this method’s impact on students’ academic achievement and to evaluatestudents’ perceptions about the implementation. In the study, the sample was comprised of78 students who were studying in 9th grade of a private secondary school in Istanbul. Of 78students, 36 were in experimental group and 42 were in control group. The pretest posttestexperimental research model with control group was used in the implementation. The impact ofconcept network method on academic achievement and students’ perceptions of implementation were determined using achievement test and assessment survey. Independent samples T-test,two-factor ANOVA, regression and some descriptive statistics were used in the analysis with thehelp of SPSS®. The study revealed that the concept network model contributed to the students’achievement in geography education. Besides, the students’ perceptions were positive and theyparticipated in the activity easily.