Effectiveness of Mind mapping as a learning technique amongNursing students

INTRODUCTION

Memory and learning are closely connected. Students’ ability to learn and apply that learning to practice depends on his/her ability to process, store and recollect information from the memory.^1,2,3 The major problem the students face in their course is organizing and retaining information regarding the subject.⁴ So it is imperative for teachers to create teaching-learning environment that helps students better organize and retain information transmitted by the teachers.  

Nursing is a swiftly developing profession with voluminous curriculum. Nursing students are expected to master huge amount information in their course. This may lead to rote learning; making students’ textbook mugger than critical thinkers. Educational reforms in nursing today accentuate the need to prepare the studentsfor life‑long and selfdirected learning.⁵ So it is essential to utilize such innovative teaching strategies that develop learning by ensuring information retention and recalling and promoting critical thinking.

Mind Mapping is one such active learning strategy that enables student’snatural ability to think and expand their memory recall.^5,6,7,8,9 It is a simple technique for drawing information indiagrams, instead of writing it in sentences. Mind mapping technique allows learners to structure the informationby placing the central theme in the middle and arranging the associated sub themes around it.^5,10

A considerable body of research suggests Mind mapping is valuable learning technique to study, summarize, retain and recall information in science. However the Nursing literature indicates scanty researches on effectiveness of Mind mapping as a learning technique in Nursing education. So the researcher motivated to assess the effectiveness of mind mapping learning technique among nursing students.

Objectives

The study had following objectives:

1. To assess the enhancement in perceived memory level of first year B.Sc. Nursing students of experimental group and control group with existing study techniques.

2. To assess the enhancement in the perceived memory level of the first year B.Sc. Nursing students of experimental group after exposure to mind mapping learning technique.

3. To determine the effectiveness of the mind mapping learning technique in enhancing memory by comparing pre-test and post- test mean scores of first year B.Sc. Nursing students of experimental and control group.

4. To find the association between the posttest perceived memory scoresand selected demographic variablesof first year B.Sc. Nursing students.

METHODOLOGY

The study adopted quasi experimental nonrandomized control group research design. A sample of sixty (60) first year B.Sc. Nursing students were selected through non probability convenient sampling technique, further the sample was divided into experimental group (30) and control group (30). A close ended self administering questionnaire was constructed in 2 parts with total number of 30 items; Part-I: demographic proforma and Part2:A questionnaire to assess perceived memory of subjects, which consisted 25 items. Reliability was established by using Spearman and Brown formula. The ‘r’ value was 0.89.

The pretest was administered to experimental and control group after 6 days of reading a study material consisted information about circulatory system (950 words) for 45 minutes. The experimental group was exposed to mind mapping technique for six sessions. Each session lasted for 45-60 minutes of duration. After the completion of session’s the subjects of the experimental group was asked to apply the mind mapping technique to learn the same material that was administered in the pre test and the control group was asked to apply existing study techniques. The posttest was administered after seven days of exposing the experimental group to the mind mapping technique.

RESULTS

The data was analyzed and interpreted according to the objectives of the study by using descriptive and inferential statistics. 

A. Socio-demographic characteristics of first B.Sc. Nursing students in the experimental and control group.

As shown in the table the study involves two groups of first year BSc nursing students with nearly same gender distribution, having majority of females. The two groups average age was 18 years.

B. Test results and scores among First year B.Sc. nursing students in the experimental and control groups.

Table-2: presentspre and post mean scores of perceived memory in both the groups. In experimental group, the maximum score of perceived memory 25, the subjects were ranging within 7-16 with mean score of 11.23 and SD of 2.59 in pre test. The pre test mean score percent was 44.8%. But, it was found to be increased to the range of 15-22 with mean 19.40 and SD of 2.22 in post test. The post test mean percent was 77.6%. It evidenced the gradation in the perceived memory after mind mapping.

In control group, the pre test the subjects were ranging within 6-15 with mean 11.03 and SD of 2.17. The pre test mean percent was 44.1%. In post test there were remain in the same level of range 9-16 with mean 11.97 and SD of 1.99. The post test mean percent was 47.8. It evidenced that there was no gradation in perceived memory without the intervention of mind mapping.

C. Effectiveness of mind mapping in enhancing memory of respondents by comparing pre-test and post- test mean scores of respondents.

Table-3: depicts the paired t-test analysis outcomes of comparison of pre and post testscores for significance. The mean difference between the pre and post test was observed as 8.16 with SD of difference 2.40 in experimental group. The enhancement was 32.6% and it was significantly significant according to paired t-test value of t=18.57 at 5% level (p<0.05). But it was not significant in the control group.

D. Association between perceived memory among first year B.Sc. nursing students with their demographic variables.

The demographic variable, gender,(Chi-square value=4.87, df=1, p<0.05) was significantly associated with perceived memory and other variables religion and family income of first year B.Sc. nursing students were not significantly associated with post test perceived memory at 5% level in experimental group. 

DISCUSSION

The study involved sixty first year B.Sc. Nursing students and they were equally divided into experimental and control group. Bothe the groups were almost similar in gender composition and the average age of the subjects.

The intragroup comparison in the enhancement of the perceived memory (pretest and posttest scores) among experimental group and the control group revealed that the experimental group pretest mean score was 11.23 and the posttest score was 19.40 and the difference was statistically significant. In the control group, the pretest score was 11.03 and post test score was 11.47 and the difference was not statistically significant. The findings of the study demonstrates the preeminence of Mind mapping learning technique over other existing study techniques and it helps the students to learn the subjects effectively by overcoming problem of retention and recall.

The present study findings are consistent with study conducted by Rooda (1994) to assess effectiveness of mind mappingas a learning strategy in a baccalaureate level introductory nursing research course. Results showed that students who used mind mapping had higher exam scores compared to students who did not use mindmapping. The study concluded that studentswho used mind mapping were able to attain and recall a large volume of complex data.12 Further the present study findings are consistent with study finding of D’Antoni, et al. (2010) where they found mind mapping as a useful technique for retrieval of short term information and retention of new information among medical students.¹³  

The association between perceived memory and demographic variables;the demographic variable, gender was significantly associated with perceived memory and other variables religion and family income of first year B.Sc. nursing students were not significantly associated with post test perceived memory at 5% level in control group.

CONCLUSION

It is evident from the study findings mind mapping as learning technique is very helpful for students to learn subject content more effectively and creatively as it enhances their ability to retain and the recall the information learned. Thus the more emphasis should be laid on utilizing mind mapping as a teaching-learning strategy to help the students to attain and recall large volume of information during their course of study.