THE EFFECT OF USING CONCEPT MAPS AS ADVANCE ORGANIZERS IN ENGLISH LESSONS ON THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF STUDENTS

Meaningful learning is a learning model developed by Ausubel (1960). This learning model is based on expository teaching and advance organizers play an important role in it. In this study, concept maps are used as advance organizers. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the academic success of the experimental group in which advance organizers are used differs from the control group and whether there is a relationship between academic success and gender. The study was conducted with 56 undergraduate students who are in their first year at a private university in Istanbul in the academic year of 2019-2020. In the study which is carried out by using quasi-experimental design with pre-test post-test control group, there is 1 experimental group with 28 students, and 1 control group with 28 students. The treatment was applied for 6 weeks. In the experimental group, the lessons were taught by using concept maps as advance organizers. In the control group, traditional method was used. Data were collected using the multiple choice test formed by the researcher with 40 questions as pre-test and post-test. As a result of the data analysis done by SPSS 24 package program, no significant difference was found between pre-test scores of the two groups. A significant difference was found between post-test scores of the groups in favor of the experimental group. However, no significant difference was found between academic success and gender. Keywords: Meaningful learning, advance organizers, concept map, academic success