Learning Approaches and Academic Background towards Problem

Solving and Learning Achievements

Rizaldo Septiano Robaeni, Amung Ma’mun and Berliana Berliana

School of Postgraduate studies, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jln. Dr. Setiabudhi No. 229 Bandung, Indonesia

rizaldo.surdiniaty@student.upi.edu

Keywords: Mind map, Basic Physiology, factorial design, study program, learning approach, academic background,

problem solving, study achievement.

Abstract: This article discusses the mind map of learning approaches and academic background in accordance with the

ability of problem solving and learning achievement in the lesson of Basic Physiology. The design of this

research is simplified 2x2 factorial design. The population of this research is students of 2010 of IKOR from

2 different classes. The data obtained later are analyzed using ANOVA method. There have been various

researches regarding the issue of learning using Mind Map, which prove that mind map succeeds in improving

students’ achievements. Overall, the achievement of result and ability of problem solving with this approach

proves better than lectured learning. Interaction occurs amonglearning approach, academic background and

problem solving. Students whose academic background includes Science class at Senior High School, score

better with mind map learning approach than lectured learning.

1 INTRODUCTION

Result of performance in the subject study of

Physiology has not met the standard of competency.

This indication is based on direct observation where

students do not fulfill the standard of competency in

the mid-term exam. Students’ achievement in the

form of score printed on a paper is the physical result

of education, with which the curriculum builders

formulate the standard for the better education. As in

this scientific method which focuses on changing the

way of thinking of students into the scientific ones, so

that it can analyze the cause and result scientifically.

Achievement result which is formulated by

curriculum was also initiated by (Bloom et al.. 1956)

a teacher who built curriculum and had to find the

purpose of education which goes towards the

cognitive area. The Cgnitive are in that statement

signifies the activities such as knowledge,

understanding, application, analysis, interpreatation,

integration and assessment.

Academic background refers to a student’s

interest in his study at senior high school which

means the student is directed to his field of study of

his interest. As stated in (the Ministry of Education

and Culture, Development of Human Source of

Education and Culture, 2013) which states that

students’ field of study is a unity and is integrated in

educational effort. According to the country’s

constitution number 20 year 2003 regarding National

Educational System chapter 1 article 19 (the People’s

representative council of Indonesia, 2012), it is stated:

“Curriculum is devised plan and management

regarding the purpose, content, additional subjects

and used method as a guideline in conducting the

proccess of learning for certain educational purpose”

The changes in curriculum which are carried out

are based on the consent that development is highly

influenced by global circumstances, advancement of

science, knowledge and technology as well as art and

culture. In 2013 the Ministry of Education and

Culture initiated the development of curriculum and

succeeded in creating the 2013 curriculum. The 2013

curriculum has a concept that students are able to

develop their skills, talent and interest more

extensively with the principle of individual

difference. As written in the guideline of the 2013

curriculum, it is stated that the structure of the 2013

curriculum provides (1) Obligatory subjects of study

for all students in one educational instritution in one

term of study, and (2) Optional subjects of study for

students in accordance with their interest.

Robaeni, R., Ma’mun, A. and Berliana, B.

Learning Approaches and Academic Background towards Problem Solving and Learning Achievements.

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sports Science, Health and Physical Education (ICSSHPE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 47-51

ISBN: 978-989-758-317-9

In his book, Popper reveals that formal science is

essential information from hypothesis, theory, and

law of how things work (Popper, 2002). In the speech

Popper explains that discovering and describing how

something works is the essence of science. His saying

of “describing how something works” is in

accordance with the concept of this mind map, as

written in the book (Buzan, 2006) which states that

the bigger the stimulation to both sides of your brain

at the same time, the more effective it helps you to

remember. Buzan emphasizes that the use of both

sides of the brain helps you remember more

effectively. It is generally accepted that the skill of

analysis relies on the left part of the brain and to

depict or imagine things people rely on the right part.

Researchers agree that using mind mapping enable

students to balance the usage of both and effect in the

their achievements.

As Blooms stated that problem solving or ability

to solve issues become one of the aim of cognitive

area, which is one of the aim of scientific method.

That being said, as an educator and conductor of

learning proses, a teacher must take students’ ability

in problem soving into account. It is because the aim

of learning is to help form students’ ability in solving

problems they come across in their real life. That is

the reason that researchers have been trying to figure

out how big this method puts an effect in children in

their problem solving. In his book (Buzan 2006a) he

emphasizes that understanding our own way of

thinking can help us in the usage of phrases or

pictures in the mind map format. That way will affect

how we remember, revise, recall, organize, think

creatively and solve problems in the learning process.

(Markowitz and Jensen, 2002) defines mind map as a

technique of verbal visualization into images which

can help people record, strengthen and remember

information that has been learnt. Obviously the

inventor of the learning method of mind map assumed

that this model can help solve problems.

Mind mapping is one the methods that can be

chosen in learning science with characteristics and it

can be explained systematically and rationally. This

Mind Map has been implemented in various subjects

of study which consequently improve students’

achievement. As an example, a reseach carried out by

(Holland, Holland and Davies, 2004) titled “An

Investigation into the Concept of Mind Mapping and

the Use of Mind Mapping Software to support and

improve students’ academic performance”. Briand

concludes that almost all of the students agree to

perform the mind map method as it helps students a

lot in learning school subjects. It is unfortunate that a

subject study that is considered the fundamental

lesson of physical education still adapts the traditional

method or lectured based learning.

The usage of the Mind mapping method has been

attracting researchers to observe its relation with

learning motivation and ability, as well as various

subjects. For instance, a research carried out by (Nora

Tri Setyaningrum, 2012) “Application of the Mind

Map Method in Improving Reading Skill and

Comprehension to 3rd Grade Students with Hearing

Disability at School for Disabled Students As-Syifa

East Lombok”. In this research a significant result is

apparent. The result concludes that Mind mapping

concept and work books have a beneficial role in

helping students to learn the technique and situation

where they are in.

There are also a large number of journals

regarding medical science which support the Mind

Map learning method, one of which is an article in

BMC Medical Education (2010) by (D’Antoni et al.,

2010). Antoni states that in demonstrating the usage

of mind mapping to students of pharmacy this method

enabled him to give the perfect repitition efficiently

in a short period of time.

It is expected that teachers change their mind set

that learning process does not only revolve around

transfering the knowledge from them to their students

but also make their students comprehend the content

of the lesson they learn. This Mind mapping method

aims at helping students understand and comprehend

the content of the lesson. Researcher in this study

takes students of Physiology class as a subject, for the

reason that Physiology science is a lesson which can

be pictured and arranged systematically. So far the

lecturers have been applying the lectering method so

that students find difficulty in understanding and

remembering this lesson. Researcher assumes that

this Mind mapping method helps teachers deliver the

lesson more easily and enables teachers to provide

students with better understanding regarding the

lesson.

2 METHODS

2.1 Population and Sample

2.1.1 Population

The population of this research is the students of even

smester year 2016 at IKOR taking basic physiology

science. There two classes and each classes consists

of 49 students and 51 students respectively. The

faculty of Physical Education is the only faculty of

UPI which includes the class of basic physiology

ICSSHPE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sports Science, Health and Physical Education

science, obviously the class is vital in physicial

education.

2.1.2 Sample

The selection of sample takes the totalling sampling

technique. It is determined by taking the students

from both class A and B from physical education

science year 2016. Class A consists of 51 students (9

of whom took social class at their previous formal

education and the remaining 42 took science). Class

B consists of 49 students (13 of whom took social

class and the remaining 36 took science). Referring to

the method of factorial design 2x2, the selection of

groups is determined by random assignment using

drawing technique. As a result Class A is taken as the

control class with lecturing method and Class B is

taken as the experimented class with Mind mapping

method.

2.2 Instrument of Research

In this study, the researcher takes 2 instruments. In

order to assess the performance of study and problem

solving skills of the students. The insturment used for

assessment of performance is subsumative test whose

each unit of the test is directly distributed by the basic

physiology science lecturer. To determined the

problem solving skills, a PSI (Problem Solving

Inventory) questionnaire is distributed among

students, PSI was developed by (Heppner and

Petersen, 1982), whose article discusses dimensions

of the process of problem solving and explains the

development of Problem Solving Inventory based on

factors of result analysis. Later it was proven by a

research conducted by (Tian, Heppner and Hou,

2014) titled “Problem-Solving Appraisal and Human

Adjustment: A Review of 20 Years of Research

Using the Problem Solving Inventory” which

concludes that PSI is useful not only to assess the

level of problem solving skills but also the general

psychological issues.

2.3 Procedure of Research

The following are the procedures of this research :

 Researcher determines two second grade classes

of IKOR as the sample of this research using the

totalling sampling technique.

 Researcher determines the tasks for each

respective class.

 Researcher conducts the class learning for each

classes in accordance with the curriculum. The

experimented class is given the Mind mapping

learning method with the learning steps as seen

in table 3.4 and the coontrol class is given the

lectured learning method.

 Researcher conducts a post test in both classes

to assess their achievement in learning the

subject, by looking at their improvement in

problem solving and performance. Prior to this

post test, students state their educational

background.

 Researcher analyzes the data to see study the

result and accept the hypothesis which is

proposed in the research using ANAVA and

immediate Scheffe test.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Performance result and Problem Solving skills after

the Mind mapping method is conducted in the class

are proven better than lecturing method. There are

significant differences between Mind Map approach

and lecturing method which can be seen in the

average score. The average score of the class adopting

Mind Mapping approach is in accordance with the

result of the research by (Juhariah, 2015) “The

average score of pre-test of the experimented class is

45,0 and the post test is 73,0, this indicates a

significant improvement of students’ performance.”

Her research was conducted in 3 meetings or the

ending of one basic competency. The high score after

Mind map approach is used is the combination of

performance and problem solving results.

This result is supported by the result of a research

by (Perihan and Kobacas, 2012) which states that

learning strategy will put an effect in problem solving

skills of students. It can be concluded that each

learning process given to students will affect their

problem solving skills. As it is generally accepted that

problem solving is how one can be confident in

solving his problems. There are significant influences

of ordinal interactions between Mind mapping

approach and Lecturing method in students with

different academic background (Social and Science

study) towards the result of performance and problem

solving. There are also significant interactions

between learning approach and academic backround

in the result of performance and problem solving.

This finding is due to the Mind mapping method

which helps students with background of Social study

earn high score than those with background of

Science and Social study in the control class.

Another factor which causes the interations

between learning approach factor and academic

backround factor is that Social study class whish has

been predicted to gain higher score in lecturing

method class is proven wrong, furthermore the Mind

mapping method has succeeded in helping students

Learning Approaches and Academic Background towards Problem Solving and Learning Achievements

with Social study background to gain better score that

those with Science study background using lecturing

method. In accordance with an article by (Nur

Faralina, Shahrul Kadri and Nurul Syafiqah, 2015)

which discusses corelations between pre-class task

and academic backgrouynd, the statistical result

indicates unsignificant corelation between pre-class

task and academic background in selected sample.

Nur Asrab suggests that this is because of

instructional approach which is not bias to students

with both academic backgrounds. The phrase “not

bias” means that instructional approach can be

accepted by both academic backgrounds and it

improves the learning process.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the data analysis obtained, it is thoroughly

proven that Mind mapping approach creates a

significant difference in the performance result and

problem solving skills. Mind mapping learning

approach is better than lecturing method. This

signifies that Mind Mapping learning approach has

succeeded in leaving a positive effect which is proven

better than lecturing method. Referring to the

observation, students seem to focus better on the

lesson in the class while the mind mapping approach

is being conducted. There is an interaction between

learning approach and academic background which is

proven with Anava calculation. This becomes a

reference to the result that the students with academic

background of Social study who attended the class

conducted with Mind Mapping approach managed to

equate the result of the students with academic

background of Science study. That is to say that

students with academic background of Social study

succeeded in exceeding the performace result of

students with both academic backgrounds of Social

and Science study in the class conducted with

lecturing method.

Further study conducted shows the difference

between subgroups. It supports the conclusion of this

research that Mind mapping learning approach is

better than lecturing method, for students with both

academic backgrounds. Thus researcher would like to

share some feedbacks related to the result of this

research as follows : further researches, it is advisable

to take learning approach which is based on scientific

method as comparative variables so that the

difference will not be overly significant between the

two learning methods. In addition, it is necessary to

study the motivation of students to learn after the

treatment of the learning approach. Researcher

suggests that stakeholder pays a careful attention and

consider different factors within the students as there

is a difference of academic background which may

result in differences of result. In the use of Mind

Mapping apporach, it is advisable to provide retention

as a maintenance of ability.

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Learning Approaches and Academic Background towards Problem Solving and Learning Achievements