Abstract:

The main focus of education in the 21st century is to support students in the meaningful development of knowledge and be applied in various disciplines in the real world. The world, with all its complexity, including the rapid growth of information and knowledge, together with the increased pressure on the education system, is a challenge. The challenge to help students develop the skills needed to get a better orientation in today's modern world. In many educational institutions, large amounts of information are presented to students without being included in a specific system or concept. In the professional literature, we often observe the opinion that it is crucial to find a suitable way to activate students and develop their critical thinking to construct their knowledge. If teaching should be meaningful, new knowledge passed on to the students by the teachers should be in a particular form. Based on this form, students can accept and understand knowledge, grasp the whole structure of the curriculum, and make mutual connections.

The inclusion of concept maps in the teaching process can be applied as well. Concept maps have a set hierarchical sequence of concepts, mostly from general to specific, including their relationships. The paper aims to present the pedagogical experience focused on implementing concept maps in the teaching of chemistry at the gymnasium. We describe empirical research carried out in the form of a didactic experiment. We created two groups, one control and one experimental; an entrance test verified their compatibility. In the control group, teaching took place using traditional teaching methods. Concept maps were used in the experimental group. The use was implemented, not only in the fixation but also in the teaching unit's exposition part. Several tests of knowledge have verified the effectiveness of concept mapping. For example, the Cronbach's alpha parameter was also monitored in the tests. The test results clearly show that the introduction of concept maps has its justification in chemistry's teaching process. Part of the research was also to monitor students' views on using concept maps in the teaching process. Based on the data we researched, we conclude that the students positively evaluated their importance and justification and requested the implementation in other subjects such as biology or the Slovak language.

Keywords:

Concept Maps, Chemistry, Didactic Research, Test of Knowledge, Pedagogical Experience.