the effectiveness of concept map presenting and constructing on retention, understanding and problem solving in the biology

this paper compared the efficacy of these two methods on retention, understanding and problem solving in the biology keeping in the mind the fact that student's learning style has a role as a moderator variable. the intervening effects on retention, understanding and problem solving were measured by two academic achievement tests that those have the confirmable validity and reliability indexes. the group embedded figures test were used to assess field dependence and field independence learning styles. this research based on a quasi-experiment design. the pre-organized classrooms were selected by purposive sampling as four experiment groups and two control groups. the prepared concept maps were presented in process of teaching on the two experiment group's members and the other two experiment group members constructed concept maps from the instructed subjects. results show that the concept map presenting method has more positive effects than the concept map constructing method in conditions that the students have field dependence learning style. vice verse the concept map constructing method has advantage on the concept map presenting method in conditions that the students have field independence learning style.