Effectiveness of Concept Map-based Instruction on Improving Problem Solving and Implicit Beliefs of Students' Intelligence

It is very important to use appropriate methods to improve students' cognitive skills; therefore, the aim of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of a teaching method based on a concept map on students' implicit beliefs in intelligence and problem solving. The current research was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of this research was made up of all sixth grade students of Chabahar city in the academic year of 2023-2024, From this population, 30 students were selected as the research sample using the available sampling method and were randomly assigned to two groups: experimental (15 students) and control (15 students). After the pre-test, the teaching method based on concept maps was implemented for the experimental group in 8 sessions of 60 minutes (once a week). All participants were evaluated before and after the training based on the scale of implicit theories of intelligence by Abdul Fattah and Yates (2010) and the scale of problem solving skills by Heppner and Petersen (1982). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate covariance analysis in SPSS-27 software. The results of data analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the two experimental and control groups in the post-test stage in all the components of the implicit theories of intelligence as well as all the components of problem solving (p<0.05) and in the post-test stage, the subjects of the experimental group benefited from the increasing theories of intelligence, personal control, confidence in solving problems, and more tendency style compared to the control group; Also, the subjects of the experimental group in the post-test stage had fewer theories of inherent intelligence compared to the control group. Based on the results of the present research, the teaching method based on concept maps has a positive effect on the implicit beliefs of intelligence and problem solving of students, and this teaching method can be used to improve academic goals.