The Use of Mind Mapping to Understand Question Words of

Hearing-Impaired Students

Tati Hernawati and Dini Nur Legita

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jalan. Dr. Setiabudhi No. 229 Bandung Indonesia

tatihernawati@upi.edu

Keywords: Mind Mapping Method, Understanding Question Words, Hearing-Impaired Students.

Abstract: The research aims to determine the effect of mind mapping method on increased understanding of question

words of first grade elementary school students with hearing impairments in the special school for hearing-

impaired students in Indonesia. Mind mapping method is one of the visual-based methods to focus the mind

into a form of diagram that contains themes, subthemes, and important parts of a piece of information. This

research used quantitative approach with experimental method and one group pretest-posttest design. It was

conducted to seven first grade elementary school students with hearing impairments with three treatments.

Data were collected through written tests. The data were then analyzed with quantitative analysis techniques

using nonparametric statistics, i.e. Wilcoxon test. The results of this research show that mind mapping

method had an effect on increased understanding of question words of the first-grade elementary school

students with hearing impairments in the special school for hearing-impaired students. The implication of

this research is that teachers are expected not to hesitate to apply the mind mapping method in helping to

improve hearing-impaired students’ understanding of question words.

1 INTRODUCTION

Based on preliminary observations conducted to the

first grade of a special elementary school for

hearing-impaired students in Indonesia,

communication problems were discovered, one of

which was found in the questioning activity.

Questioning activity becomes one of the learning

stages at all grade levels using a scientific approach.

According to the Regulation of the Minister of

Education and Culture No. 81A of 2013, appendix

IV, Curriculum 2013, there are two models of

learning process that have been developed, namely

direct and indirect learning processes. Direct

learning is the process of education to develop

knowledge, thinking ability, and psychomotor skills

through direct interactions with learning resources

designed in the syllabus and lesson plans in the form

of learning activities. Indirect learning is the process

of education that occurs during the process of direct

learning, but it is not designed in special activities.

In direct learning, learners learn to observe, ask

questions, collect information, associate or analyze,

and communicate their findings. In the questioning

stage in the classroom, students are required to make

inquiries based on observations made in the previous

stage, and it is at this stage that hearing-impaired

students have difficulty because they still do not

know about the types and uses of question words.

Understanding the use of question words is very

important to align the perceptions of the person who

asks and the person being asked, or between the

communicant and communicator. Disagreement

between a communicant and communicator about

the question words will cause the information given

or received to be irrelevant.

Question words are words used to form

interrogative sentences (Ramlan, 1985). Question

words include what, who, when, where, where to,

where from, how much, how, and why. In the

questioning activity, there are some components that

must be understood in advance by students,

including the types of question words, uses of

question words, differences in question words,

structure of interrogative sentences, and the like.

They have to be familiar with the components for

making simple questions; for example, the question

word “who” serves to show people, the question

word “what” serves to show things, the question

386

Hernawati, T. and Legita, D.

The Use of Mind Mapping to Understand Question Words of Hearing-Impaired Students.

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017) - Volume 2, pages 386-390

ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8

word “when” functions to indicate time, and so on.

Based on these problems, efforts should be made to

increase the understanding of the question words.

One of the efforts assumed to be able to increase

the understanding of question words of hearing-

impaired students is a visual learning method that

maximizes the visual sense of hearing-impaired

students, who are often referred to as visual people.

This is in line with the opinion of Bunawan and

Yuwati (2000: 5) who explained that in the hearing

impaired, "the visual sense will take an important

role, followed by the senses of touch, smell, and

taste." Thus, hearing-impaired people will more

easily receive information or learning by

maximizing their visual sense. The visual learning

methods in question are, one of them, the mind

mapping method. Musrofi (2008: 179) defined mind

mapping as “a technique in the form of a scheme to

describe everything we think about or have in our

brain". Mind mapping is also one of the ways

teachers use to assist students in focusing their

concentration and organizing learning materials to

be easily understood by students.

There are several journal articles that are relevant

to the use of mind mapping. First, there is the article

written by Kernan et al. (2017) which suggested that

by constructing mind maps, students can develop

structured research questions and a list of major

search terms that form the basis for literature review

and questionnaire development for descriptive

research. Second, Jimenez (2017) argued that mind

maps can be used to understand autistic conditions,

which include: the brain that has different abilities,

repetitive behavior, and limited communication. He

added that intelligence in different aspects is

conserved, and there is isolation or little social

Interaction. Third, the article written by Dutt (2015)

shows that mind maps are effective as a thinking

tool, and there is an opportunity to use mind

mapping in adding values into and effectiveness in

managing projects. Fourth, the article written by

Shallcross (2016) demonstrates that concept maps

are useful tools for assessing knowledge and

understanding of sustainable development concepts

and the students surveyed in the research had a good

awareness of the technical, social, and

environmental aspects of the domain. Fifth, in the

article written by Enright and White (2012), it is

explained that mind mapping can be used to clarify

and simplify the complex problems of

pharmaceutical department. Mind maps are used to

shape, visualize, produce, categorize, and classify

ideas, as well as assist in various activities including

problem solving, writing, and critical decision

making. Sixth, the article written by Ginting (2013)

shows that the mind map model is effective in

improving the ability of writing articles of eleventh

grade high school students. Seventh, the article

written by Rejeki et al. (2014) indicated that the use

of mind mapping model can improve the process

and learning outcomes of social studies of the

fourth-grade students of elementary school. Eighth,

the article written by Salfina and Pasaribu (2015)

demonstrates that the achievements of students who

were taught using the mind mapping method were

better than those of the students taught by

conventional methods.

Of the various journal articles found, none has

examined the application of mind mapping method

to increase understanding of question words of

hearing-impaired students. Therefore, there is a need

for research to determine the effect of mind mapping

method on hearing-impaired students’ increased

understanding of question words.

2 METHODS

This research used quantitative approach with

experimental method. It employed the one-group

pretest-posttest design. The design is as follow in

table 1:

Table 1: One-group pretest-posttest design.

Pretest

Treatment

Posttest.

(Noor, 2011, p. 115)

Notes:

In this design, there is no control group.

O1 = Measurement before treatment

X = Treatment

O2 = Measurement after treatment

At the measurement stage, students were given a

test with the same instrument. The test was given to

uncover their understanding of the use of such

question words as “what”, “who”, “when” and

“where”. The test includes: a complete test of the

function of the question words (what, who, when,

and where); matching the questions with the right

answers; completing interrogative questions with the

right question words, and answering simple

questions.

At the treatment stage, a teaching and learning on

the use of the question words (what, who, when, and

where) was carried out, using the method of mind

mapping. The steps to make the mind map

referenced Buzan (2011), namely: (1) The activity

starts from the middle of a blank page to the side; (2)

The Use of Mind Mapping to Understand Question Words of Hearing-Impaired Students

387

As the central idea, the child’s photo is used with a

question mark, so that the child can stay focused and

concentrate. In mind mapping, a variety of colors are

used to make the mind maps more alive and fun; (3)

The child connects the main branches to the central

image, then connects the second and third level

branches to the first and second levels, because the

brain works according to the association. In its

application in the present research, the subjects were

guided to read the main part of the mind mapping,

and then together connected the main part with the

branches of understanding, type, function,

characteristic, and example of the question words;

(4) The child creates a curved line; (5) The child

uses one keyword for each line; and (6) Each

keyword has a picture to make it easier to remember

the mind maps. In the implementation in the

research, the mind maps were made through

computer applications.

In this research, the samples were taken by

nonprobability sampling with surfeited sampling

technique. The samples included all (seven) first

grade hearing-impaired students, at one of the

special schools in Indonesia. The description of the

samples can be seen in table 2.

Table 2: Research sample.

No Name Gender Age Hearing loss level (dB)

Initial (year) Right Left

1 Ab man 8 100 100

2 Al woman 9 90 90

3 Ar man 7 90 90

4 Bo man 8 100 100

5 Da man 9 90 90

6 Mu woman 9 100 100

7 Ra woman 7 100 90

Table 2, indicated that students who become

research samples experience hearing loss at the level

of profound, so classified as deaf person. In general,

they can read and write simple sentences.

Data collection was done by using the test

technique, namely a written test on the use of

question words (what, who, when, and where). The

test is in the forms of completing sentences,

matching items, and short answer questions. In the

implementation, the students were assisted by using

total communication to clarify the questions asked.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The research aims to obtain a description of the

effect of mind mapping method on increased

understanding of question words of hearing-

impaired students. Therefore, it required data in the

forms of pretest and post-test scores for comparison.

The results can be seen through the difference

between the pre-test and post-test scores, or the

difference between the scores of understanding

question words before and after treatment. The

difference between the pre-test and post-test scores

can be seen in table 3.

Table 3: Difference between the pre-test and post-test

scores of understanding question words.

Research

sample

Pretest

scores

Posttest

scores

Difference

Total

Average (%)

37.14

68.57

31.43

Table 3 indicates there was a significant

difference in the hearing-impaired students’

understanding of question words before and after

getting treatment. The average ability of the students

in the pre-test was 37.14%, while the average ability

of the students in the post-test increased to 68.57%,

so the average percentage of students’ understanding

of question words increased by 31.43%.

The data that were obtained then processed using

quantitative analysis techniques, more specifically

using non-parametric statistical test (Wilcoxon test).

Meanwhile, the significance level used was α = 0.05.

Based on the calculation of total absolute value

taken (the smallest one), Jcount = 0. The value of J

in the table or Jtable with a significance level of α =

0.05 and sample number (n) = 7, was 2. Based on

the hypothesis testing criteria previously set, if the

value of Jcount < Jtable is 0 < 2, then H0 is rejected

and H1 is accepted. This means that the proposed

hypothesis was accepted, and it can be concluded

that the mind mapping method had a significant

effect on increasing the understanding of question

words of the hearing-impaired students of the first

grade of a special elementary school in Indonesia.

Based on the results explained above, it is found

that the hearing-impaired students’ understanding of

question words experienced significant progress due

to the use of mind mapping method compared to

before the students were taught with the method.

Thus, the hypothesis formulated in this research,

which is “mind mapping method has an effect on the

increased understanding of the question words of the

hearing-impaired students in the first grade of a

ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences

388

special elementary school” is accepted. This is in

accordance with the Wilcoxon test results which

determines that when Jcount < Jtable = 0 < 2, then

H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted. In addition, the

average test score obtained by each student

increased after the students were given treatment

through the mind mapping method. This can be seen

from the comparison of the pre-test and post-test

results for each student as presented in table 2,

which reinforces the acceptance of the proposed

hypothesis.

The explanations show that in an attempt of

increasing hearing-impaired students’ understanding

of question words, the learning methods used by

teachers by considering students’ needs and

conditions are very influential. This is in line with

the argument of Barizi and Idris (2010: 119) that “in

using a certain method, considerations of students’

condition should be made, including considerations

of their intelligence level, maturity, learning style,

individual differences, and so on.”

Still based on the research results, the mind

mapping method is significantly influential in

increasing hearing-impaired students’ understanding

of question words because this method is visually

based. Visual-based methods are very suitable for

hearing-impaired students, who because of their

hearing impairment, rely so much on their vision to

understand various pieces of information, thereby

making them earn the nickname of “visual people.”

This corresponds to Myklebust’s argument (in

Bunawan and Yuwati, 2000: 5) that in hearing-

impaired people who are classified as deaf, the

visual sense will take the most important role,

followed by the senses of touch, smell, and taste.

The results of this study prove that the mind

mapping method significantly affected the increased

understanding of the question words of hearing-

impaired students; therefore, teachers should not

hesitate to apply the method. This research

examined the implementation of the mind mapping

method to increase the understanding of question

words related to the subject of Indonesian language

among hearing-impaired students. Future research is

suggested to examine the application of mind

mapping method to increase other abilities, such as

material understanding on the subject of natural

sciences.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The results of this research show that the mind

mapping method had a significant effect on

increased understanding of question words of

hearing-impaired students. The question words

included what, who, when, and where. The increase

was based on the average post-test score obtained by

the students which shows a significant increase

compared to the average pre-test score. This increase

is very possible to achieve, because mind mapping is

one method that is based on vision, appropriate for

hearing-impaired students who are often referred to

as visual people. The visual-based method is perfect

for hearing-impaired students, because for them the

visual sense serves a very important role in the

limited ability of interpreting language as the impact

of their hearing impairment.

This research is very important to do in order to

show that the method of mind mapping is effective

to improve the understanding of hearing-impaired

students of question words. Therefore, teachers need

not hesitate to use this mind mapping method,

especially in improving the understanding of the

question words for hearing-impaired students. Based

on the results of this study, it can be concluded that

the results of this study support the proposed

hypothesis.

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