Efforts to improve students’ writing skills through the mind mapping method

Abstract

This study aims to improve elementary school students’ writing skills through the implementation of the mind mapping method. The study is motivated by students’ low writing skills, as indicated by their difficulties in generating ideas, developing thoughts, constructing sentences appropriately, and producing coherent and logical texts. These difficulties affect students’ learning outcomes, which have not yet met the expected standards. This study employs a Classroom Action Research (CAR) approach conducted in two cycles. Each cycle consists of four stages: planning, action implementation, observation, and reflection. The research subjects are elementary school students. Data were collected through observations of student activities, writing skills tests, and documentation, and were subsequently analyzed descriptively. The results indicate that the implementation of the mind mapping method can improve students’ writing skills. This improvement is reflected in the increase in average scores across cycles, accompanied by greater student participation and enthusiasm during the learning process. The method also helps students generate and develop ideas and organize their writing in a more structured and creative manner. Therefore, the mind mapping method can serve as an alternative approach to writing instruction to support the improvement of elementary school students’ writing skills.