CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION AND STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Most of the students who are attending 753K have difficulty
abstracting important information from their content area. In order to solve
this problem, the administration requires that all its teachers incorporate
graphic organizers into the body of their lessons to help students with special
needs to gain an understanding of both content specific vocabulary and
concepts. According to the administration, using graphic organizers will
facilitate students' comprehension because of the visual display that
demonstrates how information is organized.
The administration uses the three established principles for
effective graphic organizers: be consistent, make the graphic
organizers coherent, and find creative ways to integrate them
into lessons (Baxendell, 2003). As a result, learners will pay attention to
the relevant information in the text and they will select to build connections
among ideas in the text. They will organize information into coherent structure
and integrate the new information and/or connect it to their prior knowledge.
Therefore, learning will be meaningful. Nevertheless, a history of reports
indicating that for many students with special needs, the process of
abstracting important information from their assigned content area is difficult
because of poor reading and study skills (Deshler, 1978; Torgesen, 1985;
Zigmond, Vallecorsa, & Leinhardt, 1980).
It is reasonable, therefore, to propose to determine the
effectiveness of graphic organizers for helping students with special needs at
753K to abstract information. Most of the learners at 753K have serious
reading and study deficits skills and the use of graphic organizers may
facilitate their understanding of content specific.
In this study, the use of graphic organizers along with the
proposed guiding principles for instructional practices of the administration
will be analyzed. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the use of
graphic organizers in conjunction with the proposed guiding principles of the
administration will help students with special needs develop their interest in
understanding, organizing, or recalling important concepts or content. The
result of the study should provide information whether displaying information
graphically along with the three established principles, consistent,
coherent, and creative need to be adjusted or modified for
learners having learning disabilities and who also are emotionally disturbed.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
In this study the focus is on the effectiveness of graphic
organizers and the three basic principles guiding instructional practices:
consistent, coherent, and creative (Baxendell, 2003). The
review of the literature includes guiding principles for instructional
practices strategies when using graphic organizers, graphic instruction and
free or direct instruction, and content areas in which graphic organizers are
used.
Although each content area has its own special vocabulary and
concepts that must be developed, there are several specific strategies for the
use of graphic organizers that can be incorporated into the body of a lesson to
help students organize or recall important information. To help general
education students understand, organize, or recall important concepts or
content, some teachers supplement graphic organizers with questions, study
guides, small group discussions, or use graphic organizers as post organizers
after content area reading is completed (More & Readence, 1984).
Throughout graphic organizers' history, the uses of these strategies prove the
effectiveness of graphic organizers with general education students (Fountas
& Pinnel, 2001; Ausubel, 1960; Guastello, Beasley & Sinatra, 2000;
Jitendra, Hoff & Beck, 1999; Fisher & Schumaker, 1995; Griffin, Malone
& Kemeenui, 1995; Griffin & Tulbert, 1995). Recently, the question
facing some educators no longer centers on whether graphic organizers are
valuable instructional tools, but rather on how to use these learning devices
effectively to meet the needs of students with special needs (Baxendell, 2003).
In response to this educational issue, Baxendell (2003) suggests that
«graphic organizers must be used coherently, consistently, and
creatively» to be effective for students with special learning
needs (p. 46).
There is reason for optimism that graphic instruction is more
effective than instruction free of visual representation (s). A study on the
effectiveness of graphic organizers in content area classes found that graphics
organizers were more effective than self-study for students with learning
disabilities, remedial students, and students in regular education (Horton,
Lovitt & Bergerud, 2001). The same results were found in a previous study
about secondary students with learning disabilities (Bergerud, Lovitt &
Horton, 1988). Therefore, displaying information graphically facilitates
comprehension among all types of pupils.
Graphic organizers are used in almost all content areas. They
are used in Social Studies, Mathematics, English language Arts, Science, and so
forth. For instance, they are used in English Language Arts to find
main-idea-and-detail in a topic. They are used in Mathematics to review
similarities and differences between the metric and customary measurement
systems. They are also used in Mathematics for comparing fractions or to solve
verbal problems (Baxendell, 2003; Horton, Lovitt & Bergerud, 2001).
The results from the various studies lend support to the notion
that graphic organizers are valuable tools, and that displaying information
graphically is more effective than instruction free of visual representation
(s) of knowledge because students learn significantly more when taught with
visual displays than when taught by a teacher-directed activity (Darch &
Carnine, 1986). Furthermore, although each content area has its own special
vocabulary and concepts that must be developed, there are many strategies
utilizing graphic organizers and that some strategies are effective for general
education students while others are effective for learners with special needs.
The three general principles (consistent, coherent, and
creative) for the use of graphic organizers emerge from practice in
inclusive classrooms (Baxendell, 2003). Would they also be effective for
emotionally disturbed students who have learning disabilities? The result of
this study may provide information that will determine whether graphic
organizers and the three general principles for the use of graphic organizers
help emotionally disturbed students who also have learning disabilities
understand, organize, or recall important content.
Assumptions
According to Ausubel (1963) and McEneany (1990), when students
are introduced to material for which they have little background knowledge,
their learning and their ability to retain new information will be improved if
they have a structured and clear method for organizing the information. That
is, if learners have graphic organizers, they will focus on relevant
information within a text or problem, build connections among ideas within a
text or elements of a given problem to solve, integrate new information, and
perform independently.
It is asserted that the use of graphic organizers will enhance
learners' performance. Four types of performance are considered within the
research: (1) skills in choosing relevant information (either most significant,
or revealing some pattern) with an average of percentage of accuracy; (2)
skills in building connections among ideas with an average of percentage of
accuracy; (3) skills in integrating new information with an average of
percentage of accuracy; and (4) skills in performing independently with an
average of percentage of independence.
The assumption in examining the effectiveness of Graphing
organizers is that graphic organizers or structured overviews function as a
tool kit from which learners clarify, organize information so that new
knowledge could be assimilated efficiently (Moore & Readence, 1984;
Alvermann, 1982; Alvermann & Boothby, 1993; Herber & Riley, 1979;
Herber & Sanders, 1969, Herber & Vecca, 1977). For instance, learners
having difficulties learning new concept or solving a given problem will show
improvement in their learning or in solving a problem and retain new
information when information is structured, or arranged in a labeled graphic
pattern because such arrangement will help them see the organization within a
text or concept (Bromley, Irwin-DeVitis, & Modlo, 1995, p. 6).
Given students with multiple disabilities with low academic
performance in Mathematics and Science, how effective are graphic organizers
for helping them in the process of focusing their attention to relevant
information in the text, building connections among ideas, and integrating new
information, or connecting it with what they already know?
The researcher will seek data to answer the following questions.
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