Running head: RESEARCH PAPER
Teaching Method: Research Paper
Virginia Commonwealth University
Meera Mehtaji
RESEARCH PAPER
Graphic Organizers
Rationale
Today’s education system attempts to implement evidence based educational
plans to help students achieve their optimal potential. Students with disabilities often
have problems multiple areas, especially arithmetic. As we all know, that math also
requires language abilities, thus students who have a language deficit also show a deficit
in mathematical abilities. Ives, (2007) states that research also “confirms that some
relationship exists between some language skills and some mathematical skills” (p. 110).
Thus as a teacher who would like her students to excel in mathematics, I would looks for
strategies that would limit the use of language and the students would be able to use
graphic representations to help them solve mathematical problems. Studies have shown,
students who use graphic organizes have improved in their ability to comprehend reading
material. Thus, teachers are more motivated to use strategies like graphic organizers to
reduce the load of written words and transfer it to “graphic arrangements of words,
phrases, and sentences, and they may also include graphic elements such as arrows, and
boxes” (Ives, 2007, p. 111) to help students learn. I as a teacher would like to use graphic
organizers to help my students improve in their mathematic abilities.
Introduction
The first research paper titled ‘Graphic Organizers Applied to Secondary Algebra
Instruction for Students with Learning Disorders.’ by Bob Ives (2007) aims to study the
effectiveness of graphic organizers to teach secondary students, with learning disabilities
and attention disorder, two and three linear equations. This research will be labeled
Research Data 1. The second paper titled ‘Students Use Graphic Organizers to Improve
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Mathematical Problem- Solving Communications.’ by Alan Zollman (2009) is an action
research conducted that aims to study problem –solving abilities in mathematics using a
four corner and diamond graphic organizers. This research will be labeled Research Data
2. Both these researches study the effect of graphic organizers on students’ mathematical
achievements in middle and high school.
Research Data 1
Purpose
The research attempts to compare the performance of secondary students with
learning disabilities or attention disorders in the ability to solve two linear equations with
two variables, using graphic organizers as opposed to the students who are not taught to
use graphic organizers. It also aims to compare the results of the strategy immediately
after teaching, that is, in post testing as compared to after 2-3 weeks after instruction. In
the third part the researcher aims to replicate the use graphic organizers to teach three
linear equations in three variables on a different group of students.
Method
The study took place in a private school in Georgia where all the students were
identified with learning disabilities or attention disorders. There were 200 students from
6th to 12th grade. There were two studies study one and study two.
Study One. The researcher conducted a test to evaluate if the students had the
pre-requisite skills to solve two linear equations. The First class had a pre-test to gain a
baseline data. Both the experimental and the control group “received the same hours of
instruction, the same number of practical problems and the same homework assignments”
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(Ives, 2007, p.111). A posttest was conducted to evaluate the results. Another test was
conducted by the teachers two to three weeks after the completion of instruction.
Study Two. The researcher conducted a test to evaluate if the students had the
pre-requisite skills to solve three linear equations. The First class had a pre-test to gain a
baseline data. Both the experimental and the control group “received the same hours of
instruction, the same number of practical problems and the same homework assignments”
(Ives, 2007, p.111). A posttest was conducted to evaluate the results. There was no test
after two to three weeks.
Participants.
Study One: - The Graphic Organizer group had 14 students, 10 male and 4 female. 10
students had been diagnosed with language related disabilities. The student’s average age
was 15.9years. The students average IQ was 100. Two of the students in this group are
Asian – American.
The control group had 16 students, 11 were male and 5 were female. 11 students
had been diagnosed with language related disabilities. The student’s average age was
15.8years. The students average IQ was 102.
All the other students are Caucasian American.
Study Two: - The Graphic Organizer group had 5students, all male. The student’s
average age was 17.6 years. The students average IQ was 107.
The control group had 5students, all male. The student’s average age was 17.8
years. The students average IQ was 100.
Each group had one senior and four junior high school students. English was the
first language of all the students.
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Procedure
The researcher used a two study experimental design. Each study had an
experimental group that was the graphic organizer group and the control group. The first
study, studied the effectiveness of graphic organizers to solve two linear equations with
two variables by middle school students. The second study, studied the effectiveness of
graphic organizers to solve three linear equations with three variables by high school
students.
For the purpose of the study the researcher used a graphic organizer with rows
and columns. The columns were numbered using roman numerals, I, II and III. The first
study used only two columns of the three while the second study used all the three
columns. “The solving of the system involves working from cell to cell in a clockwise
direction starting with the top left cell. The top row is used to combine equations in order
to eliminate variables until an equation in one variable is produced. Once this equation is
found, the bottom row serves to guide the finding of successive roots until the entire
system is solved.”(Ives, 2007, p. 111)
Results
Both the researchers showed ‘that students who worked with the graphic organizers had a
stronger grasp of the conceptual foundations for solving systems of linear equations than
did the students who did not work with the graphic organizers’ (Ives, 2007, p. 117)
Research Data 2
Purpose
The research was an action research that aimed to study ‘a problem-solving instructional
approach in which students used graphic organizers’ (Zollman, 2009, p. 4). The
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researchers wanted to improve the students ‘achievement in three areas of our state’s
math assessment in open-response problems: mathematics knowledge, strategic
knowledge, and mathematical explanation’ (Zollman, 2009, p. 4).
Method
Nine middle school teachers participated in the action research. The teachers
administered a pretest and a post test to evaluate their students performance using the
four corners and a diamond graphic organizer.
The four corners and a diamond graphic organizer taught the students of ask
questions like, ‘What do you need to find? What do you already know? Brainstorm
possible ways to solve this problem. Try your ways here. What things do you need to
include in your response? What mathematics did you learn by working this problem?’
(Zollman, 2009, p. 6). The students fill in the information in all the blocks. They use a
five step process (1) state the problem; (2) list the given information; (3) explain methods
for solving the problem; (4) identify mathematical work procedures; and (5) specify the
final answer and conclusions. (Zollman, 2009, p. 7).
Participants
There were 186 students in the experiment.
Procedure
All the nine teachers used the four corner and diamond graphic organizer. All the
teachers ‘self- collected and self – scored their data using a state’s scoring rubric’ Each
teacher self-collected and self-scored these data using the state’s scoring rubric(Zollman,
2009, p. 8). The data was triangulated from three sources, teachers response, pretest and
post test scores as well as students work.
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Results
All teachers found a distinct improvement in the students performance after using
graphic organizers. Overall scores increased from a 27% average on the pre-test to a 70%
average on the post-test (Zollman, 2009, p. 8).
Summary
It is evident from both the research studies that graphic organizers are an effective
method of teaching students.
In the first research that was conducted on both middle school and high school
students, the results showed that students who were a part of the graphic organizer group
were better able to solve linear equations. This research also attempted to study the
effectiveness of the research after 2-3 weeks. The results showed that the students who
used graphic organizers performed significantly higher than the control group over a
period. In the second research also the students performed significantly better after using
graphic organizers.
Zollman (2009) well summarizes the benefits of a graphic organizer as “an
instructional tool students can use to organize and structure information and concepts and
to promote thinking about relationships between concepts (p.4). As a teacher I feel that if
students are taught to effective use graphic organizers they can learn to gleam the
relevant information and answer questions effectively.
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References
Ives, B. (2007). Graphic Organizers Applied to Secondary Algebra Instruction for
Students with Learning Disorders. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice (Blackwell
Publishing Limited), 22(2), 110-118.
Zollman, A. (2009). Students Use Graphic Organizers to Improve Mathematical
Problem- Solving Communications. Middle School Journal, 41(2), 4-12.