WOW !! MUCH LOVE ! SO WORLD PEACE !
Fond bitcoin pour l'amélioration du site: 1memzGeKS7CB3ECNkzSn2qHwxU6NZoJ8o
  Dogecoin (tips/pourboires): DCLoo9Dd4qECqpMLurdgGnaoqbftj16Nvp


Home | Publier un mémoire | Une page au hasard

 > 

The effectiveness of graphic organizers and Baxendell's guiding principles for instructional practices with special needs students

( Télécharger le fichier original )
par Milien Yvon
The School of Education, The City College, The City University of New York - Master of Science in Education  2004
  

précédent sommaire suivant

Bitcoin is a swarm of cyber hornets serving the goddess of wisdom, feeding on the fire of truth, exponentially growing ever smarter, faster, and stronger behind a wall of encrypted energy

CHAPTER V

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

This study derive from an interest about the extent to which graphic organizers along with the guiding principles for instructional practices for emotionally disturbed students who also have learning disabilities are effective. More specifically, whether or not 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 analysis substantiated that graphic organizer in conjunction with the guiding principles: consistent, coherent, and creative, produced high performance for the students. In other words, the findings clearly show that graphic organizers along with the guiding principles are effective procedures to make learning meaningful for students with special needs.

It was evident from the data that students scored significantly low without the use of graphic organizers for both Mathematics and Science. The analysis shows that only three pupils performed 60 % for level accuracy in focusing on relevant information for Mathematics out of the twelve students. The others performed below 60 %. For level of accuracy in building connections, level of accuracy in integrating new information, and level of independence all students performed below 60% for Mathematics. For Science without the use of graphic organizers, all students performed below 60 % for all level. Therefore, students at P753K have difficulties learning new concepts or solving problems and integrating new information when information is not structured, or arranged in a labeled graphic pattern.

The first research question addressed the extent to which learners demonstrated skills in choosing relevant information in the text using graphic organizers. The analysis shows that all pupils scored high (4) for level of accuracy in focusing on relevant information for both Mathematics and Science. This means that they demonstrated skills in choosing relevant information. The pupils who performed 100% for level of accuracy chose the most significant pattern when selecting relevant information to solve the given Mathematics problem or selecting relevant information in the text to answer a Science question. Those who performed at a lower percentage, such as 90% for level of accuracy chose a revealing pattern. Thus, the first research question was answered in the affirmative: learners demonstrated a great deal of skills in choosing relevant information when they use graphic organizers.

The second research question addressed the extent to which students demonstrated skills in building connections among ideas in the text using graphic organizers. The analysis shows that learners scored high (4) for level of accuracy in building connections among ideas or in solving a problem or building connections among ideas in the text of a Science reading or experiment. The students who performed 100 % for level of accuracy in building connections among ideas demonstrated skills in building significant pattern according to the teacher-directed graphic organizers. On the other hands, the others who scored lower than 100% demonstrated skills in building some patterns. Accordingly, the second research question was answered in the affirmative: learners built a great deal of connections among ideas when using graphic organizers.

The third research question focused on the extent to which learners demonstrated skills in integrating new information using graphic organizers. The analysis indicates that learners scored high (4) for demonstrating skills in integrating new information for both Mathematics and Science. The students who performed 100% for this category integrated relevant new information while the others who have an average lower than 100 % integrated some patterns of new information. Therefore, the third research question was answered in the affirmative: learners demonstrated a good deal of skills in integrating new information when using graphic organizers.

The fourth research question addressed the extent to which learners performed independently with the use of graphic organizers. The analysis reveals that for Mathematics out of the twelve students, five students averaged 100 % level of independence or a score of 4, one student averaged 98%, one student averaged between 79 -98%, another one averaged between 85-95%, another one averaged 85%, two students averaged 75%, one student averaged 70%, and another one averaged 59%. The mean for mathematics scores is 4. This means that the level of independence for Mathematics is high. Regarding Science, out of the seven students, two of them averaged 90%, one student averaged 85%, one student averaged 80%, two students averaged 79%, and another one averaged 75%. The mean for Science scores is 3.14. This means that the level of independence for Science is fairly high. Hence, the fourth research question is answered in the affirmative: students performed independently much with the use of graphic organizers.

Note that, the mean for Mathematics scores without the use of graphic organizers is 1.31, and the mean for Science scores without the use of graphic organizers is 1.42. These same mean scores using graphic organizers are about 3.85 for both Mathematics and Science, a significant improvement.

Baxendell (2003) argues that, today, the concern about graphic organizers no longer centers on whether they are valuable instructional tools, but rather on how to use them effectively to meet the varied educational needs of students. Therefore, to meet the educational needs of the pupils at 753K who are learners with special needs, they were exposed to graphic organizers in a consistent manner. That is, the investigator created sets of graphic organizers, and for 10 days he established a routine for implementing them in his classroom. Second, he made relationships coherent by providing labels for the relationship between concepts in graphic organizers. In other words, he made them clear and straight-forwards. Third, he integrated them in creative and engaging ways into different areas such as mathematics and science. Graphic organizers were used in all stages of lesson design. In other words, the investigator used the three established principles for effective graphic organizers: consistent, coherent, creative (see Baxendell, 2003). As a result, as the findings indicate, students paid attention to relevant information in text. They built relevant connections among ideas in the text. They organized information into coherent structure and integrated the new information or connected it to their prior knowledge. Consequently, they scored high (4) on the levels of the accuracy according to the rubrics.

This work is a beginning. I have examined a very small number of trees in the forest. This is a major consequence of working in such a short time period. Further research may modify or reverse the finding. Only twelve subjects participated in this study. Only ten days were devoted to this study. During a few days/hours especially after lunch or gym, some students refused to complete their assignments. Only SIE VII students were involved in the study, because of their handicap, some of them were not motivated and certainly did not feel compel to complete more assignments. These emotionally disturbed students have short attention span and tire quickly with instruction/assignment after a period of twenty minutes. A larger sample and a longer period of time are needed to obtain valid conclusions. In other words, the results cannot be generalized from this sample to the general population. However, this study allow us to see the effectiveness of graphic organizers along with the guiding principles for instructional practices for emotionally disturbed students who also have learning disabilities for a period of ten days.

Despite the limits of this study, it is worthwhile to address the implications for the School administration action. According to the result, the four research questions were answered in the affirmative because at the four levels - accuracy in focusing on relevant information, accuracy in building connections among idea, accuracy in integrating new information, and performing independently - students score high, that is 4. This indicates that there is no need for the administration to adjust or modify the idea of displaying information graphically along with the established guiding principles for the students.

It is useful at this point to mention some of the shortcomings of this action research study. For some, two major problematic features of this research will be the reliance of this study on only a few SIE VII students and on students at P753K/Brooklyn School for Career Development. This study should include other SIE, such as SIE IV and others Special Education schools because the SIE VI students at this school may be special cases, as all of them have a good performance with graphic organizers. It is hoped that future research will take up these tasks.

précédent sommaire suivant






Bitcoin is a swarm of cyber hornets serving the goddess of wisdom, feeding on the fire of truth, exponentially growing ever smarter, faster, and stronger behind a wall of encrypted energy








"Qui vit sans folie n'est pas si sage qu'il croit."   La Rochefoucault