NEED FOR EXPLANATIONS IN GRAPHIC ORGANIZER RESEARCH

ABSTRACT

Research relating to graphic organizers was reviewed. The findings suggest that currently there is no systematic approach to analyzing graphic organizer research resulting in a lack of explanations for why graphic organizers work or do not work. The primary difficulty to provide explanations was found to be due to the lack of consistent operational criteria in studies using graphic organizers. Further, instructional implications are tenuous at best due to the lack of explanations of how graphic organizers work or do not work. One method of analysis would be to examine previous graphic organizer studies using a relational grammar. This would allow for identifying the structure and content of text used in graphic organizer studies, the graphic organizer itself, and the measurement or evaluation instrument. This analysis would allow for a comparison of the structure and content of the different organizer studies and allow for an explanation of the cognitive processes that readers evoke in developing mental representations of ideas contained in text.