What is a Graphic?

A Graphic is a non-text image

What is a Graphic Organizer?

A Graphic Organizer is a way to organize words and ideas in a meaningful way that helps students better understand the concepts being taught.

There are a virtually infinite number of ways to use graphics and graphic organizers in teaching. They can help to organize your own thoughts, as in rubrics or agendas and presentations. They can also help to organize students' thoughts, for example, in sheets that have a space on top for an illustration and lines below for text; a student can then create a "story" that uses both those elements.

How Are Graphic Organizers Used?

Graphic Organizer Example

Behaviorists Learning Theory

Behaviorists see learning as a response to changes in the environment. It is "a process of memorizing, demonstrating, and imitating." Learning experiences should be carefully controlled and planned, and the instructor is in charge, not the learner.

Cognitivists
Cognitivists - Learning occurs or is influenced by internal constructs. These include: memory, motivation, perception, attention, and metacognitive skills.

Behavioralists
Learners are provided with planned stimuli. The computer or teacher is the source of knowledge for the student to memorize and recall. Focuses on the design of the environment to optimize learning. Practice is necessary, constant repetition is necessary as well. Feedback is used to modify behavior in the desired direction.

Cognitivists
Computer instruction takes into consideration individual learners and learning needs. The learner shares control with the instruction. The teacher plays the role of coach and/or partner Focuses on mental activities of the learner. Exposure is plenty and necessary, based on the capacity of the learner. Practice is important, but rote learning and pointless repetition not necessary.

Comparisons

Both theories possess a good way of teaching and learning processes. Neither theory accounts for factors of learning in social contexts. Both are mechanistic and deterministic. Neither completely explains how or why learning occurs. Both emphasize the role of environmental conditions; even cognitive learners are affected by the environment around them.

Similarities

Educators emphasize repetition and reward/punishment. Practice, without meaning making Administrators: firm rules for learning and behavior. High-stakes testing and no tolerance policies: learning and behavior are one and the same, and to control one is to control the other.

Behaviorists: repetition and response to stimulus.

If students are best served by repetition and clear expectations, then they will learn best in a school that provides them with information and ways to memorize it.

Impact on students:

Educators: more chances for experimentation and questioning; see learners as active partners in education. Open-ended questions and pursuing issues Less memorization, more exploration.

Cognitive: meaning is created by the learner; information must have meaning for it to stick.

Example: math sense - make sense of arithmetic, rather than memorizing their arithmetic tables.

Messier: freedom to make mistakes on the way to finding the truth.