A classroom training study: The effects of graphic organizer instruction on fourth graders’ comprehension

Abstract Children in two fourth‐grade classrooms (N = 38) participated in a three‐month training study to test the effectiveness of the graphic organizer as a strategy for facilitating comprehension and retention of information in their social studies text. During the training phrase, students in the experimental group received instruction and practice three times a week in the use of organizers to help them remember what they read. Frequent multiple‐choice and free recall tests provided them with opportunities to demonstrate what they had learned. Students in the control group received the same number of instructional contact hours, read the same material, and took the same tests as the experimental subjects, but were denied exposure to graphic organizers. On a post‐training test passage, students in the graphic organizer group recalled significantly more of the total number of idea units than students in the control group for each of two times: immediately after reading the passage and 48 hours later. No differences were reported between the two groups on the one‐month delayed recall. Nor was there a difference between the groups on the proportionate number of main ideas recalled.