Graphic organizer as a strategy to promote cognition and metacognition

Cognition and metacognition

How do we use graphic organizer as a strategy to promote cognition and metacognition? How does MYP command terms help students develop cognition and metacognition? I am very interested in developing metacognition and self-regulation of students. After re-reading Metacognition and Self-regulated Learning Guidance Report published by EEF (Education, Endowment, Foundation), I decided to explore further how graphic organizers might be used to develop students’ cognition and metacognition. Let’s define the two terms. “Cognition is the mental process involved in knowing, understanding, and learning.” “Metacognition is about the ways learners monitor and purposefully direct their learning.” (Quigley et al., page 9)

These two concepts are very different, and they both affect how we learn and process information within our daily lives and in the classroom environment. The EEF Guidance Report clarifies that “without cognition, there is no metacognition.” (ibid, page 15). “Metacognition is the knowledge of cognition and the strategies to regulate and control it.” (ibid, page 17). In other words, students use cognitive strategies for knowledge acquisition. They develop metacognition by being aware of their own knowledge; recognizing what they know and don’t know; monitoring their learning; reflecting on how appropriate the method they use to help them complete the tasks.

Enhance understanding of metacognition

If we search the meaning of metacognition, metacognition is defined as “thinking about one’s thinking”. I do not find this definition is easy to be understood. The EEF Guidance Report provides a more detailed explanation of metacognition. And then I came across the “Geroge Costanza Does The Opposite’ from the TV show Seinfeld via Larry Ferlazzo’s website. I made a new connection!

In this episode, when George did the opposite, he applied metacognitive knowledge as explained in the EEF Metacognition and Self-regulated Learning Guidance Report (page 10). “We approach any learning task or opportunity with some metacognitive knowledge about

• our own abilities and attitudes (knowledge of ourselves as a learner);
• what strategies are effective and available (knowledge of strategies); and
• this particular type of activity (knowledge of the task). “

Here is an academic explanation about metacognition in plain English, and the professor gave some concrete examples.

Why use graphic organizers?

This blog post explores how teachers can help students develop cognition and metacognition by utilizing graphic organizers followed by a structured reflection. Graphic organizers are particularly effective, as they allow students to visualize their learning and organize their thoughts in an easily understandable way. Graphic organizers help reduce cognitive load and enable students to think about how one idea is related to the next and construct their understanding. There are many different graphic organizers available, and they require different kinds of thinking. Guiding students to learn how to monitor their own thinking patterns is an essential aspect of developing good study skills.

To leverage graphic organizers, I think there might be a benefit in distinguishing the complexities of different graphic organizers and connecting them with the command terms defined as instructional verbs indicating the level of thinking in the IB programmes. Additionally, to develop metacognition, we need to explicitly teach our students why to use specific graphic organizers and the type of thinking required. We will minimally impact learning if students are just asked to complete the graphic organizers by ‘filling in the boxes’ without understanding the purpose and function of the graphic organizers used. After modelling and guided and independent practice, students should have opportunities to reflect on to what extent a specific graphic organizer has helped them learn and enhance their understanding and how they might use it in the future.

What does explicit teaching mean?

In its simplest terms, explicit teaching means students have the opportunities to discuss what they are learning, when they are learning it, why they are learning it and how to apply that knowledge and learning strategies. They develop a repertoire of strategies that they can choose from depending on the purpose to enhance their understanding of the content knowledge and complete the learning tasks. It involves the teacher providing feedback and asking questions to help students think about their learning. Explicit teaching is a way to make classrooms a learning environment that encourages personal growth by encouraging connections between prior knowledge, new information, and future application.

What is a strategy?

A strategy is a plan that helps you achieve your goal. Strategies are often categorized by their purpose. For example, one strategy could be an immediate reaction, while another might be a long-term solution. A strategy is a set of specific steps (procedures) that can be implemented to better tackle certain tasks or overcome certain obstacles once practiced. Strategies may be used for any number of purposes, such as determining how to decipher a code, understanding an unknown passage, or increasing neatness while writing.

“Strategies reflect the procedures, methods, or approaches needed to perform a specific activity. It is important for teachers to identify the strategies that are directly linked to the core learning activities used in their classes.”

(Cleary)

Graphic organizers as learning strategies for students

Graphic organizers are a helpful learning strategy for students to organize, clarify, or simplify complex information—they help students construct understanding by exploring the relationships between concepts. This allows students to use visual representation to chunk their learning and analyze information; it also helps them synthesize knowledge by linking specific facts, details and concepts into a more meaningful context. When teaching students how to use different graphic organizers, we initially provide a structured template, and we need to withdraw the scaffolding gradually. It will be more effective when students draw the graphic organizers independently. Rather than completing a graphic organizer the teacher requires, the task becomes about getting to a point where students do the thinking themselves. Check out the Depth, Complexity, and Graphic Organizers post by Ian Byrd.

Consider learning objectives in mind

With effective graphic organizers, students can break concepts down, discern the connection between topics, or build knowledge. Graphic organizers may be used with the MYP subject specific assessment objectives in mind, helping students to achieve:

• identify explicit and implicit information (language acquisition Phase 1 objective A i) | explicit and implicit response chart;
• justify opinions and ideas, using examples, explanations and terminology (language and literature, year 5, objective A iii) | persuasion map;
• synthesize information to make valid, well-supported arguments (individuals and societies, year 5, D iii) | CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning)
• analyse information to make scientifically supported judgments (sciences, year 3, A iii) | analysis map;
• describe and summarize performance (physical and health education, year 1, A iii) | sequence chart.
• explain the impact of the project on themselves or their learning (personal project, year 5, C i) | geometric forms

The purpose of the graphic organizer will be highly dependent on which cognitive/metacognitive objective. Increasing the Value of Graphic Organizers by Edutopia emphasizes the importance of ensuring that students are made aware of the learning goal and that the structure of the organizer requires them to gain broader understandings, ask further questions and make connections to generate new insights.

Tips For Implementing Graphic Organizers In The Classroom

First, consider the specific subject learning objectives and knowledge dimensions (factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge or metacognitive knowledge). Students can not develop metacognition without acquiring cognition. Considering these questions: are there certain concepts you’d like students to be able to communicate or explain? Does some type of thinking require particular practice in order to become more proficient? What’s the complexity of the thinking? If they need information organized hierarchically, use an outline, tree map or flow chart. If they need to compare relationships between ideas, such as cause-and-effect situations, use a fishbone diagram to show cause and effect relationships with arrows pointing away from each branch of their thoughts. Next, choose a graphic organizer that is right to help students achieve the learning objectives.

I tried to connect the MYP subject-specific learning objective with the knowledge dimension and cognitive process (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001) and then identify the graphic organizer that may support thinking and help students reach that specific learning objective. It took a while to map out the learning objectives with factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, procedure knowledge and metacognitive knowledge. Some learning objectives may include two or more cognitive thinking levels. I had better clarity on how MYP learning objectives are used to help students develop knowledge. After reading Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding, Secondary: Designing Lessons and Assessments for Deep Learning, I got interested in mapping out the MYP interdisciplinary assessment objectives with Anderson and Krathwohk’s (2001) cognitive and knowledge dimensions. Please refer to my blog post, IDU Assessment, if you are interested.

Most importantly, allocate time for structured reflection and give students opportunity to discuss what works for them and what does work for them.

Bloom’s taxonomy, MYP command terms and graphic organizers

According to Bloom’s taxonomy, learners go from simpler skills like recall and knowing, to more complex thinking skills like analyzing and evaluating. I came across a document that attempted to sort MYP command terms according to Bloom’s Taxonomy. I found it helpful as I see how the graphic organizers can effectively introduce and reinforce Bloom’s Taxonomy/MYP command terms (thinking verbs). The Differentiator might be a helpful tool that helps create a learning outcome that teachers can share with students. Alternatively, we can also use the learning outcomes generator from Easygenerator.com. The point is to share the learning outcome with students, and they are aware of the type of thinking required for me to complete a task.

Graphic organizers templates

I created 7 graphic organizers templates considering the MYP command terms and Bloom’s taxonomy. Subscribe to grab a copy!

English download

Chinese download

Resources

• Thinkport.org offers a collection of pre-formatted graphic organizers that teachers can integrate into activities and lesson plans or use by themselves. It describes how each type of graphic organizer can help students learn.
• Creately.com curates a list of graphic organizers for teachers and students for reading, writing, brainstorming, analyzing, comparing and contrasting and so on.
• Free Graphic Organizer Templates in English by HMH
• National Geographic, Freeology, and Education Oasis offer a collection of printable graphic organizers for use in the classroom.
• 30 Free Google Drawings Graphic Organizers
• The best posts about metacognition curated by Larry Ferrlazzo.

References

• Byrd, Ian. “Depth, Complexity, and Graphic Organizers.” Byrdseed, 17 Mar. 2017, www.byrdseed.com/depth-complexity-and-graphic-organizers/. Accessed 5 Mar. 2022.
• Cleary, Timothy J. The Self-Regulated Learning Guide Teaching Students to Think in the Language of Strategies. New York: Routledge, . Routledge, 2018.
• Ferlazzo, Larry. “The Best Posts on Metacognition.” Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…, 14 May 2012, larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2012/05/13/my-best-posts-on-metacognition/. Accessed 5 Mar. 2022.
• Green, Jennifer D., and Beth Dillard. “Scaffolding the Scaffold: Creating Graphic Organizers to Support Your Students’ Learning.” Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal, vol. 14, no. 2, 25 Sept. 2021, journals.kpu.ca/index.php/td/article/view/1495. Accessed 6 Mar. 2022.
• Quigley, Alex, et al. “Alex Quigley.” Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), Education Endowment Foundation, 21 Apr. 2018, educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/metacognition. Accessed 5 Mar. 2022.
• “Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy.” Iowa State University, www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/effective-teaching-practices/revised-blooms-taxonomy/. Accessed 6 Mar. 2022.
• Wise, Mark, and Carl Cooper. “Increasing the Value of Graphic Organizers.” Edutopia, 22 Jan. 2019, www.edutopia.org/article/increasing-value-graphic-organizers. Accessed 6 Mar. 2022.