Effective teaching strategies for students with reading difficulties have received considerable attention in recent years. In general, it is acknowledged that one vital element associated with effective outcomes for these students is making instruction visible and explicit whilst allowing for interactive dialogue between the teacher and students. Teachers can foster the performance of their students by designing effective teaching lessons with methods that do not impede the reading difficulties of students.

The use of graphic organisers has been hypothesised to be an effective teaching strategy. It is a technique for converting the often complex traditional text into two-dimensional structured maps that can be used as a supplement to or as a substitute to text in order to give a visual representation of knowledge. With graphic organisers the relationships amongst facts, concepts and propositions are presented explicitly helping the reader to identify, compare and retain information (Novak, 1990; Novak & Gowin, 1984; O’Donell, Dansereau & Hall, 2002. Research in cognitive load theory (Miller, 1956) has strong indication that simple, goal specific and multimodal material, such as this teaching strategy, can be effective for reducing the cognitive load of the learner, thus allowing for the maximum number of resources being devoted to learning (Paas, Renkl & Sweller, 2003; Wu et al., 2012). 

The core of the assimilation theory (Ausubel, 1963), built on the schema theory (Bartlett, 1932), is reaching meaningful learning through an interactive process where the existing schemata (established knowledge units) within the cognitive structure of the learner can be altered in order to facilitate incorporation of the newly acquired knowledge creating new linkages. When the relevant schemata needed are not clear or when the reader has a specific difficulty in selecting them, then the reader cannot firmly grasp, comprehend and retain the new unknown information. To address this, Ausubel (1963) had introduced and recommended the use of advanced organisers, which are the basis of graphic organisers.

My project is concerned with the potential ease of application and the suitability of using graphic organisers when teaching students with reading difficulties along with exploring the possible effectiveness they may have for them. The implementation of the project is situated and tailored for use in collaboration with special education teachers within withdrawal classrooms where students with reading difficulties work on a one-to-one basis with them for a set number of sessions per week when the students leave the mainstream classroom. This constitutes the distinct learning environment for students with reading difficulties in mainstream public primary schools in Cyprus.

The exploration of the application and effectiveness of this technique can be conducted using the flexible methodological framework of participatory action research. Teachers can be objective judges of the ease of applicability and effectiveness of graphic organisers as they are the practitioners who have daily interaction with their students with reading difficulties. They are in position to implement and comment on their use. My provisional hypothesis is that graphic organisers have the potential of being effective for students with reading difficulties as they can be tailored and modified easily based on individual characteristics of students. However, their ease of application and effectiveness in such a distinct learning environment is worth exploring with teachers as facilitators.

Despite the fact that research already exists exploring the value of visual teaching techniques for students with reading difficulties, it is a worthy cause to explore one of these, namely graphic organisers in such distinct learning environments. The existence of withdrawal classrooms in mainstream primary schools is a form of inclusive practices used in some European countries, thus denoting the European dimension and impact that such research may have.    

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