Teaching with Visual Organisers to Learn How to Select and Apply Relevant Information for Decision-making within Tasks

his study investigated the explicit teaching and use of visual organisers during everyday classroom practice to develop thinking skills for decision-making within tasks. Metacognition and organisation were identified as key areas that influenced decision-making (Costa, 1985; McGuinness, 1999). Within these areas, core thinking processes were targeted as an area where children needed mastery to ensure that, as adults, they have the skills to analyse a problem or task and make thoughtful decisions for their life and the society in which they live (Marzano et al. 1988). Deliberateness rather than impulsivity or thoughtlessness was the basis for building effective decision-making strategies. Therefore, the thinking behind decision-making had to be visible to ensure deliberate actions were taken. To address this metacognitive issue, visual organisers were used to explicitly teach thinking processes. Organisers also addressed organisational issues by providing structures for sorting information and making relationships visible. A design-based intervention within a case-study approach was used to infuse visual organisers in the primary classroom. Data were collected through pre- and post-testing and student visual-organiser helpfulness ratings. These were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Conclusions drawn from this study found that the thinking behind the organiser needed to be explicitly taught and that students may benefit from the use of specific types of organisers to support and develop thinking skills for decision-making.