Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to develop a program for promoting early childhood education students' ability on organizing content by using Graphic Organizers. The subjects in phase 1 and 2 were thirty of third year students majoring in early childhood education and the subjects in phase 3 were five students purposively sampled from the total of thirty. The method of the study consisted of 4 phases, namely, preliminary study, program construction, field testing and program revision. The duration of field testing was 13 weeks having 3 phases:phase 1, five weeks of teaching basic knowledge about Graphic Organizers and practicing application of the basic knowledge, phase 2, four weeks of applying Graphic Organizers to classroom instruction, and, phase 3, four weeks of follow-up. The pre-testing and post-testing of phase 1 were done to assess the ability to organize content by using Graphic Organizers test, the pre-testing and post-testing of phase 2 were done to assess the ability to design a lesson plan by using Graphic Organizers test, and in phase 3 were done to assess the student's performances on producing materials and providing classroom instruction using Graphic Organizers evaluation from and the observation form on classroom behavior of teacher and pupils in the instructional activities using Graphic Organizers. The research results were as follows: 1) after the experiment, the scores on ability to organize content by using Graphic Organizers of the subjects were significantly higher than before the experimental at .01 level; and 2) after the experiment the scores on ability to design a lesson plan by using Graphic Organizers of the subjects were significantly higher than before the experiment at .01 level; 3) The subjects in phase 3 passed the criteria on producing materials and providing classroom instruction by using Graphic Organizers. The revised program consisted of underlying concepts, principles, roles and responsibilities of the program user and target group, program structure and the features, evaluation, program implementation and program materials which were 1) fourteen lesson plans, 2) a teacher's handbook for implementing the program, 3) five supplementary books for teaching 5 types of Graphic Organizers