Effects of the Mind-Mapping Strategy on Diagram Drawing and Reading Comprehension among Junior High Students with Disabilities

[[abstract]]The main purpose of the study was to explore the effects of the mind-mapping strategy on diagram drawing and reading comprehension among junior high students with disabilities. Participants consisted of 2 students with learning disabilities and 1 with mental retardation. The multiple-probe across-behavior design of the single subject research framework was employed to monitor the procedure and obtain data. The mind-mapping strategy was the main independent variable, whereas the primary dependent variables involved reading comprehension and outcome of mind-mapping drawing test. Research tools were reading comprehension test and mind-mapping test, justified by the pre/post-teaching feedback questionnaire. Main results were as follows: A.After the planned instruction, all the three participants demonstrated steady progress in the scores of mind-mapping drawing test, meaning that the strategy had prompt and prominent effect on the learning behavior. B.All the three participants showed trends of progress in the score of reading comprehension test, indicating the immediate and steady effect of the strategy on the targeted behavior. C.At the end of the teaching activities, all the participants agreed that the mind-mapping strategy facilitated organizing knowledge, pinpointing information and memorizing content and, therefore, addressed intention to use the strategy in other learning areas. Further discussion was made on the basis of the above findings and suggestions were proposed for practical teaching and future study.