Tracy Edwards
ISTC 663
David P. Ausubel and the Role of Advanced Organizers
David P. Ausubel was creating his theory of meaningful learning in the 1960’s
around the same time as the cognitive information-processing theory was being
developed. He dismissed this concept and believed that there was more to the human
mind than computer like functions. His experience as an Educational Psychologist gave
him the insight to know that just because information was given, and learners were
reciting the information it did not mean that the information was being synthesized and
properly stored for future use. His concept of receptive learning is the dominant form of
instruction provided in a classroom setting. Ausubel believed that in order for receptive
learning to be meaningful to the learner, prior knowledge and the use of advance
organizers was absolutely necessary.
According to Ausubel an advance organizer is “prior exposure to similar but not
identical learning material.” (Ausubel, 1960, p. 270) Depending on the level of prior
knowledge the learner has, these advance organizers can be one of two types, expository
or comparative. If pretests are given and it is found that the learner has no prior
knowledge of the subject then an expository organizer is appropriate (Ausubel 1978), this
provides the learner with general ideas of what is going to be learned. If it is found that
the learner has some prior knowledge, which is most often the case, then a comparative
organizer is used. (Ausubel 1978) These organizers give the learner a chance to question
previous information by explicitly comparing the new concept with the old. In Ausubel’s
own words, “they provide the learner with a generalized overview of all of the major
similarities and differences between the two bodies of ideas before he encounters the new
concepts individually in more detailed and particularized form.” (Ausubel, 1961, p. 267)
By providing the learner with this information before hand it better enables him to
properly categorize the information for retrieval during the lesson when more detail is
given.
Advance organizers not only allow for the learner to properly prepare for
incoming information, but they also create a bridge for instructors to help students find a
meaning to the new information. According to Ausubel, “at any given time when an
individual is exposed to a new idea or to a new aspect of an old idea, a certain
equilibrium prevails between that idea and the totality of his prevailing organization
concepts…the task of learning is to integrate this new concept in his existing framework
of ideas, so that in terms of the newly organized whole it has a personal meaning which is
applicable to the interpretation and solution of the usual problems of living.” (Ausubel,
1949, p. 176) In order for the information to be properly stored in memory the learner has
to attach the new information to old information, or transform old knowledge by
incorporating the new information, and if this information provides no practical
interpretation to the learner then the learning is made more difficult.
Because of many critics Ausubel did many studies trying to prove the usefulness
of advance organizers. One of his studies summarized in the article “The Role of
Discriminability in Meaningful Verbal Learning and Retention” set up a scenario where
prior knowledge of Christian doctrines were used to teach Buddhist concepts. His
learner’s were split up into three groups at random. One group was given a comparative
organizer that “pointed out explicitly the principal similarities and differences between
Buddhist and Christian doctrines.” (Ausubel & Fitzgerald, 1961, p. 268) The second
group was given an expository organizer which just presented Buddhist doctrines. The
third group was just given a historical introduction. This group was used as a “control
treatment.” Each group was given a certain amount of time to look over their organizer,
and they were tested in so many intervals after being presented with the information. The
results of this study were interesting. Ausubel concluded that, “the data support[s] the
hypothesis that the learning and retention of unfamiliar verbal material varies positively
with its discriminability from related, previous learned concepts established in cognitive
structure, and that this endogenously determined discriminability is a function of the
clarity and stability of latter concepts.” (p. 274) both expository and comparative
organizers were effective if the prior knowledge was unstable because the new
information provided in the advanced organizers was strong enough to replace the prior
information. The learning outcomes for this study were determined by post reading
multiple choice tests that allowed the learner to apply prior concepts with that learned in
the advance organizer
Ausubel had to defeat many critics, and though his theory of meaningful learning
is not applied in full, many aspects of his theory still exist in education today. There are
now many forms of advance organizers that are used to present information to students,
and his notion of prior knowledge is still emphasized today.
Learning Tasks:
My first learning task would be directed towards high school juniors, and it would
concentrate on comparing a scholarly journal to a magazine. Since most students are
already familiar with magazines I would give them a comparative organizer describing
the functions of scholarly journals and commercial magazines. This will give them a
frame of reference for what a scholarly journal is, and it will give them a frame of
reference for what it isn’t. This advanced organizer would bridge the gap between
popular magazines and academic journals. The lesson itself would concentrate on why
scholarly journals are important for research, and would give students an overview on
how articles are validated and selected for publication. Once the lesson is complete the
students would be required to find a scholarly journal on their own, and give a brief
explanation of why they feel the journal they have chosen is in fact scholarly. They will
also be required to explain what use they would have for that particular academic journal
(what is the content centered around? and in general what kind of research it would aid?).
This will allow the students to relate the content to their personal tasks, and in turn
increase the personal meaning of the information.
The second learning task would be for a High School English class doing a lesson
on Edgar Allan Poe. The lesson would begin by asking the students to brainstorm using a
mind map with the topic being “horror”. Once the students come up with enough key
words that they relate to the horror genre, move into the stories of Edgar Allan Poe.
Relate common themes of his stories back to the mind map throughout the discussions on
the required texts. At the end of the lesson have the students pick their favorite Poe story,
and write a paper using one of the key themes that were linked with the mind map.
My third learning task would be for third or fourth graders learning about
different traditions in various cultures, more specifically they would be learning about
Chanukah. The lesson would be taught by first establishing a common comparison for
most of the students to ground their knowledge. It would start by the students working in
groups on a compare and contrast matrix. On one side of the matrix the students would
put down all existing knowledge they have about Christmas, and they would try to
compare any prior knowledge they have about Chanukah to what they know about
Christmas. This would give the teacher an idea of what the students know, and how much
of their prior knowledge is grounded in fact or fiction. As the lesson is being taught, the
teacher will ask about their family’s traditions, and explain several traditions carried out
by Jewish families during Chanukah. For an evaluation, the students will do a
presentation, in groups, on one aspect of Jewish tradition during the Chanukah
celebration.
The fourth learning task is directed towards fourth grade Language Arts students
learning about literary elements. The advance organizer used for this lesson would be a
concept map created to give an overview of how characterization, setting, conflict and
themes all come together to create a story. When discussing the concept map during the
introduction of the lesson, the teacher will relate the pieces back to stories that the
students have already read, giving them the opportunity to relate current knowledge with
the new terms that they are learning. For a brief evaluation the students will be given a
blank copy of the concept map and asked to fill in general definitions of the terms with
examples from the story that they are reading concurrently with this lesson.
My final learning task is geared towards freshmen in college, or in some cases
upperclassmen in high school. This task will allow the learner’s to properly understand
and navigate a library that utilizes Library of Congress classification. Because most
students are familiar with the Dewey decimal classification system, this lesson will use a
comparative organizer as an introductory overview to the material, paying specific
attention to the differences in the functions of each. Students will then be given a specific
in depth lesson on the pieces of a LC call number, what they mean, and how they are
organized in a library’s stacks. To evaluate the learner’s students will be required to
perform a scavenger hunt within the library. They will be given call numbers and they
will have to document the title of the coinciding books, and they will be given general
topics and asked to find out what letter and numbers a call number would start with for
that subject.
These five learning tasks reflect Ausubel’s theory of meaningful learning. He
believed that learner’s must be able to relate new knowledge to preexisting knowledge in
order for the information to be meaningful, i.e. properly encoded. He used the concept of
advance organizers to create an overview of lessons so that the student knew exactly what
was expected of them before learning would begin. He also felt that advance organizers
were a way to help students make connections to prior knowledge, and it was also a way
for instructors to find out exactly what prior knowledge students had.
Works Cited:
Ausubel, David P. (1949). Ego-development and the learning process. Child
Development, 20(4), 173-190. Retrieved October 20, 2005 from Academic Search
Premier database.
Ausubel, David P. (1978). In defense of advance organizers: a reply to the critics. Review
of Educational Research, 48(2), 251-257. Retrieved October 20, 2005, from
JSTOR database.
Ausubel, David P. (1960). The use of advance organizers in the learning and retention of
meaningful verbal material. Journal of Educational Psychology, 51(5), 267-272.
Ausubel, David P. & Fitzgerald, Donald. (1961). The role of discriminability in
meaningful verbal learning and retention. Journal of Educational Psychology,
52(5), 266-274.