Advance Organizers
Running Head: ADVANCE ORGANIZERS
Final Paper EDU 6526
Gulseren Arikan
Seattle Pacific University
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Guess the type of instruction that is most widely used by teachers, but has the smallest
effect on student achievement compared to other effective instruction models (Marzano,
Pickering & Pollock, 2001). Although I have implemented that type of instruction for years with
a passion, I have just learned its name: Advance Organizers. Considering their theoretical ground
and contribution to student achievement, I don’t think that Advance Organizers (AO) are
ineffective. However like any other instruction, AO’s effectiveness may decrease with
inappropriate and ineffective usage. In contrast, I think, students are under a cognitive burden
and AO help them to organize and construct the necessary information to their cognitive
structures in an appropriate way.
AO, first introduced by Ausubel, emphasize on connecting new information to prior
knowledge, which I believe introduce an alternative route for students to retain and recall the
required knowledge. In general, the topics covered in classes are neither simple nor short enough
to cover in a single session. AO help to map out the big picture and understand the hierarchy. As
mentioned in the work of Joyce and Calhoun (2004), the topics might be complex, hierarchical,
and part of a larger discipline; therefore once students understand the hierarchy, they can relate
the new information to what they have already known.
Ausubel (1978) describes the characteristics of AO from various perspectives. According
to Ausubel, AO serve as an introduction before deepening the new concept. AO eliminate details
and include utmost generalized and abstract knowledge about the topic such as headings,
subheadings, or important and repeated facts. They aim to establish a meaningful learning set by
being introduced in advance –prior to the learning material itself. They are enhancing cognitive
structure of the student by connecting new information to particularly related aspects of existing
cognitive structure.
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Building bridges with AO between previous and new knowledge created a continuous
constructing knowledge process in my students. Smooth transitions always helped me that most
of the time, students were not aware that we switched to a new topic. I had to use prior
knowledge in different styles, so students were exposed to same knowledge many times, which
facilitated retaining and learning of the subject material. I have almost implemented all types of
AO in my classes listed by Marzano, Pickering & Pollock (2001). The types are expository
which describe new content that students are about to be exposed: narrative, presenting
information in story format, skimming, and graphic advance organizers.
The most powerful AO for me and my students have been the visual ones, especially
video clips, movies, video games, which can be titled as expository AO; and spatial graphs, and
maps which are kinds of graphic advance organizers. Graphic organizers are spatial
representation or visual displays of the conceptual framework, or key elements of the subject
matter in a given area and teachers discover creative techniques to present information through
graphic depictions of the relationships between concepts (Kang, 2004). As quoted in Kang’s
article (2004) Avgerinou and Ericson highlight the significance of visual organizers: “The way
we learn bears a strong relationship to the way our senses operate”, since “a very high proportion
of all sensory learning is visual.”
Not only as a teacher, but also as a learner, I have always appreciated educators who
implemented AO such as PowerPoint presentations, introductory texts, movies, etc. before we
start to a new chapter. I easily get bored when I see a complex, long, black and white text. This
fake perception of the text, not its difficulty, makes it hard to even start to read it. However, if I
read an introduction or generalized information about the issue in advance, my perception totally
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changes and I feel more comfortable with the text. Besides introductory texts and presentations,
spatial maps, or conceptual maps help as well.
Seeing the limits of any given text or topic significantly affects me. Spatial organizers
show all the paths, connections, and main roles of the topic, and make the pieces of puzzle
meaningful. As learners, we are continuously constructing puzzles in which each new piece of
information come and seek for the right place in our cognitive structure. Ausubel’s ideas
reminded me Piaget who always highlighted the importance of smooth transition between
cognitive stages, and healthy integration process of schemas. This is one of the theories behind
AO, integration of new information to the prior one should be achieved, and I strongly believe
that AO are great tools to do this.
Researches support my point of view regarding contribution of AO as well. Katayama
and Robinson’s (2000) study related to note taking is a great proof of the contribution of advance
organizers to students’ academic achievement. 117 students were asked to study a chapter length
text with a set of complete, partial, skeletal graphic organizers, or outlines. Two days later, they
were asked to review their materials for ten minutes and then they were tested. According to the
test results students who used graphic organizers did better than those who used outlines or full
notes. Another study done by Griffin and her colleagues (1995), that measure the effect of
graphic organizers on the fifth grade students, show that participants who received the graphic
organizer instruction did better than those who received traditional basal instruction.
Teaching students how to use AO contribute to student academic achievement and
wellbeing too. According to Kang (2004), students equipped with this skill become more active
in knowledge construction, and more autonomous in reading. Katayama and Robinson (2000)
focus on the equipment of students with this skill regarding note taking.
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Although AO are powerful instructions, they may lose their effectiveness because of
inappropriate and ineffective usage. To make AO more effective, some strategies have to be
developed by the teacher well before the class. Having the students only read, listen or watch the
AO may not help; a following discussion, questions that strengthen the connections between
prior and new knowledge, implementing the AO with enthusiasm and in a motivating way, and
supporting them with examples if necessary are some of the points that a teacher should take into
account. Moreover, as Ausubel mentioned, as a requirement of working with AO, I was careful
with omitting less important information and using familiar terms while preparing AO. If new
terms would be introduced, I had to be careful with their connection to the previous information.
Another important factor that affects the effectiveness of AO is the type of AO being
used. The study that was prepared by Luiten, Ames, & Ackerson (1980) shows that the
effectiveness size of aural mode AO are twice that of written mode AO. However, Luiten and his
colleagues didn’t examine the visual mode AO which I think are the most powerful one.
According to their study, grade level is also important for defining the best mode of AO. For
instance, college students do better with visual organizers.
If teachers take these strategies into account, I believe, advance organizers will contribute
more to the academic achievement of students, when compared to other instruction methods.
Huge piles of information are added to data banks in each new day, and we can not expect
students to absorb all those information in such an era. We need to eliminate details and find
ways to communicate the necessary knowledge in appropriate styles that fit with the cognitive
structure of students, and I believe that advance organizers are exemplary tools that will
contribute to that goal with activating prior information and facilitate integration of new
knowledge to cognitive structure of the students.
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References:
Ausubel, D. P., Novak, J. D., & Hanesian , H. (1978). Educational psychology: A cognitive view
(2nd ed.). New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston
Griffin, C. C., Malone, L. D., & Kameenui, E. J. (1995). Effects of graphic organizer instruction
on fifth-grade students. The Journal of Educational Research, 89(2), 98-107.
Joyce, B., Weil, M., & Calhoun, E. (2004). Models of teaching (7th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Kang, S. (2004). Using visual organizers to enhance EFL instruction. ELT Journal, 58(1), 58-67.
Katayama, A. D., & Robinson, D. H. (2000). Getting students"partially" involved in note-taking
using graphic organizers. The Journal of Experimental Education, 68(2), 119-133.
Luiten, J., Ames, W., & Ackerson, G. (1980). A meta-analysis of effects of advance organizers
on learning and retention. American Educational Research Journal, 17(2), 211-218.
Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.