Tests Ausubel's (1960) subsumption theory of learning in the context of children's use of causal and logical connectives. Predicts that the acquisition of prior cognitive structure organizers would facilitate the learning and retention of subsequently presented concepts and logical operations and lead to a decrease of syncretic reasoning and…

A unit on animals was taught to 64 preschool children (44 in an experimental group and 20 in a control group). Children in the experimental group were taught nine major concepts over four levels of abstraction (designated as superordinate, intermediate, subordinate, or particular levels). Each concept was presented by means of an advance organizer…

Barnes and Clawson's presentation of Ausubel's theory of meaningful learning (Review of Educational Research, 45, 1975, pp. 637-59) is misleading, according to the author. He states that Ausubel's crucial point is not that organizers relate new knowledge to an existing cognitive structure, but that new learning materials can only be considered…

The development of social problem-solving skills in preschool children (namely, cooperative play, sharing, taking turns, understanding another person's feelings, helping, and the verbal resolution of conflict) was assessed following instruction under three conditions. A total of 35 children, of whom 18 attended a formally structured preschool…

Investigates the effects of an advance organizer lesson, presenting high-order science concepts and an elementary problem solving strategy for determining causal relations on children's use of operations of exclusion (as defined by Inhelder and Piaget, 1958). Results suggest that acceptable solutions to problems requiring the operations of…

The extent to which advance organizer instruction about social behavior could affect preschool children's social problem-solving abilities was investigated. The study followed a pretest, training, posttest, and delayed posttest format and included periods of observation of children's spontaneous social behaviors before, immediately following, and…

Examined were effects of advance organizer (AO) instruction on acquisition of conservation concepts in 3- and 4-year-olds. Participants were 28 children who were equally divided into experimental and control groups, pretested, and found to be nonconservers. A sequence of two AO lessons and related learning activities was presented to the…

The effects of two types of advance organizer small group instruction, expository (EO) and guided self-discovery (GSDO) were assessed in teaching the concrete operational skills of either hierarchical classification or relations to preschool children. A control group was taught using the same materials, in a manner determined by the children's…

Effects of Advance Organizer (AO) lessons presenting high-order math concepts relating to set building, matching and between sets, and counting objects within sets were evaluated for rural preschoolers in comparison to traditional instruction. A pre-test/post-test assessment indicated a significant sequential transfer effect from the AO lessons.…

This thesis reports a study of the effects of two types of advance organizer instruction, expository (EO) and guided self-discovery (GSDO), in teaching hierarchical classification or relations to preschool children. In the study, four experimental and one control group received three 25 minute instructional sessions. Using the same materials,…

The results of this investigation are generally supportive of the hypothesis that the learning of prior presented high-order concepts and rules can result in both a facilitation and acceleration of the learning of meaningfully related subject-matter concepts and logical operations. (Author)

This study investigated the effects of advanced organizer instruction on 3- to 5-year-old preschoolers' learning of general prosocial skill concepts, rules for using prosocial skills, and spontaneous prosocial behavior. The six prosocial skills considered included cooperation, sharing, taking turns, helping, demonstration of awareness of another's…

The effects of three types of advance organizer lessons (containing high-order social studies concepts, high-order rules for hierarchical classification, or both) on learning social studies concepts and hierarchical classification, as defined by Piaget, were evaluated for 237 rural children in kindergarten, third, and fifth grades. (Author/MH)

This investigation is concerned with evaluating an instructional method based on Ausubel's description of expository teaching using advance organizers (AO) lessons. AO lessons are a method used to increase retention and transfer by identifying the general ideas that form the structure of a subject matter area. This study distinguishes between AO…