This selective bibliography includes review articles and supportive and nonsupportive studies on two categories of instructional strategies that facilitate meaningful learning--imagery eleciting strategies and holistic strategies. Imagery strategies are those which involve picture or visual processing, e.g., text relevant illustrations, learner…

Ninety-three college students studied prose material about communications. An experiment employing both isolated summaries and a study strategy was conducted to examine how mathemagenic behaviors would facilitate students' comprehension and recall of the prose material they studied. Some students were given material containing interspersed…

In a series of five experiments, novices read a text on computer programming, and engaged in one of the following learning strategies: advance organizer, model elaboration, comparative elaboration, normal reading (control). Results of transfer tests indicated a pattern in which the treatment groups excelled on the ability to put the information…

The use of an advanced organizer (a generalizable, encompassing concept) prior to an individualized instructional sequence in a self-paced, audiotutorial learning format was accompanied by gains in individual unit achievement and in retention by disadvantaged biology students. Although behavioral objectives generally were shown to make no…

The purpose of this meta-analysis of 77 advance organizer research reports was to identify characteristics of the experimental settings and materials that had relationships with the treatment effects obtained through the use of advance organizers. The dependent variables used to represent the treatment effects were the t-statistic for the…

A study was conducted to determine: (1) the relationships between prior knowledge and passage recall; (2) the effect of a prereading activity (PReP) on available knowledge; and (3) the effect of the PReP activity on total comprehension scores. The subjects were 161 sixth grade students from a middle class suburban Long Island, New York, public…

After expanding on the definition of advance organizers as proposed by David Ausubel, this paper offers possible reasons for the lack of strong empirical support for the use of the strategy. It then cites examples of the successful use of advance organizers with learners from nursery school through college and in a variety of disciplines. The…

The purpose of this study was to isolate factors responsible for the discrepant results reported in the advanced organizer literature, and to identify processes children employ when attempting to recall connected verbal materials. The subjects were 64 middle-class children randomly selected from a local school system. An equal number of male and…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of reader generated questions while studying textbook-type material. One hundred and eight college students were assigned to one of the following treatment conditions: experimenter presented questions before reading, reader generated questions before reading, experimenter presented questions…

This study examined the effectiveness of an organizer when used before versus after a unit of study. It also investigated the effects of type of unit (hierarchical or spiral organization) and students' ability level on the usefulness of advanced organizers. (SD)

High school students with high or average achievement motivation read a passage with a list of learning goals. Two different goal lists were used. The 24 students were also instructed to expect a particular type of test questions. A free-recall test was administered; results are discussed. (GDC)

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…

Revealed a positive relationship between the humanistic emphases of beginning teachers and the importance they assigned to such research-based teaching practices as the use of advance organizers, behavioral objectives, and cooperative learning strategies. (Author/ABB)

The listening comprehension performance of 64 educable mentally retarded students (mean age 15) and a nonretarded younger sample was assessed when using the following types of advance organizers: knowledge statements; knowledge-plus-purpose statements; control (no information). Among all subjects, comprehension scores were significantly higher in…

Argues that the purpose of daily homework is either to prepare the student for the next lesson or to practice concepts and skills learned in the previous lesson. Suggests that teachers' homework policies must reflect one of these purposes. (SRT)