Research on the usefulness of metaphors as an aid to teaching statistics shows that students taught with metaphors learned more, defined terms more accurately, made more successful inferences, and made fewer errors. (CH)

Use of two direction-setting activities (the basal approach to develop student motivation and the advance organizer approach based on the text outline) to improve content area text comprehension with 24 learning disabled high school students was compared. Results indicated that the advance organizer group significantly outperformed the basal…

Describes an experiment that studied reading comprehension of French. Concludes that an advance organizer (introductory material to a reading selection) helped lower-ability students and aided the comprehension of more complex texts. (SRT)

The inclusion of "purpose questions" before passages in reading comprehension tests is evaluated in light of recent research related to schema theory and adjunct questions. While research supports the use of purpose questions, gaps and weaknesses in the available data exist. Suggestions for further study are provided. (Author/LMO)

Investigated cognitive assembly processes underlying speech production. Reported results of two experiments demonstrating that when students used an organizing device (an abstract problem-solution sequence) in preparing, practicing, and delivering speeches, they exhibited less silent pausing. (PD)

Twenty-nine reports yielding 112 studies were analyzed with Glass's meta-analysis technique, and results were compared with predictions from Ausubel's model of assimilative learning. Overall, advance organizers were shown to be associated with increased learning and retention of material to be learned. (Author)

This study investigated the assumption that students use instructional objectives as advance organizers. This assumption, developed by D. Ausubel (1968), is appealing to instructors, but has been difficult to test experimentally. Participants in this study were 8 teachers from 4 different ethnic groups applying the design in 2 lessons for 4…

This study tested the common assumption that lists of instructional objectives (LIOs) presented at the start of a lesson are used as advance organizers (AOs). Because traditional research designs have yielded conflicting results, an alternative design was used that sought to falsify the necessary association between the objectives and their use…

In two investigations students who read an "organizer" before studying biological material scored higher after the learning sessions, and on retention tests, than students who read an historical passage prior to instruction. (AL)

Advocates the use of reading guides to help journalism students read and analyze textbooks critically. (HOD)

Subjects listened to a short science passage one, two, or three times. Overall amount recalled increased with number of presentations, but recall of conceptual principles and related information increased sharply with repetition, whereas recall of formal equations and concrete analogies did not. Advance organizers functioned similarly. (Author/PN)

Notes that after 20 years of research on advance organizers there is little unequivocal evidence regarding their efficacy and optimal use. Discusses two aspects of this research that are probably responsible for these findings: lack of scientifically objective advance organizer construction and definition and the lack of objective and valid…

Grade 10 students were taught a hierarchy of intellectual skills in three different contexts: skills taught in isolation; additional verbal instructions provided; and skills taught in relation to a relevant anchoring idea. Results showed that use of the anchoring idea context enhances meaningful learning of complex skills. (Author/GK)

Presents a rationale and suggests methods for teaching reading in college social science courses. Urges instructors to stress vocabulary and purpose when making reading assignments. Discusses ways of passage-marking; the skim, question, read, record, and review (SQ3R) method; and assignment mapping. (AYC)

Subjects read a text concerning a new computer programing language, with an advance organizer given either before or after reading. On a recall test, there were different patterns of performance. Results suggested that the locus of the effect was at encoding rather than retrieval. (Author/GDC)