Suggests classroom activities to prepare students for reading. (DD)

An experiment with 109 college students examined the effects of advance organizers and repeating a lecture on test performance. Advance organizers that integrated subtopic information (linear and matrix organizers) increased recall of subtopic information but more general organizers (conventional) aided overall recall, especially general topic…

A technique for teaching children to gather new facts and ideas or to confirm previously selected information for the purpose of writing reports is described. Semantic mapping, a model for enhancing passage comprehension, is an entire process of reading, recalling, notetaking, organizing ideas, and paragraph writing. (JD)

A study involving 105 undergraduates assessed the value of testing as a means of increasing, rather than simply monitoring, learning. Results indicate that fill-in-the-blank and items requiring student inferences were more effective, respectively, than multiple-choice tests and verbatim items in furthering student learning. (TJH)

Findings of cognitive research about teaching and learning can be applied in instruction in a number of ways: focus on core concepts, use advance organizers, teach learning strategies, allow time for practice, use interactive lecturing, be aware of learning styles, and practice such strategies as problem-based learning and case method. (SK)

Finds that advance organizers and level of test anxiety had no effect on test performance of mildly handicapped high school students who took a learning test after viewing a film. (SR)

A study of university nursing students tested the effect of computer conference designs and advance organizers on critical thinking skills. Critical thinking, although not significantly different between three conference groups, was evident for groups in all three conference designs. Those conferences designed to facilitate critical inquiry showed…

Offers suggestions on teaching students to find the answers in a passage by asking questions before reading the material. (RB)

The purpose of the eight studies reported in this paper was two-fold: to identify some of the relationships that exist between the unique properties of diagrams and various aspects of cognitive processes and learning, and, subsequently, to derive principles from these relationships that would direct the design and use of diagrams in the classroom.…

This special journal edition contains research reports on children and the theatre. The seven articles discuss the following subjects: (1) how audiences function in participation plays for young people, (2) creative dramatics and handicapped children, (3) the effect of advance organizers on children's responses to theatre viewing, (4) a Piagetian…

Recent advances have been made in facilitating implementation of Ausubel's advance organizer strategy. One reason Ausubel's approach has not been widely adopted is its lack of specificity about how to relate what is to be learned to what has already been assimilated within the cognitive structure. The use of subsumptive sequencing, coordinate…

Research indicates that prior knowledge is an exceptionally important determiner of reading comprehension. Many of the prereading strategies currently used to assist reading comprehension do not help teachers identify what students already know about a topic. In an effort to integrate instructional assessment with prereading instruction, the…

Three consecutive experiments examined the effect of offering college students performance-contingent points toward their final course grade under various combinations of knowledge of correct response and rules with examples of how to perform the task. Students who were offered points and received rules with examples scored lower on an immediate…

The most common criticism of advance organizers is that their definition and instructions for construction are vague. Ausubel's books and research articles offer a precise operational definition. Construction can only be described generally because it varies according to nature of learning material, age of learner, and learner's degree of…

College subjects were given either no prepassage, a thematic prepassage, or a topic sentence prepassage followed by an ambiguous passage in either superordinate or coordinate context. The thematic prepassage facilitated performance on a rigorously scored free-recall measure and a multiple-choice measure. Superordinate contextual organization…