College students were given a topically relevant or irrelevant outline and asked to generate propositions about the topics by drawing on existing knowledge prior to studying an instructional text. Results of conceptual clustering analyses suggest that organization was one of the mechanisms by which topical outlines increased meaningful text…

The effects on retention of adjunct questions either placed at the end of a passage or inserted after their respective paragraphs within the passage were examined. Both treatments led to superior retention of the previously questioned facts. The position of the adjunct questions did not differentially affect performance. (Author/BW)

Sophomore and junior high school auto mechanics students were given technical instruction plus advance organizers in the form of three unit booklets. In comparison with control groups, pre/posttest and retention test results show that advance organizers facilitate the learning and retention of new complex technical content. (SK)

Structured overviews can help students and teachers to clarify objectives in content reading. (KS)

Four instructional principles for alleviating cognitive overload in online learning are suggested: 1) Guide learners to prepare and maintain an effective workstation for accessing online materials, 2) Employ advance organizers for effective online navigation, 3) Arrange instructional materials for easy online manipulation, and 4) Organize…

This study investigated whether stating the instructional objectives at the beginning of instruction would help students structure their own learning. Data came from 24 lessons taught by 13 secondary school teachers to 684 urban and rural adolescent students. Teachers taught different subject lessons in different classes. Students were exposed to…

Advance organizers are used to teach specific contexts with different levels of complexity. Regardless of the educational level or context, the advance organizer (graphic organizer) is a tool that helps the learner connect the known to the unknown and remember the knowledge gained. To help in understanding this process, a case study was developed…

This study demonstrated a reliable method of determining the attributes of prose materials on an imagery-concreteness scale, and evaluated the effects of an advance organizer and a learning passage on learning and retention when the attributes of these passages are defined on a concrete-imagery continuum. (Author/PN)

The effectiveness of D. Ausubel's Advance Organizer, an introduction presented before the material to be taught, was tested with 96 mildly retarded adolescents. Results of a three-way analysis of variance indicated a facilitative effect under the written presentation, especially for high-level questions and a negative effect under the oral…

One hundred thirty-five studies of the facilitative effect of advance organizers on learning and retention were examined. Grade level, subject area studied, organizer presentation mode, and subject ability level were examined in relation to advance organizer effect. Advance organizers were shown to have a small facilitative effect. (Author/GDC)

In studies on the effect of advance objectives on readers' comprehension of prose, reliable differences were noted in the areas of the passages students focused upon depending on the presence of objectives and the level of learning they required. No differences were observed in reading comprehension. (JD)

Retention of prose is examined as it is affected by (1) outlines as advanced organizers; (2) preexperimental familiarity with the material; and (3) text genre. Findings are discussed in the context of current theories in cognitive psychology, particularly those of structure, organization, and representation of knowledge and prose. (Author/GK)

In five experiments, novices read a computer programing text and engaged in one of these learning strategies: advance organizer, model elaboration, comparative elaboration, normal reading. Results of transfer and recall tests suggested that elaboration techniques can be applied to "real-world" materials, resulting in more integrated…

The effect of advanced organizers on the meaningful learning of carefully sequenced materials in the biology classes of a rural high school was investigated. A significant difference was found in favor of the advanced-organizer group as measured by a summative achievement test. (BT)

Offers guidelines for a homework assignment in which parents and children collaborate to construct a "personal timeline" of the child's life. Suggestions are offered regarding the introduction of timelines, timeline topics and strategies, timelines as advance organizers, and other ways to use timelines in the curriculum. Research on…