Real Feminine Face of Modern India

Real Feminine Face of Modern India

Today with the help of science and technology we have bridged the gap of time and space and have worn the mask of modernity. Today blind westernization has become the symbol of modernity. No doubt, no area is left where women have not put their feet. From the conquering heights of flights (Air Force), we can see the feminine face in every field whether it is politics, defence, science and technology or any other. But think for a minute is it the real feminine face which is mentioned above? The reality is entirely different. Although we cannot deny realities of Meera Nair, Ekta Kapoor, Kohinoor, Hampi, Sonia Gandhi and Ritu Sharma. But this is an only a handful amount of the half of the population of the entire world. If we open our eyes towards reality we shall find that it is very disheartening. Violence against a woman starts even before she puts her feet on the earth. To be a woman is the biggest curse for a woman. She seems to live her life on the double register law and languages; which emphasizes her roles as standing outside of language and law. The law book of Manu declared, “Where women are verily honored; there the Gods rejoice; where however, they are not honored these all scared rites prove fruitless.” When we our ancestry we find that Manu who was a staunch believer in the co-ordinated and harmonious development of human personality; assigns a very reasonable place to women in the framework of society. He does not regard them as necessary evils to be tolerated anyhow but as the prime factor of the man’s worldly as well as spiritual happiness. Man cannot make any progress if there be no woman standing by this side ready to co-operate with him in all his activities. Man’s powers lie dormant so long as they are not touched by the spark of a woman’s love and affection. The wheel of the world cannot move in the absence of a woman.

In ancient times, are women had the ceremony performed for them. They were entitled to study of ‘Vedas’. They were also entitled to chanting of Gayatri Japa. When Vedic civilization was at its peak, the wife of Manu Maharj had desired a female child at ‘Putrayesthi Yajana’. But in the later ages the condition of women deteriorated. The Indian women today are rarely considered as an individual. Instead she is viewed in her roles of daughter, wife or mother. Since she is thought to be lacking any internalized norms or self-discipline, it is imperative that her father, husband and sons protect her from the outside world. Due to restrictions placed upon women by the nature of their roles, initial attempts to improve the conditions of women were taken up by men. From Raja Ram Mohan Ray to M K Gandhi; many reforms highlighted the excessive restrictions placed upon woman as social evils which need ameliorations. The founding father of our constitution had envisaged the concept of full equality of women in competition with men which has not fully become a reality till date, and women who theoretically enjoy an equal status with men in the Constitution of India have not been able to exercise that equality in letter and spirit. In 1976 surgical abortions were recognized as legal acts. The reason behind it was to provide health protection to women. But in the present days sonography has become a very cruel means to kill the female child before birth. In spite of special laws, women have not been able to get justice. There has been a constant increase in the number of crimes against women. Harassment of women at workplace is also on increase which is because women do not come forward and raise their voices. In the modern world, the role of the women goes much beyond the home and the bringing up of children. She is now adopting a career of her own responsibility for the development of the society in all its aspects. This is the direction in which we shall have to move fast. In a male dominated society, the women suffer from the varieties of gender bias and repressive laws in all fields of life. Right from the moment of birth up to that of death, they suffer from severe handicaps in the field of education, health care, child bearing and rearing, laws related to marriage, inheritance rules and also personal laws. Women must muster enough courage and fight against all inequalities and repressions in whatever from they may be. Women must take part in organized activities. In this, the trade unions can be of great assistance and they must take more and more interest to promote their career related prospects. Women are not aware about their fundamental rights to from association or unions. It is high time that at least they should awaken and take active part in decision making bodies; only than they will be able to enjoy equality with men. Participation of women not only makes them visible but also strengths the movements and gives it publicity. Further, their participation helps to steer the movement in certain directions often away from violence. It is only recently that women have awakened and realized their strength. Anyway it is never too late. 21^st century will be women’s century and let us all work untidily to shape it.       

           Dr. Surat Pyari Pathak

Republished with thanks from:    D E I Magazine (2001-02), Pg. 43-44.  

RELATION BETWEEN CAREER MATURITY AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Dr. V K Pathak

Dr. Surat Pyari Pathak

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the seeming lack of traits and characteristics that need to describe career maturity among youth of secondary school students. Terminal points of the study are secondary school students of CBSE Delhi using a randomly selected sample from Agra & New Delhi. The authors drew data with a validated set of questionnaires on the status and level of their Career maturity. Data revealed that more than half of the sample are low on the maturity status while another considerable percentage are just barely mature, displaying traits of not having a specific career in mind. It was also found that the youth at secondary level do not spend time to think through possible employment in the society, they mostly never consult with adults on the demands of the world of work among other immature traits. Positive correlation between academic performance and carrier maturity was found in the study. School activities may improve the status of the students’ career maturity status was suggested as a improving measure.

Keywords:  Career maturity, Career maturity status, secondary school students, Academic Performance, Grade point Average (GPA).

Successful completion of schooling represents a channel for greater earnings and upward career mobility, and also increases the likelihood   for better earnings and employment. Additional benefits found to be concomitant with advanced education include greater occupational choice, political participation, and better mental health (Levin, Guthrie, Kleindorfer, & Stout, 1971). Advanced education is also a means for personal achievement, for a role providing service to others in the community and to participation in admired and rewarding professions in contemporary culture.

Secondary level students have to face various difficulties to successfully completion their schooling. As they stand at the threshold of the age of stress, strain and storm (G. Stanley Hall). Several factors affecting academic performance in the present study have been identified and examined, yet found to be inconsistent predictors of academic achievement (Huffman et al., 1986).

 

 Studies have shown that career maturity, realistically deals with occupational choices, correlates positively with academic performance in most student populations, including academic groups (Walsh & Hanle, 1975; West, 1986). Some distinct subgroups, however, are exceptions (Burkhead & Cope, 1984), and minority ethnic groups have been found to score consistently lower on career maturity than comparison to other groups (Loesch, Shub, & Rucker, 1979; Pelham & Fretz, 1982). Researchers working with secondary students often conclude that more study is needed to understand and address the problems in both educational and career processes of this group (Gade, Fuqua, & Hurlburt, 1984; Huffman et al., 1986; Lee, 1984). Consequently, we decided to examine the career maturity and its relationship with academic performance among students.

Students’ scores were found to be influenced by the factors other than ethnicity, including rural or urban background of the students, age, educational grade level, and gender. This present study shows an attempt to investigate and compare the career maturity of the Delhi and Agra students, and to determine if the positive correlation between career maturity and academic performance found in the population exists in this group.

Objectives

1. To study is there any correlation between Career Maturity and Academic Performance.

2. To study whether the variation in Academic Performance effects upon Career Maturity of students or not.

Hypothesis

H 1. There is no significant relation between Career Maturity and Academic Performance.

H 2. There is no significant effect of Academic Performance on Career Maturity.

Methodology of the Study

Sample of the Study

Selection of Sample for Study

The sample used in the present study consisted of 100 students who were enrolled at Delhi and Agra during session 2011-2012. The students were drawn from participation in two assignments. One group of 25 students participated voluntarily in a study of the effects of a computer-based guidance system conducted by a counselor in the school’s Career/Life Planning Center. In the second study, a Career Services program at the school administered a career maturity instrument to 25 students to obtain information regarding their educational and career planning characteristics. Career planning services and workshops are some of the activities offered by Career Services. These students voluntarily completed the instrument and a short data sheet, and were encouraged to make appointments to review their scores with the counsellor.

Fig.1: Sample of the Study

There was no significant difference in the mean age of the two groups. Grade-point average (GPA) was used as the operational definition of academic performance in the study, and the results of a t-test on GPA showed a significant difference (t = 3.04, p<.01) between the two groups, viz. students of Delhi & Agra.

Table: 1:  Student’s Distribution

Variable	Level	Students of Delhi	Students of Agra	Total
Academic Achievement	High	15	13	28
	Medium	24	27	51
	Low	11	10	21
Total		50	50	100

The total sample consisted of 28 students of High academic achievements, 51 students of medium academic achievement and 21 students of low academic achievements. The examination of the present study was based on four equal working weeks same as Delhi and Agra. The examination revealed no significant difference of the two groups examine for the study.

Instrument of the Study

The Career Maturity Inventory by Dr. Nirmala Gupta (An Indian Adaption of Crites’s CMI Test) was administered to the students in both groups. The score on this instrument was used as the operational definition of career maturity. The Attitude Scale is used for the study is Career Maturity Inventory (CMI), and "elicits the feelings, the subjective reactions, the dispositions that the individual has toward making a career choice and entering the world of work" (Crites, 1978, p. 3). Crites states that "Maturity of these attitudes is also associated with an individual having definite career choices, being consistent in choices over time, and making realistic choices" (p. 4).

CMI is the most widely used measure of career maturity, and has been in use for over a decade [Palmo and Lutz (1983)]. The CMI was developed initially for use with grade school and high school students. The CMI or its precursor, the Vocational Development Inventory, have been used in studies involving college populations (Anderson, 1976; Walsh & Hanle, 1975; West, 1986), ethnic minority populations (primarily Black students) in high school and college (Pelham & Fretz, 1982; McNair & Brown, 1983), other high school populations which included American Indian students (Lee, 1984; Schmieding & Jensen, 1968), disabled college students (Burkhead and Cope, 1983), rehabilitation clients at various stages of retraining (Strohmer, 1981), and disadvantaged students, some college-aged who dropped out of high school (Palmo & Lutz, 1983).

Procedure of the Study

Pearson product-moment correlations between career maturity and GPA were computed. The mean career maturity scores were compared with t-tests for significant differences.  

Data from the study were also investigated by three methods for the effect of class standing on the relationship between career maturity and GPA, and for career maturity differences in each class. I, the Pearson product-moment correlation between CMI score and cumulative credit hours was found for the total sample of two groups. II, the Pearson product-moment correlation between CMI scores and GPA was determined for each group in the total sample. III, the mean career maturity scores for each group were compared.

Results

The relationships of career maturity and academic performance are reported in Table 1.

TABLE 2:  Correlations between GPA and Career Maturity (CMI)

Category	N	Correlation*
Total Sample	100	r=.3949(p=.030)
Students of Delhi	50	r =.4174 (p =.022)
Students of Agra	50	r =.3953 (p =. 026)

*Pearson product-moment coefficient. 

 Results showed a significant positive correlation between career maturity and GPA for the total sample of students. A significant positive correlation was found for the group of students in the sample.

TABLE 3:   Mean GPA, Mean CMI Correlations through Levels

Category	No. of Students	GPA	CMI-AS	Correlation, (p)
Total Sample	100*	2.47	37.1	.3233 (.36)
Low Academic Achiever	21	2.36	33.5	.4177 (.022)
Medium Academic Achiever	51	2.63	37.6	.4687 (.057)
High Academic Achiever	28	2.67	38.0	.2173 (.497)

*N=100[Delhi(50)+Agra(50)]

Discussion

Implications of the Study

Present study reveals that students often score as fewer careers mature in relation to their academic achievement. It shows the results of the comparison of mean career maturity scores for the students have significantly related with their academic achievement. In fact, while the career maturity was nearly equal to the scores of academic achievements.

This study also investigated whether the positive correlation between career maturity and academic performance found in populations existed in this group of students. It can be concluded from the results that career maturity is positively correlated with GPA.

The mean career maturity score and the correlation between career maturity and GPA for students also suggest that career education might be used to address the problem of the educational attention rate of students. Career education has been shown to influence academic achievement for the better in other populations.

References

Anderson, A. (1976). The validity of the Career Maturity Inventory as a measure of career maturity among first-year community college students in southwest Virginia. Dissertation Abstracts International, 37, 5595A-5596A.

Burkhead, E.J. & Cope, C.S. (1984). Career maturity and physically disabled college students. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 27, 142-149.

Crites, J.O. (1978). Career Maturity Inventory: Administration and use manual (2nd ed.). Monterey, California: CTB/McGraw-Hill.

Gade, E.M., Fuqua, D., & Hurlburt, G. (1984). Use of the Self-directed Search with Native American high school students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 31, 584-587.

Gupta, Nirmala (1971). Career Maturity Inventery (An Hindi Adaption of Jhon O’ Crites CMI: Agra, National Psychological corporation.

Havighurst, R.J. & Levine, D.U. (1979). Society and education (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Huffman, T.E., Sill, M.L., & Brokenleg, M. (1986). College achievement among Sioux and White South Dakota students. Journal of American Indian Education, 25 (2), 32-38.

Lee, C.C. (1984). Predicting the career choice attitudes of rural Black, White, and Native American high school students. Vocational Guidance Quarterly, 32 (3), 177-184.

Levin, H. M., Guthrie, J.W., Kleindorfer, G. B., & Stout, R.T. (197 1). School achievement and post-school success: A review. Review of Educational Research, 41, 1-16.

Loesch, L.C., Shub, P.A., & Rucker, B.B. (1979). Vocational maturity among community college students. Journal of College Student Personnel, 20, 140-144.

McNair, D. & Brown, D. (1983). Predicting the occupational aspirations, occupational expectations, and career maturity of Black and White male and female 10th graders. The Vocational Guidance Quarterly, 32, 29-36.

Olson, L. (1979). Does career education influence academic achievement. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 12 (3), 71-74.

Palmo, A.J., & Lutz, J.G. (1983). The relationship of performance youngsters. Measurement and Evaluation in Guidance, 16, 139-146.

Pelham, J.P. & Fretz, B.R. (1982). Racial differences and attributes of career choice unrealism. The Vocational Guidance Quarterly, 31, 36-42.

Schmieding, O.A. & Jensen, S.F. (1968). American Indian students: Vocational development and vocational tenacity. The Vocational Guidance Quarterly, 17, 120-123.

Scott, W.J. (1986). Attachment to Indian culture and the "difficult situation": A study of American Indian college students. Youth and Society, 17, 381-395.

Strohmer, D.C. (198 1). Exploratory use of Crites’ CMI-Attitude Scale with rehabilitation clients. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 24, 370-373.

Walsh, W.B. & Hanle, N.A. (1975). Consistent occupational preferences, vocational maturity and academic achievement. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 7, 89-97.

West, D. (1986). The relationship of career maturity and GPA, age, gender and class status of selected students at Eastern Montana College. Unpublished manuscript, Eastern Montana College, Billings.

Zytowski, D.G. (1978). A review of the Career Maturity Inventory. In O.K. Buros (Ed.), The eighth mental measurements yearbook, (pp. 1565-1567). Lincoln: University of Nebraska, Buros Institute of Mental Measurements.

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Effectiveness of Advance Organizers for Open Learning

Dr. V K Pathak

Dr. Surat Pyari Pathak

Abstract

In now a day we can assess an interrelationship between various teaching activities and learning conditions with the help of models of teaching in the most convenient way. Generally, these models are prototypes of theories of teaching. Model of teaching concerns a pattern ...or plan or pattern of teaching which can be used to shape a curriculum or course to select instructional materials and to guide the teacher's actions (Joyce and Weil, 1985).As we know that open learning is speedily become the choice of today’s time and conditions;  the present study reveals the effectiveness of Advanced Organiser Model for open learning.  Ausubel (1963) was the one who advocated improvement in expository method of teaching. He viewed teaching learning and curriculum simultaneously in one gestalt. The main focus of his thinking is on meaningful learning. He believes that the meaningful learning is acquiring new knowledge of a particular subject at any given time. His concept of meaningful learning is proving very helpful in open learning as it provides new learning material with existing ideas in the learner's cognitive structure. At the end we can say that the Advanced Organizer Model can play an effective role in  open learning.

                                                                                                            

KEY WORDS:  Advance Organizer Model (AOM), Open Learning, Effectiveness, Advance Organizers.

 Introduction to ideas of Advance Organizers in Teaching and Learning

Advance organizers can be thought of as extremely well-designed and thought out unit outlines, presented before the actual topics to be learned (in advance of learned material). It is notable that the Advance Organizer model is designed to prepare open learners for how to think about the lessons to come, giving some detail about terminology and connections but not giving the entire unit content. Advance organizers are not designed for day-to-day use; instead, they are used to provide a structure at the beginning of a major unit of study. Ausubel suggests 2 different types of organizers for 2 different purposes though others have suggested other organizers; they seem to fall within these categories:

1.  Comparative Organizers present a study of the differences between items the open learner already knows and what they are about to learn.

2.  Expository organizers present a basic concept at a very high, abstract level. They can be used in combination also, but it is more likely to be   used separately as each has its own separate strength.

 It is important to note that Ausubel’s Advance Organizers provide a structure for open learner thinking, not just a structure for lessons themselves. In this way, open learners are engaged in active learning, adding to the existing lecture and other potentially passive activities that are offered in the classroom.

We can better understand advance organizer in the following way;

“ These organizers are introduced in advance of learning itself, and are also presented at a higher level of abstraction, generality, and inclusiveness; and since the substantive content of a given organizer or series of organizers is selected on the basis of its suitability for explaining, integrating, and interrelating the material they precede, this strategy simultaneously satisfies the substantive as well as the programming criteria for enhancing the organization strength of cognitive structure." (Ausubel, 1963).

“An advance organizer is not an overview, but rather a presentation of information (either verbal or visual) that are "umbrellas" for the new material to be learned.”

What Advance Organizers Are NOT:

• A review of what was covered in the previous class session
• A simple overview
• Recalling what was done last week or last year
• Telling the open learners about tomorrow
• Recalling a personal experience and relating it to what will be learned
• Stating the objectives of the lesson

What Advance Organizers ARE:

• Organizational cues .
• Tools that help connect the known to the unknown.
• Frameworks for helping open learners understand what it is they'll be learning.

An Advance Organizer helps to organize new material by outlining, arranging and sequencing the main idea of the new material based on what the learner already knows. Advance Organizers use familiar terms and concepts to link what the open learners already know to the new information that will be presented in the lesson, which aids in the process of transforming knowledge and creatively applying it in new situations. This process helps to embed the new information into long term memory. Advance Organizers don't have to be lengthy or complex just clearly understood and related to the material.

Advance organizers place the most general and comprehensive ideas at the beginning of a lesson and progress to more structured and detailed information. They can be useful devices at the start of a unit, before a discussion, before a question-answer period, before giving a homework assignment, before open learner reports, before a video, before open learners read from their textbook, before a hands-on activity, and before a discussion of concepts based on open learners' experiences.

The framework and the instructional design model

• “According to Ausubel, learning is based upon the kinds of super ordinate, representational, and combinatorial processes that occur during the reception of information. A primary process in learning is subsumption in which new material is related to relevant ideas in the existing cognitive structure on a substantive, non-verbatim basis’ Ausubel.

• “Ausubel suggests that advance organizers might foster meaningful learning by prompting the open learner regarding pre-existing super ordinate concepts that are already in the open learner's cognitive structure, and by otherwise providing a context of general concepts into which the open learner can incorporate progressively differentiated details. Ausubel claims that by presenting a global representation of the knowledge to be learned, advance organizers might foster "integrative reconciliation" of the sub domains of knowledge - the ability to understand interconnections among the basic concepts in the domain.” Ausubel's Advance Organizers,
•  Advance organizers are used in good "transmissive" teaching, e.g. direct instruction. Such teaching is different from simple rote learning, since learners are encouraged to relate new knowledge to old knowledge (what they already know).

According to Joyce et al. (2000), the advance organizer model has three phases of activity. We can use them for open learning in the way mentioned below:

Phase I (includes presentation of the advance organizer)

• Clarify the aims of the lesson to the open learner.
• Providing. the advance organized material to the open learner.
• Prompting awareness of relevant knowledge of the open learner.

Phase II (includes making links to/from the organizer)

• Providing. the learning task or learning material to the open learner.
• Organization and logical order of learning material explicit.

Phase III (strengthening of the cognitive organization)

• Integrative reconciliation and active reception learning (e.g. the teacher can ask learners to make summaries, to point out differences, to relate new examples with the organizer).
• Elicit critical approach to subject matter (have open learners think about contradictions or implicit inferences in the learning material or previous knowledge)

Fig.1  :  Activity Phases of Advance Organizer Model

The simple principles behind advance organizers are that:

1. Most general ideas should be presented first in an organized way (not just a summary) and then progressively differentiated.
2. Following instructional materials should integrate new concepts with previously presented information and with an overall organization.

Therefore, advance organizers present a higher level of abstraction. They are not just simple overviews, illustrating examples etc.! But they share with such techniques the idea, that they must be integrated with other teaching/learning activities.

“ Advance organizers provide the necessary scaffolding for open learners to either learn new and unfamiliar material (an expository organizer which provides the basic concept at the highest level of generalization) or to integrate new ideas into relatively familiar ideas (a comparative organizer which compares and contrasts old and new ideas). Ausubel contends that these organizing ideas, which may be single concepts or statements of relationship, are themselves important content and should be taught because they serve to organize everything that follows. Advance organizers are based on major concepts, generalizations, principles, and laws of academic discipline.”  

Six Easy Steps of Advance Organizer for open learner

1. Begin by describing the goal of the lesson.
   Present open learners with the advance organizer. An advance organizer can be in the form of a handout, but you can also use charts, diagrams, oral presentations, or concept maps. We can provide a concept map to illustrate the interrelationship between complex relationship among many parts. This helps put the new knowledge into context while helping the open learners relate the new material to previous knowledge.
2. Present the material.
   Maintain attention by presenting the material in a well-organized fashion. We can make the order of learning material explicit. The general ideas are presented first, followed by a gradual increase in detail and specifics.

Fig.2:    Six Easy steps of Advance Organizer for Open Learner

1. Use Integrative Reconciliation.
   Create your advance organizer that you remind open learners of the bigger picture, while relating new ideas to previously learned content. Repeat precise definitions, and encourage open learners to use the new vocabulary in discussion groups (online or in-class). Encourage open learners to think critically about the material by asking for a summary of the major attribute of the new material, and asking them to look for differences between aspects of the material.
2. Promote active reception learning.
   You may provide your open learners with a concept map or diagram -- now ask them to relate the new material to their prior knowledge. For example, have open learners generate new examples (different from what you've given them) and have them verbalize or write about what they've learned. To promote higher order thinking, ask open learners to examine material from other points of view and to relate the new material to contradictory material, experience, or knowledge.
3. Elicit a critical approach to subject matter.
   Ask your open learners to look for assumptions that may have been made in the new material by reading between the lines. Require that they take an active role in their own learning by judging and challenging any assumptions or inferences to reconcile any contradictions.
4. Clarify.
   Rephrase previous information as you add new information to clarify the concepts. Ask open learners to use the new information by applying it to new problems or examples.

Examples:

• Ask open learners to compare and contrast the new content based on what they know. For example, what can they tell about its color, shape, smell, feel, or taste? Demonstrate by using a related determinant.
• Give a scenario and ask open learners to infer rules based on their current knowledge.
• Have open learners identify the characteristics of a known quantity and then relate it to the new idea/concept. For example, offer renderings of different types of geometric forms before discussing their individual likenesses and differences.
• Identify a problem and ask for a reason why it may occur (before teaching the reason). For example, you might discuss the origins of a war before describing its major battles.

Advance Organizers, some Cues and Questions

Teachers set the stage for learning by finding out what open learners already know, then connect new ideas to open learners' existing knowledge base. Using a variety of instructional strategies, teachers guide open learners from the known to the unknown, from familiar territory to new concepts. Cues, questions, and advance organizers are among the tools and strategies that teachers use to set the stage for learning. These tools create a framework that helps open learners focus on what they are about to learn.

Asking questions and prompting open learners' replies with cues are strategies that come naturally to most teachers. In fact, some 80 percent of  learner-teacher interactions involve cues and questions (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). By fine-tuning questioning strategies with insights from research, teachers can become even more effective at guiding open learners' learning.

Like questions, advance organizers are also commonly used to help set the stage for instruction. Since David Ausubel (1960) first described advance organizers as a cognitive strategy to help learners learn and retain information, teachers have developed a variety of forms for effectively organizing learning. Graphic organizers show how new ideas or concepts relate, providing open learners with a visual framework for acquiring and organizing new information.

Key Research Findings

·         Learning increases when teachers focus their questions on content that is most important, not what they think will be most interesting to open learners (Alexander, Kulikowich, & Schulze, 1994; Risner, Nicholson, & Webb, 1994).

·         Higher-level questions that ask open learners to analyze information result in more learning than simply asking open learners to recall information. (Redfield & Rousseau, 1981). However, teachers are more apt to ask lower-order questions (Fillippone, 1998; Mueller, 1973).

·         Advance organizers, including graphic ones, help open learners learn new concepts and vocabulary (Stone, 1983). Presenting information graphically as well as symbolically in an advance organizer reinforces vocabulary learning and supports reading skills. (Brookbank Grover, Kullberg, & Strawser, 1999; Moore & Readence 1984).

·         Learners learn more when they are presented information in several modes (Paivio, 1986).

·         By increasing the amount of "wait time" after asking a question, teachers foster increased open learner discourse and more open learner-to-open learner interaction (Fowler, 1975).

Implementation

Teachers want the time spent planning and teaching to generate the most effective and sustained learning. By implementing the recommendations below focused on cues, questions, and advance organizers teachers can gain from research and maximize effort.

1. Pace yourself. Teachers commonly underestimate how often they ask questions in class. Use questions to help open learners focus on what is more important to learn. Remember to ask questions when you introduce new content, and not just at the end of learning experience. Asking questions will not only tell you what open learners already know, but also whether they are starting with misunderstandings about a topic.
2. Ask higher-level questions. Think about how to phrase questions. By asking questions that require analysis, you prompt open learners to go beyond simple recall of information and help to develop their higher-order thinking skills.
3. Wait time matters. Give open learners time to think before jumping in with an answer to your own question. Pausing for just a few seconds is likely to generate better classroom discourse, including more conversation among open learners.
4. Preview the big picture. Help open learners see where you are going by giving them an overview of what a lesson or unit will cover.
5. Use multiple modes. Connect with diverse learning styles by presenting previews of information in multiple ways—visually with graphic organizers, verbally (aloud), and in writing.

References:

Ausubel, D. P. (1960). The use of advance organizers in the learning and retention of meaningful verbal material. Journal of Educational Psychology, 51, 267-272.

Ausubel, D. (1978). In defense of advance organizers: A reply to the critics. Review of Educational Research, 48, 251-257.

Bromley, K., Irwin-DeVitis, & Modlo, M. (1995). Graphic Organizers. Scholastic Professional Books: New York.

Joyce, B., Weil, M., Calhoun, E. : (2000). Models of teaching, 6th edition, Allyn & Bacon, 2000.

Joyce, B., & Weil, M., & Calhoun, E. (2003). Models of teaching (7th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Mayer, R. (2003) Learning and Instruction. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

Mayer, R. (2002). The Promise of Educational Psychology. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

Ogle, D. S. (1986). K-W-L group instructional strategy. In A. S. Palincsar, D. S. Ogle, B. F. Jones, & E. G. Carr (Eds.), Teaching reading as thinking (Teleconference Resource Guide, pp. 11-17). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Stone, C. L. (1983). A meta-analysis of advanced organizer studies. Journal of Experimental Education, 51(7), 194-199.

Woolfolk, A. (2001). Educational Psychology, 8th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

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