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:
- Most
general ideas should be presented first in an organized way (not just a
summary) and then progressively differentiated.
- 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
- 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. - 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
- 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. - 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. - 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. - 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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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