Practical Use of Advance Organizers
How can you make practical use of advance organizers ?
An advance organizer sets the stage for further instruction; it is a specifically constructed abstract (either verbal or visual), presented prior to introduction of a lesson, organized and presented in such a way to enhance the lesson and to assist the student in understanding the new material. The organizer should be designed to prepare students in how to actively think about the lessons to come, giving some detail about terminology and connections. They can be organizational cues, hints that help connect the known to the unknown, or frameworks to help students understand what it is they’ll be learning.
Ausubel suggests two types of organizers, comparative or expository organizers. Comparative organizers present a study of the differences between items the student already knows and what they are about to learn. 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.
In practice, an advance organizer should first show the most general ideas of a subject, and then progressively branch in terms of detail and specificity. Instructional materials should then integrate the new material with previous information through comparisons and cross-referencing of new and old ideas.
This could be shown with structure, as in bubble or web maps with labeled arcs (a concept map or outline), hierarchical organization charts, flow charts (or a timeline), or organization charts. An advance organizer could be set up according to purpose, to brainstorm (a green light list of ideas), to communicate complex ideas (as in a discussion of mining before reading about union strife in the coal fields of Appalachia), or to aid learning by integrating new and old knowledge. An example of an advance organizer set up according to purpose, is the K-W-L chart, listing what students know, what they want to find out, and what they have learned. Or prior to reading Twain’s Tom Sawyer, and advance organizer of the lesson would be a discussion about the history and conditions in the South prior to the Civil War.
Ausubel, D. P. (1969). Readings in School Learning. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Joyce, B., M. Weil, and E. Calhoun. (2009). Models of Teaching (8th Ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
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