Advance organizers facilitate conceptual retention and far transfer of unfamiliar technical material for learners lacking relevant prior knowledge¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 1991 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Advance organizers are effective only when learners lack prior knowledge subsumers, best tested with unfamiliar, technical, or otherwise difficult material. → Mary H. Sawyer 1991

Evidence¶

Mary H. Sawyer 1991¶

Mary H. Sawyer. (1991). A Review of Research in Revising Instructional Text. Journal of Reading Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1080/10862969109547744

q2 · i? · review · r3

The review reports Mayer's (1979) argument that organizers work only when learners lack prior knowledge subsumers, and that Barnes and Clawson's negative conclusion was criticized for using recall or achievement tests.

"The best test of advance organizers occurs when material is unfamiliar, technical or otherwise difficult for the learner to relate to his or her existing knowledge"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Advance organizers produce a small average learning benefit, larger for high-ability than for low-ability learners — related
• Advance organizers aided learning in a 1980 meta-analysis, but activating prior topic knowledge did not improve primary pupils' text comprehension in one experiment — related
• Prior Knowledge Determines New Learning — related
• Prior-knowledge activation instructions before study had little effect on retention in Experiment 2 — related
• No intervention benefits on source references in students' written conclusions (far transfer question) — related