Use Advance Organizers¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 3 claims (2 for, 1 mixed) · 8 studies (3 quant-synthesis, 2 causal, 2 review, 1 theoretical), q2–q4 · 2 of 8 report an effect size

Description¶

An advance organizer is introductory material presented before the main learning content at a higher level of abstraction, generality, or inclusiveness than the content itself. Introduced by Ausubel, organizers come in two forms: expository organizers (new conceptual scaffolding for unfamiliar material) and comparative organizers (explicit links between new material and prior knowledge). They may be prose, outlines, concept maps, or analogies, and are carried out by framing the lesson's structure and anchoring concepts before details are introduced.

Design Implications¶

Advance organizers work by providing ideational scaffolding: they give learners a subsuming framework into which new, otherwise arbitrary-seeming details can be integrated, reducing the load of encoding disconnected facts Advance organizers improve learning. [+M]. Meta-analytic evidence shows small but consistent positive effects on learning and retention, strongest when the organizer is well-matched to the material and learners lack relevant prior knowledge Advance organizers improve learning. [+M]. The organizer must be genuinely more general and more familiar than the content — a mere summary or list of objectives does not function as an organizer.

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Analysis of what relevant prior knowledge learners already hold, so the organizer anchors to something real (Activating Prior Knowledge)
• An organizer that is more abstract and inclusive than the lesson content — a concept, model, or analogy, not a preview of the same level of detail
• Explicit connection during the lesson back to the organizer, so learners use it to subsume new material rather than forgetting it
• Analysis of what prior knowledge learners actually hold, so the organizer anchors to something real (Activation)
• Content organized hierarchically, with the organizer presenting the superordinate structure before details
• Concrete, familiar language or imagery — analogies, diagrams, or worked mini-cases outperform abstract prose Mayer's research on concrete organizers. [+M]
• Explicit signaling of how the organizer maps onto the material that follows

Constraints¶

• Effects are near zero when learners already possess well-organized prior knowledge for the topic — the organizer is redundant and adds load Advance organizers improve learning. [~M]
• A vague or overly abstract organizer that learners cannot relate to anything familiar provides no anchoring and can confuse Advance organizers improve learning. [-W]
• Organizers that merely preview content at the same level of detail (objectives lists, summaries) do not produce the effect Advance organizers improve learning. [-M]
• Benefits fade when the organizer is presented but never referenced again during instruction
• Effects are weak or absent when learners already have well-organized prior knowledge — the organizer adds redundancy rather than structure [~M]
• Abstract, generic organizers ("today we study photosynthesis") show near-zero effects; only organizers that model the structure of the content help [~S]
• If the organizer is disconnected from the lesson content, it can misdirect attention and impose extraneous load [-M]
• Organizers cannot compensate for poorly sequenced or incoherent content; they presuppose a logical hierarchy to preview

Implementation Variability¶

• Expository organizer: a new anchoring concept for unfamiliar material (e.g., defining "homeostasis" before teaching specific physiological feedback loops)
• Comparative organizer: linking new material to known material (e.g., "photosynthesis works like the Calvin cycle you learned for respiration, but reversed")
• Graphic organizer: a concept map or skeleton diagram learners complete during the lesson
• Analogical organizer: a familiar-domain analogy that maps structure onto the new topic (Analogies)
• Expository organizers — introduce new anchoring concepts for unfamiliar material (e.g., a brief model of the atom before a chemistry unit)
• Comparative organizers — relate new material to familiar knowledge (e.g., "the circulatory system works like a city's delivery network")
• Graphic organizers — spatial/diagrammatic forms such as concept maps or structured overviews, often more effective than prose for novices
• Skimming organizers — a brief preview passage of the actual text, effective for older learners with reading fluency

Target Learners¶

• Novices or learners with weak or disorganized prior knowledge in the domain, who lack structures to subsume new material Advance organizers improve learning. [+M]
• Learners facing large volumes of unfamiliar, hierarchically organized content
• Less useful for advanced learners with well-structured domain knowledge, for whom the organizer is redundant Advance organizers improve learning. [~M]
• Novices with limited or poorly organized prior knowledge in the domain, who lack anchoring structures of their own [+M]
• Younger learners benefit more from concrete, graphic organizers; abstract verbal organizers suit older, more literate learners [~M]
• Learners with high existing expertise gain little and may find organizers redundant — an expertise-reversal pattern similar to worked-examples-less-effective-with-expertise [~M]

Target Learning Goals¶

• Meaningful verbal learning: retention and comprehension of interrelated concepts
• Schema formation: building an inclusive structure before filling in details
• Transfer preparation: organizers that highlight structural relations support later analogical application Analogical reasoning improves transfer. [+M]
• Meaningful verbal learning: retention and transfer of conceptual material
• Schema formation: building hierarchical knowledge structures
• Reading comprehension and expository text learning in content areas

Instructions¶

1. Identify the core anchoring concept or model the lesson depends on, and what learners already know that can serve as a foothold (Activating Prior Knowledge)
2. Draft an organizer that is more general, more familiar, and shorter than the lesson itself — a concept, analogy, or skeleton structure (Analogies, Chunking)
3. Present the organizer first, in a few minutes at most, before any detailed content (Clear Structure)
4. Explicitly revisit the organizer at key points in the lesson, placing each new chunk of content into the framework (Chunking)
5. Close by having learners use the organizer — complete the concept map, extend the analogy, or restate the framework in their own words (Application of Knowledge)

Related Strategies¶

• Activating Prior Knowledge — the prerequisite diagnostic; organizers only anchor to knowledge that exists
• Concept Mapping — graphic organizers in their most developed form, usable before and after instruction
• Signaling — cues within materials that, like organizers, direct attention to structure
• Activating Background Knowledge — eliciting what learners know rather than supplying new anchoring concepts
• KWL — an interactive organizer variant that combines activation with goal-setting

Examples¶

• Ausubel's original studies — presenting a 500-word expository passage on the metallurgy of steel before a 2,500-word lesson on steel composition, significantly improving subsequent learning.
• Biology instruction — introducing "energy flows through ecosystems; matter cycles" as a one-sentence organizer before teaching food webs, nutrient cycles, and energy pyramids, then tagging each topic back to that framework.
• Khan Academy unit introductions and "what you'll learn" concept overviews that situate individual videos within a topic map.
• History teaching — using a comparative organizer ("revolutions in this unit follow the pattern: fiscal crisis → elite defection → mass mobilization") before studying the French and Russian revolutions.
• Ausubel's original studies — presenting a 500-word comparative passage on the properties of metals before a detailed metallurgy text, improving subsequent learning doi:10.1037/h0046669
• Mayer's model-based organizers — before a lesson on how a bicycle tire pump works, learners study a simple model with labeled parts, producing better creative problem-solving transfer doi:10.3102/00346543049003390
• Graphic organizer routines in content-area literacy — structured overviews and concept maps used before expository reading in programs such as reciprocal teaching's framing activities

Key Sources¶

• Ausubel, D. P. (1960). The use of advance organizers in the learning and retention of meaningful verbal material. Journal of Educational Psychology, 51(5), 267–272. doi:10.1037/h0046669
• Luiten, J., Ames, W., & Ackerson, G. (1980). A meta-analysis of the effects of advance organizers on learning and retention. American Educational Research Journal, 17(2), 211–218. doi:10.3102/00028312017002211
• Mayer, R. E. (1979). Can advance organizers influence meaningful learning? Review of Educational Research, 49(2), 371-383. doi:10.3102/00346543049002371
• Ausubel, D. P., Novak, J. D., & Hanesian, H. (1978). Educational psychology: A cognitive view (2nd ed.). Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
• Ausubel, D. P. (1968). Educational psychology: A cognitive view. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.