Unit 2 Content Guide
What IS an advance organizer, anyway?
Advance Organizers are actually quite simple to define: they give learners an idea of what they will be learning ahead of it being taught to them by directing attention to what is important.
One additional element of that definition is that Advance Organizers have their basis in cognitive theory, which we will look at more in-depth in our next unit. For the purposes of this unit, however, it is useful to know that the cognitive theory behind the concept of the advance organizer is based on the premise that preexisting knowledge is a conduit for learning new information. As such, advance organizer approaches to instruction rely on what learners already know as a way to prepare them for learning something new by presenting information in an integrative way. Figure 2.1 shows this relationship in basic detail.
Advance Organizer approaches to content design also rely on presentation of material that supports a variety of learning styles. For example, many of them contain visually-thematic cues like iconography, focus words, links, and images - all of which are aimed at engaging the visual learner while also guiding them through the instruction in relevant and practical ways. Visual learners aren't the only learners who will benefit from this approach, however, because advance organizers inherently provide every learner with choice.
By giving all the relevant material up-front (representations of the material, really), learners can choose where to focus first, and by relying on their existing knowledge can either advance through the content or hold back and review, ask questions, or simply just take their time.
Many advance organizers also rely on familiarity and consistency in their design, which can promote recall and support learners during the presentation of increasingly complex concepts.
Common Types of Advance Organizers
As many of you are experienced educators with instructional experiences under your belt, you are likely reading this Unit's content guide and thinking, "So every time I give students their purpose or their objectives ahead of time, I'm employing an advance organizer approach to instruction?" The answer, simply, is YES. And that's just how simple it is. However, it is useful to note that an advance organizer isn't simply a summary of information, or an outline of topics. What separates an advance organizer from those items is its basic function, which is to bridge existing knowledge with new information.
What follows is a list of some of the most common types of advance organizers:
- Learning Objectives
- Agendas
- Headings/Titles
- Prompts
- Graphic Organizers, aka Visual Advance Organizers