Grade 10 students were taught a hierarchy of intellectual skills in three different contexts: skills taught in isolation; additional verbal instructions provided; and skills taught in relation to a relevant anchoring idea. Results showed that use of the anchoring idea context enhances meaningful learning of complex skills. (Author/GK)

In five experiments, novices read a computer programing text and engaged in one of these learning strategies: advance organizer, model elaboration, comparative elaboration, normal reading. Results of transfer and recall tests suggested that elaboration techniques can be applied to "real-world" materials, resulting in more integrated…

Research from four subareas of prose learning (advance organizers, response modes, objectives, and inserted questions) is considered and weaknesses in the studies conducted are noted. Suggestions are advanced as to how researchers might profitably spend their energies in the future. (RC)

The comprehension and recall of instructional text is heavily dependent upon the contexts in which information input and retrieval occur. College students (N=44) recalled the contents of a hierarchically structured text immediately after study and again six weeks later. Total meaningful recall was better when the superordinate concepts, or cues,…

The effects of visual, and verbal/visual, preorganizers and postorganizers on the learning of unfamiliar information were evaluated in an experimental study involving 153 community college students. Pre- and postorganizers were used in connection with a 20-minute lesson on the theory of communication. A 25-item, multiple-choice criterion test was…

Tests the applicability of Ausubel's theory to the meaningful learning of intellectual skills. Results of three studies of high school students indicate that advance organizers enhance learning of skills related to solubility product problems. This effect was removed if prior teaching in relevant background knowledge was included. (Author/WB)

A model is proposed for memory that stresses a distinction between episodic memory for encoded personal experience and semantic memory for abstractors and generalizations. Basically, the model holds that questions influence the nature of memory representations formed during instruction, and that memory representation controls the way in which…

Adjunct questions are test-like items interspersed at regular intervals, preceding or following prose passages, with the intention of increasing subsequent learning. In this state-of-the-art review, studies which include three major variables--age, ability, and question complexity level--are examined to determine whether a particular combination…

Theoreticians and empiricists have stressed the importance of organization in the learning process and, therefore, the importance of instructional strategies that help develop a child's ability to organize information. Theoreticians have also stressed the importance of the student's active participation in the learning process. The Directed…