09 Chapter 2

CHAPTER II
MODELS OF TEACHING
THEORETICAL OVERVIEW
Philosophy behind Models of Teaching

Models of Teaching
Classification of Models of Teaching
The Teaching Act Three Phase Approach
Information Processing Models of Teaching
Goals of Information Processing Models
Advance Organizer Model
Detailed Analysis of the Instructional Effect Conceptual Structure
Detailed Analysis of the Instructional Effect- Meaningful
Assimilation of Information and Ideas
Detailed Analysis of the Nurturant Effect Interest in Inquiry
Detailed Analysis of the Nurturant Effect Habit of Precise Thinking
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER II
MODELS OF TEACHING THEORETICAL OVERVIEW
This chapter is specially designed to give an insight into the theory of
Models of Teaching with special reference to The Advance Organizer Model
(AOM) of the Information Processing Family.
2.1 PHILOSOPHY BEHIND MODELS OF TEACHING
Human beings are born with latent urges, abilities, capacities, interests,
aptitudes and other personality traits. It is the prime concern of education to
stimulate and guide these undeveloped capabilities to the most desirable
channels. The prime objective of the present education is to meet the
emerging challenges of the process of globalization. To carry out these multidimensional objectives suitable Instructional strategies are essential. This led
researchers to explore various methods and techniques, which resulted in a
balanced and integrated development of cognitive, affective and psychomotor
behaviour of the pupil.
In-depth knowledge about diverse philosophies of teachings will help
teachers to guide the learners more optimally. Vital subject matter, which has
values in and out, should be chosen for instruction. Teacher should
understand and implement predetermined objectives in measurable terms for
pupil achievement. Teacher can adopt a problem solving approach in
teaching where decision-making skills are emphasized. In order to help
teachers in this regard there are selected principles from the psychology of
learning which need to model and implement. To meet the Instructional goals,
a number of teaching strategies have been developed by educationists and
psychologists based on firm learning theories. But there is no single best way
that can be employed in all situations. The best technique is the one, which
will be most effective for reaching a particular goal in a given situation (Eggen,
Kauchak and Harder, 1979). This is the philosophy behind Models of
Teaching.
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Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview
2.2 MODELS OF TEACHING

Teaching means helping students to learn well. Powerful learners have
a wide range of strategies for acquiring knowledge. Models of Teaching were
designed to impart to learners such strategies, which will help learners to think
clearly and wisely and build social skills and commitment. They help students
to acquire information, ideas, skills, values, and ways of thinking and means
of expressing themselves in a nutshell. They are taught how to learn (Eggen,
Kauchak and Harder, 1979). Models of Teaching include many but not all of
the major philosophical and psychological orientations towards teaching and
learning. Each of them has coherent theoretical bases (Joyce and Weil,
1972).
The models approach to teaching was first described by Joyce and
Weil (1972), who defined a model as - a pattern or plan which can be used to
shape a curriculum or course to select Instructional material and to guide
teachers action. Eggen (1979) defines Models as prescriptive teaching
strategies designed to accomplish particular Instructional goals. Model differs
from general teaching strategies because of this principle. General
approaches to teaching are considered to be applicable to all teaching
situations. But these Models of Teaching are not cure-alls or applicable to all
teaching situations. Decceco (1968), making a distinction between teaching
models and a theory of teaching says that, models do not have the rigor of
tested theories. Some useful models may eventually give way to empirically
tested theories. Models of Teaching is a tool to help good teachers teach
more effectively by making their teaching more systematic, But they are not
substitute for teaching skills. They are rather complementary (Eggen,
Kauchak and Harder, 1979).
A model of teaching consists of guidelines for designing educational
activities and environment. It specifies ways of teaching and learning that are
intended to achieve certain kinds of goals. The use of models requires an
ability to identify different types of Instructional goals so that specific model
can be selected to match a particular goal. A teaching model can be
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considered as a type of blue print for teaching (Eggen, Kauchak and Harder,
1979).
Models of Teaching are really models of learning. They are designed to
bring about particular kinds of learning and to help students become more
effective learners. It helps students to acquire information, ideas, skills,
values, and ways of thinking and means of expressing themselves. It teaches
the students, how to learn (Joyce and Weil
1972). Increasing aptitude to
learn is one of the fundamental purposes of these models. Models of

Teaching enable the students to become powerful students (Joyce and Weil
1972)
2.3 CLASSIFICATION OF MODELS
Educators, Psychologists, Sociologists, System analysts, Psychiatrists
and many others have developed theoretical positions about teaching and
learning. A number or educationists have developed Models of Teaching from
different sources such as classroom situations, research in psychology and
training, therapies and theories. But Bruce Joyce and Marsha Weil brought
about the revolutionary changes in Instructional strategies.
Joyce and Weil grouped the models that they have discovered on the
basis of their chief emphasis the ways they approached educational goals
and means. They have organized these models into four families:
1. The Information Processing Family
2. The Social Family
3. The Personal Family
4. The Behavioural Systems Family
2.3.1 The Information Processing Family
The models in this family are designed to teach students the skills of
learning through thinking. They aim at increasing students ability to seek and
master information, organize it, build and test hypotheses, apply what they are
learning in their independent reading and writing and their exploration of
themselves and the world around them.
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2.3.2 The Social Family

Man is a social creature. The models under Social Family range from
the simplest processes of organizing students to work together to elaborate
models that teach democratic social organization, analysis of major social
problems and critical social values and issues. The models in this family
emphasize the relationship of the individual with the society or other person.
The core objective is to help students learn to work together, to identify and
solve problems, either academic or social in nature. Consequently, with
respect to goals, models from this orientation, give priority to the improvement
of the individuals ability to relate others, the improvement of democratic
processes and the improvement of the society (Joyce and Weil 1978).
2.3.3 The Personal Family
The models in this family focus on the individual and give emphasize
on the development of integrated feeling, thinking self the personal identity.
They shape the environment around the capacity for self-education and the
need to develop self-awareness and understanding. Models belonging to this
family, share an orientation towards the individual and the development of
selfhood. The emphasis of this model is on developing an individual into an
integrated confident and competent personality. They attempt to help students
understand themselves and their goal, and to develop the means for
educating themselves.
2.3.4 The Behavioural Systems Family
The models in this family are developed taking into consideration the
human beings ability to modify behaviour in response to tasks and feedback.
These models are used in a wide variety of application from teaching
information, concepts and skills, to increasing comfort and relaxation,
decreasing phobias, changing habits, and learning to control ones behaviour.
These models are evolved from attempts to develop efficient systems for
sequencing learning tasks and shaping behaviour of the learner and describe
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them in terms of visible behaviour rather than understanding an unobservable

behaviour.
2.4
THE TEACHING ACT THREE PHASE APPROACH

Teaching is often thought of as something that comes rather naturally
to individuals who know their subject. Teaching is a triad of sequential

interrelated acts or phases. A teacher who develops any learning experiences
first plans then implements his plans and finally evaluates the success of the
learning activity (Eggen, Kauchak and Harder, 1979).
2.4.1 Planning Phase
In the planning phase the teacher establishes goals, defines it in terms
of measurable objectives and selects a teaching model to accomplish these
goals. In short, to be able to perform planning effectively, a teacher must have
clear precise goals in mind as well as a number of teaching strategies
available.
2.4.1.1 Instructional and Nurturant Effects
The teacher has to think of another crucial aspect while planning the
lesson. This is about Instructional and Nurturant effects. The effect of an
environment can be direct or can be implicit in the learning environment. The
Instructional effects are those directly achieved by leading the learner in
certain directions. The Nurturant effects come from experiencing the
environment created by the model. (Joyce and Weil, 1978).
2.4.2 Implementing Phase
In the implementing phase, the teacher utilizes a particular model to
accomplish the goals established in planning phase. In the implementation
stage, learning activity can take many forms such as discussion, lecture,
laboratory activity or simulation (Joyce and Weil 1978). Each model is based
on some theory that has been available for many years. To translate a theory
into practical form Joyce and Weil employed a set of four concepts: Syntax,
Principle of Reaction, Social System and Support System (Joyce and Weil,
1978). The operation of each model is described within this structure.
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2.4.2.1 Syntax
Syntax or phasing of the model describes the model in action. It is
described in terms of sequence of events called phases. Each model has a
distinct flow of phases (Joyce and Weil. 1972)
2.4.2.2 Principle of Reaction
Principle of reaction guides the teachers response to the learner. It
guides the teacher how to regard the learner and respond accordingly. (Joyce
and Weil, 1972)
2.4.2.3 The Social System
The social system describes students and teachers roles and
relationship and the kinds of norms that are encouraged. The leadership roles
of the teacher vary greatly from model to model (Joyce and Weil 1972)
It refers to additional requirements beyond the usual human skills,
capacities and technical facilities necessary to implement a model.
2.4.3 Evaluating Phase
The teachers success in accomplishing the goal is measured in the
evaluating stage. Here teacher attempts to gather information that can be
used to determine whether his teaching has been successful.
Every teacher faces a wide range of problems in the classroom. The
Models of Teaching give ample scope to the teacher to adapt to suit the
classroom requirement. Educational goals have been divided into three main
areasCognitive, Affective and Psychomotor. Among these areas, our
elementary and secondary schools are primarily oriented towards goals in the
cognitive domain. Cognitive goals are primarily concerned with the intellectual
growth of individual. An important set of goals in this cognitive domain is
called information processing. An effective teacher is the one who applies the
Models of Teaching resourcefully and creatively to solve his problems.
2.5
INFORMATION PROCESSING MODELS OF TEACHING

The information processing system of the human being is a set of ideas
that provide anchors for new information or ideas as these are received and
which provide a storehouse when new meanings are acquired. As this
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information processing system acquires new information and new ideas, it

recognizes itself to accommodate those ideas and thus it is in a perpetual
state of change. New ideas and information can be usefully learned and
retained only to the extent that they are retainable to already available
concepts or proposition, which provide ideational anchors.
Information Processing Models share an orientation towards the
information processing capability of students and towards the systems that
can improve their information processing capability. Information processing
refers to the ways people handle stimuli from the environment, organize data,
sense problems, generate concepts and solutions to problems and employ
verbal and nonverbal symbols (Joyce and Weil 1978)
Some Information Processing Models are concerned with the ability of
the learner to solve problems and thus encourage productive thinking and
some other are concerned with promoting general intellectual ability (Eggen,
Kauchak and Harder, 1979).
2.6. GOALS OF INFORMATION PROCESSING MODELS
Information Processing focuses attention on the acquisition of
knowledge through an analysis of data gathered from the environment. It also
helps the students to develop the thinking skills, which will allow them to learn
on their own.
The goal of the model is to help students develop schemata and to
structure knowledge. It is designed to teach organized bodies of content or
help learners organize already understood concepts and generalization into
an overall schema. A model can very effectively serve two primary functions.
First, it can be used as a means for organizing content to be taught in an
entire course, a unit within a course, or a single lesson. It is an aid for helping
the teacher to decide on the scope and sequence of the content and it can aid
the students as a guide in their progress throughout the material. A model is
an organizing scheme for the content, the specifics of which were presented
separately in each of the succeeding chapters. Secondly, the model helps the
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learners structure previously learned concepts and generalization into

comprehensible schemata
Only creative flexible and resourceful teachers will achieve the
maximum benefit from the Models of Teaching. Teachers who are interested
in Information Processing goals have a dual objective. One is to help students
acquire bodies of useful information and other is to help them develop the
thinking skills, which will allow them to learn on their own.
Information Processing teaching strategies are based upon a relatively
new movement in psychological thinking which views the learner as an active
investigator of environment rather than a passive recipient of stimuli and
rewards.
Eggen, Kauchak and Harder, (1979), states that the major goals of
Information Processing in classroom are the development of intellectual
capabilities and acquisition of content. According to them, the information
processing activities in classroom have the following three characteristics:
1. Information is attained by students.
2. The data are processed by students into useful concepts and
generalizations
3. Information is converted into more useful form.
Thus information processing occurs in the classroom, when learners
are actively involved in analyzing data to form abstractions such as concepts,
generalizations and theories. Models belonging to this family are given below.
Models
Major theorists
1.
Inductive Thinking Model
Hilda Taba
2.
Inquiry Training Model
Richard Suchman
3.
Scientific Inquiry Model
Joseph J Schwab
4.
Concept Attainment Model
Jerome S Bruner
5.
Cognitive Growth Model
Jean Piaget, Irving Sigel and
Edmund Sullivan
6.
Advance Organizer Model
David P Ausubel
7.
Memory Model
Jerry Lucas
(Joyce and Weil 1978)
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Among these models Advance Organizer Model is useful to structure

extended curriculum sequences or courses and to instruct students
systematically in the key ideas of a field. The model can be shaped to teach
the skills of effective reception learning. Critical thinking and cognitive
reorganization can be explained to learners and they can apply these
techniques independently to new learning. Whenever ideas or information
need to be presented renewed or clarified the Advance Organizer Model is
useful. After introducing new material by using Advance Organizer Model,
deductive presentational way can be followed by inductive concept attainment
activities that reinforce the material or that informally evaluate students
acquisition of the material.
2.7 ADVANCE ORGANIZER MODEL
Advance Organizer Model is based upon the Learning Theory of
Meaningful Verbal Learning formulated by David P Ausubel, an unusual
educational theorist. The theory of Meaningful Verbal Learning applies to
situation where the teacher plays the role of lecturer or explainer. The main
purpose is to help students acquire subject matter.
The Ausubel model is a deductive information processing model
designed to teach interrelated bodies of content. He firmly espouses the view
that each academic discipline has a hierarchically organized structure of
concepts, which form the information processing system of that discipline. He
conceptualizes the discipline as levels of hierarchically organized concepts
that begin with perceptual data at the bottom and proceeds through increasing
levels of abstraction until the most abstract concept appear at the top so as to
include or subsume less inclusive concept at lower stages of organization.
These concepts are firmly linked to data to have a unique structural character.
Like Bruner, Ausubel believes that structural concepts of each discipline can
be identified and taught to the students and they then become an information
processing system, which serves as an intellectual map, which can be used to
analyze particular domain and solve problems within those domains of
activities
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The Advance Organizer strategy operates both substantively and

programmatically on the learning material. Substantively it utilizes the basic
organizing concepts and principles with the widest explanatory power,
inclusiveness, generality and readability of a given discipline. In this way the
availability of relevant subsumers in the cognitive structure is ensured.
Ausubel emphasizes that in learning, meaningful process is essential.
Material has to related to established ideas in the cognitive structure of the
learner in terms of ideas, which enable the material to be learned in a logically
coherent way. In order to accomplish this, the learner needs access during
the learning process to structure ideas that can subsume the new material to
be learned and incorporate into the cognitive structure of the learner and
provide him with anchors for the new material
Advance Organizer Model can be applied to any material, which can be
organized intellectually. It can be used in nearly every subject area, although
it was designed for use with verbal material rather than with skills and mastery
of problem solving paradigms. However, Ausubel assumes that it will be
useful in the transfer of material to new problem settings. It provides a very
good discipline for lectures. It can serve very well in the analysis of expository
material in textbooks and other Instructional materials where abstractions and
information alternate in various patterns.
Advance Organizer Model is useful to structure extended curriculum
sequences or courses and to instruct students systematically in the key ideas
of a field. The model can be shaped to teach the skills of effective reception
learning. Critical thinking and cognitive reorganization can be explained to
learners and they can apply these techniques independently to new learning.
Whenever ideas or information need to be presented renewed or clarified the
Advance Organizer Model is useful.
Ausubel makes no attempt to handle the tasks, which are necessary in
order to utilize Advance Organizer in inductive as well as reception learning. It
seems logical that some modification would have to be made of the usual
discovery procedures to accommodate the use of Advance Organizer.
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Although Ausubel stresses written and verbal material and expository or

didactic presentation, this need not be a hard and fast rule. Advance
Organizer Model is never purely expository in the interactive situations.
Children can raise their own questions. The material being organized can take
the form of dialogue. It can also be contained in a film a demonstration or
stories.
To facilitate both stability and meaning, one needs to create ideational
linkage between the students own cognitive structure and that of the
discipline to be taught. Ausubel uses two principles to organize curriculum
and instruction: progressive differentiation and integrative reconciliation. .
Progressive differentiation refers to the most general ideas of the
discipline presented first followed by a gradual increase in details and
specificity. When subject matter is programmed in accordance with the
principle of progressive differentiation the most general and inclusive ideas of
a discipline are presented first and progressively differentiated in terms of
detail and specificity. This can occur in a number of ways. One of the most
common forms of progressive differentiation is the breaking down of
superordinate into subordinate concepts. Another form of progressive
differentiation involves the breaking of concept into its constituent parts. And a
third form is the breaking down of broader generalization into more specific
ones. This type can often involve the use of examples to illustrate the
generalization being discussed.
Progressive differentiation is followed both in intra and inter unit
planning. Each component unit has an organizer. In relation to each other, the
units are progressively differentiated in descending order of inclusiveness so
that each unit serves as an organizer for the one, which follow.
Integrative reconciliation refers to the practice of interrelating or crossreferencing these units or ideas so that significant similarities and differences
are recognized and real or apparent inconsistencies are reconciled.
Integrative reconciliation simply means that new ideas should be consciously
related to previously learned content. The sequence of curriculum is
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organized so that each successive learning is carefully related to what has

been presented before.
In integrative reconciliation, teacher attempts to make the logical
relationship between ideas in the developing schema apparent to students.
Ausubel explained the purpose of integrative reconciliation as being to
explore relationships between ideas and to point out significant similarities
and differences and to reconcile real or apparent inconsistencies (1963).
Another
function
of
integrative
reconciliation
is
to
combat
compartmentalization.
There are two types of integrative reconciliation Vertical and
Horizontal reconciliation. Vertical reconciliation explores relationship between
more and less abstract ideas and is designed to insure that new ideas
between attached to old in a hierarchical fashion. Horizontal reconciliation
investigates similarities and differences between coordinate concepts and
other ideas at a similar level of abstraction.
By following these two principles, the subject matter is gradually built in
the mind of the learner. If the entire learning material has been conceptualized
and presented according to Progressive differentiation then Integrative
reconciliation follows naturally. Progressive differentiation and Integrative
reconciliation increase the stability and clarity of existing ideational anchorage
and ensure discriminability of the learning task.
The heart of Ausubels approach entails the use of Advance
Organizers. Advance Organizers consist of introductory material presented
ahead of learning task at a higher level of abstraction generality and
inclusiveness than the learning task itself. The function of Advance
Organizers is to provide ideational scaffolding for the stable incorporation and
retention of the more detailed and differentiated material that follows the
learning passage as well as increase discriminability between the latter and
related inferring concepts in the cognitive structure.
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Advance Organizer is an idea that can provide the learner with the
conceptual framework on which he can hang the new material progressively
from lesson to lesson. New Organizer relates the new material to ideas that
have been presented previously. As these organizers accumulate they form in
the learners mind the information processing structure from the discipline.
Thus by the end of series of units or activities the learner possesses a new
set of ideas. These will serve in the mind to keep the new material distinct and
clear by providing ideational scaffolding to which the new ideas are attached
and which may help to remember the new material. In addition, they provide
ideas to which he can relate his present cognitive structure so that the new
material can be integrated with the ideas that was previously using for
processing information.
The organizer is important content in itself and needs to be taught.
Time must be taken to explain and develop the organizer. Usually organizer is
tied closely to the material it precedes. However the organizer can be
conceptually distant in order to provide a new perspective.
Advance Organizers are the result of a teachers conscious attempt to
preview and structure the new material to be learned and to link it to content
already existing in students pre-existing schemata. In a sense, Advance
Organizers are like cognitive read maps, which allow seeing where they have
been and where they are going. Effective Advance Organizers connect new
information to existing schemata and provide students with a means to create
new schemata. They are at a higher level of abstraction than the content they
organize and they subsume this information (Luiton, Ames, & Ackerson,
1980).
Ausubel describes two types of organizers and identifies their optimal
applications. There are two types of organizers Expository and
Comparative. The organizers, which provide ideational anchorage, for
completely unfamiliar material, are called expository organizers. This Advance
Organizer strategy advocates those methods of presenting and ordering the
subject matter sequence that best enhance the clarity and stability of the
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cognitive structure. This method follows the principle of Progressive

differentiation and Integrative reconciliation. This will provide a holistic
conceptual structure to which the learner can relate the new material.
Expository Organizer provides a general subsumer for a new class, subclass
and species before more limited subsumers are provided for the particular
subclasses or species. Expository Organizers are especially helpful because
they provide ideational scaffolding for unfamiliar material. The organizer in
this case provides ideational anchorage in terms that are already familiar to
the learner.
Comparative Organizers are used most with relatively familiar material.
They are designed to integrate new concepts with basically similar concepts
existing in the cognitive structure; yet they are also designed to discriminate
between the old and new concepts in order to prevent confusion caused by
similarity. When relatively familiar material is being presented to the learner,
Ausubel recommends a comparative organizer, which will help the learner
integrate new concepts with basically similar concepts in cognitive structure,
which increase discriminability between new and existing ideas, which are
essentially different but confusable.
The organizer has a higher level of abstraction generality and
inclusiveness of the material and is selected on the basis of its suitability for
explaining integrating and interrelating the material. An Organizer is a general
idea which is fairly abstract, related to the material and which precedes the
material. It functions cognitively to organize the material as it is presented. It
provides a kind of conceptual framework into which the learner will integrate
the material.
Thus Advance Organizers are statements, which are introduced in
advance of the learning material itself and are designed to help students learn
and retain new material. The Advance Organizer links the new material to
more abstract ideas, which already exist in the learners mind.
In a review of research, Mayer (1984) listed a number of characteristics
of Advance Organizers:
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1. They are typically a short set of verbal or visual information

2. They are presented prior to learning a larger body of information
3. They contain no specific content from the new information to be
learned
4. They provide a means of generating logical relationship in the new
material
5. They influence the learners encoding process.
The exact form that an Advance Organizer takes is dependent upon
1. The nature of the learning material
2. The age of the learner
3. The degree of prior familiarity with the learning material
The essence of strategy rests on the Advance Organizer functioning as
a conceptual linkage from material to the learner. If the student never receives
or perceives the organizer the strategy is lost. Advance Organizer is the
primary means of strengthening cognitive structure and enhancing retention of
new information. The purpose of Advance Organizer is to explain, integrate
and interrelate the material in the learning task with previously learned
material and also help to discriminate new material from previously learned
material. The most effective organizer is that which uses concepts terms and
proposition that are already familiar to the learner as well as appropriate
illustrations and analogies.
In short it can be concluded that Advance Organizers are not reviewing
of what was covered in the previous class, a simple overview, recalling what
was done last week or last year, telling the students about tomorrow, recalling
a personal experience and relating it to what will be learned or stating the
objectives of the lesson. But Advance Organizers are organizational clues,
tools that help to connect the known to the unknown, and frameworks for
helping students understand study materials.
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2.7.1 Goals of Advance Organizer Model

Ausubels primary concern is to help teachers convey large amount of
information as meaningfully and efficiently as possible. The Advance
Organizer Model is designed to strengthen students cognitive structures.
Cognitive structure is the term used to represent a persons knowledge of
particular subject matter at any given time and how well organized, clear and
stable it is. Ausubel maintains that a persons existing cognitive structure is
the foremost factor deciding whether new material will be meaningful and how
well it can be acquired or retained. Before presenting new material stability
and clarity of prior knowledge should be increased. Strengthening students
cognitive structure in this way facilitates acquisition and retention of new
information and is one of the models primary goals.
In short, Advance Organizer Model strengthens Cognitive Structure
and enhances retention of new information through Meaningful Assimilation of
Information. This model helps in developing Interest in inquiry and Habit of
Precise thinking.
2.7.2. Planning for Advance Organizer Model
In the planning phase the teacher has to create an Advance Organizer.
In Ausubel's theory of meaningful verbal learning, an Advance Organizer is a
statement preceding a lesson that is designed to preview the material to be
learned and link it to content already existing in learners schemata. It is more
general and abstract than the content to be organized and subsumes the
subsequent material. This organizer should be more general, abstract, and
inclusive than any of the succeeding material in the text.
In formulation and selection of Advance Organizer one needs to
become very familiar with the subject area and conceptualize the discipline as
a series of hierarchically organized concepts or propositions. Presentation of
Advance Organizer is a distinct teaching episode apart from the usual
introduction or transitions that take place in any teaching transaction.
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Basically there are three types of organizers. Concept Definitions,

Generalizations and Analogies.
Concept definition: Definition can be valuable organizers of content
when the material is new or unfamiliar. Ideally, the defining statement should
possess the characteristics of a good concept definition, in that it states the
concept, the super ordinate concept and characteristics of the concept. The
super ordinate concept helps link the concept to existing schemata, and the
characteristics differentiate the concept from the other similar ones. The
preparation of the organizer requires clear thinking on the part of the teacher.
It is general, abstract and inclusive but does not include totally unfamiliar
language or ideas. Organizers that are too abstract or unfamiliar lose their
ability to link the succeeding structure to the students existing schemata.
Generalization: Because of the students ability to summarize large
amounts of information, generalizations can also be effectively used as
Advance Organizers. As with the use of definitions teachers must be certain
that the students when using generalizations as Advance Organizers
understand each of the concepts in the generalizations. If they are not, these
concepts cannot serve as anchors for the new material or link to previously
learned content. Thus generalizations could be used as an organizer to
subsume narrower generalizations and anchor specific information.
Analogy: The most effective type of the Advance Organizer is the
analogy. Analogies work well because they can be customized to fit the
background of a particular student population. Analogies are useful in
organizing school content. The value of an analogy as an Advance Organizer
depends on two factors. The first is the familiarity of the analogous element to
the students. The power of analogies comes from their ability to connect new
ideas with old. If the old ideas are not clear, they cannot provide any firm
points for connections. The second factor is the degree of overlap between
the analogy and the ideas to be taught. In all the analogies the new material is
linked to something familiar to the student and the number of possible
similarities between the two concepts being compared.
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2.7.3. Implementation of Advance Organizer Model

David Ausubel is unusual among the educational theorist. First he
directly addresses the goal of learning subject matter. Second he advocates
the improvement of presentational method of teaching. Having prepared the
Advance Organizer and structured the content in the planning phase of the
model, the lesson simply begins by displaying the Advance Organizer on the
board or screen. The organizer serves as the lessons focus and the point of
reference for each of the subsequent ideas.
2.7.3.1. Syntax of Advance Organizer Model
Ausubel believed that learning proceeds in a top-down, or deductive
manner. In a sequence of learning activities the first organizer and its material
should be hierarchically more abstract than succeeding ones, which get more
specific and elaborate than the original ones. The activities are designed to
increase the clarity and stability of the new material so that fewer ideas are
lost confused with one another or left vague. The students should operate on
the material as they receive it by relating it with new learning material to
personal experience and to their existing cognitive structure and by taking a
critical stance towards knowledge. After that students try to gather the
information, they and the teacher can ask questions to clarify ideas, add new
cultural characteristics from information they found that does not fit the
categories, make comparisons across groups, and apply them to new groups.
Alternatively, the teacher could present information about a couple of example
to develop the ideas further. In either case, the students now have an overall
picture of culture that can help them organize information about new groups
as they encounter them.
Ausubel's theory consists of three phases, presentation of an Advance
Organizer, presentation of learning task or material, and strengthening the
cognitive organization.
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PHASE ONE
Here, Clarifying the aims of lesson is one way to obtain students
attention and to orient them to their learning goals both of which are
necessary to facilitate meaningful learning.
Advance Organizer is an idea in itself and like learning material it
should be explored intellectually. Actual Advance Organizer is built around the
major concepts and propositions of a discipline or area of study. The Advance
Organizer has to be constructed so that the learner can perceive it for what it
is. It is at a higher level of abstraction and generality than learning material.
The essential features of concept or proposition must be pointed out and
carefully explained. Teacher and student should explore the organizer by
citing essential features, explaining them and providing examples. It should
not be lengthy, but must be clearly understood and continually related to
learning material to develop integrative cognitive structure. It is especially
important to prompt awareness of learner prior knowledge and experience
that might be relevant to this learning task and organizer.
PHASE TWO
In this phase, Lectures, Discussions, Films, Experiments or Reading
may provide the learning material, which is preceded in the first phase by the
Advance Organizer. Maintain students' attention and make the organization of
learning material explicit to the students so that they have an overall sense of
direction.
PHASE THREE
New material in the students existing cognitive structure is anchored. Learning
situation is more interactive in this phase. The successful acquisition of the
material will depend on the learners desire to integrate it with prior knowledge
on their critical faculty and on the teachers presentation and organization of
the material
Joyce and Weil summarize the basic procedure of the Syntax of
Advance Organizer Model as follows
37
Phase One: Presentation of Advance Organizer
Clarify aims of the lesson
Present organizer:
o
Identify defining attributes.
Give examples or illustrations where appropriate.
Provide context.
Repeat.
Prompt awareness of learners relevant knowledge and

experience.
Phase Two: Presentation of Learning Task or Material
Present material.
Make logical order of learning material explicit.
Link material to organizer.
Phase Three: Strengthening Cognitive Organization
Use principles of integrative reconciliation.
Elicit critical approach to subject matter.
Clarify ideas.
Apply ideas actively (such as by testing them).
2.7.3.2 Principles of reaction

The teacher or the Instructional material controls the situation. The
content has been selected for the learner, and the teacher should facilitate the
discussion around the material at hand. In the flow of the lesson the training
agent can function to point out the conceptual anchorages for the material and
help learners see the relationship between the material that is being
presented and the organizer.
The teachers solicited or unsolicited responses to the learners
reaction will be guided by the purpose of clarifying the meaning of the new
learning material, differentiating it from and reconciling it with existing
38
knowledge, making it personally relevant to the student and helping to

promote a critical approach to knowledge. Ideally students will generate their
own questions in response to their own drive for meaning.
2.7.3.3 Social system
The social system is a structured one. The teacher is the initiator and
the controller of norms. Beyond the presentations of the organizer the learning
situation assume a less structured posture and teacher and students can be
very interactive. The teacher retains control of the intellectual structure,
however as it is necessary to continuously relate the learning material to the
organizer and to help students discriminate new material and differentiate it
from previous materials.
2.7.3.4 Support system
Well-organized material is critical. The effectiveness of Advance
Organizer depends on an integral relationship between the conceptual
organizer and the rest of the content. The model provides guidelines for
building or reorganizing Instructional materials.
2.7.3.5 Effects of Advance Organizer Model
Ausubel feels that the continuous use of inquiry-oriented strategies
would be very inefficient because it would consume so much time and involve
so many false steps. In addition, he feels that if learners are allowed to air
their own ideas, many of those ideas will not be efficient. Therefore they will
not get the power that is to be derived from the hierarchical structure of
discipline. As a consequence, he feels that much learning needs to be
organized as reception-learning .He presents the arguments that the
reception learning can be very meaningful and should not be confused with
rote learning.
The Meaningful Reception Learning the understanding and
integration of new meaning into cognitive structure is the focal point of
Ausubels theory. Ausubel proposes supplementing meaningful reception
learning with a critical approach to subject matter. Ausubels method elicits
39
the learners active participation by requiring him to reformulate his own

generalizations and integrate his knowledge in response to carefully
programmed leading question. It is much more structured than discovery
methods.
As far as Piagets theory of development is concerned, the children
until ages 10 or 11 would not be able to handle the Ausubel strategy, because
until those age the child is unable to reach the stage of abstract thinking which
is essential to handle complex ideas.
2.7.3.6. Evaluation of effects of Advance Organizer Model
David Ausubel firmly believes in the importance of content goals.
Asking the students to provide additional examples of the concept is a way for
evaluating the acquisition of concepts through the model.
Asking students for recognition or verbal recall of generalization is a
method of evaluating the acquisition of generalization through the model. Use
of generalization to solve a problem or to predict consequences is a
significant mark of the attainment of objectives at the Knowledge and
Comprehension as well as Application levels.
The students ability to remember or recall the relationship discussed in
the class is a measure at the knowledge level. An alternative way of
measuring students knowledge of relationship is to ask them to identify,
super-ordinate subordinate and coordinate relationship within the developed
hierarchy.
One way of evaluating students understanding of relationship at a level
higher than knowledge is to ask them to apply the information learned in class
to a new situation. Another method of evaluating students understanding of
relationship would be to ask the students to write a description of comparison
between concepts. The process skill that can be attained through Ausubel
Model is that of organizing the unstructured information into a hierarchical
structure. Attainment of their goal can be evaluated by testing skill in
organization. This can be done by giving them with an unstructured list of
40
familiar concepts and asking them to develop an organized diagram of the

related concepts.
Ausubel gives many emphases to Instructional and Nurturant effects of
Advance Organizer Model. The Instructional value includes the idea
themselves that are used as the organizer and information presented to the
students. The ability to learn from reading, lectures, and other media used for
presentation is another effect. Thus the Instructional effect is the conceptual
structures and meaningful assimilation of information and ideas. The
Nurturant effect includes interest in inquiry and precise habits of thinking.
A hierarchical classification of behaviour belonging to the Instructional
and Nurturant effect will help the user to, more clearly understand the effects
of Advance Organizer Model and evaluate it. The classification of Instructional
and Nurturant effect of Advance Organizer Model should be in tune with the
educational, logical and psychological classification system.
2.8 Detailed Analysis of the Instructional Effect: CONCEPTUAL
STRUCTURES
One of the most influential psychologists David Ausubel has stressed
the importance of conceptual structures in learning. Concepts are important
language symbols used in thinking. It is a symbolic construction that represent
some common and general feature or features of many objects or events
Concepts can be thought of as lower or higher order or as form the easily
imagined to highly abstract. A concept can be learned when an individual
respond to a wide variety of stimuli that belong to same category or
classification.
Concept formation is the process of developing concepts. The purpose
of concept formation strategy is to induce students to expand the conceptual
system with which they process information. Many educationists have made
considerable contribution in this area. A detailed analysis of these will help in
forming a classification for the Instructional as well as Nurturant effects. This
classification helps to give us direction for activity organize and relate classes
41
or events from cognitive maps, order events and make decision about
investigation of meaning.
Hilda Taba designed a model to help students improve their ability to
categorize and to use categories. Hilda Tabas model is an example of
concept formation. Here students group examples together on any base and
form as many group, as they want. Each group illustrates a different concept.
The requirement of concept attainment teaching is minimal; an array of
instance or example that are alike in some ways and different in others. A
person formulates or reformulate hypothesis about the concept. Each
example provides potential information about characteristics and attribute
values of concept. In concept attainment there is only one concept. Using
clues supplied by the teacher, students try to determine the identity and
definition of that concept. The reliance on the same interpretation of the
nature of concept is common to both processes
Hilda Taba suggests that the cognitive task of concept formation
involves three major steps:
1.
Identifying and enumerating the items of data, which are relevant to a

problem. It includes the overt activity enumeration and listing and
covert activity -differentiation
2.
Grouping those items according to some basis of similarity It includes

the overt activity- Grouping and covert activity -Identifying common
properties and abstracting
3.
Developing of categories and labels for the groups which includes

overt
activity-
labelling
and
categorizing
and
covert
activity-
determining the hierarchical order of items. i.e. super and sub

ordination, Determining the cause effect relationship, going beyond
what is given and finding implication and extrapolating.
Hilda Taba suggests a strategy to induce students to expand the
conceptual system with which they process information. Each overt activity
42
elicited by the teaching strategy reflects mental operation that is hidden from
view, which Taba refers as covert.
Shirley W. Schiever in A comprehensive approach to teaching and
thinking suggests that concepts are formed clarified and extended through
the following steps of a concept development
1. Enumerate items related to the focus idea
2. Group the listed items in a variety of ways according to perceived
similarity or some type of relationship
3. Develop several labels for each group, based on the rationale for
grouping
4. Subsuming items under different labels and label under other labels by
relative inclusiveness
5. Recycle steps 2 through 4 making completely different groups and
labels.
According to Schiever the purpose of the concept development task is
to assess the level of concept development and to encourage students to
discover new relationship as they organize a mass of information. By
facilitating assimilation of new information and accommodation of existing
cognitive structure, use of concept development strategy makes possible the
organization of data or information into meaningful, student determined units
or groups. The strategy provides for not only the development but also the
organization and reorganization of concepts. In general the strategy helps
student develop
a. more openness and flexibility in their thought process
b. a cognitive structure for organizing data and
c. Process for organizing and reorganizing new data in future.
The purpose of concept formation strategy is to induce students to expand the
conceptual system with which they process information. Thus they are
required to do something with those data, something that require them to alter
or expand their capacity for handling information. In other words they have to
43
form concepts, which they subsequently can use to handle new information as
it comes their way.
Strategy for spontaneously teaching concepts as suggested by Donald
P Kauchak and Paul D Eggen is
1. Link to super ordinate concept
2. Compare to coordinate concept
3. Identify characteristics
4. Present non examples
5. Analyze context
The NCTM (National Council for Teachers of Mathematics) curriculum and
evaluation gives the following standards for evaluating concepts. The
assessment of students knowledge and understanding of mathematical
concepts should provide evidence that they can
1. Label, verbalize and define concepts
2. identify and generate examples and non examples
3. use models diagrams and symbols to represent concepts
4. translate from one mode of representation to another
5. recognize the various meanings and interpretation of concepts
6. identify properties of a given concepts and recognize conditions that
determine a particular concept
7. compare and contrast concepts
In addition, assessment should provide evidence of the extent to which
students have integrated their knowledge of various concepts.
Jerome S. Bruner, the famous Harvard cognitive psychologist,
emphasizes in his theory the importance of attainment of concepts by the
individual for his cognitive development. He has made numerous studies to
find out the process of concept formation. The process of concept attainment
involves the search for and listing of attributes that can be used to distinguish
exemplars from non-exemplars of various categories, Bruner stresses that the
44
purpose and emphasis concept formation and concept attainment are

different. Concept formation is the act by which new categories are formed; it
is an act of invention. The process of concept attainment involves the search
for and listing of attributes that can be used to distinguish exemplars from
non-exemplars of various categories.
In short, in concept attainment concept already exists. Concept
formation is the act of invention according to Bruner categorizing activity
actually has two components. The act of concept formation and the act of
concept attainment. Concept formation is the first step towards concept
attainment. The requirement of concept attainment teaching is minimal. An
array of instances or examples that is alike in some ways and different in
others. A person encounters these examples and formulates or reformulates a
hypothesis about a concept. These examples provide potential information
about the characteristic and attribute value of the concept. Child correctly
distinguish example from non-example. Then verbalize the attributes of
concept.
Bruner sees any concept as having five elements -, Name, Example,
Attribute, Attribute value and Rule. Understanding a concept implies knowing
all these elements. Another of Bruners assumption is that some strategies for
forming concepts or categorizing are more effective than others. Bruner used
the term strategy to refer to the sequence of decision that people make as
they encounter each instances of concept.
According to Bruner, conceptualizing process includes understanding
the relationship among data examples, attributes and concept and the
thinking patterns that are used to attain the concept. Bruner stressed that the
learner should be active in the process of knowledge acquisition. He selects
and transforms information, formulates hypothesis and alters hypothesis if
needed in the light of evidences. Thus a person actively constructs his
knowledge by relating new information to previously existing cognitive
structure. The manner in which a concept is made an integral part of the
learners cognitive structure shows how far that concept is internalized by him.
45
Bruners theory is centred around the three levels of learning

enactive, iconic and symbolic corresponding to manipulation of material,
dealing with mental images and manipulation of symbols respectively.
The six characteristics that can be observed in the learner while
passing through different stages of intellectual development enunciated by
Bruner are of much importance. The important characteristics are
1.
Independence of response from stimulus
2.
Internalizing event through mental representations
3.
Expression of ideas
4.
Relationship between teacher and learner
5.
Language as medium of exchange
6.
Increasing capacity to deal with different activities simultaneously.

Bruner advices that the learners should discover meaning for
themselves and the teacher should enable them to learn concept in the
language they understand. He points out that the function of school is not to
create little walking libraries. Rather it should develop in the pupil the ability to
analyze the situation properly, develop concepts and apply them for
discovering solutions to new problem. The instructor has to teach his learner
how to learn.
Like Bruner, Ausubel believes that the structural concepts of each
discipline can be identified and taught to students, which then become an
information processing system for them. They become an intellectual map
that students can use to analyze particular domains and to solve problems
within those domains.
Ausubel describes the mind as an information processing and
information storing system that can be compared to the conceptual structure
of an academic discipline. Like the discipline mind is a hierarchically
organized set of ideas that provide anchors for information and ideas that
serves as a storehouse for them. As this information processing system
46
acquires new information and new ideas it reorganizes itself to accommodate

these ideas. Thus the system is in a continuous state of change.
According to Ausubel there is a parallel between the way subject
matter is organized and the way the people organize knowledge in their
cognitive structure. He expresses the view that each of the academic has a
structure of concepts that are organized hierarchically. At the top of discipline
are a number of very broad, abstract concepts that include the more concrete
concepts at lower stages of organization.
Synthesizing the above said existing information it can be concluded
that the development of conceptual structures involves the following major
components.
1. Listing
2. Grouping
3. Labelling
4. Subsuming
5. Recycling
RATIONALE FOR INDIVIDUAL STEP
LISTING:
The information one gathers from the environment need not be in an
organized form. This data can be made meaningful through the process of
listing. Listing a variety of data related to a specific topic helps develop the
skill of determining relevancy and give student a base of information that
includes many new ideas since the group pool its thinking. Additionally the
pooling of knowledge provides all the students with a common base of data.
The teachers role at the listing step
1. to focus on data relevant to the purpose of discussion
2. to require specific data
3. to seek clarification and example of data when appropriate
4. to record specific items
47
5. to seek a variety of data

6. to limit the length of list and amount of time spent at this step.
Thus, in the first step, the students will enumerate specific human
behaviour that reflects prejudice. Here the teachers role is to focus on
specific relevant data, record data, limit list length time spent on step, and
seek variety. Support procedure that can be adopted are list data on BB, seek
clarification and variety as necessary, Review list of data before beginning
next step.
GROUPING:
The data can be grouped based on similarities or relationships.
Identifying common attributes and relationships between and among items is
essential for this process. Each learner gets a chance of observing the groups
made by others which in turn helps to expand his view of how items are
similar and different (assimilation of ideas) Grouping process promotes the
identification of multiple attribute, stimulates a flexibility openness to different
thinking style (accommodation) and creates a respect for the ideas of others.
Verbalizing reason for grouping
1. helps learners clarify their reasoning for themselves and others
2. allow other learners to add to a group made by someone else
3. enables teachers to understand the students cognitive structure
The role of teacher is
1. to seek groups formed for a variety of reason
2. to require support for the basis of grouping
3. to listen to determine level and type of classification schema
4. to designate the groups formed by marking in some way
To conclude, in the second step, students will group data based on
common attributes or other relationship and students will provide reason for
this grouping. . Here the teacher's role is to mark groups that student form and
48
seek support. Support procedures that can be adopted are to listen to

responses to determine type of groups being made and relationship seen.
LABELLING:
It is an abstracting or synthesizing process where the learner has to
express the relationship or commonality among the item, through a word or
phrase, which conveys the essence of the basis for grouping. A label
symbolizes all the items sharing the relationship or common attributes. The
act of labelling will result in developing vocabulary and creativity.
The role of teacher is
1.
to establish a link between label and the relationship of items in a

group through focus question
2.
to require verbalization of this link through the support question
3.
to require support for label that does not include the label itself
4.
to
encourage
group
interaction
regarding
appropriateness
or
inappropriateness of data
5.
to seek a variety of labels for each group
6.
to record the labels, noting with number or symbol to which group the
labels belong.
Thus, in the third step, students will suggest appropriate label for
grouped item and state reason for the label are (or are not) appropriate. Here
the teachers role is to seek at least three labels for each group, record label
and seek support. Support procedures that can be adopted are listening to
responses watch for opportunities for student interaction.
SUBSUMING:
To subsume means to classify within a large category or under a
general principle. The cognitive task of subsuming requires and develops
further an awareness of a hierarchical system of super and subordination in
which lower order items are subsumed under items of a higher order of
generality. In the concept development task, the purpose of subsuming items
49
under different labels is to explore new relationship of the data and labels.
This process makes learners efficient thinkers. Learning to subsume helps
students develop the concept of inclusiveness and helps them deal more
competently with ideas.
There are two separate and distinct subsumption tasks.
First of all learner has to subsume
a. Items that are not under a label or under existing labels
b. Items now under one label and under a different label.
While doing so, the learner could see new relationship among the data,
in addition to those already noted and interrelationship among data and
among labels. Second task is that of subsuming labels under other, or
inclusive labels. It makes clear that some labels are more general and
broader than others and that relationship and interrelationship exist between
data and labels. This helps the learner to organize data, construct sentence,
select main ideas and make generalization.
Role of teacher
1. to make the task clear through the initial focus questions and /or an
example if necessary
2. to encourage flexibility of thinking
3. to encourage student interaction regarding similar or very different
subsumption
4. to note student ability/inability to grasp the concept of subsumption
In the fourth step, students will subsume listed behaviour under more
than one label and labels under inclusive labels. And will give reason for
subsumption. Here the teachers role is to delineate task clearly and
encourage flexibility. Support procedures that can be adopted are to write
subsumed label in outlined form, to allow time for thinking and model variety
of question stems
50
RECYCLING:
Recycling promotes openness and flexibility in thinking. Steps two to
four are completely recycled.
1. It gives an opportunity to see new relationship among data
2. An opportunity to build on previous ideas, coming up with other ideas
that are more or less obvious
3. The revelation that different ways of grouping data can help achieve
different purposes
4. Promoting the idea that new ways to look at the same data and new
relationship always can be found
In the fifth step, students will form new groups for different reason,
label the new groups and subsume items and labels under labels. Student will
also give support for new groups new labels and new subsumption. Here the
teachers role is as the same as step two, three and four and encourage
discovery of new relationship. Support procedures that can be adopted are
same as the steps two three and four and erase groups and labels that were
made previously.
2.9
Detailed
Analysis
of
the
Instructional
Effect:
MEANINGFUL
ASSIMILATION OF INFORMATION AND IDEAS

According to Ausubel, the art and science of presenting ideas and
information meaningfully and effectively so that clear stable and unambiguous
meaning emerge and retained over a long period of time as an organized
body of knowledge is really the principal function of pedagogy. Ausubel also
places heavy emphasis on Meaningful verbal learning, that is, the acquisition
of information that has several links to other ideas.
According to Ausubel, whether material is meaningful depends on the
learner and the material and not the method of presentation. If the learner
begins with right set and if the material is potentially understandable then
meaningful learning can occur. The key to meaning involves solidly
connecting the new learning material with existing ideas in the learners
51
cognitive structure. A meaningful learning set implies that the learner must be
ready to comprehend and relate what is being presented, rather than to
memorize it verbatim. Meaningful learning can occur when learner struggle
with the material looking at it from different angles, reconciling it with similar or
perhaps contradictory information and finally translating it into his or her own
frame of reference and terminology. Each of these mental activities increases
the meaning and internalization of new information. Ausubel assumes that for
meaningful verbal learning to occur the learner plays an active role whether
cover or overt. The teaching model for reception learning must be designed to
facilitate these active mental operations
As Ausubel points out, one of the real problems for teachers is that
most textbooks and other teaching materials are not organized progressively.
Each topic is, instead, given a separate section of the text and treated at
about the same level of abstraction. Seldom, if ever, does the learner get to
see the overall structure of the subject matter under study in a way that is
related to his/her previous experience.
Ausubels theory of meaningful verbal learning deals with three concerns:
1. How knowledge is organized (Curriculum content)
2. How the mind works to process new information (Learning)
3. How teachers can apply these ideas about curriculum and learning
when they present new materials to students. (Instruction)
The teacher is responsible for presenting what is to be learned. The
learners primary role is to master ideas and information. Ausubel maintains
that new ideas can be usefully learned and retained only to the extent that
they can be related to already available concepts or propositions that provide
ideational anchors. If the new material conflicts too strongly with the existing
cognitive structure or is so unrelated that no linkage is provided the
information or ideas may not be incorporated or retained. To prevent this from
occurring, the teacher must organize a sequence of knowledge and present it
in such a way that the ideational anchors are provided. In addition the learner
52
must actively reflect on the new material thinking through these linkage
reconciling differences or discrepancies with existing information and noting
similarities.
It must be remembered that both the discipline and the sequence of
instruction are built from the top down with the most inclusive concepts
principles or proposition presented first. The job of facilitating Meaningful
Verbal Learning and Retention has two aspects.
1.
Development of appropriate strategies to increase the clarity and

stability of learning material or preferably of the ideas in the cognitive
structure
2.
Supplement or integrate with this teaching model that facilitate a

critical approach to subject matter
The theory of Meaningful Verbal Learning applies to situation where
the teacher plays the role of lecturer or explainer. The main purpose is to help
students acquire subject matter.
All Individuals deals with lot of information in the day-to-day life. All
these information need not be remembered as such. They are more likely to
remember the meaning of what they see or hear than precise word for word
detail. Many theorists like Anderson (1976,1983,1985), Ellis and Hunt (1983)
and Gagne (1985), believe that meanings are stored as propositions, that is,
as small units of knowledge concerning relationship among objects or events.
An experiment conducted by Turnure, Buium and Tharlow (1976), lead to the
conclusion that, children processed the information in one of the different
ways mentioned below.
1. Labels: They repeated the name of objects.
2. Sentence generation: They made up sentences that included both
objects in a pair.
3. Sentence repetition:They repeated experimenter generated sentences,
in which a relationship between the two objects was stated.
53
4. What Question: They answered a question about a relationship

between the objects.
5. Why question: They answered a question concerning why a particular
relationship existed between the objects.
Ausubel emphasizes that in learning, meaningful process is essential.
Material has to relate to established ideas in the cognitive structure of the
learner in terms of ideas, which enable the material to be learned in a logically
coherent way. In order to accomplish this, the learner needs access during
the learning process to set of ideas that can subsume the new material to be
learned and which by being incorporated into the cognitive structure of the
learner, provide him with anchors for the new material.
A great deal of information thus received by the individual is stored
primarily in terms of underlying meaning. Nonverbal visual information also
appears to be stored at least partly in terms of meaning (Mandler and
Johnson, 1976, Mandler and Parker,1976 and Mandler and Ritchey, 1977).
According to Anderson (1985) the meaning of the information people
receives endures far longer, than either, verbal or visual information. If this is
so, educators who are concerned, that their students remember information
over long periods of time, should help students focus on the underlying
meaning of that information.
The meaningful reception learning the understanding and integration
of new meaning into cognitive structure is the focal point of Ausubels theory.
Ausubel proposes supplementing meaningful reception learning with a critical
approach to subject matter. Ausubel's method elicits the learners active
participation by requiring him to reformulate his own generalizations and
integrate his knowledge in response to carefully programmed leading
question. It is much more structured than discovery methods.
Advance Organizer Model can be applied to any material, which can be
organized intellectually. It can be used in nearly every subject area, although
it was designed for use with verbal material rather than with skills and mastery
54
of problem solving paradigms. However, Ausubel assumes that it will be

useful in the transfer of material to new problem settings. It provides a very
good discipline for lectures. It can serve very well in the analysis of expository
material in textbooks and other Instructional material where abstractions and
information alternate in various patterns.
David Ausubel is a psychologist who advanced a theory, which
contrasted meaningful learning from rote learning. In Ausubel's view, to learn
meaningfully,
students
must
relate
new
knowledge
(concepts
and
propositions) to what they already know. Ausubel feels that the continuous
use of inquiry-oriented strategies would be very inefficient because it would
consume so much time and involve so many false steps. In addition, he feels
that if learners are allowed to air their own ideas, many of those ideas will not
be efficient. Therefore they will not get the power that is to be derived from the
hierarchical structure of discipline. As a consequence, he feels that much
learning needs to be organized as reception learning that is in situation where
the learner is the receiver of information and ideas. He presents the
arguments that the reception learning can be very meaningful and should not
be confused with rote learning. Rote learning places emphasis on the
memorization of specific items of information at the expense of students
exploring relationships within the material. Meaningful learning occurs when
the ideas in a new schema are connected not only to each other but also to
previously established schemata in a logical manner.
55
Table 2.1
Characteristics of Meaningful Learning and Rote Learning
Meaningful Learning
Rote Learning
Non-arbitrary, non-verbatim,
substantive incorporation of
new knowledge into
cognitive structure.
Arbitrary, verbatim, nonsubstantive incorporation of

new knowledge into
cognitive structure.
Deliberate effort to link new

knowledge with higher order
concepts in cognitive
structure
No effort to integrate new

knowledge with existing
concepts in cognitive
structure.
Learning related to
experiences with events or
objects.
Learning not related to

experience with events or
objects.
Affective commitment to
relate new knowledge to
prior learning.
No affective commitment to
relate new knowledge to
prior learning.
.
Learning information primarily through repetition is sometimes called
rote learning (Ausubel 1963, 1968; Ausubel, Novark and Hanesian 1978; &
Ausubel and Robinson 1969). On rote learning there is little or no attempt to
make the information meaningful or to understand it in terms of things one
already knows. If such information is stores in long-term memory at all it is not
stored in association with similar information but instead in relatively
unconnected and isolated. Information stored in the unorganized fashion
becomes difficult to retrieve. Three processes of effective long-term memory
storage are
1. Meaningful Learning
2. Organization
3. Elaboration
RETENTION
People are more likely to remember the meaning of what they see or
hear than precise word. Many learning theorist (Anderson 1976,1983 and
56
1985, Ellis and Hunt 1983, and Gagne 1985) believe that meaning are stored
as small units of knowledge concerning relationship among objects or events.
Retrieval of information from long-term memory depends to some extent on
whether the information was well organized when first stored. Retrieval is
more effective when information is stored in close association with one
another. Retrieval cues are hints that are associated frequently with
information an individual is trying to remember. Retrieval cues definitely aid
recall of information. The environmental context in which information was
originally learned can often provide an effective retrieval cue.
A great deal of information individual receive is stored primarily in
terms of underlying meanings. Nonverbal, visual information also appears to
be stored at least partly in terms of meanings, (Mandler and Johnson, 1976;
Mandler and Parker, 1976; & Mandler and Ritchey, 1977).
According to
Anderson (1985), the meaning of the information people receive endures far
longer than either verbal or visual information. If this is so, educators who are
concerned that their students remember information over long periods of time
should help students focus on the underlying meaning of that information.
Meaningful learning is a process of associating new information with
existing information in long term memory this associational process is
accomplished using a hierarchical model of long-term memory organization.
Meaningful learning is a process of placing or subsuming new information
under an appropriate super ordinate category (Ausubel 1963,1968; Ausubel,
Teal, 1978; & Ausubel and Robinson 1969)
For learning to be meaningful, the minds of the learner should be made
active. They should be made active. They should be able to relate material to
their own cognitive structure. Ausubel speaks about the learners struggle with
the material- looking at it from different angles, reconciling it with similar or
perhaps contradictory information and finally translating it into their own frame
of reference and terminology.
57
Ausubel as well as other authors have stressed the need to satisfy certain
conditions to make learning meaningful. In their view meaningful learning
occurs if
1. the learner has a meaningful learning set
2. the learner has previous knowledge to which information can be
related.
3. The learner is aware that a piece of previously learned information is
related to a new piece of information and has both pieces of short-term
memory at the same time.
Some principles related to long-term memory and retrieval processes
are particularly applicable to classroom learning.
1. Meaningful learning should be emphasized over rote learning.
Meaningful learning leads to more rapid storage and more successful
retrieval than rote learning
2. To learn new material meaningfully students must have knowledge and
experiences to which that material can be related and they must see
how that material relates to what they already know.
3. New material should be appropriately organized.
4. Students should be encouraged to elaborate on new information, but
that elaboration should be monitored for appropriateness and
accuracy.
5. Students should store information with retrieval in mind.
6. Students memories will probably never be totally reliable records of
information
H.R. Mills suggests several factors which affect the ease with which
one assimilate and remembers.
58
FACTOR
1. Meaning and understanding
NOTES FOR INSTRUCTOR

make meaning clear, use simple
words
2. Interest and attention
motivate the class
3. Depth of impression
be impressive, use surprise,

curiosity, aids
4. Association of ideas
good sequence, logical development,

humour, surprise
5. frequency of repetition
especially applicable to disconnected

facts to confirm
6. Time
regular and systematic revision and

lists with quick feedback
7. Frequency of recall
class should give back from time to

time, use tests, assessment
Synthesizing the above said existing information it can concluded that

the meaningful assimilation of information involves the following major
components.
1. Linking
2. storage
3. organization
4. elaboration
LINKING
The learner must approach new information with the attitude that it can
be meaningfully understood (Ausubel et al., 1978). This attitude is more likely
to be present in the students when teachers emphasize meaning rather than
verbatim recitation (Ausubel et al., 1978). A meaning to new information can
be obtained by relating it to knowledge already stored in long term memories.
Hence this process is most frequently known as meaningful learning.
According to Ausubel, whether or not material is meaningful depends more on
the preparation of the learner and on the organization of the material. If the
59
learner begins with the `right set and if the material is solidly organized, then
meaningful learning can occur.
Meaningful learning can occur if the new information can be associated
with existing information (Ellis and Hunt, 1983; Johnson, 1975).
Most
important factors affecting long term memory storage is what the individual
already knows (Ausubel et al., 1978; Ausubel and Robinson, 1969).
Individual who have a large body of information already stored in long term
memory possess more ideas to which they can relate new experiences and
so can more easily learn at a meaningful level. The importance of previous
knowledge for learning new information has been illustrated in numerous
studies (Chase and Simpson, 1973; Cheesy Spilich and Voss, 1979; Degroot,
1965; Ormrod, Wagner and Mccallin, 1988; Saxe, Resonder and Voss, 1979).
The more closely learners can relate new material not only to previously
learned information but also to themselves and their own personal experience
the more effective meaningful learning is likely to be.
Ausubel suggests, If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to
just one principle, I would say this the most important single factor influencing
learning is what the learner already knows, ascertain this and teach him
accordingly. Piaget presents similar idea through the processes of
assimilation and accommodation, and that of disequilibrium as a prerequisite
for encouraging thinking / learning. Bruner stresses on curiosity for effective
learning.
STORAGE
When information is learned meaningfully, it is stored in long-term
memory in association with similar, related pieces of information. Meaningful
learning appears to facilitate both storage and retrieval. This information goes
in more quickly and is remembered more easily. Non-verbal material is also,
more easily stored when it can be meaningfully understood.
By relating new information to knowledge already stored in long-term
memory, people find a meaning in that information. Hence this process is
60
most frequently known as meaningful learning. When information is learned

meaningfully it is stored in long-term memory in association with similar
related priced of information.
The individual must know that the new information is related to
something already in long term memory (Ausubel, 1963, 1968; Ausubel and
Robinson, 1969) .The relevant information in long term memory must also be
retrieved to short term memory to allow for the integration of the new
information with it (Gagne and Driscoll, 1988).
ORGANIZATION
Ausubel stresses that the learning material should be solidly organized
when meaningful learning occurs. A body of new information to be learned is
stored, more effectively and remembered more completely when it is
organized. In fact people seem to have a natural tendency to organize and
integrate the information they receive.
Materials that is presented in an unorganized fashion is more difficult to
learn than clearly organized, material Experiment conducted by Bower Clark
and Winzing (1969) demonstrates just how significant organization can be.
Meaningful learning allows new information to be organized with previously
learned information. This process is external organization. Process of
organization of a new body of information within itself is internal organization
(Gagne, 1985).
The proper organization and structuring of the material to be learnt
indicates that the instruction has been planned effectively by the teacher. It is
easier for a student to learn organized material than unorganized. Logical
relationship exists among major ideas and concepts in the different parts of
lesson. A well-structured lesson helps the student in understanding and
remembering the lesson. What is learnt should be meaningfully linked with
and new material must fit in with what was previously learnt. A student is then
able to use the relationship between the new and the old.
61
Ausubel stresses that the learning material should be solidly organized

when meaningful learning occurs. A body of new information to be learned is
stored, more effectively and remembered more completely when it is
organized. In fact, people seem to have a natural tendency to organize and
integrate the information they receive.
Meaningful learning is a process of associating new information with
existing information in long-term memory. This associational process is
accomplished using a hierarchical model of long-term memory organization.
Meaningful learning can be regarded as being a process of placing or
subsuming, new information under an appropriate super ordinate category
(Ausubel, 1963, 1968, Ausubel et al., 1978, Ausubel and Robinson, 1969).
Teachers can facilitate students learning by pointing out the kinds of
knowledge that can use to understand new material. Meaningful learning
allows new information to be organized with previously learned information
the process is therefore sometimes referred to as external organization
(Gagne, 1985). Another equally important process is the organization of anew
body of information within itself. That is internal organization. A body of new
information to be learned is stored more effectively and remembered more
completely when it is organized. In fact, people seem to have a natural
tendency to organize and integrate the information they receive. A material
that is presented in an unorganized fashion is more difficult to learn that
clearly organized material.
ELABORATION
When individuals receive new information, they often use what they have
already learned about the world to help them understand that information or to
learn meaningfully. Sometimes, new information is incomplete and missing
pieces need to be filled in. When new information resembles previous
experiences and events, then assumptions, interpretations and inferences
drawn from those previous events are likely to be imposed on the new
information and learned right along with it. Elaboration then is a process of
learning more than the information actually presented.
62
Learning theorists have come to several conclusions about the factors

involved in elaboration.
1. Elaboration is a constructive process of using both new information and
ones existing knowledge about the world to construct a meaningful
interpretative of that new information.
2 Jean Piaget used the concept of schema to refer to a mental unit
representing a class of similar actions of thoughts. In contemporary
cognitive theory the term schema usually refers to an organized body
of knowledge about a specific topic. People often form schemas about
events as well as objects. An individuals mental script of an event will
influence what information is learned from a given instance of that
event. Human memory system is typically confronted with more
information than it can possibly handle. A schema provides a means by
which people can focus their attention on information that is likely to be
important and to ignore what is probably unimportant. Schemas also
enable people to make sense out of an incomplete set of information
(Posner, 1978).
3 People elaborate the same information in different ways depending on
their previous experience and their expectation about the new
information.
4 When people use previously acquired facts and beliefs to elaborate
new information, they may alter the new information erroneously.
Teachers often present information to students thinking that their
erroneous beliefs will be corrected. Through the processes of
meaningful learning and elaboration the new information will be related
to altered fit students preconceived notions about the world. As a result
students learn inaccurate rather than accurate information.
5 Elaborated information is more effectively learned and remembered
than non-elaborated information. Students should be instructed about
63
the benefits of elaboration when they study. Elaboration appears to be

especially effective when it helps to tie new information together.
Elaboration facilitates long-term memory for several reasons.
1 Elaborated information may be less likely to be confused with other
similar information stored in long term memory.
2 Elaboration may provide additional means through which information
can later be retrieved.
3 Elaboration may help with inferences about what the information was
likely to have been, when information itself cannot be accurately
recalled.
Students should be instructed to study strategies that use meaningful
learning, organization and elaboration processes. For instance they can be
taught to state ideas in their own words, generate their own examples of
ideas, make connections between new concept and their own past
experiences and draw logical inferences from the data they are given.
When individuals receive new information, they often use what they
have already learned about the world, to help them understand that
information or to learn meaningfully. Sometimes new information is
incomplete and missing pieces need to be filled in. When new information
resembles previously experiences events then assumptions, interpretations
and inferences drawn from those previous events are likely to be imposed on
the new information and learned right along with it. Elaboration then is a
process of learning more than the information actually presented. Learning
theorists have come to several conclusions about the factors involved in
elaboration.
1. Elaboration is a form of construction.
2. Elaboration frequently involves use of schemas
3. Different individuals elaborate the same information in different
ways and accordingly learn different things
64
4. Elaboration sometimes leads to the storage of distorted or

erroneous information
5. Elaboration usually leads to better retention of information.
2.10
Detailed Analysis of the Nurturant Effect: INTEREST IN INQUIRY

Formation of conceptual structures and meaningful assimilation of
ideas leads to the development of interest in inquiry. At this point of learning

more about the interest in inquiry, the process of inquiry and the skills inherent
within it was considered to be very important. In the broadest sense, interest
in inquiry can be viewed as interest shown in a systematic way to investigate
a question or a problem. Interest in inquiry is very essential to generate and
validate knowledge. Interest in inquiry at the most fundamental level can be
viewed as an interest which individual attempts in the process for answering
and solving problems based on facts and observation.
Ausubels idea of interest in inquiry very much coincides with the idea
presented by Paul D. Eggen and David P. Kauchack in Strategy for Teachers.
According to their view, any teaching strategy which promotes inquiry spirit
should proceed through five major steps of questions or problem
identification,
hypothesis
generation,
data
gathering,
assessment
of
hypothesis through data analysis and generalizing.

As far as mathematics teaching is concerned in a classroom level,
interest in inquiry implies the interest a student exhibits in attacking questions
and identifying problems encountered in various content areas. Students who
have interest in inquiry will investigate real question and problem through data
gathering by generating hypothesis. Student will also arrive at a generalization
through analyzing and assessing data. At this juncture, work of Richard
Suchman (1966) is to be thought of, as it is in tune with this idea.
Most of the inquiry process includes identification of cause and effect
relationship or investigation of relationship between concepts that are not
necessarily casually linked. Success of this depends on students ability to,
recognize problems, suggest tentative answers, identify and gather relevant
65
facts and critically assess the tentative solutions. These can be identified as
various skills of inquiry (Eggen) once the cause effect or correlation
relationship identified the next task are to prepare a question or problem that
relates to this relationship. In order for the investigation to successfully
precede the next step is to anticipate a procedure for gathering data, which is
designed to answer the question or solve the problem. A student who exhibits
all the ability can be thought of as having an interest in inquiry. It is to be
noted that a matter of organization, which includes sequencing, and
scheduling of events in clear terms helps to smoothen the inquiry process.
Synthesizing the above said facts it can be concluded that Interest in
Inquiry includes the five factors
1. Questions or problem identification
2. Hypothesis generation
3. Data gathering
4. Assessment of hypothesis through data analysis
5. Generalizing
Question and Problem Identification
The one who have an interest in inquiry will display a tendency of
questioning and problem identification. Obviously there are a variety of ways
in which questions can be asked but the matter is that how good they
formulate question to make the problem really communicable. Interest in
inquiry can be observed in the structural way of attacking a question. It will be
made evident through posing a series of questions that encourage a student
to move from a question to hypotheses to data gathering and the subsequent
analysis of these data.
Hypothesising
Once the questions or problem is clarified, the next step in the process
is an effort made to answer or solve the problem. A student who has further
interest will exhibit a tendency to provide a tentative answer through a
66
process of hypothesizing. A hypothesis is an unverified generalization. After

forming hypothesis they are prioritized for the purpose of investigation.
Data Gathering
The generated hypothesis is then used by those who have further
interest in inquiry to guide data gathering procedures. The complexity of
process depends on the problem. At times it may be simple and
straightforward. Data are of two types primary and secondary. Primary data
source come from students gathering original data. It requires more time and
cost. Secondary source include textbook, encyclopaedia, and other
references in which the information has already been analyzed and
interpreted by others. If primary data is not available it is possible to gather
data from secondary sources.
Data Analysis
Assessing of hypotheses on the basis of data is the next phase shown
by those who have interest in inquiry. If the data appears to be fairly simple
the analysis process does not require a great deal of effort. If the process is
more complex, then quantitative investigations, data tables, and graphing may
be needed in order to use the data effectively. At this point, student may
formulate hypothesis as tentative investigative guides. Effective way to deal
with the problem is to sequentially analyze and interpret data before turning
back to hypothesis. If the data do not support a hypothesis, the tendency is to
describe the hypothesis as wrong. At the time the hypothesis was proposed,
it was the most appropriate answer based on the available information. But,
added data may require that the hypothesis be subsequently rejected about
the matter of right or wrong should never be an issue.
Generalising
In the final step of inquiry process acceptance, rejection or modification
of hypothesis is made to arrive at a tentative generalization on the basis of
this conclusion .The generalizing process may then lead to new question and
inquiry process moves forward.
67
Those who have interest in inquiry go through all these states

continually in the real world. One of the greatest benefits in the study of
inquiry is a heightened awareness of the possibilities of conducting inquiry
investigations that occur spontaneously.
2.11 Detailed Analysis of The Nurturant Effect: HABIT OF PRECISE
THINKING
The New Lexicon Websters Dictionary defines habit as a tendency to
repeat an act again and again, a behavioural pattern that has a degree of
automatism. The International Dictionary of Education suggests meaning of
habit as practiced, automatic learned responses which are spontaneous in
response to certain situation and which meet needs in the individual. The
Concise Oxford Dictionary put meaning of habit as a settled or regular
tendency or practice or a practice that is hard to give up.
The New Lexicon Websters Dictionary suggests the meaning of
precise as accurate in every detail. The Concise Oxford Dictionary put
meaning of precise as accurately expressed or definite.
The New Lexicon Websters Dictionary defines the meaning of thinking
as to engage in the process of arranging ideas in a pattern of relationship or
of adding new ideas soon to be related to such a pattern, to conceive in mind
to bring a specified condition of mental activity. The New Websters Dictionary
defines thinking as to engage in the process of arranging ideas in a pattern of
relationship or of adding new ideas so on as to be related to such a pattern.
According to The International Dictionary of Education it is creation of order in
the perceived world of objects and representation of objects. Personality
attitudes and emotions influence thinking.
Hilda Taba identified three postulates about thinking
1. Thinking can be taught.
2. Thinking is an active interaction between the individual and data. This
means that in the classroom setting the material of instruction become
available to the individual when he performs certain cognitive operation
upon them organizing facts into conceptual system, relating points in
68
data to each other and generalizing upon these relationship making

inferences and using known facts in generalization to hypothesize,
predict and explain unfamiliar phenomena. The teacher can assist the
processes of internalization and conceptualization by stimulating the
students to perform complex mental processes and offer progressively
less and less direct support.
3. The processes of thought evolve by a sequence, which is lawful. In
order to master certain thinking skills one has to master certain other
earlier ones and that this sequence could not be reversed.
Thinking and thinking skills are not synonymous. Thinking is the mental
manipulation of sensory input and recalled perceptions to make or find
meaning to reason about or with to formulate thoughts and to judge.
Thinking skills are the discrete, precisely delineated mental operations used in
varying combinations as we think. The current literature defines thinking in
terms of distinct skills that include basic thinking skills - observe, compare,
contrast and reflect; high level thinking skills creative and critical thinking,
analysis, synthesis and evaluation. ; and complex thought processes
decision-making, problem solving and the scientific method of investigation.
Students make use of thinking skills to make learning concepts and
other forms of content more thorough and efficient. The various dimensions of
thinking
process
are
domain
specific
knowledge,
basic
processes,
metacognition, attitude and dispositions.

Domain Specific Knowledge
Domain specific knowledge refers to knowledge in a specific content
area. During the process of thinking basic process are applied to some
content area or domain. This domain specific knowledge provides a content
area in which basic process can be applied. To think effectively students must
know when different processes can be applied. Nickerson (1988 ) stresses
that to think effectively in any domain one must know something about that
domain. The Domain specific knowledge refers to knowledge in a particular
69
content area. Teachers accommodate domain specific knowledge when they

teach both content and thinking skills during their lesson.
Basic Processes
Basic processes are the intellectual skills involved in thinking. Basic
processes are fundamental constituents or building blocks of thinking. They
are the thinking tools used to transform and evaluate information. They
include processes like observing, comparing, contrasting inferring and
predicting. While experts label these basic processes in different ways using
terms such as information processing skills (Eyer, 1988). Core thinking skills
(Marzano et al., 1989) or essential cognitive processes most include the
processes summarized below.
Basic processes of thinking
Process
Sub-processes
Observing
Recalling, Recognizing
Finding patterns and generalizing
comparing and contrasting,

Classifying, Identifying relevant and
irrelevant information
Finding conclusion based on pattern
Inferring predicting, Hypothesizing,

applying
Assessing conclusion based on
checking consistency, identifying bias
Observation
identifying unstated assumptions,
Thinking critically
recognizing over/ under generalization

Confirming conclusion with facts
Metacognition
Awareness and regulation of our own thinking is described as Meta
cognition. Metacognition is individuals awareness of their own thinking. Meta
cognition has also come to connote the management of ones own cognitive
resources and the monitoring and evaluation of ones intellectual performance
(Nickerson, 1988).
Students should know when they are using basic
processes, what processes they are using how they relate to the content they
70
are learning and why they are being used. To develop thinking abilities
Mc.Tighe (1987) describe three complementary approaches. Teaching for
thinking accounts to involving students in thinking as they learn content.
Teaching of thinking utilizes a direct teaching strategy whereby a specific
thinking skill such as comparing, becomes the content of the lesson. and
Teaching about thinking helps make students become more aware of their
own learning and thinking. Talking and teaching about thinking can help
students become more efficient and better self-directed learners. Researches
in the area of metacognition indicates that these abilities can be taught
(Gavelk, J., and Raphael, T., 1985)
Attitudes And Dispositions
Our attitudes and dispositions influence our inclinations to use thinking
as a way of acquiring and confirming understanding. Effective thinking
requires willingness on the part of students to use basic processes in different
content area and in their everyday lives without positive attitude thinking skills,
remain unused in students mind. To be valuable thinking skill must not only be
learned but also used. Learners awareness and understanding of processes
and strategies they are using, will lead to the dispositions or inclination, to use
them spontaneously. Example of attitude and disposition include inquiry spirit,
fair mindedness, openness to evidence on any issue respect for opinion that
differ from ones own inquisitiveness and a desire to be informed, a tendency
to reflect before acting and numerous others
Different inquiry strategies provide students with opportunities to use
and practice thinking skills through the processes of hypothesis generation
data gathering and data analysis.
All teachers teach thinking skills but not all teachers do it well. Students
need to learn to think because the ability to think through ideas is as important
as ideas themselves and classrooms should play a major role in this area of
development. As with other areas of curriculum, effective teachers can have a
considerable impact on students helping them develop and refine their
71
thinking abilities. To do this, teachers must understand what thinking skills

are, how they are learned and what they can do to develop them.
Thinking skills are context free, open-ended sequential cognitive
processes that allow students to transform information in a strategic manner.
There are two approaches for teaching thinking skills explicit thinking skills
instruction and complementary skills instruction. In the first case teacher
identifies skill acquisition as a primary goal and teacher toward that goal in a
direct manner. Content become a vehicle to teach the thinking skill. In
complementary skill instruction content goals become, more important and the
need to develop lesson momentum organization and continuity are real
thinking skills are still taught but these are complementary to the content
vector of the lesson
Principles of teaching thinking are listed below (Pressley et al., 1990).
1. Target specific thinking skills and teach them intensively
2. Model and talk about thinking skills
3. Explain where and when to use different thinking skills
4. Reinforce thinking skills
5. Develop student motivation to use thinking skills
Synthesizing the above said facts, it can be concluded that Habit of
precise thinking includes the five factors
1. Observing
2. Finding Patterns and Generalizing
3. Forming Conclusions based on Patterns
4. Assessing Conclusion based on observation
5. Thinking Critically
These basic processes allow making sense of the world, pulling
together discrete bits of information into understandable and coherent
patterns (Bruner, 1966; Carnine, 1990).
While evaluating the effectiveness of Advance Organizer Model in the
teaching of Mathematics, all these factors were taken into account.

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CHAPTER II

Philosophy behind Models of Teaching

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

2.2 MODELS OF TEACHING

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

1972). Increasing aptitude to

learn is one of the fundamental purposes of these models. Models of

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

2.3.2 The Social Family

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

them in terms of visible behaviour rather than understanding an unobservable

THE TEACHING ACT THREE PHASE APPROACH

to individuals who know their subject. Teaching is a triad of sequential

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

INFORMATION PROCESSING MODELS OF TEACHING

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

information processing system acquires new information and new ideas, it

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

learners structure previously learned concepts and generalization into

Inductive Thinking Model

Inquiry Training Model

Scientific Inquiry Model

Concept Attainment Model

Cognitive Growth Model

Jean Piaget, Irving Sigel and

Advance Organizer Model

(Joyce and Weil 1978)

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

Among these models Advance Organizer Model is useful to structure

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

The Advance Organizer strategy operates both substantively and

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

Although Ausubel stresses written and verbal material and expository or

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

organized so that each successive learning is carefully related to what has

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

cognitive structure. This method follows the principle of Progressive

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

1. They are typically a short set of verbal or visual information

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

2.7.1 Goals of Advance Organizer Model

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

Basically there are three types of organizers. Concept Definitions,

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

2.7.3. Implementation of Advance Organizer Model

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

Models of Teaching-Theoretical Overview

Phase One: Presentation of Advance Organizer

Clarify aims of the lesson

Identify defining attributes.

Give examples or illustrations where appropriate.

Prompt awareness of learners relevant knowledge and

Phase Two: Presentation of Learning Task or Material

Make logical order of learning material explicit.

Link material to organizer.

Phase Three: Strengthening Cognitive Organization

Use principles of integrative reconciliation.

Elicit critical approach to subject matter.

Apply ideas actively (such as by testing them).