What the Research Says

     Subsumption theory is that during meaningful learning, the person organizes, or "subsumes" or incorporates, the new knowledge into old knowledge. The advance organizer helps the student incorporate new ideas into familiar patterns.

According to Ausubel, for meaningful learning to occur, the following criteria must be met

1. The learner must have relevant prior knowledge
2. The material is logical
3. The learner must intend to learn the material in a meaningful way (not rote memorization)

     When these conditions are not met, students typically memorize in an unmeaningful way, make few attempts to incorporate the material into their schemas and usually forget quickly what they do learn.

  "... advance organizers should aid learning for difficult to assimilate (relate) new information for students who have no other or use no other subsuming strategy (Mayer 1975).

  "Studied was the effect of advance organizers, as defined by Ausubel, on the learning of concepts in science. The second organizer, presented between the learning tasks, explicitly related the two science learning tasks. Evidence was inconclusive regarding the general role of advance organizers, though it appeared that the advance organizers facilitated learning when pupils lacked the analytic ability necessary to reorganize information independently into suitable clear, inclusive and stable cognitive structures." Schulz, R. W. The Role of Cognitive Organizers in the Facilitation of Concept Learning in Elementary School Science. 1966 ERIC NO: ED026251.

...The strength of the organizer is in long-term recall and transfer of general concepts (Mayer 1979).

     Advance organizers are meant to help students deal with complex material that is similar to material they have learned previously. Advance organizers actually help students learn more by making them learn less.

     The organizer lets students apply a general pattern they already know to a new situation instead of having to learn a whole new pattern. Learning new patterns takes a great deal of time and effort. Similarities and differences will become apparent and can be learned quickly. For most people, general patterns are easier to remember than specific patterns.

     "Reusing" previously learned material lets students concentrate on a few similarities and differences rather than on a whole new concept. The organizer effect increases with time; when the instruction in the experiment extends to several days or weeks as compared to a few hours, the retention effects are stronger. For instruction lasting several weeks, having a structure for the material makes it easier to learn.