Chair: SHAW, EDWARD L. JR.
DAI-A 57/10, p. 4278, Apr 1997

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a comparative advance organizer in an oral format on learners' immediate and delayed retention of foods and nutrition subject matter when controlling for learners' prior knowledge level. More specifically, to determine whether students retained more foods and nutrition material when it is introduced with an advance organizer, than when it is not. Another area of interest was to investigate whether paraphrasing the comparative advance organizer prior to receiving oral instruction would be an effective strategy to help learners when encoding the advance organizer and the subsequent material. Thirty-two high school students enrolled in two food science classes at Fairhope High School, Fairhope, Alabama participated as the sample for the study. Subjects
were initially tested for foods and nutrition prior knowledge using a Prior Knowledge Questionnaire. After testing, subjects were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: Treatment one (oral comparative advance organizer), Treatment two (oral comparative advance organizer plus paraphrasing), and Treatment three (no oral comparative advance organizer). An analysis of covariance was used with prior knowledge level as the covariate to determine whether there were significant differences between treatment groups after controlling for learners' existing knowledge of foods and nutrition. The findings revealed that no single treatment condition was more effective in facilitating immediate and delayed retention of text. Additionally, subjects paraphrasing the comparative advance organizer prior to receiving the oral instruction failed to demonstrate a positive influence on subjects' recall of foods and nutrition material.