Chapter 6<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr. David Wiley, Co-Founder, Chief Academic Officer<\/strong><\/p>\n This chapter is about Ausbel\u2019s 1960 paper on \u201cadvance organizers\u201d (and no, it\u2019s not \u201cadvanced organizers\u201d). The key insight of this paper is that \u201cthe single most important factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows.\u201d Or, as Kirschner and Hendrick write, \u201cIn plain English, [Ausubel] holds that learning is a process in which new, to-be-learnt information is related by learners to what is already present in their existing cognitive structures…. learning and retention are facilitated when the learner has acquired a meaningful cognitive framework that allows new information to be organized, assimilated, and subsumed in what is already known\u201d (p. 57).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To oversimplify it just a bit, imagine a hat rack, where each hook represents something the learner already knows. Each time a teacher (or an instructional designer) introduces a new idea, concept, principle, or process, part of their job is to help learners identify a hook to hang this new hat on. Explicitly helping learners understand how new information relates to things they already know gives them a framework for interpreting and understanding.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Advance organizers are a way of \u201cactivating prior knowledge,\u201d as we say in the instructional design business. They\u2019re brief descriptions, stories, or graphics that get students thinking about the relevant things they already know, and help them prepare to connect the new things they\u2019re about to learn to those things they already know.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In Lumen\u2019s Waymaker and OHM courseware, we dedicate the first section in each module – titled \u201cWhy It Matters\u201d – to this task of activating prior knowledge and helping students prepare to integrate new information with what they already know. (We also provide additional support for that integration in the final section of each module, which we call Putting It Together.)<\/span><\/p>\n What are you reading about learning? How are you using it to better support your students\u2019 learning?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n At Lumen, everything we do is focused on improving student learning. You already know that we create awesome and affordable interactive courseware, engage in both data-driven and community-driven continuous improvement, and support faculty professional development. You might not know that we also do things like our \u201cNot a Book Club,\u201d in which the whole company is invited to engage with the research on learning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAbout This Series<\/span><\/h1>\n