Cues, Questions and Advance Organizers

1. Cues, Questions and Advance Organizers Karen Richardson

2. Cues and Questions • A way to help students use what they already know about a topic • Activate prior knowledge • Cues are “hints” about what they are going to learn • Questions elicit from students what they already know • Cueing and questioning account for 80% of what occurs in a classroom

3. Selected Research Results

4. Research and Theory • Cues and questions should focus on what is important as opposed to what is unusual. • “Higher level” questions produce deeper learning than “lower level” questions. • “Waiting” briefly before accepting responses has the effect of increasing the depth of student answers. • Questions are effective learning tools even when asked before a learning experience.

5. Classroom Practice • Explicit Cues: straightforward ways of activating prior knowledge: tell them what they’re going to learn • Inferential questions about things, people, actions, events, and states of being the students are studying • Analytical questions • Analyze errors • Construct support • Analyze perspectives

6. Advance Organizers • Developed by David Ausubel (1968) • Relevant and inclusive introductory materials • Bridge the gap between what the learner already knows and what he needs to know

7. Selected Research Results

8. Research and Theory • Advance organizers should focus on what is important as opposed to what is unusual.* • “Higher level” organizers produce deeper learning than “lower level” organizers. • Advance organizers are most useful with information that is not well organized • Different types of advance organizers produce different results.

9. Classroom Practice • Expository advance organizers • Narrative advance organizers • Skimming as a Form of Advance Organizer • Graphics Advance Organizers