The Information Family

David Ausubel: Advance Organizers

Overview
David Ausubel's "advance organizer" approach to teaching is one of the most utilized methods of instruction. Ausubel recognizes that there is a huge amount of information to be learned about any given subject. Therefore, his goal is to provide, via direct presentation, a way to organize the outlines of information needed by the students to first see the big picture to be learned. From this step, the teacher may proceed with Internet, lecture, reading, or other assignments.

For example, if we wanted you to see the entire scope of this class, we could provide you with a list of statements that reflect an overview of each of the families we will be discussing.

To more firmly reinforce your understanding of the list we might then have you identify the five statements which most closely resemble your personal educational philosophy. Or, we might ask you to complete the presentation of this list by rating your agreement with each statement by completing a questionnaire.Teacher: "Today we are going to begin learning about one of the most important processes on Earth--the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the name of the process which plants use to make the sugar that animals must have for energy. In this process, the plant takes carbon dioxide and water and chemically combines them to make sugar. A special molecule called chlorophyll makes this happen. Chlorophyll is the green compound found in the leaves of plants."

With these statements we have provided a broad overview of a very complex process. In subsequent direct presentations the teacher would provide a more detailed sketch of the entire process.

Direct presentations such as this are best used with complicated, dense concepts where discovery activities might require too much time or might cause students to lose interest.

Richard Suchman: Inquiry

Overview
Richard Suchman, like his contemporaries Taba, Bruner and Schwab, believes that students should become autonomous, self-directed learners. Suchman maintains that there is a natural process to inquiry and critical thinking. He has developed a unique strategy that is useful for teachers as they initiate a unit or concept. The technique may be used with all disciplines but is most often observed in science and social science classes.
The inquiry is initiated by presenting a puzzling problem associated but sometimes tangential to a unit. Suchman calls this a "discrepant event." Students are then instructed that they are to propose hypotheses and ideas that would explain the phenomenon by asking questions that the teacher can answer with "Yes," "No," or "Maybe."
Following the introduction of the puzzle, students begin to gather relevant data through their questions. There are a variety of types of inquiry students can make, and a concomitant set of responses (aside from the yes, no, or maybe answers) the teacher may make.
As students begin to make more relevant observations, the teacher moves to responses that require students to make sharper observations. For example, a series of questions might progress as follows:

"What do you mean by _____?"
"What is another way to say that?"
"What additional information might you need?"
"What evidence do you have for making that statement?"

In other words, the teacher attempts to play naive at first (we call this "naive interest") but gradually moves to soliciting suggestions for proving or verifying the student suggestions. If the puzzle is appropriate, students may wish to pursue the solution by way of research.

Jerome Bruner: Concept Attainment

Overview
There are numerous estimates of how long it takes for knowledge to double, with current estimates being approximately a mere 3 years. This phenomenon reflects the impossibility of knowing everything about one's discipline, which at one time in our history was possible. Today, the advent of the Internet has exempted us of our responsibility for storing too much factual information. Jerome Bruner recognizes the futility of knowing everything but insists that we should all learn a rich conceptual framework. While it may be impossible to know the dates attendant to all of the world's great revolutions, we should know the underlying ideas that foment such revolutions. Bruner emphasizes concept attainment to allow students to first see the big picture.
Bruner developed an activity that engages youngsters in formulating big picture concepts through the use of illustrations he calls exemplars. Exemplars may be "yes" (positive) or "no" (negative). Positive exemplars contain attributes of the concept to be taught. Both positive and negative exemplars are given at random to the class or as an individual activity. Students are challenged to determine what concept is being presented.Let's suppose we wanted to introduce or conclude a unit on characteristics of plants and animals of the rainforest. Begin by making lists of both positive and negative exemplars:

1. Positive Exemplars: large leaves, spotted animals, large insects, short winged birds, climbing limbs, large eyes, vines, water tolerant, colorful
2. Negative Exemplars: (for example, choose arctic or desert opposites) small leaves, single color animals, small insects, long winged birds, small eyes, pine trees, water intolerant, drab

Place the exemplars on sheets of paper and shuffle the sheets. Designate one area of the chalk board for positive exemplars and one area for negative exemplars. Present the first card by identifying it as a positive or negative exemplar, and place it on the proper area of the board. Repeat the cue "This is a positive (or negative) card." Repeat the process with another card. Continue the process, allowing the students to attempt to place the cards in the proper designations. As the cards increase, seek to find out if anyone has the concept in mind. Use phrases like: "So your idea is that we're talking about (blank)." As students get close to resolving the concept, ask them to suggest their own examples. After resolution, discuss the idea. As students get more skilled in identifying relationships, profer oddball examples or non-examples. In place of words it is appropriate to use actual specimens or pictures. With carefully chosen examples it is possible to teach almost any concept in virtually all disciplines.