The Use of Advance Organziers. . . Ausubel article

This article was interesting to read because though it is 50 years old, it shows how far education has come while still struggling with many of the same issues that were prevalent back then.  It seems as if textbooks still segregate homogeneous topics into separate chapters and with schools being on a time line to "cover" the text, students are not able to digest the material in a way that equates to deep comprehension and learning.  Many current teaching practices encourage rote learning just so students can do well on tests for NCLB.  Though NCLB was good in theory when first introduced, it is mainly product oriented, which further promotes the current system of memorize and regurgitate.  Evidence and research exists that demonstrates the value of process over product as the way for students to learn and retain knowledge.  One example is the article found at http://www.ioe.ac.uk/about/documents/Watkins_09_Lng_about_lng.pdf.  I related to the following bullet points the author used:

• Learning is the human process of creating meaning from experience.

• Simply having an experience is not enough for someone to learn. Without reflecting upon this experience it may quickly be forgotten or its learning potential lost.

• Human beings relate their experiences to each other through the medium of stories. As we tell the story of an experience we can “rise above” it and create meaning.

"Learning About Learning" by Chris Watkins.  Article published at www.teachingtimes.com.

The use of advance organizers help create an experience for students, and students use them to find ways that they as an individual makes sense of information.  This becomes more valuable because it is student driven rather than teacher driven.  Relating experiences through stories is an example of how a Narrative advance organizer works.

I completely agree with the last paragraph of the article that stated that greater use of advance organizers could lead to better retention while rendering rote memorization unnecessary.  Through advance organizers, students actually learn before moving on to the next subject.

As an off-topic note to this article - I wonder if the same study was done today if there would be differences in females understanding and retaining the steel material (today vs. 50 years ago).  Have traditionally male topics made a jump in female interests?  Nature vs. nurture?