Advanced Organizers And Differentiated Learning

Advanced Organizers and Differentiated Learning

After reading the article entitled, “Which is Higher,” my group came to the conclusion that they best way to teach our students leans towards Michelle discovery learning. Our teachers in the problem are arguing that their way of teaching is better than the other, so who is right? It is argued over and over and we have the teachers voicing their opinion on whose teaching strategy works best and whose students remember what they have learned longer. There is evidence to support that both ways can benefit the students and that both methods should be used in the classroom with the outcome being that the discovery learning can be enhanced when the students are prepared with the basics. Theorist David Ausubel presents a study that centers on organization of information and Carol Tomlinson introduced us to a differentiated approach. By exploring these theorists’ ways of thinking, we can see that both teachers can provide a well-rounded approach to their education if they would combine their ideas and use the tools that these theorists have given to education.

David Ausubel’s theory is based in “advanced organizers.” This means that the teacher would base their lesson on a broad concept and work down to the specifics of the lesson. When using this strategy in a lesson, a teacher can help students focus on what is important and continue to make connections to the prior knowledge that they already have. Two organizers that are mentioned in the book, Educational Psychology are “comparative organizers” and “expository organizers.” The comparative organizer focuses on your prior knowledge and helps you connect what you are learning to what you already know. In the problem, Michelle i...

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...their students.

Eric’s only hope is that of using his type of teaching as a building block to discovery learning. Michelle, however, has to hope that someone like Eric has provided the basics for her students to succeed in discovery learning. Both theorists have given ideas that can ease Eric into this type of teaching and allow Michelle to remediate the basics if necessary. If the educators in our problem could provide a framework that uses all of these strategies, it would be the students, in the end, that benefited the most.

Works Cited

Debelak, M. A. (2008). Academic Competitions as Tools for Differentiation in Middle School. Gifted Child Today, 47-53.

Tomlinson, C. (2011). Carol Tomlinson Ed.D. Retrieved September 25, 2011, from Carol Tomlinson Web Site: http://www.caroltomlinson.com

Woolfolk, A. (2007). Educational Psychology. Boston: Pearson.