The advance organizer: the effect of varying the discussion component of the advance organizer on student learning outcomes

Abstract

This thesis evaluates the effect of the instructional strategy of advance organizing on student academic engaged time, student understanding and student learning outcomes of a Year 10 mathematics class. The classroom-based research pays particular attention to the discussion component of the advance organizer and the responsiveness of students to such. Acknowledging the study's limitations, the qualitative and quantitative data suggest that the intervention facilitated a clear outcome of improvement in student academic engagement, student understanding and student learning outcomes for all students. Within the data there are trends to suggest that the discussion component of the strategy has a positive effect on creating a collaborative class culture and increasing student understanding. From the data collected it is inconclusive as to the effect on student learning of altering the structure of the discussion component. Several recommendations are made as a result of the evaluation of the research. Among these is effective use of teacher-student discussion in whole class contexts so as to enable the diversity of student experience to be valued and to be a resource to support student achievement gains. Further consideration given to the components of effective discussion, and for participating teachers to be trained in such prior to a research project may yield interesting results.