Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Organization
Organization
is an encoding strategy that involves the clustering of related items
of content into categories that illustrate relationships. Because well-organized con-
tent illustrates connections among its elements, cognitive load is decreased, and
encoding (and subsequent retrieval) is more effective (Mayer, 2008). Research in
reading, memory, and classroom instruction confirms the value of organization in
promoting learning (Mayer, 2008; Nuthall, 1999b). Research indicates that experts
learn more efficiently than novices because their knowledge in long-term memory
is better organized, allowing them to access it and connect it to new information
(Bransford et al., 2000; Simon, 2001).
We can organize information in several ways:
•
Charts and matrices:
Useful for organizing large amounts of information into
categories.
•
Hierarchies:
Effective when new information can be subsumed under existing
ideas.
•
Models:
Helpful for representing relationships that cannot be observed directly.
The model of human memory in this chapter is an example.
•
Outlines:
Useful for representing the organizational structure in a body of written
materials.
Other types of organization include graphs, tables, flowcharts, and maps
(Merkley & Jefferies, 2001). Learners can also use these organizers as personal
study aids in their attempts to make the information they are studying meaningful.
A word of caution: As you saw in the list of learning principles at the beginning
of the chapter, people construct knowledge that makes sense to them, so if the orga-
nizational structure offered by a writer or teacher does not make sense to readers
or learners, they will (mentally) reorganize it in a way that does, whether or not it
is correct. When the way content is organized is unclear, people often memorize
snippets of it, resulting in rote learning, or they ignore it altogether.
Discussion is essential to making the organization of new material meaningful to
learners. This is the reason people join book clubs, for example. As they discuss the
book, its organization and the author's intent become clearer to the participants.
Schema Activation
Think back to some of your most effective teachers. In most cases it is likely that
they began their classes with a review of the previous class, and a long history of
research supports the effectiveness of well-structured reviews in promoting student
achievement (Berliner, 1986; Rutter, Maughan, Mortimore, Ousten, & Smith, 1979;
Shuell, 1996).
Reviews capitalize on
schema activation
, which is an encoding strategy that
involves activating relevant prior knowledge so that new knowledge can be con-
nected to it (Mayer & Wittrock, 2006). Schema activation is illustrated in Jeopardy,
