What are advanced organizers and how do they assist students?

Advanced organizers are instructional tools that help to structure information before students engage with new content. By providing a framework to organize and relate new information to prior knowledge, advanced organizers enhance comprehension and retention. They help to activate relevant background knowledge, allowing students to make connections and integrate new concepts more effectively.

For example, an advanced organizer might be a graphic organizer, a summary of key points, or an outline that presents main ideas and relationships among concepts. This strategic preparation fosters a cognitive environment that is conducive to learning, enabling students to better process and understand the material as they encounter it.

The other options highlight misunderstandings about the role and utility of advanced organizers. They are not distractions or merely reminders for behavior, nor are they limited to specific subjects such as mathematics. Instead, they can be applied across various disciplines to support learning.