Effect of Advance Organizers on Learning Medical Surgical Nursing Content by Baccalaureate Nursing Students

AbstractThe hypothesis for this study was that a verbal advance organizer would increase learning and retention of class content more in subjects with greater field independence and with higher scholastic aptitude. The sample was 43 junior baccalaureate nursing students, randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Sophomore cumulative grade point averages were used as a measure of scholastic aptitude and Group Embedded Figures Test scores as measures of field independence. An expository organizer was presented to experimental subjects and a passage of nonorganizing historical information to control subjects at the beginning of each of six classes. Class quizzes were used to measure initial learning, and end‐of‐unit and final examinations were used to measure intermediate and long range retention of class content. Increased initial learning occurred with exposure to a verbal advance organizer in subjects with above average scholastic ability and below average field independence (p < .05), but intermediate and long‐term retention were not significantly higher in these subjects.