Instructional Design Models

Advanced Organizers and the ARCS learning theories differ in their origins. Advanced Organizers are cognitive and focus on how the brain makes sense of new information. The central precept of this system is that the brain is logical and orderly and new information must fit into that system. The focus is how the brain processes and stores new information while connecting it to the old. Most of us have used advanced organizers. They include activities such as skimming a text before reading, anecdotal accounts to pique student interest before beginning a topic, and using graphic organizers, which are visual representations of ways for students to organize new information. KWL charts, cause and effect charts, T charts, concept maps, and webbing are just a few examples of graphic organizers, all of which are given to students before the new topic is introduced. Advanced organizers are pre-learning tools that bridge new information with previous knowledge to help the learner place new concepts into long term memory.
Contrasting with the cognitive approach of advanced organizers is the ARCS design—Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction—which is a motivational theory whose focus is making students want to learn. The idea is to make new concepts enticing and vital at the onset, and then allow students to feel successful upon acquisition of the new material. The difference between the two learning theories is that one is affective—feeling centered—and the other is knowledge driven. Accessing student motivation in order to introduce new concepts is different from constructing schemas on which to “hang” new ideas to help new concepts fit into a “slot” in the brain.
Advanced organizers and ARCS are similar in that both learning systems seek ways to make sense of new information. Both systems try to pique student interest at the outset with similar techniques. Both seek ways to make the learner feel successful, ARCS by allowing learning to take place in small segments, and Advanced Organizers by cuing students to important concepts at the beginning of the lesson. Both theories want to make connections to learning that already exists in the brain.

Beginning Phase of ARCS Lesson
To Kill a Mockingbird Introduction

General characteristics of audience—15 year old regular education sophomore students. Prior knowledge with themes of the story involve prejudice felt for being teenagers, racism, single parent households, hypocrisy, growing up, injustice, familiarity with literary elements
Demographics: most students come from middle to lower middle class households, many single parent households; many deal with the ideas in the novel such as racism, injustice, socioeconomic difficulties
Motivations: most students will fight reading this novel because they will not see that it has any relevance for them, but once they read it they love it. I also tell them there’s bad language, a drug addicted old woman, a hermaphrodite snowman…what more could they want? When they really fight the reading I tell them how sad it is at the end when they get blow up by a bomb…some kids actually read just for that and are disgusted to find out that does not happen--but they read it.
Societal factors: General lack of importance placed on education and reading.

ARCS: Attention: agree/disagree statements
Have students decide whether or not they agree or disagree with specific statements geared toward the themes of the novel.
Example: 1) In America, everyone has the same chance to succeed as everyone
else.
2) A hero is someone who succeeds at whatever he or she sets out to do.
Response is either in philosophical chairs or journal entries.
Relevance: Some of the relevance is the fact that it is a required reading for sophomore English students. But when we discuss the themes involved in the book, many students see that many ideas are still issues today.
Confidence: We read sections of the novel at a time answering study guides as we go.
Satisfaction: Many students feel great satisfaction having completed a book, liking the book and understanding the important ideas in it as demonstrated through various activities along the way and testing.