Expository Teaching

Highly abstract concepts, such as jurisprudence and sovereignty, oftentimes cause high school students much struggle when trying to thoroughly understand such conceptual ideas. To teach these theoretical concepts, one must not only equivalently utilize David Ausubel's Expository teaching model, but also retain an overall knowledge of other valuable strategies related to Ausubels's model (Woolfolk, 2004, p. 281). To Ausubel, the most significant idea is that of the advance organizer, a statement of introduction that aids students in organizing the information about to be presented. Also to a teacher's benefit are the ideas needed to form a concept, such as exemplars, defining features, irrelevant features, non-examples, and prototypes. Introducing the advance organizer, presenting ideas in terms of specific examples, and linking the content back to the advance organizer is Ausubel's model for expository teaching (Woolfolk, 2004, p. 283).

Ausubel's expository teaching primarily focuses on teaching general ideas to comprehend one specific concept, otherwise known as deductive reasoning. His approach always begins with an advance organizer (Woolfolk, 2004, p. 282). This statement aids in priming the students for the context and idea about to be described. It will help in developing schemas, or organizing information, and helps direct all attention to the key ideas coming from the material being presented.

The first of the two types of organizer is the expository organizer, which primarily focuses the introduction of new material. The second is the comparative organizer, which compares old and new information resulting in students accessing schemas already in their working memory, otherwise know as the "temporary storage of information that is being processed in a range of cognitive tasks" (Woolfolk, 2004, p. 242). An expository lesson must always elaborate on the advance organizer. Connecting the information back to the organizer should also be utilized in completing the lesson. Identifying qualities such as defining features (required features), exemplars (actual instances), irrelevant features (often present but not relevant), and non-examples will all assist in creating a prototype, or an ideal example, to aid in grasping the concept. The goal is the ability to take the concept and relate it back to the advance organizer.

In contrast to expository teaching, Jerome Bruners theory of discovery learning focuses on students receiving specific examples and developing an overall definition on their own (Bruner, Goodnow, & Austin, 1956; as cited in Woolfolk, 2004). Discovery learning, while keeping students motivated and involved, seems to have various drawbacks in the high school environment. The most apparent drawback is the issue of time constraints. High school classes simply do not allow the time needed for students to develop concepts through discovery and experimentation.

To teach difficult concepts like sovereignty and jurisprudence, one might apply expository teaching to assist students in grasping such abstract ideas. For instance, a teacher might start with an advance organizer in order to better explain sovereignty and jurisprudence. Since the topics are especially broad it would be beneficial to use a comparative organizer. Doing so, students can organize their own thoughts by putting them in the context of something that they already know. An introduction to jurisprudence should most likely include the overall definition, being "the study, knowledge, or science of law" (dictionary.com). Comparing and contrasting the United States laws with other countries would also aid in focusing the students attention on the idea being introduced. Researching laws from other countries that may seem ancient or impractical may simply be a strategic way to elaborate the idea. Thinking of examples as a class and further defining what jurisprudence means to each student will also keep the students actively involved with the idea at hand. The prototype that a class may discuss concerning jurisprudence could be the United States Bill of Rights. Reviewing material introduced in question and answer format is an efficient way to connect the information back to the advance organizer.

Sovereignty also has a core meaning, "supreme authority within a territory". In other words, the holder of sovereignty is superior to all authorities under its purview (plato.stanford.edu). The advance organizer for sovereignty might include a comparison of different types of "supreme" authorities. One might ask questions such as, "Is high school an example of sovereignty?", or "Is your family an example of sovereignty?" A discussion of other countries, historically and today, would also help expand this idea. Discussing the prototype of each idea will help in relating the content covered