How do Different Readers Learn with Different Text Organizations

The interaction between different types of text organization and different learners was investigated for a more complex instructional text. Two objects were described according to various aspects, whereby the content was organized by object in the one case, and by aspect in the other case. The two types of text organization confront the learner with different processing demands, and interact differently with his/her individual learning characteristics: They accentuate different semantic relations within the text content, the scope they provide for individual processing is different, and they vary in the degree of “sensibility” towards differences in prior knowledge. Practical conclusions on how to match learners and text organizations are pointed out.