AUSUBEL’S MEANINGFUL VERBAL LEARNING / SUBSUMPTION

THEORY

DAVID P. AUSUBELHe was born in 1918 and grew up in Brooklyn, NY. Attended the University of Pennsylvania, taking the pre-medical course and later majored in PsychologyEarned a Ph.D in Develomental Psycholgy from Columbia UniversityTaught in the University of Illinois, Univ. of Toronto, and in the European universities at Berne, the Salesian Univ. in Rome, and the Officer’s Training College in Munich Retired from professional life in 1994 and devote himself to writing books at the age of 75. He wrote 4 books. His principal interests in psychiatry have been general psychopathology, ego development, drug addiction, and forensic psychiatry In contrast to Bruner, Ausubel believed that people acquire knowledge primarily through RECEPTION, NOT DISCOVERY.

Meaningful Verbal Learning The main idea in Ausubel's theory is that knowledge

is hierarchically organized; that new information is meaningful to the extent that it can be related (attached, anchored) to what is already known.

Individuals learn large amount of meaningful materials from verbal/textual presentations in school.

He proposed the use of advanced organizers as a tool for learning.

Memorization is not meaningful learning, because material by rote is not connected with existing knowledge.

Concepts, principles, and ideas are presented and understood using DEDUCTIVE REASONING- from general ideas to specific cases.

Meaningful Verbal LearningThe most important factor influencing learning is the

quantity, clarity and organization of the learner’s present knowledge (facts, concepts, propositions, theories and raw perceptual data in learner’s cognitive structure).

Ideas to be learned are related to ideas that the learner already possesses. This is called Subsumption.

To strengthen the student’s cognitive structure is by using advance organizers.

Retention is greater because it is based on prior concrete concepts.

Four Processes of Meaningful Learning

Derivative Subsumption

Correlative Subsumption

Superordinate Learning

Combinatorial Learning

1. Derivative Subsumption

This describes the situation in which the new information you learn is an example of a concept that you have already learned.

2. Correlative SubsumptionIt is changing or expanding concepts. This is more "valuable" learning than that

of derivative subsumption, since it enriches the higher-level concept.

3. Superordinate LearningIn this case, you already knew a lot of

examples of the concept, but you did not know the concept itself until it was taught to you.

4. Combinatorial LearningNewly acquired knowledge combines with prior

knowledge to enrich the understanding of both concepts.

It describes a process by which the new idea is derived from another idea that is neither higher nor lower in the hierarchy, but at the same level (in a different, but related, "branch").

It is like learning by analogy.

ADVANCE ORGANIZERS This is an introductory statement broad

enough to cover or include all the information that will follow.

3 Purposes:

They direct your attention to what is important in the coming material,

They highlight relationships among ideas that will be presented

They remind you of relevant information you already have

Types of Advance OrganizersExpository – describes the new content

Narrative – presents the new information in the form of a story

Skimming – looking over the new material to gain a basic overview

Graphic Organizer – visuals to set up or outline the new information (pictographs, descriptive patterns, concept patterns, concept maps)

Application of Principles

1. Progressive differentiation – the most general ideas of a subject should be presented first and then progressively differentiated in terms of detail and specificity

2. Instructional materials should attempt to integrate new material with previously presented information through comparisons and cross-referencing of new and old ideas.