NeemaK, Ausubel's Meaningful Verbal Learning, Advance organizer

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Ausubels Meaningful Learning Theory

• By
• Neema K
• I st year M.Ed.
• School of Pedagogical Science
• Kannur University, Dharamsala

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David Paul Ausubel (1918 - 2008)
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David Paul Ausubel (1918-2008)

• An American psychologist.
• His most significant contribution to the fields
  of educational psychology, cognitive science, and
  science education learning, was on the
  development and research on meaningful learning
  and advance organizers.
• Influenced by Jean Piaget.
• Ausubel believed that understanding concepts,
  principles, and ideas are achieved through
  deductive reasoning.
• He believed in the idea of meaningful learning as
  opposed to rote memorization.
• He develop an interesting theory of meaningful
  learning and advance organizers.

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Learning Theory

• Learning of new knowledge relies on what is
  already known.
• Construction of knowledge begins with our
  observation and recognition of events and objects
  through concepts we already have.
• Concept map , developed by Ausubel and Novac, it
  is a way of representing relationships between
  ideas, images, or words.
• Ausubel also stresses the importance of reception
  rather than discovery learning, and meaningful
  rather than rote learning.

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Subsumption Theory

• It is based on the idea that an individual's
  existing cognitive structure (organization,
  stability and clarity of knowledge in a
  particular subject) is the principal and basic
  factor influencing the learning and retention of
  meaningful new material.
• It describes the importance of relating new ideas
  to a students existing knowledge base before the
  new material is presented.
• This theory is applied in the 'advance organizer'
  strategy developed by Ausubel.
• When information is subsumed into the learner's
  cognitive structure it is organized
  hierarchically.
• New material can be subsumed in two different
  ways, and for both of these, no meaningful
  learning takes place unless a stable cognitive
  structure exists. This existing structure
  provides a framework into which the new learning
  is related, hierarchically, to the previous
  information or concepts in the individual's
  cognitive structure.

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Meaningful Verbal Learning

• Meaning is created through some forms of
  representational equivalence between language
  (symbols) and mental context.
• In learning two processes are involved
• (I) Reception which is employed in meaningful
  verbal learning
• (ii) Discovery which is employed in concept
  formation and
• problem solving.
• Ausubel pointed out that reception also becomes
  meaningful by appropriate uses of different
  teaching techniques and a badly handled discovery
  method also promotes rote memorization.
• Ausubel forced the proper presentation of
  teaching materials and contents rather than what
  method is used.
• It is always compared with the Bruner's Discovery
  of Learning theory, these two have similar views
  about the hierarchical nature of knowledge but
  Burner was strongly oriented towards discovery
  whereas Ausubel gave more emphasis to verbal
  learning methods of speech, reading and writing.

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• In this theory he introduced the concept of -
• (i) Subsumption theory and (ii)
  Advance organizer.
• In his view, to learn meaningfully, students must
  relate new knowledge (concepts and propositions)
  to what they already know.
• He proposed the idea of an advanced organizer as
  a way to help students link their ideas with new
  material or concepts.
• Ausubel's theory of learning claims that new
  concepts to be learned can be incorporated into
  more inclusive concepts or ideas. These inclusive
  concepts or ideas are advance organizers. It can
  use verbal phrases or a graphic.
• The advance organizer is designed to provide,
  what cognitive psychologists call, the "mental
  scaffolding to learn new information

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4 Process for Meaningful Learning

• Derivative Subsumption
• Correlative Subsumption
• Superordinate Subsumption
• Combinatorial Subsumption
• Derivative Subsumption- New material or relation
  can be arrived from the existing structure
• Correlative Subsumption- New material is an
  extension or elaboration of what is already
  known. It is high level concept of thinking.
• Superordinate Subsumption- An individual is able
  to give a lot of examples of the concept but does
  not know the concept itself until it is taught.
• Combinatorial Subsumption- It describes a
  process by which the new idea is derived from
  another idea that is come from his previous
  knowledge but related.

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Process for Meaningful Learning
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Motivation Theory

• Ausubel's gives great importance to student
  motivation. According to his view, students
  motivation of learning have following three
  aspects -
• Cognitive drive - When a student desires
  knowledge, understanding and mastery of knowledge
  and representations and the need to solve the
  problem. This inner driving force began in the
  curious tendency of students, and to explore,is
  one of the most important and most stable
  motivations.
• Self-improving internal driving force- is the
  internal driving force by virtue of their ability
  of students to win the corresponding position or
  achievement needs.
• Subsidiary internal driving composition-
  maintain internal driving, it means the
  authority of their elders parents or teachers
  praise or recognition, and performance out of a
  well to study or work needs, this is an external
  motivation.

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Ausubel's Theory of Assimilation

• It is focuses on what he describes as meaningful
  Learning.
• This is a process where new information is
  related to an existing relevant aspect of the
  individuals knowledge structure.
• This component of his theory fits with the
  concepts of short and long term memory in
  cognitive information processing.
• His theory integrates the cognitive, affective
  and psychomotor.
• He identifies two aspects of learning - rote
  learning and meaningful learning.

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Rote and Meaningful Learning

• In an attempt to acquire meaningful knowledge,
  the learner can approach the task in two
  different ways-
• Rote learning - If a person attempts to memorize
  his/her drivers license number without relating
  the numbers to anything more than a random
  series, that is rote learning. It works at times
  for short term memory as we know from casual
  meetings with new people and exposure to a new
  joke.
• Meaningful learning - If a person attempts to
  create some connection to something that they
  already know, that is meaningful learning. It is
  very connected to the process of knowledge
  retention within cognitive structures.

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Meaningful Learning Rote learning
Non- arbitrary, non-verbatim substantiv incorporation of new knowledge Arbitrary, verbatim incorporation of new knowledge
Deliberate effort to link new knowledge with other higher order concepts No effort to link new knowledge with other higher order concepts
Learning related to experiences Learning unrelated to experiences
Affective commitment to relate new knowledge to prior learning No affective commitment to relate new knowledge to prior learning
Knowledge is retained much longer Generally knowledge cannot be recalled after hours or days
Added capacity for subsequent learning of related materials No added capacity, in fact may inhibit learning, for subsequent learning of related materials.
Can be applied in a variety of new problems or contexts (transferable)
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Advance Organizers

• "Advance organizers" is Ausubel published in 1960
  meaningful verbal learning and retention
  materials, use of advance organizers the lab
  report and study in a formal classroom language
  teaching and the significance of the promotion of
  learning to accept teaching methods.
• The advance organizer is a tool or mental
  learning aid to help students integrate the new
  information with their existing knowledge,
  leading to a "meaningful learning" as opposed to
  the rote learning (memorization). It is a means
  of preparing learners' cognitive structure for
  the experience about to take place by providing
  scaffolding or support for the new information.
• It is a device to activate relevant schema or
  conceptual patterns. So that new information can
  be more readily subsumed into the learner's
  existing cognitive structure. Advance organizers
  are helpful in the way that they help the process
  of learning when difficult and complex materials
  are introduce.

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• This is satisfied through two conditions
• a. The student must process and understand what
  the information present on the organizer this
  increases the effectiveness of the organizer
  itself.
• b. The organizer must indicate the relation among
  the basic concepts and terms that will be used.
• Ausubel believed that it was important for
  teachers to provide preview information to the
  learners (but preview is not the summary or
  conclusion of the information).

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Types of Advance Organizers

• Expository
• Narrative
• Skimming
• Graphic Organizer
• Expository - Describes the new content. provides
  new knowledge that students will need to
  understand the upcoming information are often
  used when the new learning material is unfamiliar
  to the learner. They often relate what the
  learner already knows with the new and unfamiliar
  materialthis in turn is aimed to make the
  unfamiliar material more feasible to the learner.
• Narrative - Presents the new information in the
  form of a story to students.
• Skimming - Is done by looking over the new
  material to gain a basic overview.
• Graphic Organizer - Visuals to set up or outline
  the new information. This may include
  pictographs, descriptive patterns, concept
  patterns, concept maps, Venn diagram etc.

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Ausubels Model of Meaningful Learning

Phase One Advance Organizer Phase Two Presentation of Learning task or Material Phase Three Strengthening Cognitive Organization
Clarify aim of the lesson Make the organization of the new material explicit Relate new information to advance organizer
Present the lesson Make logical order of learning material explicit Promote active reception learning.
Relate organizer to students prior knowledge Present material in terms of basic similarities and differences by using examples, and engage students in meaningful learning activities
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Educational Implications of Meaningful Learning

• The teacher needs to have in mind the previous
  knowledge of the students before starting to
  impart new material.
• In this way, you can make use of symbols,
  phrases, concepts, images, ideas, and
  propositions that connect with new knowledge.
• Through these connections, students will have the
  opportunity to associate their previous knowledge
  with the new concepts taught in the classroom.
• Through these connections, the acquired knowledge
  will be stored in long-term memory, causing
  personalized and constant learning.
• Student motivation is essential to obtain
  meaningful learning.
• This is why the teacher must use examples during
  the instruction of new material, having in mind
  the students previous knowledge.
• The use of resources and materials that
  facilitate this type of learning is also
  recommended.

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Thank You