David Ausubel

Meaningful Learning Theory

 Biography
Born: October 25, 1918
Died: July 9, 2008
 Grew up in Brooklyn, New York

He graduated from medical school at Middlesex

University.
Later he earned a Ph.D in Developmental Psychology at
Columbia University.
 He was influenced by the work of Piaget.
• In 1973, Ausubel retired from academic life and devoted himself
to his psychiatric practice.

• In 1976, he received the Thorndike Award from the American

Psychological Association for "Distinguished Psychological
Contributions to Education".
 Meaningful Learning Theory
• Concerned with how
students learn large amounts
of meaningful material from
verbal/textual presentations
in a learning activities.
• Meaningful learning results
when new information is
acquired by linking the new
information in the learner’s
own cognitive structure
• Learning is based on the
representational,
superordinate and
combinatorial processes that
occur during the reception
of information.
• A primary process in
learning is subsumption in
which new material is related
to relevant ideas in the
existing cognitive structure
on a non-verbatim basis
(previous knowledge)
 The processes of meaningful
learning:

• Ausubel proposed four processes by which

meaningful learning occur:

Derivative Subsumption
Correlative Subsumption
Superordinate Learning
Combinatorial Learning
 Meaningful Learning Theory

Derivative Subsumption Correlative Subsumption

• Describes the situation • More valuable learning
in which the new than that of derivative
information pupils learn subsumption, since it
is an instance or enriches the higher-level
example of a concept concept.
that pupils have already
learned.
 Meaningful Learning Theory

Superordinate Learning Combinatorial Learning

• In this case, you already  It describes a process by
which the new idea is
knew a lot of examples derived from another idea
of the concept, but you that is comes from his
did not know the previous knowledge (in a
different, but related,
concept until it was “branch”)
taught to pupils  Students could think of
this as learning by analogy
 Principles of Ausubel’s Meaningful
Reception Learning Theory

Within a classroom setting include:

The most general ideas of a subject should be
presented first and then progressively differentiated in
terms of detail and specificity.
Instructional materials should attempt to integrate new
material with previously
presented information through comparisons and
cross-referencing of new and old
ideas.
 Principles of Ausubel’s Meaningful
Reception Learning Theory

Instructors should incorporate advance organizers when

teaching a new concept.
Instructors should use a number of examples and focus on both
similarities and differences.
Classroom application of Ausubel's theory should discourage
rote learning of materials that can be learned more meaningfully.
The most important single factor influencing learning is what
the learner already knows.
 Summary

 For Ausubel, meaningful learning is a process that related

new information relevant to the concepts contained in a
person’s cognitive structure.
 In order to be meaningful to students ‘learning, then
learning should be linked and relevant to students’
cognitive structures.
 Relevance to students’ cognitive structures can happen
when we pay attention to early knowledge of the
concepts that preceded the concept to be learned.
 Summary

 It is important for students to construct knowledge

through learning.
 The essential theory of meaningful learning is a teaching
which Ausubel enables students can associate the
beginning of knowledge with new knowledge that will
learn and how teachers can facilitate learning by preparing
the facility as a presentation of the subject matter which
allows students to build knowledge in discovery learning
activities.