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Ausubel's learning Theory: Implications on Mathematics Teaching

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 Ausubel's learning Theory:
Implications on Mathematics Teaching

Khagendra Adhikari *
Assistant Campus Chief
Terhathum Multiple Campus ,Chuhandanda.

Abstract:
The teaching learning of mathematical concepts is very challenging. So many methods
are discovered to facilitate the teaching/ learning process. Ausubel's learning theory is one of
the most important for teaching/learning the more content in short time. Developing thinking
skills in students requires specific instruction and practice rather than application. Teachers
should address analysis, evaluation and synthesis using advance organizers that encourage
students to operate at higher levels of abstraction. Strengthening cognitive structures helps
students retain information longer, and subsumptions provide students with basic structures on
which to build new concepts. In this article, it is tired to give a brief account about this theory
and its implications on teaching mathematics.

Introduction
David Paul Ausubel (1918-2008), an American psychologist was born in New York. His
most significant contribution to the fields of educational psychology, cognitive science and
science of education learning was on the development and research on advance organizer (since
1960).
Ausubel was influenced by the teaching of Jean Piaget similar to Piaget's ideas of
conceptual schemes; Ausubel related this to his explanation of how people acquire the
knowledge. David Ausubel theorized that "People acquire[d] knowledge primarily by being
exposed directly to it rather than through discover" (wool flok et.al. 2010, p.288)
Ausubel whose theory is particularly relevant for educators, consider neo-behaviorist
view inadequate. Although, he recognized other forms of learning, his work focused on the
verbal learning. He dealt with the nature of meaning and believed that the external world
acquires meaning only as it created into the content of consciousness by the learner. Ausubel
believes that the new knowledge, learning and maintaining efficient depends on the adequacy of
cognitive structure, whereas the formation of the appropriate cognitive structures are also
dependent on effective ways of learning. According to learning, will learn to accept the study
and divided discovery learning, learning content and learners based on the knowledge structure
of the original relationship, the study into meaningful learning and rote learning. Learning about
these types of forms, their distinction is not absolute or whether it is learning to accept that
learning may is mechanical, it is likely to be meaningful. It depends on the availability of
meaningful learning to learn the mental process and conditions. Significant learning to occur
there are three prerequisites: (1 to learn the material itself must have a logical meaning, (2
learner must be proactive in the new concept of knowledge and there is adequate contact
between the tendency, (3 learners existing cognitive structures must have the proper assimilation
of new knowledge and ideas. From lecture-style teaching is meaningful learning not a
mechanical or a passive learning, as long as it meets the conditions for meaningful learning, it is
a kind of active learning. This is advocated by Ausubel.
The current education reform, people tend to accept the machine learning is equivalent to
learning, discovery learning and meaningful learning to a uniform, negative reception learning,
that teachers must use the language system knowledge to enable students to teach in a passive
position, the flow in the "spoon-fed" education, and advocate the use of discovery learning place
to learn to accept. This theory and practice have caused confusion. After all, under certain
conditions existing teaching, teaching methods to teach science and culture is still the main
means of knowledge, its importance is not in the short period of time going to change, need to
study is how to criticize inherited advantage,
reform to improve. David Ausubel's view, for a correct understanding of the education reform
and evaluation of the value of learning to accept offers theoretical guidance.

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 and (ii) Discovery which is employed in
concept formation and problem solving.
Ausubel pointed out that reception also become meaningful by appropriate uses of
different teaching techniques and badly handled discovery method also promotes the rote
memorization. So Ausubel forced the proper presentation of teaching materials and contents
rather than what method is used.
Ausubel's work on meaningful learning has always compared with the Burner's. These
two have similar views about the hierarchical nature of knowledge’s but Burner was strongly
oriented to wards discovery where as Ausubel gave more emphasis to verbal learning methods of
speech, reading and writing. For the meaningful verbal learning Ausubel has introduced the
concept of subsumption theory and concept of Advance organizer. In Ausubel's view, to learn
meaningfully, students must relate new knowledge (concepts and propositions) to what they
already know. He proposed the notion 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 more inclusive
concepts or ideas are advance organizers. Advance organizers can be verbal phrases (the
paragraph you are about to read is about Albert Einstein), or a graphic. In any case, the advance
organizer is designed to provide, what cognitive psychologists call, the "mental scaffolding: to
learn new information. The characteristics of meaningful learning (Hassard, J.2003) are:
 Non-arbitrary, non-verbatim, substantive incorporation of new knowledge into cognitive
structure.
 Deliberate effort to link new knowledge with higher order concepts in cognitive structure
 Learning related to experiences with events or objects.
 Affective commitment to relate new knowledge to prior learning.

Motivation Theory
Ausubel's learning theory also attaches great importance to student motivation.
According to his view, by the cognitive drive achievement motivation, self improving internal
driving force and the subsidiary internal driving composition. Cognitive drive is a student desire
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,
manipulate, understand and cope with the psychological environment, the tendency is one of the
most important and most stable motivations. Self-improvement is the internal driving force by
virtue of their ability of students to win the corresponding position or achievement needs.
subsidiary of individuals in order to maintain internal driving means or the authority of their
elders (parents or teachers praise or recognition, and performance out of a well to study or work
needs, is an external motivation, age has a more obvious characteristics. learning motivation will
not have a direct impact on learning, but through an indirect way of enhancing and promoting
learning impact. Research indicates that: motivation, moderate-intensity excitation, or to arouse,
to learn with good results.

Subsumption Theory
Subsumes meant to incorporate new materials in to one's cognitive structure. From
Ausubel's perspective this is the meaning of learning. When information is subsumed into the
learners cognitive structure it is organized hierarchically. New materials can be subsumed in to
two different ways and for both of these, no meaningful learning takes place unless a stable
cognitive structure exists. This existing structure providing a frame work into which the new
learning is relate hierarchically to the previous information or concepts in the individual
cognitive structure.
When one encounters completely new unfamiliar materials then rote learning takes place
as oppose to the meaningful learning. This rote learning eventually contribute to the construction
of new cognitive structure which can later be used in meaningful learning. Ausubel's describes
the two types of subsumptions as;
(I) Correlative Subsumption:
New material is an extension of which is already known.
(II) Derivative Subsumption:
 New material or relationship can be derived from existing structure. Information can be
moved in the hierarchy or linked to the other concepts or information to create new interpretation
or meaning. For this type of subsumption completely new concept can be emerged and previous
concept can be changed or expanded to include more of the previously existing information. This
is "figure out".
Ausubel gave emphasis on the deductive teaching methods for meaningful learning. From
this perspective expository (verbal) approaches encourage rapid learning and retention where as
discovery learning facilities transfer to the other context.

Advance Organizer:
"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.
Ausubel contributed much to the theoretical body of cognitive learning theory but not as much to
the practical classroom aspects as Burner and others. Ausubel's must notable classroom
application is Advance organizer.
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. 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 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 teacher to provide preview information to the
learners (but preview is not the summary or conclusion of the information). Teacher could do
this by providing information closely related to which is presented as content. This would enable
students to start with the "big figure" of upcoming contents and link new ideas, concepts,
vocabulary to existing mental maps of the context area. In any case the advance organizer is
designed to provide what cognitive psychologists call the mental scaffolding" to learn the new
information. Ausubel's theory of Advance organizers falls into two categories: comparative and
expository.

1. Comparative Organizer
The main goal of the comparative organizers is to activate the existing schemas. Similarly
they act as the reminders to being in to working memory of what you may not realize are
relevant. By acting as reminders, the organizer points out explicitly "whether already established
anchoring ideas are none specially or specially relevant to the learning materials" (Ausubel and
Robinson, 1969, p146). Similarly the comparative organizer is used both to integrate as well as
discriminate. It "integrates new ideas with basically similar concept in cognitive structure as well
as increases discriminatibility between new and existing ideas which are essentially different but
confusable similar (Ausubel ,1968, p149).
An example of comparative organizer would be "one used the ideas o sets, relation and
function for introducing the ideas of sequence.

2. Expository Organizer
In contrast, "Expository organizer provides the new knowledge that student will not to
understanding the upcoming information (wool flok et.al. 2010, p289). Expository organizer is
often used when the new learning material is unfamiliar to the learner in anyway. This is aimed
to make unfamiliar material more plausible to learner.
An example which Ausubel and Robinson provided in the book “School learning: An
introduction to educational psychology” that the concept of Darwanian theory of evolution
more plausible, an expository organizer would have combination to general relevant knowledge
that is already present as well as relevant for the more detailed Darwanian theory.
Ausubel clearly stated that there is no specific example on how to construct the advance
organizer as they always depends upon the nature of learning materials, the age of learner's i.e.
cognitive structure of learners and their degree of prior familiarity with the upcoming learning
content.
Strategies for Meaningful Learning
Ausubel regarded that each academic discipline as having a distinct organizational and
methodological structure and each individual as having a distinct cognitive structure. He always
emphasized to the fact that the information processing structure of the discipline and the
information procession structure of mind should be analogues. A first prerequisite for
meaningful learning, Ausubel and Robinson (1969) contend, "is that the material presented to the
learner be capable of being related in some `sensible' fashion" (p. 46). The new information must
be fitted into a larger pattern or whole. "Second, the learner must possess relevant ideas to which
the new idea can be related or anchored" (p. 46). The learner must already have appropriate
subsuming concepts in his or her cognitive structure. "Finally, the learner must actually attempt
to relate, in some sensible way, the new ideas to those which he presently possesses" (p. 46). If
any of these conditions are missing, the end result will be rote learning.

For the meaningful learning Ausubel suggested to apply the advance organizer. An
advance organizer is not a review but rather a presentation of information (either verbal or
visual) that is "umbrella" for the new materials to be learned. According to Joyce et. al. (2000),
the advance has three phases of activity.
Phase I: (Includes the presentation of advance organizer)
 Clarify the aims of lesson
 Present the organizer
 Relate the organizer to the student's knowledge
  Make logical order of learning material explicit
 Present material and engage students in meaningful activities.
Phase II : Includes making links to/from organizer with new information.
Phase III : (Strengthening of the cognitive organization)
 Integrative reconciliation and active reception learning (eg. the teacher can ask
learners to make summaries to point out differences, to relate new example with
advance organizer).
 Elicit critical approach to the subject matter.
Implications of Ausubel's Learning Theory on Mathematics Teaching
Mathematics teaching is a complex work because of its abstract nature. To give the abstract
concepts, Ausubel’s learning theory is the most suitable rather than others. Whether students
with meaningful learning orientation, is of potential significance in the face of student learning
materials, they can actively seek links between old and new knowledge by changing the ways
that classroom activities to motivate students to engage in meaningful learning tendency. For
example, the Mathematics teacher can be combined with the actual course content, the creation
of a math problem out of a scene, to stimulate the curiosity of students to solve problems, and
thus generate interest in learning, teaching content. In another example, Mathematics teachers
during classroom teaching, may be appropriate to use some sound, images and animation
courseware, or strong intuitive, touch things (animals and plants). Mathematics teachers can also
create a good classroom atmosphere to encourage students to take the initiative to explore, to
assume that to verify, communicate with each other so that the students truly experience the
beauty of knowledge, and understand value of knowledge, more love for what they have learned
and discipline Its some implications on mathematics education are summarized on the following
points.
1. To complete the course in time, the Ausubel's learning theory is most helpful.
2. Abstract concepts can be tough effectively by presenting the appropriate advance
organizer and can help pupils to grasp higher order relationships between abstractors.
3. Since meaningful verbal learning depends upon the critical ability and readiness to
receive, teacher should make use of adequate pedagogical techniques such as precise and
accurate definition of concepts, giving similarities and dissimilarities between related
concepts and encouraging learners to define their own words.
4. Since single concept is easier to retain rather than to remember many specific items.
Hence clear, relevant, advance organizer should be provided.
5. To develop thinking skills in students requires specific instruction and practice rather
than application. Teacher should address analysis, evaluation and synthesis using advance
organizers that encourage students to operate at higher level of abstraction. Strengthening
cognitive structure helps to retain the information in longer and advance organizer
provides with basic structures on which to built new concepts.
 6. For the teaching new mathematical concept teacher should motivate the students and by
presenting the advance organizer (if needed) to relate the new concept with pre-existing
knowledge.
7. For meaningful mathematical learning sufficient amount of teaching materials should be
used and the materials should be in accordance with the nature of lesson.
8. The students having the good mathematical skills and verbal capacity should taught by
verbal expository method. This method increases debating, reasoning, imaginary,
problem solving prowess and conjectures making ability of students.

Conclusion
Mathematics results from discovery, the formulation, the systematic development and
application of patterns of inductive and deductive thinking. It consists of patterns of related
ideas, patterns of thought. It is the queen of all sciences. It has been continuous develop and
change with changing the need of contemporary society. As the mathematics as ever expanding
knowledge it is equally important to transfer this mathematical concepts for the new generation.
From the end of the 19th century, many educators and psychologists have discovered the
different learning theories for the effective teaching learning activities. These theories help to
make the effective and interesting class as other subjects. For the better learning of mathematics
different learning theories can be applied, among them Ausubel's expository verbal learning is
one of the most important method for the mathematics instruction.
Proper use of expository method may be fruitful for the mathematics class. For all kinds
of learners (fast and slow learners), Ausubel's expository method can be used for teaching
expository method is suitable for the following situations.
1. When there is limited time to complete the course.
2. In case of those students who cannot discover the new mathematical fact in mathematics
i.e. specially for slow learners.
3. If there is large number of students and scarcity of sufficient teaching materials.
Mathematics is not only a subject but also a structure of systematic knowledge. So it is
regarded as discipline. Therefore, not only one method is suitable for teaching of its concepts,
facts principles etc, so a mathematics teacher should have enough knowledge about the learning
theories. It is not doubtful that the proper use of Ausubel's meaningful verbal learning
(Expository) in proper situation gives the better result.

References
Adhakari, K. (2010). Ausubel's learnerning theory and its implications: A practical work for
Math-519, T.U., submmited to Department of mathematics, Sukuna M. Campus.
Ausubel, D.P. (1978). In defense of advance organizer, a reply to critics, Retrieved from ERIC.
Ausubel, D.P. (1968). Educational psychology: A cognitive view, New York; Holt renerhart and
wisiston.
 Ausubel,D.P&Robinson,F.G.(1969).School learning: An introduction to educational psychology.
New York : Holt Rinerhart and wigston.
Hassard, J.(2003) Backup of Meaningful learning Model, Geogia State University Ometitus.
Retrieved from http:// www.davidasubel.org
Joyce, B et. al. (2000), Models of teaching (6th Ed.). Englewood clifts, NJ: printice-Hall
Wool flok et. al.(2010), Educational psychology d.): Toronto: persin Canada.

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