Ausubel’s Meaningful Learning

the creator of the meaningful learning theory

David Ausubel was a psychologist born in New York on October 25, 1918.
-Studied psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and medicine at the University of
Middlesex.
-graduated from medical school
-Later earned a Ph.D in Development Psychology at Columbia University
-influenced by the work of Piaget (Ausubel believed that understanding concepts,
principles, and ideas are achieved through deductive reasoning)
-ability to draw specific conclusions from general information. essential in the stage of
intellectual development.
-1973- Ausubel retired from academic life and devoted himself to his psychiatric practice
-In 1976 he was awarded the Edward Thorndike Prize by the APA for his contributions
to educational psychology.
-Ausubel passed away on July 9, 2008, in New York, at the age of 89.

Meaningful Learning Theory

-Meaningful learning was a term developed during the 1960s.
-It is an exploration and an explanation of how a learner learns, primarily by relating new
information to previous known information and concepts

It implies that new information is understood and internalized, as it is

incorporated into prior knowledge and concepts. This act is called subsumption of
information.
By relating new information to previous knowledge, the new information is assimilated in
a hierarchical manner and organized into a usable cognitive format. The newly learned
information will expand on prior concepts, and in turn, the prior concepts supply
meaning, purpose, and explanation to the new information.

Prior knowledge becomes the basis for learning additional information.

Ausubel believed that learning of new knowledge relies on what we already know. We
learn by building a network of concepts and adding others to it.
Because meaningful learning involves a recognition of the links/ connection between
concepts, it has the privilege of being transferred to long-term memory.
-retaining information that would last for a lifetime

Students are considered to be the center of the teaching learning process while
the teacher primarily functions as a facilitator, helping learners to experience and
absorb new information through specific. Meaningful learning allows students to
associate acquired material with previous knowledge or experiences that serve as
an anchor when obtaining new knowledge. This will enable the student to make
connections that will allow learning to be a comprehensive and lasting one throughout
their life.