Ausubel’s Theory of Learning

David P. Ausubel – meaning is the core of cognitive

experience (Driscoll, 2000)
1. Preferred to use prose, or textual material of
some length
a. text passages more closely approximate the
kinds of learning materials students encounter in
actual classrooms.
2. Meaning is not something that resides “in the text”
and outside the learner;
3. Meaning occurs when learner’s actively interpret
their experiences using certain cognitive
operations;
 Theory of Reception Learning
Reception vs. Discovery Learning
In reception learning the learner is required
to internalize the information in a form, that
will be available for later use.
Reception learning is the same as what
occurs in expository teaching where
learners are told information rather
discover it for themselves
In expository teaching, teachers present
materials in a carefully organized form.
Discovery Learning according to Ausubel
requires the learners
• “ to rearrange a given array of information,
• integrate it with existing cognitive
structure, and
• reorganize or transform the integrated
combination
in such a way as to create a desired end
product or discover a missing-end
relationship”
 Rote vs. Meaningful Learning
• Rote learning is the same as verbatim
memorization.
• This means that the learner has made no
real connection between what was already
known and was memorized.
What was memorized stands as an isolated
piece of information.
 Meaningful Learning
• Refers to the process of relating potentially
meaningful information to what the learner
already knows in a nonarbitrary and
substantive way.
• Occurs when new information or learning
activities are made relevant by relating them
to personal interest and prior experiences or
knowledge.
Either rote or meaningful learning can occur in
reception and discovery learning
situations[Driscoll, 2000].
Students tend to memorize the solution to a
mathematics problem instead of
understanding how the solution was arrived
at.
In reception and discovery learning, the learner
must be cognitively active.
Conditions necessary for meaningful learning:
1. One condition requires that the learner employ a
meaningful learning set to any learning task.
2. Second condition is that the material to be
learned be potentially meaningful. This suggests
that learning tasks and materials should be
organized, readable, and relevant, so that the
learner can make sense of the learning task.
3. The third and most important condition for
meaningful learning is what learners already
know and how that knowledge relates to what
they are asked to learn.