DAVID AUSUBEL’S

Theory of Meaningful Learning and

Subsumption Learning Theory

EDUC 102 Finals Performance Task

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I. Biography: David Paul Ausubel
II. Theories:
Meaningful Reception Learning Theory
○ Overview/Definition
Content of this ○ Meaningful learning vs. Rote Learning
○
report ○
Advantages of Meaningful Learning over Rote Learning
Types of Meaningful Learning
○ Processes of Meaningful Learning
○ Benefits of Meaningful Learning
○ Tips to Promote Meaningful Learning
Subsumption Theory
○ Overview/Definition
○ Four Key Principles of Subsumption Theory
○ Instructional design implications of Ausubel’s Theory
○ Criticisms of Advance Organizers
○ Application of Subsumption Theory
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GROUP 3
BALUBAR, Rudiessa Tess
CASILDO, Caren
DERIADA, Antoneth
GEOLINGO, Mievel
LEDESMA, Vinilla
OÑATE, Bernie
PANTIN, Pinky
SERFINO, Von
ROMERO, Zapphire
CARISMA, Cherry Mae
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He was an He studied Psychology5
American at the University of
Pennsylvania
Psychologist. David Paul Ausubel
and Medicine at the
He was born on University of Middlesex
October 25, 1918
Earned a Ph.D degree in
and grew up in Developmental
Brooklyn, New York Psychology at
Columbia University.

In 1976, he received the He was influenced by the

Thorndike Award teachings of Jean Piaget.
from the American October 25, 1918 – July 9, 2008
Psychological In 1994, at the age of 75,
Association he retired from
for “Distinguished professional life to
Psychological He died on July 9, 2008
devote himself fulltime to
Contributions to writing. He then
Education” published four books.
 Ausubel’s
Subsumption
Theory

Meaningful Reception of Four Processes for Advance Organizers

Information Meaningful Learning

Derivative
Learner’s Cognitive Expository
Subsumption
Structure
Correlative
Narrative
Subsumption
Use of Advance Graphic
Organizer Superordinate
Learning Skimming

Subsumption Combinatorial Graphic Organizers

Learning
 1.
Meaningful
Reception
Learning
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8

Overview
○ The Theory of Meaningful Reception Learning was developed by
Ausubel. Ausubel’s experiments supported the idea that when
learners were presented with facts that were of relevance to the
lesson being presented, the learners were more likely to understand.
○ Meaningful Reception Learning is a theory of instruction in which
Ausubel believed that learners can learn best when the new material
being taught can be anchored into existing cognitive information in
the learners.
 Meaningful
Learning
vs.
Rote Learning What makes Ausubel’s Theory unique is
that it stresses meaningful learning as
opposed to rote learning.
 Meaningful Learning vs. Rote Learning

Meaningful Learning

- To learn meaningfully, the TO LEARN

individual must relate new
knowledge to relevant concepts WE CREATE
they already
know NETWORK OF
CONCEPTS
- Before new materials can be
presented effectively, students
cognitive structure should be NEW INFORMATION

strengthened. RELATE IT TO WHAT WE

ALREADY KNOW
 Meaningful Learning vs. Rote Learning
Rote Learning

Rote Learning refers to things that

can be, or are memorized, usually
by continued repetition, and does
not require/involve understanding.
It enhances students’ ability to
quickly recall basic facts and helps
develop foundational knowledge of
a topic.
Advantages of
Meaningful 1. The knowledge
Learning acquired meaningfully
is retained much
longer or for a lifetime
2. The information is not
memorized. It facilitates the
acquisition of new knowledge
which is related to previously
acquired knowledge.

3. The information which is

learned meaningfully can be
applied in a wide variety of ways
to solve new problems or
contexts.
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According to David Ausubel, the students have to

be active, and the teacher have to reinforce new
Types of learning by underlining, completing missing words,
Meaningful restructuring sentences, or by giving additional
Learning examples. So, Ausubel’s Theory has three
requirements:
1. Relevant prior knowledge
2. Meaningful materials
3. The learner must choose to learn
meaningfully
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Types of Meaningful Learning

are

Representation Concept Proposition

Learning Learning Learning
by by by

Gathering Perceiving regularities Knowing concept

vocabulary in events or objects. meaning
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Representation Learning
 it is when students acquire vocabulary.
Types of In this way, students learn words that
Meaningful represent real objects which have
Learning meaning for them; however, it does not
identify categories.

Concept Learning:
 it is defined as objects, events, and situations
that possess common attributes that are
designated through some sign or symbol.
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Proposition Learning:
 when students know the concept meaning, they can form structures
Types of that contain two or more concepts which affirms or deny something.
Meaningful Thus, a new concept is similar to a structure when it is integrated into
Learning new learning with prior ideas that the learner knows.

The boy is dancing.

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The Process of Meaningful Learning

Ausubel proposed four processes of meaningful
learning:

Derivative Subsumption
Correlative Subsumption
Superordinate Learning
Combinatorial Learning
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DERIVATIVE SUBSUMPTION
is when you add new things to existing cognitive structures. Information can
be moved in the hierarchy or linked to other concepts or information to
create new interpretations or meaning.
A Fish has
fin, gills, tail
and scales.

Gold Fish
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CORRELATIVE SUBSUMPTION
is when you add new details to what the you already know, usually a
higher-order concept.

betta FISH
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SUPERORDINATE LEARNING
introduces a new higher-level concept into which already existing categories
can be integrated.
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Loukas, those are what

you called ROOT
CROPS.
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COMBINATORIAL LEARNING
This is when newly acquired knowledge combines with prior knowledge to
enrich the understanding of both concepts.
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BENEFITS OF
MEANINGFUL LEARNING
1. Active learning by students.

2. Personalized learning based on

student’s previous experience.

3. Information stored in a long-

term memory.
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BENEFITS OF
MEANINGFUL LEARNING

4. More significant and lasting

retention of knowledge.

5. Successful connection of new

knowledge with prior knowledge.
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Tips to Promote
Meaningful Take into account the previous
Learning knowledge of students.

Make sure students learn and master the previous

lessons before proceeding to new lessons.
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prior knowledge
initial background
past lessons
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Tips to Promote
Meaningful Make use of activities that are of
Learning interest to students.

Find activities that are suitable to your learners.

Let them participate in the whole process

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Tips to Promote
Meaningful Create a motivational
Learning environment to learn.

Create a conducive environment for your students.

Develop meaningful relationships with your students.

 ideal classroom
32
well-ventilated proper lightings
positive environment

enjoy learning

feel comfortable

personal and emotional growth

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Tips to Promote
Meaningful Make use of debates, groupworks,
Learning games analogies, illustrations and
previous organizers.
Provide activities that will enhance their abilities such
as experiments, drills and various games.
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Tips to Promote
Meaningful
Learning
Use examples at all times.

Provide students number of examples for them to

learn. Don’t stick with only one situation
 IS THIS
REAL-LIFE?
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Be a facilitator of the learning

Tips to Promote
Meaningful process, clarify doubts and allow
Learning students to be an active enity
during the process
Avoid spoon feeding. Let the students explore and
learn on their own.
 2.
Subsumption
Learning
Theory
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SUBSUMPTION
LEARNING
THEORY
The Subsumption Learning Theory was
developed in 1963 by the American
psychologist David Ausubel. The theory
focuses on how individuals acquire and
learn large chunks of information
through visual means or text materials.
 “
41

Overview
As opposed to many other instructional theories, which are
psychology-based models applied to instructional design, the
Subsumption Theory was originally developed exclusively for
instructional design. It prescribes a way of creating instructional
material that helps learners organize their content in order to make it
meaningful for transfer. The goal here is for learners to have the
necessary background that will help them solve any problem and
also retain this knowledge.
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The 4 Key Principles of

Subsumption Theory
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1. Learners should be
presented with the most
general concepts first, and
When the mind makes a then their analysis.
generalization such as the
concept of tree, it extracts
similarities from numerous
examples; the simplification
enables higher-level thinking.
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2. The instructional materials should include

new, as well as previously acquired information.
Comparisons between new and old concepts are
crucial.
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3. Existing
cognitive structures should not be
46

developed, but merely reorganized within the

learners’ memory.
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4. The role of the instructor is to bridge the gap between
what’s already known and what is about to be learned.
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INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN IMPLICATIONS

OF AUSUBEL’S SUBSUMTPION THEORY
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COMPARATIVE ORGANIZER
Is presented when material is relatively familiar or when new ideas will be
integrated with prior knowledge.

Integrate new concepts while discriminating between new and existing ideas.
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PROGRESSIVE DIFFERENTIATION
According to Ausubel, the purpose of progressive
differentiation is to increase the stability and clarity of
anchoring ideas. Is the process of meaningful learning in
which learners increase the degree of elaboration of a
concept as they increase their understanding about it.
The basic idea here is that, if you're teaching three related
topics A, B, and C, rather than teaching all of topic A, then
going on to B, etc., you would take a spiral approach. That
is, in your first pass through the material, you would teach
the "big" ideas (i.e., those highest in the hierarchy) in all
three topics, then on successive passes you would begin to
elaborate the details. Along the way you would point out
principles that the three topics had in common, and things
that differentiated them.
 THE TYPE OF ADVANCED ORGANIZERS
THAT SHOULD ALWAYS BE GIVEN PRIOR INSTRUCTION- CAN BE DIVIDED INTO THE
51

FOLLOWING 4 TYPES:

1. Expository
Organizers that provide a
description of new content
or knowledge that is
unfamiliar to the learner.
 THE TYPE OF ADVANCED ORGANIZERS 52

THAT SHOULD ALWAYS BE GIVEN PRIOR INSTRUCTION- CAN BE

DIVIDED INTO THE FOLLOWING 4 TYPES:

2. Narrative
Organizers that present the
new information in the
form of a story to students.
 THE TYPE OF ADVANCED ORGANIZERS 53

THAT SHOULD ALWAYS BE GIVEN PRIOR INSTRUCTION- CAN BE

DIVIDED INTO THE FOLLOWING 4 TYPES:

3. Skimming Organizers is
done by looking over the
new material to gain basic
overview.
 THE TYPE OF ADVANCED ORGANIZERS 54

THAT SHOULD ALWAYS BE GIVEN PRIOR INSTRUCTION- CAN BE

DIVIDED INTO THE FOLLOWING 4 TYPES:

4. Graphic Organizers are
visuals to set up or outline
the new information
(pictograph, concept
patterns, concept maps)
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The Advanced Organizers
“as one of the highlights of Ausubel’s Theory”
 act as a subsuming bridge between new learning material and
existing related materials
 one way of strengthening one’s cognitive structure because they
enable the learner to see a general picture (bird’s eye view) of the
concept even before looking into its details or parts.
 Enable the learner to connect new information with what he
already knows about it and also helps the learner see
interrelationships of concepts to each other.
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Criticisms (of Advance Organizers) and

Ausubel’s Responses

Their definition and construction are vague,

and therefore, different researchers have
varying concepts of what an organizer is and
can only rely on intuition in constructing one.
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57

David Ausubel’s Response

There is no one specific example in constructing
advance organizers as they "always depends on the
nature of the learning material, the age of the
learner, and his degree of prior familiarity with the
learning passage"
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Criticisms (of Advance Organizers) and

Ausubel’s Responses

Critics often compared the idea of advance

organizers with overviews.
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59

David Ausubel’s Response

Advance organizers differ from overviews "in being
relatable to presumed ideational content in the
learner’s current cognitive structure"
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Criticisms (of Advance Organizers) and

Ausubel’s Responses

Critics also addressed the notion of advance

organizers on whether they are intended to
favor high ability or low ability students.
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61

David Ausubel’s Response

“..advance organizers are designed to favour
meaningful learning..”
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Application of
Subsumption
Integrate or link new lesson to
Theory the previous lesson.
The most important single factor influencing learning is
what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and
teach him accordingly” (Ausubel, 1968, p. vi)
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Application of
Subsumption
Utilize advance organizers
Theory when presenting a concept.
We must provide our students with large amounts of
information in a way that help them understand, retain
and remember it. In this way we are going to use the
advance organizer.
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Application of Teach the general idea of the

Subsumption
Theory
lesson then progressively
differentiate this by specific
topics.
This can be done by pointing out the similarities of the
topics as well as how are they different.
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Application of
Subsumption
Theory Avoid Rote Learning.
Meaningful learning involves new knowledge that is
related to what the learner already knows, and it can be
easily retained and applied.
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Don’t forget to wrap up the
lesson by giving summaries or
Application of
Subsumption giving them reviews of the
Theory
major points that were
discussed.
Wrapped up lesson is equivalent to assessment and
evaluation of students; it enables the teacher to gather
information and to then determine what the learner
knows or does not know and concurrently drives the
planning phase.
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“Tell them (the learners) what

Application of
Subsumption
you are going to tell them; then
Theory tell them; then tell them what
you told them.” – D. Ausubel
Before something can be taught the educators must
first decide what it is they wish to teach the learners,
learning is a repeated action from the beginning of the
class first five minutes.
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Application of
Subsumption
Lead off with the key
Theory takeaways.
in E-Learning
Begin your eLearning course with a general overview
that highlights everything the learners need to know by
the end, and then, sequence online material from
general to specific, a process that Ausubel calls
“progressing differentiation”
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Application of
Subsumption
Theory
Encourage learners to apply
in E-Learning previously acquired knowledge.
The Subsumption Theory relies heavily on the idea that
learners gather information most effectively when they
tie new concepts to existing cognitive structures.
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Application of
Subsumption Include both receptive and
Theory
in E-Learning discovery-based activities.
While receptive online activities help learners acquire
and retain new information, discovery-based activities
allow them to understand how information can be
applied in different situations and contexts.
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Application of
Subsumption
Theory Make it meaningful.
in E-Learning
Despite the fact that The Subsumption Theory deals
primarily with rote learning principles, its primary goal is
to create meaningful learning experiences.
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Thank you!