AUSUBEL’

S
SUBSUMP
TION
THEORY
dAVID PAUL AUSUBEL
× Born in 1918 and grew up in Brooklyn, New
York.
× He attended University of Pennsylvania
majoring in Psychology for pre-med.
× He earned a Ph. D in Developmental
Psychology from Columbia University
× His most significant contribution was on the
development and research on advance
organizer.

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SUBSUMPTION THEORY
× During meaningful learning, the person “subsumes,” or organizes or incorporates, new
knowledge into old knowledge.
× Subsumption theory suggests that our mind has a way to subsume information in a
hierarchical or categorical manner if the new information is linked/incorporated with
prior knowledge/familiar patterns.
× As a result prior knowledge is given absolute importance.
× Teachers are encouraged to teach prior knowledge first rather than new information to
help information subsume.
× Advance organizers provide concepts and principles to the students directly in an
organized format.
× The strategy of “advance organizers” basically means to classify/ categorize/ arrange
(organize) information as you proceed (advance) to the next complex level.

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PRINCIPLES
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.
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THE PROCESS OF MEAN
INGFUL
LEARNING
DERIVATIVE CORRELATIVE
SUBSUMPTION SUBSUMPTION

SUPERORDINATE COMBINATORIAL
LEARNING LEARNING

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 1.
DERIVATIVE
SUBSUMPTION
New material or relationships can be derived
from the existing structure. Information can be
moved in the hierarchy, or linked to other
concepts or information to create new
interpretations or meaning.

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Example (stage 1)
× Suppose I have acquired a basic consumption such as “tree” - trunk, branches,
green leaves, and may have some kind of fruit.
× Now, I learn about a kind of tree that I have never learn before “persimmon tree” -
conforms to my previous understanding of tree.
× My new knowledge of persimmon trees is attached to my concept of tree, without
substantially altering that concept in any way.
× So, I had learned about the persimmon trees through the process of derivative
subsumption.

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 2.
CORRELATIVE
SUBSUMPTIO
N
New material is an extension or
elaboration of what is already
known.

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Example (stage 2)
× Suppose I encounter a new kind of tree that has been red leaves, rather than green.
× In order to accommodate this new information I have to alter or extend my concept
of tree to include the possibility of red leaves.
× I have learned about this new kind of tree through the process of correlative
subsumption.
× In a sense, you might say that this is more “valuable” learning than of derivative
subsumption, since it enriches the higher-level concept.

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 3.
SUPERORDINAT
E LEARNING
An individual is able to give a lot of
examples of the concept but does not
know the concept itself until it is
taught.

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Example (stage 3)
× Imagine that I was well acquainted with maples, oaks, apple trees, etc., but I did not
know, until I was taught, that these were all examples of deciduous trees.
× In this case, I already knew a lot of examples of the concept, but I did not know the
concept itself until it was taught to me.
× This is superordinate learning.

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 4.
COMBINATOR
IAL
LEARNING
The first three learning processes all involve new
information that "attaches" to a hierarchy at a level that
is either below or above previously acquired
knowledge. Combinatorial learning is different; it
describes a process by which the new idea is derived
from another idea that is neither higher nor lower in the
hierarchy, but at the same level.

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Example (stage 4)
× Now, suppose I learn about how fish eggs are fertilized.
× I might relate it to previously acquired knowledge about pollination in plants.
× Both of the ideas are different, but it is related to the “process of breeding”.
× You could think of this as learning by analogy.

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THE FOUR TYPES OF AD
VANCED
ORGANIZERS

EXPOSITORY NARRATIVE SKIMMING GRAPHIC

ORGANIZERS ORGANIZERS ORGANIZERS ORGANIZER
Provides a Present the new Flick through Include pictographs ,
description of new information in a information. descriptive or conceptual
knowledge. story format. patterns and concept maps.

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Benefits of
ADVANCEAdvanced Organizers are valuable tools that mentally help

ORGANIZER
learners learn and retain knowledge, enabling them to combine new
with already known information. This leads to the so called
“meaningful learning”, which is the complete opposite of the
“parrot-like” technique of memorization. Thus, this tool prepares
the cognitive structure of learners for the learning session which is
about to occur, through schemas and conceptual patterns, so that
new information can be seamlessly subsumed into the existing
cognitive structures.

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If instructors provide a brief description or a preview
of the information which is about to be learned,
learners will be able to start with the big picture of
things and then link new ideas, theories, and concepts
to existing mental maps of the related field.

Today, Ausubel’s theory is not particularly popular,

because many educators believe that it promotes a
fairly passive role for learners, who mainly receive
verbal instruction that doesn’t require any struggle
and engagement on their behalf.
THAN
KS!
Any questions?

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