MODULE 12

AUSUBEL’S MEANINGFUL
VERBAL LEARNING/
SUBSUMPTION THEORY
 ADVANCE
ORGANIZER
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
Skimming
Learning

Subsumption
Combinational
Graphic Organizer
Learning
 Who is David P. Ausubel?
 David P. Ausubel was born in 1918 and grew up in Brooklyn, NY. He
attended the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in Psychology for
pre-med and eventually became a psychiatrist.
 He earned Ph. D in Developmental Psychology from Columbia
University.
 A series of psychological professorships ensued at schools of education:
the University of Illinios, University of Toronto and in the European
Universities at Berne, the Salesian University at Rome, and the
Officer’s Training College at Munich.
 He retired from professional life in 1994 to devote himself full time (at
the age 75) to writing.
 Four books resulted.
 The main theme of Ausubel’s Theory is that
knowledge is hierarchically organized; that new
information is meaningful to the extent that it can
be related (attached, anchored) to what is already
known.
 It is about how individuals learn large amounts of
meaningful material for verbal/textual
presentations in a school setting.
 He proposed the use of advance organizer as a tool
for learning.
Focus of Ausubel’s Theory
 The most important factor influencing learning is
the QUANTITY, CLARITY and
ORGANIZATION OF THE LEARNER’S
PRESENT KNOWLEDGE.
Present knowledge consist of facts, concepts,
propositions, theories and raw perceptual data that
the learner has available to him/her at any point in
time. This comprises his or her COGNITIVE
STRUCTURE.
Focus of Ausubel’s Theory
 Meaningful learning takes place when idea to be
learned is related in some sensible way to ideas that
the learner already possesses.

 Ausubel believed that before the new material can

be presented effectively, the student’s cognitive
structure should be strengthened.
 Focus of Ausubel’s Theory
 The way to strengthen the student’s cognitive structure
is by using advance organizers that allow students to
already have a bird’s eye view or to see the “big
picture” of the topic to be learned even before going to
details.

 Ausubel’s belief of the use of advance organizers is

anchored on the principle of SUBSUMPTION.
 Focus of Ausubel’s Theory
 SUBSUMPTION is a process by which new material is
related to relevant ideas in the existing cognitive
structure.

 He thought that the primary way of learning was

Subsumption.

 Ausubel pointed out, that what is learned is based on

what is already known.
 Four (4) Process of Meaningful
Learning
 Derivative Subsumption – This describes the situation
in which the new information you learn is an example
of a concept that you have already learned.

 Correlative Subsumption – accommodation of new

information by means of changing or expanding the
concept.
 Four (4) Process of Meaningful
Learning
 Superordinate Learning – Already knew a lot of
examples of the concept, but did not know the concept
itself until it was taught.

 Combinatorial Learning – This is when newly

acquired knowledge combines with prior knowledge to
enrich the understanding of both concepts.
 ADVANCE ORGANIZER
 Advance Organizer – is an instructional unit that it
used before direct instruction, or before a new topic,
this is sometimes called a hook, set induction or
anticipatory set.
 Advance Organizer have two benefits.
1. You will find it easier to connect new information
with what you already know about the topic.
2. You can readily see how the concepts in a certain
topic are related to each other.
 Types of Advance Organizer
 Expository – Describe the new content.

 Narrative – Presents the new information in the form of a

story.

 Skimming – is done by looking over the new material to

gain a basic overview.

 Graphic Organizer – visual to set up or outline the new

information.
 APPLICATION OF
 PRINCIPLES
The most general ideas of a subject should be presented
first and then progressively differentiated in terms of
detail and specificity. He called this PROGRESSIVE
DEFFERENTIATION.
 Instructional materials should attempt to integrate new
material with previously presented information through
comparisons and cross-referencing of new and old ideas.
Thank you for
listening…..
