DAVID P AUSUBEL

Ausubel's theory is concerned with how individuals learn large amounts of meaningful material from verbal/textual presentations in a school setting (in contrast to theories developed in the context of laboratory experiments). According to Ausubel, learning is based upon the kinds of superordinate, representational, and combinatorial processes that occur during the reception of information. A primary process in learning is subsumption in which new material is related to relevant ideas in the existing cognitive structure on a substantive, non-verbatim basis. Cognitive structures represent the residue of all learning experiences; forgetting occurs because certain details get integrated and lose their individual identity.


A major instructional mechanism proposed by Ausubel is the use of advance organizers:

"These organizers are introduced in advance of learning itself, and are also presented at a higher level of abstraction, generality, and inclusiveness; and since the substantive content of a given organizer or series of organizers is selected on the basis of its suitability for explaining, integrating, and interrelating the material they precede, this strategy simultaneously satisfies the substantive as well as the programming criteria for enhancing the organization strength of cognitive structure." (1963 , p. 81).

Ausubel emphasizes that advance organizers are different from overviews and summaries which simply emphasize key ideas and are presented at the same level of abstraction and generality as the rest of the material. Organizers act as a subsuming bridge between new learning material and existing related ideas.

Advaned Organizers

The "advanced organizer" approach to teaching is a cognitive instructional strategy used to promote the learning and retention of new information. Proposed by David Ausubel in 1960, this strategy is one of the most utilized methods of instruction in our schools today.

In the development of this approach Ausubel (1960) promoted meaningful learning upholding that the most important thing a child could bring to learning situation was what s/he already knows. Therefore, meaningful learning results when that child consciously and explicitly ties new knowledge to relevant concepts within his/her schema. When this occurs it produces a series of changes within our entire cognitive structure. Existing concepts are modified and new linkages between concepts are formed.

Ausubel (1960) believed that meaningful learning is idiosyncratic and involves personal recognition of the links between concepts. The most important element of meaningful learning is not so much how information (rote vs. discovery) is presented but how new information is integrated into an existing knowledge base.

In order to enhance meaningful learning Ausubel believed that it was important to have students preview information to be learned. Teachers could do this by providing a brief introduction about the way that information that is going to be presented is structured. An example of this might be opening a lesson with a statement that provides an overview of what will be taught. In presenting outlines of information, teachers can help students see the big picture to be learned. This approach encourages students to build upon prior knowledge and mentally organize their thoughts before being introduced to the details of new concepts.

By making new material more familiar and meaningful to students, it should be easier to retrieve. (Gagne, 1988)

Ausubel documented these ideas in his book The Acquisition and Retention of Knowledge. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000. This shows the connection between new learning material and related conceptual material that the learner already knows, and how it can be more easily stabilized and assimilated into the learner’s cognitive structure thereby becoming more resistant to forgetting.

References:-
http://www.davidausubel.org/newProjects.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ausubel
http://tip.psychology.org/ausubel.html
http://chd.gse.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/strategies/cognitivism/AdvancedOrganizers.htm