Ausubel’s Meaningful

Verbal Learning/

Subsumption Theory

Introduction: Many educational psychology

theories often criticize the expository orpresentational manner of teaching. Theysay that the teachers assume such amajor role in learning as providers ofinformation, while students remain aspassive receivers of information. DavidAusubel, instead of criticizing thismanner of teaching, proposed ways ofimproving it. He suggested the use ofadvance organizers. His ideas arecontained in his theory of MeaningfulVerbal Learning.

Abstract/ Generalization:The main theme of Ausubel’s Theory is that

knowledge is hierarchically organized; the newinformation is meaningful to the extent that itcan be related (attached, anchored) to what isalready known. It is about how individuals learnlarge amount of meaningful verbal material fromverbal/ textual presentation in a school setting.He proposed the use of advance organizer as atool for learning.

1. The most important factor

influencing learning id the

quantity, clarity and organization

of the learner’s present

knowledge. This comprises his/her

cognitive structure.

2. 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 the details.

Example:Let’s say you have acquired a basic concept such

as” bird”. You know that a bird has feathers, a

beak, lays egg. Now you learn about a kind if bird

that you have never seen before., let’s say a blue

jay, that conforms to your previous understanding

of bird, without substantially altering that concept

in any way.

Example:Lets say you see a new kind of bird that has a really

big body and long legs. It doesn’t fly but it can run

fast. In order to accommodate this new information,

you have to change or expand your concept of bird to

include the possibility of being big and having a long

legs. You know include the concept of an ostrich to

your previous concept of what a bird is.

Types of Organizers

Expository •Describe the new content.

References: http://www.slideshare.net/cutie_maine_026/ausubels

-meaningful-verbal-learning

http://www.slideshare.net/angelmaelongakit/ausubels-meaningful-verbal-learning