Module 12 —Ausubel's Meaningful Verbal Learing/Subsumption Theory ee (etiery Ausubel’s Meaningful Verbal Learning/ Subsumption Theory era tt a cats SE omni ates deo \V/ Take the Challenge! In this Module, outcomes: challenge yourself to attain the following learning explain Ausubel’s subsumption theory. determine the uses of graphic organizers. use advance graphic organizers for a topic presentation. Many educational psychology theories often criticize the expository or presentational manner of teaching. They say that teachers assume such a major role in learning as providers of information, while students remain as passive receivers of information. David Ausubel, instead of criticizing this manner of teaching, proposed ways of improving it. He suggested the use of advance organizers. His ideas are contained in his theory of Meaningful Verbal Learning 2a PURI Or nies Ausubel’s Subsumption Theory Four Processes for ) (caningful Reception Advance Organizers Met latrmance Meaningfl Leasing | ane eee Exposiory == al ce El Conrad ee i 137138 FACILITATING LEARNER-CENTERED TEACHING com The figure above is an advance organizer. Study it. Read the words found in each box. Examine how the lines connect the boxes. bom in 1918 and gtew up in Brooklyn, NY. He attended the University of Pennsyivani, majoring in| Psychology for pre-med and eventually became 2 psychiatrist He eamed a Ph. D in Developmental Paychology from Columbia University. A series of psychological professorships ensued at schools of education: the University of iincs, University of Toronto, and in the European universities at Bere, the Salesian University at Rome, and the Officer's Training College at Munich, He retired from professional fe in 1994 to devote himself full time, at the age of 75, to wating. Four books resuited | Davi ,Ausibel was wor davidausubelorg Ree Describe the advance organizer, specifically on how the words are related to each other. 1, Why was the advance organizer presentéd before the discussion of the topic? 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 from verbal/textual presentations in a school setting. He proposed the use of advance organizers as a tool for learning. Focus of Ausubel’s Theory 1. The most important factor influencing learning is the quantity, clarity and organization of the learner’s present knowledge. This present knowledge consists 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/her cognitive structure. 2. Meaningful learning takes place when an idea to be learned is related in some sensible way to ideas that the learner already possesses. Ausubel believed that before new material can be presented effectively, the student’s cognitive structure should be strengthened. When this is done, acquisition and retention of new information is facilitated. 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. Ausubel’s belief of the use of advance organizers is anchored on the principle of subsumption. He thought that the primary way of learning was subsumption: a process by which new material is related to relevant ideas in the existing cognitive structure. Likewise, Ausubel pointed out,-that whatModule 12 — Ausubel’s Meaningful Verbal Learning/Subsumption Theory is leamed is based on what is already known. This signifies that one’s own prior knowledge and biases limit and affect what is learned. Also, retention of new knowledge is greater because it is based on prior concrete concepts. Meaningful learning can take place through four processes: Derivative subsumption. This describes the situation in which the new information you learn is an example of a concept that you have already learned. 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 leam about a kind of bird that you have never seen before, let's say a blue jay, that conforms to your previous understanding of bird. Your new knowledge of blue jays is attached to your concept of bird, without substantially altering that concept in any way. So, an in Ausubel’s theory, you had learned about blue jays through the process of derivative subsumption. Correlative subsumption. Examine this example. Now, let’s say you see a new kind of bird that has a really big body and long strong 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 long legs. You now include your concept of an ostrich to your previous concept of what a bird is. You have learned about this new kind of bird through the process of correlative subsumption. In a sense, you might say that this is more “valuable” learning than that of derivative subsumption, since it enriches the higher-level concept Superordinate learning. Imagine that a child was well acquainted with banana, mango, dalandan, guava etc., but the child did not know, until she was taught, that these were all examples of fruits. In this case, the child already knew a lot of examples of the concept, but did not know the concept itself until it was taught to her. This is superordinate learning. Combinatorial learning. This is when newly acquired knowledge combines with prior knowledge to enrich the understanding of both concepts, The first three learning processes all included new information that relates to a hierarchy at a level that is either below or above previously acquired knowledge. Combinatorial leaning 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 (in a different, but related, “branch”), It is a lot like as learning by analogy. For example, to teach someone about how plants “breathe” you might relate it to previously acquired knowledge of human respiration where man inhales oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide. Advance Organizers The advance organizer is a major instructional tool proposed by Ausubel. The advance organizer, gives you two benefits: (1) You will * find it easier to connect new information with what you already know about the topic, and (2) you can readily see how the concepts in a certain topic are related to each other: As you go about learning about the topic and go though the four leaming processes, the advance organizer helps you link the new learning to your existing scheme. As such, advance organizers facilitate learning by helping you organize and strengthen your cognitive structure, 139140 FACILITATING LEARNER-CENTERED TEACHING What is an ‘Advance Organizer? + aninstructional ‘unit that isused before direct instruction, or before anew topic; this is sometimes called a hook, set induction, or anticipatory set + popularized by David Ausubel, first in 1968 + introduced in advance of direct instruction «presented at a higher level of abstraction than the information Presented later + designed to bridge the gap between what the leamer already knows ‘and what she needs to know + use of advance organizers has shown, through several research studies, to improve levels of understanding and recall Ausubel stressed that advance organizers are not the same with 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. Types of advance organizers Ie z Expository — describes the new content. Narrative — presents the new information in the form of a story * to students. Skimming — is done by looking over the new material to gain a basic overview.” Graphic organizer — visuals to set up or outline the new information. This may include pictographs, descriptive patterns, concept patterns, concept maps. Application of Principles 1. 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 differentiation. According to Ausubel, the purpose of progressive differentiation is to increase the stability and clarity of anchoring ideas. 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.” 2. Instructional materials should attempt to integrate new material with previously presented information through comparisons and cross-referencing of new and old ideas 1. Read on the interrelatedness of Ausubel’s theory with Gestalt Psychology and Bruner’s theory. Explain how their ‘concepts and principles complement each other. * a