MODULE 12

Ausubel’s Meaningful Verbal

Learning/Subsumption
Theory
 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 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.
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 saw 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
strengthened. When this is done, acquisition and retention of new knowledge is facilitates. 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, which was the primary way of learning. It is a process by which new material is
related to relevant ideas in the existing cognitive structure. Likewise, Ausubel pointed out, that
what is learned 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.

FOUR PROCESSES OF MEANINGFUL LEARNING:

o Derivative subsumption. This describes the situation in which the new information you learn
is an example of a concept that you have already learned. For 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 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.
o Correlative subsumption. 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 of an ostrich to your precious 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 “valuable” learning than that of derivative
subsumption, since it enriches the higher-level concept.

o Superordinate learning. Imagine that a child was well acquainted with banana, mango and
a like, 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.
o 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 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 (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
This is a major instructional tool proposed by Ausubel, and it gives 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 through the four learning processes, the
advance organizer helps you link the new learning of your existing scheme. As such, advance
organizers facilitate learning by helping you organize and strengthen your cognitive structure.

TYPES OF ADVANCE ORGANIZERS

1. Expository – describes the new content.
2. Narrative – presents the new information in the form of a story to students.
3. Skimming – is done by looking over the new material to gain a basic overview.
4. Graphic Organizer – visuals to set up or outline the new information. This may include
pictographs, descriptive patterns, concepts patterns and 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.