David Ausubel

[1918-2008] educational psychologist

“David Ausubel theorized that people acquire[d] knowledge primarily by being exposed directly to it rather than through discovery” (Woolfolk et al., 2010, p. 288)[2] In other words, Ausubel believed that understanding concepts, principles, and ideas are achieved through deductive reasoning.[2] Similarly, he believed in the idea of meaningful learning as opposed to rote memorization. (from David Ausubel)

Advance organizers provide scaffolding, or support for new information. This is achieved by directing attention to what is important in the coming material, highlighting relationships, and providing a reminder about relevant prior knowledge.[2] Advance organizers are helpful in the way that they help the process of learning when difficult and complex material are introduced. This is satisfied through two conditions:

• The student must process and understand the information presented in the organizer– this increases the effectiveness of the organizer itself.
• The organizer must indicate the relations among the basic concepts and terms that will be used.

• comparative
• expository.

• Subsumption theory
• David Ausubel (WP)