Ausubel’s Subsumption
Theory
Focus of Ausubel’s Theory
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The most important factor influencing learning is the
quantity, clarity and organization of the learner’s
present knowledge
The way to strengthen the student’s cognitive structure
is by using advance organizers to have a bird’s eye
view or to see the “big picture” of the topic.
Subsumption
A process by which new material is related to
relevant ideas in the existing cognitive structure.
Four Meaningful Processes:
Derivative subsumption-describes the situation in
which the new information you learn is an example
of a concept that you have already learned.
Four Meaningful Processes:
Correlative subsumption-you have to change or
expand your concept.
Four Meaningful Processes:
Superordinate learning- the child already knew a lot of
examples of the concept, but did not know the
concepts.
Four Meaningful Processes:
Combinatorial learning- this is when newly acquired
knowledge combines with prior knowledge to enrich
the understanding of both concepts.
-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.
BENEFITS OF ANDVANCE ORGANIZERS
• You will find it easier to connect new information with
what you already know about the topic
• You can readily see how the concepts in a certain topic
are related to each other
TYPES OF ADVANCE ORGANIZERS
• EXPOSITORY
• NARRATIVE
• SKIMMING
• GRAPHIC ORGANIZER
APPLICATION
• The most general ideas of a subject should be presented
first and then progressively differentiated in terms of
detail and specificity. (PROGRESSIVE
DIFFERENTIATION)