AUSUBEL, D.P. (2000) The acquisition and retention of knowledge: A cognitive
view. Boston : Kluwer.
The preparation of this new monograph was largely necessitated by the virtual
collapse of the neobehavioristic theoretical orientation to learning during the
previous forty years; and by the meteoric rise in the seventies and beyond of
constructivist approaches to learning theory p.ix
... acquisition and retention of knowledge are not « necessarily restricted to the
formal contexts of schools and universities, where designated teachers and
pupils interact in stereotypical ways mostly for this purpose» p.ix
... acquisition and retention of knowledge «can also take place informally
through systematic and even unsystematic reading, television, intellectual
conversational discourse, etc.» p.ix
«Tulving (1972) refers to the latter more formal kind of memory as semantic [the
formal instructional practices of elementary and secondary schools and of college
and universities] p.ix
Semantic memory is the ideational outcome of a meaninful (not rote) learning
process a a result of which new meaning(s) emerge p.x
semantic memories tend to be long-term p.x
knowledge: significant, long-term, meaningfully learned, and organized
memories p.x
subject matter knowledge: corpus de connaissances organisées, disciplinaires
other cognitive variables: practices, review, instructional materials, motivational
factors, ans developmental changes in cognitive capacity to handle verbal
abstractiona p.xi
... recognizing the role of the student’s existing cognitive structure in acquring,
retaining, organizing and transfering new meanings. p.xiv
Accordingly, in this book some consideration in a general sense is given to (1) the
relationship between bodies of knowledge, as represented by scholarly
consensus in a given discipline (e.g., textbooks, monographs, research studies)
and how such knowledge is represented and organized in the cognitive
structures of particular scholars and students. p.viv
... the author’s strong intuitive but empirically unconfirmed belief that the
substance of a givewn idea is maximally strenghtened in memory if it is
discussed in whatever contexts for which it is relevant rather than receiving
consideration only the first time and in the first place in which it appears in the
text. Multi-contextual repetition of an idea, in other words, hypothetically
consolidates it more in memory than does multiple repetitions within the same
context. p.xiv-xv
Multi-contextual redundancy is embedded so vigorously and unequivocally in
this monograpgh partly because of Hull’s highly convincing experimental
findings on concept formation and partly because American textbooks and
university lecturers seem to avoid redundancy of any kind completely ... p.xv
... redundancy is perhaps the earliest pedagogical and psychological device that
teachers have used to facilitate meaningful (as well as rote) verbal learning ...
p.xv
Cognitive drill: entraînement cognitif, exercice cognitif, dressage pédagogique
(Anglais :Théories et méthodes pédagogiques. drill instruction s CORRECT. drill
s CORRECT,NOM. DEF - An ordered, repetitive learning activity intended to
help develop or fix a specific skill or aspect of knowledge. [Vocabulaire de
technologie éducative et de formation, 1991, Madeleine Brisebois et Mariette
grandchamp-Tupula.
Ottawa:
Secrétariat
Français:Théories
méthodes
pédagogiques.
et
d’État.
ISBN
dressage
0660557932]
pédagogique
s
CORRECT,MASC. DEF - Instruction visant à obtenir une automatisation des
réactions, des mouvements ou, d'une manière générale, des réponses du sujet
instruit. [ibid]
Ausubel se réclame et place la théorie de l’assimilation dans la foulée du
structuralisme, du fonctionnalisme, de la gestalt psychologie, avec des éléments
de la théorie des schémas (Bartlett) et de la psychologie cognitive, en opposition
aux mouvements de la psychologie comme le néobehaviorisme, le traitement de
l’information, la cybernétique, les modèles informatiques, de même que les
formules des réseaux sémantiques et associatifs p.xv
Concept names. Because concepts have names,, just like particular objects or
events, named concepts can be manipulated, understood, and transferred more
readily than unnamed concepts [représentation interne?]. These concept names
are acquired through meaningful representational learning after concept
meanings themselves are acquired p.2
As vocabulary increases, new concepts are acquired mostly through the process
of concept assimilation since the criterial attributes of new concepts can be
defined in new combinations of existing referents p.2
The meaningful learning of verbal propositions [...] is similar to representational
learning p.2
Superordinate propositional learning occurs when a new proposition is
relateable either to [...] or to a broad background of generally relevant ideas in
cognitive structure that can be subsumed under it p.3
As a matter of convenience, we will refer to concepts or propositions as relevant
ideas in cognitive structure p.3
In reception learning this content is presented in the form of a substantive or
non-problem-setting proposition that the learner need only understand and
remember p.4
Language is an important facilitator of meaning ful reception and discovery
learning. By increasing tje manipulability of concepts and propositions through
the representational properties of words [language] both clarifies such meanings
and makes them more precise and transferable p.5
... existing and established ideas in cognitive structure (established states of
knowledge in the learner in particular disciplines) play a determinative process
role in the acquisition and retention of new knowledge p.9
ADVANCE ORGANIZER. An advance organizer is a pedagogic device [...]
bridging the gap between what the learner already knows and what he needs to
know if he is to learn new material most actively and expeditiously p.11
... organizers are presented at a higher level of abstraction, generality, and
inclusiveness that the new material to be learned. Summaries and overviews, on
the other hand, are ordinarily presented at the same level of abstraction,
generality, and inclusiveness as the learning material itself. They simply
emphasize the salient points of the material by omitting less important
information. Thus, they largely achieve their effect by repitition and
simplification p.11
... the factors that are responsible for maturational progress are transferable to
the new discipline (i.e., the existence of a large body or “critical mass” of stable
abstractions in cognitive structure and of sufficient transactional terms for
relating them to each other, as well as considerable experience in comprehending
and manipulating abstract ideas without the benefit of concrete props in other
disciplines) p.13-14
... the scope of the theory of learning elaborated in this book [...] deals:
(1) With systematic change in the emergence, identifiability and availability
of new meanings as presented ideational materials initially and
repeatedly with (and are incorporated into) existing cognitive structure
(2) With factors increasing and decreasing the assimilation of these materials,
as well as their subsequent long-term stability or availability in
memory; and
(3) With the most efficacious ways of manipulating existing cognitive
structure so as to enhance the incorporability and longevity of new
instructional materials p.20-21
Classroom or subject-matter learning is primarily concerned with the acquisition,
retention and use of large bodies of meaningful information suxh as facts,
propositions, principles, and vocabulary in the various disciplines p.67
Vocabulary or representational learning. The major step in actualizing this
potentiality for representational learning is typically taken near the end of the
first year of life [...] that different referents have different names and that
different exemplars of the same referent have the same name. once this insight is
firmly established in a given child’s cognitive structure, it lays the necessary
foundation for all subsequent representational learning p.84
Assimilation theory has considerable explanatory value for elucidating the
nature of both meaningful learning and retention phenomena because it helps
account for the acquisition, retention and forgetting of meaningfully learned
ideas and also for the way in which knowledge is organized in cognitive
structure p.103
In meaningful reception learning the distinctive interactional phenomenon in oth
learning and retention sequences is a gradual increase in the availability or
future reproductability of the meanings derived from the ongoing learning
process p.109
Comparison of the relative retention spans of substance and verbatim items
invariably shows that the longevity of different components of the learning
materials, all other factors being equal, varies directly with degree of abstractness
or superodination p.112
Dans sa réflexion sur l’assimilation d’éléments abstraits par rapport aux éléments
factuels, Ausubel (2000, p.113) propose qu’une reconstruction factuelle
satisfaisante pour la communication s’avère possible lorsque leur reproduction
est requise ou tentée: “In any case a degree of factual reconstruction that is
satisfactory enough for most purposes of communication is usually possible
when reproduction is required or attempted.”
... all conceptions of learning and retention and of their underlying
psychological processes are forms of information processing p.137
... but rather one of maintaining their [concepts and propositions] dissociability
from the more general and inclusive meanings of the established ideas in
cognitive structure that assimilate them semantically p.139
of course, verbal anchoring ideas need not necessarily be stated in propositional
(sentence( form. schematic models and diagrams, flow charts, etc., often indicate
the relationship between ideas more effectively and succinctly than sentences
and paragraphs. they can thus serve as advance organizers in many instances,
especially for learners who find it easier to “take in” at a glance an explanatory
model than to read successive sentences and paragraphs p.140
cognitive drive. At the human level, cognitive drive (the desire for knowledge as
an end in itself) is more important in meaningful than in rote or instrumental
learning. It is, at least potentially, the most important kind of motivation in
classroom learning p.202