AUSUBELS MEANINGFUL RECEPTION THEORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING

Ausubels Meaningful Reception Theory and Its Implications for Learning Ryan P. OGrady Towson University

AUSUBELS MEANINGFUL RECEPTION THEORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING

Ausubels Meaningful Reception Theory and Its Implications for Learning David P. Ausubel based his theory of meaningful learning on the idea that the primary way a learner learns in school is through reception, that in order for that learning to be meaningful, the learner must learn it in a meaningful way, the material must be meaningful, and the material must relate to the learners prior knowledge. In his writings on this theory, he was mainly concerned with verbal (textual/language-based) classroom learning and similar environments in which learners were expected to learn, retain, and later recall a large amount of information. Ausubel (1963) wrote that the meaning of the word reception refers to the idea that the learner is merely required to comprehend the material meaningfully, and to incorporate it or make it available or functionally reproducible for future use (p. 1). This research paper further expands Ausubels meaningful reception learning theory by identifying a learning context in which this theory applies, describes further developments to the original theory made by Ausubel himself and other researcher-writers, illustrates the application of advance organizersa specific aspect related to the theory, and suggests three learning activities that include the theory. Ausubel went to university in the 1930s, 40s, and up until 1950 when he graduated from Columbia University with a Ph. D in Developmental Psychology. He wrote and researched a variety of topics in the 1950s, and put forth his reception theory in the early 1960s, based on his previous work. Ausubel (1963) distinguished between reception and discovery learning by providing a definition for reception learning: In reception learning (rote or meaningful) the entire content of what is to be learned is presented to the learner in final form. The learning task does not involve any independent discovery on his part. He is only required to internalize the material that is presented to him so that it is available and reproducible at some future date. (p. 16)

AUSUBELS MEANINGFUL RECEPTION THEORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING

Ausubel wrote about reception learning in two of his early books, The Psychology of Meaningful Verbal Learning published in 1963, from which the above definition comes, and Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View first published in 1968 and later in 1978 as a second edition with other authors. He also wrote a variety of articles published in educational and scientific journals that detailed his ideas about reception learning. This was Ausubels first primary distinction that learning could be categorized as reception or discovery, and that reception learning constituted the primary means of school learning and teaching. Highlighting a specific learning context that clearly illuminates the application of Ausubels theory will help clarify the different facets of the theory. The specific learning context in this case is a 7th grade middle school class trip to the zoo in which a zoo representative gives the students a tour of the zoo and its animals. This is an appropriate learning context because the audience is school age children, and the delivery of information is mostly verbalthe tour guide speaks and uses language and text to describe the zoo and the animals. Therefore, Ausubels reception theory is in playthe entire content is presented to the learner, the learner is expected to internalize the material, and the learner should be able to recall and reproduce the information at a later time, which is either at the end of the tour or later, back in the classroom. The second distinction Ausubel made within his theory dealt with rote and meaningful learning. He contended that learners maintained cognitive structures in their learning about a subject, and that a cognitive structure refers solely to the stability, clarity, and organization of a learners subject-matter knowledge on a given discipline (Ausubel, 1963, p. 76). A cognitive structure constitutes a learners prior knowledge: it makes up what the learner already knows about a subject. Ausubel (1963) further believed that rotely learned materials are essentially isolated from existing conceptual systems within cognitive structure (p. 24) and that knowledge

AUSUBELS MEANINGFUL RECEPTION THEORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING

gained from rote learning was kept in the mind independent of any existing cognitive structures. Due to this belief, Ausubel furthered his theory by saying that a learner would be able to use existing cognitive structures only by learning new material in a meaningful way. He explained that meaningfully and rotely learned materials are learned and retained in qualitatively different ways because meaningful tasks are, by definition, relatable and anchorable to relevant and more inclusive concepts in cognitive structure (Ausubel, 1963, p. 42). Ausubels theory states that reception learning needs to be meaningful in order to attach to cognitive structuresand that these cognitive structures have anchor points. Returning to the learning context of the zoo, the focus can now become one specific part of the tourthe primate wing of the zoo, and two specific actors in this learning contextSandy the enthusiastic zoo representative and tour guide, and Ezra, one of the students in the class group who is particularly fond of monkeys, apes, and chimpanzees. In presenting information about the primates that reside at the zoo, Sandy relies on an already existing cognitive structure present in Ezrathat he has prior knowledge that there is an animal called a chimpanzee, or chimp for short. So this is the situation: Sandy is verbally delivering new information to Ezra about chimpanzees thus creating a reception learning situation, and Ezra already has the cognitive structure in place to understand that there are chimpanzees and he can begin to add the new information into his cognitive structure. The only question left unanswered is: is this learned material meaningful or rote? In this case, the learning is meaningful because it meets three conditions: 1) Ezra is learning it in a meaningful way because it is a hands-on and real-life experience at the zoo 2) the information is meaningful to Ezra because he already likes chimps and 3) the new material (new facts about chimpanzees) relates to Ezras prior knowledge and cognitive structure (Ausubel, 1963).

AUSUBELS MEANINGFUL RECEPTION THEORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING

The third distinction Ausubel made in his meaningful reception learning theory is that cognitive organization is hierarchical in learners, that there are two ways new knowledge can assimilate into existing cognitive structures, and the way information is learned has a strong correlation to retention. Ausubel (1968) first defined assimilation as the further hypothesis that even after the new meaning emerges it continues to remain in linked relationship to the slightly modified form of the established idea in cognitive structureas the less stable co-member of the new ideational unit (p. 90). That new meaning remains linked in relationship refers to the anchor points in a cognitive structure that a new idea can assimilate into. This first definition of assimilation dealt with retention, whereas a revised definition (discussed later) was broader. Ausubel believed that this information could be linked to a cognitive structure via subsumption learning, in which a new idea can attach to an anchor point in an existing cognitive structure and be subsumed under that anchor point in one of two wayseither derivative subsumption or correlative subsumption. Ausubel (1968) wrote that derivative subsumption takes place when learning material is understood as a specific example of an established concept in cognitive structure or is supportive or illustrative of a previously learned general proposition (p. 100). In contrast, Ausubel (1968) explained that the more common method, correlative subsumption, is an extension, elaboration, modification, or qualification of previously learned propositions (p. 100). To return to the example of Sandy and Ezra at the zoo, derivative subsumption would occur when Ezra learns that chimps can use toolshe attaches this new information to his prior knowledge about chimps without altering his concept of chimps in any substantial way. However, correlative subsumption would occur when Sandy points out the bonobo chimpanzeesEzra had never seen these before, and had no idea that they were a different species under the same genus. Now Ezra has to accommodate for this new information

AUSUBELS MEANINGFUL RECEPTION THEORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING

by modifiying his concept of chimps and making an allowance for bonobo chimpanzees. Subsumption was originally Ausubels only method of new information adding onto an existing cognitive structure, but later he made further developments to his theory and devised assimilation theoryunder which two new meaningful learning processes joined subsumption superordinate learning and combinatorial learning. Assimilation theory was the new phrase he used to combine all three into one category (Ausubel, Novak, & Hanesian, 1978). Expanding on the idea of retention, he wrote that The result of the interaction that takes place between the new material to be learned and the existing cognitive structure is an assimilation of old and new meaning to form a more highly differentiated cognitive structure (Ausubel et al., 1978, pp. 67-68). Superordinate learning occurs when a learner already has several concepts in place, but then they learn a grand, overarching category/concept under which the already known concepts fit. For example, to return to Ezra, he already knows that chimps sometimes go termite fishing with sticks and nut cracking with rocksthese are a few concepts in his prior knowledge. On the tour, Sandy discusses chimpanzee tool use and talks about how a chimp with a tool can get a lot accomplished. Ezra knew different examples of the concept, sticks and rocks, but had never thought about the concept itselfchimpanzee tool useuntil Sandy taught it. Ausubel et al. (1978) discussed combinatorial learning explaining that new generalizations that students learn in science, mathematics, social studies, and the humanities are examples of combinatorial learnings, for example, relationships between mass and energy, heat and volume (p. 59). Combinatorial learning happens when understanding of a new concept comes from an already learned and known concept but which originates from an analogous cognitive structurelike when Ezra understands how humans use chimps for sign language studies and shoot them into outer space

AUSUBELS MEANINGFUL RECEPTION THEORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING

for research purposes because he already knows that they are smart with tools. Ausubel was not the only one who developed the theory of meaningful reception furthermany other researchers and scientists took it up as well. The aspect of Ausubels theory that most researchers explored has not yet been discussed in this research paperthe aspect of advance organizers. Advance organizers bridge the gap between what the learner already knows and what he needs to know before he can meaningfully learn the task at hand (Ausubel et al., 1978, pp. 171-172). Ausubel discussed advance organizers in his earlier work in the 1960s writing they have a high level of abstraction, generality and inclusiveness" (Ausubel, 1969) and later, Ausubel et al. (1978) proposed that these advance organizers would provide a level of connection that was more inclusive than the new material itselfit was a first step that one could take to introduce and connect learners to the material before they actually learn it. Hartley and Davies (1976) summarize the advance organizer concept (and others, such as pretests and overviews) in a research review by writing about inherent benefits for learners: A well-organized "bird's-eye-view" of the task supplies the student with a useful perspective of what lies ahead. It also serves as a framework on which subsequent learning can be arranged and related, as well as a means of enhancing motivation and perseverance. (pp. 239-240) They go on to write advance organizers are meant to provide a conceptual framework that students can use to clarify the task ahead (Hartley & Davies, 1976, p. 244). They found that, in general, advance organizers were seen to have an effect and advantage but in no caseis this advantage clear-cut, nor is the advantage free from the suspicion that it may be due to methodological flaws or inadequacies (Hartley & Davies, 1976, p. 256). Another research review by Barnes and Clawson (1975) declared that the efficacy of advance organizers has not

AUSUBELS MEANINGFUL RECEPTION THEORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING

been established and we must conclude from this review that advance organizers, as presently constructed, generally do not facilitate learning (p. 651). Mayer (1979) put forth a defense of advance organizers, insisting that previous research studies, like Barnes and Clawson (1975), were riddled with inadequacies. He wrote advance organizers, when used in appropriate situations and when evaluated adequately, do appear to influence the outcome of learning (Mayer, 1979, p. 381). Mayers contention is supported by another study conducted in the 1980s. This experiment (run three times) illustrates a good application of Ausubels meaningful reception learning theory. It involves forty students from the University of Colorado, half of which were given either a consistent or an inconsistent outline about bacteria, half were then tested right away on bacteria facts after reading a long and complex article, and the other half were then asked to come back in two days and read and summarize the article (Mannes & Kintsch, 1987). Two articles (the one from class and another) were used to draw up an information sheet. Mannes and Kintsch (1987) write: Two outlines were prepared from this original information sheet. For the consistent outline, information was presented in the order in which it was needed in the text, with subheadings directly corresponding to the macrostructure of the text. In the inconsistent outline, the organization followed the encyclopedia entry instead. (p. 96). The study found that student who received the consistent outline had an advantage over those that did not: In tasks that reflect mainly memory retrieval, such as paragraph recall, or recognition of old or paraphrased statements from the text, the consistency between knowledge structure and text was, if anything, an advantage (Mannes & Kintsch, 1987, p. 105). The study also found that students with the combination of receiving the consistent organizer and prior knowledge of bacteria performed the best in the experiment. Thus, the portion of Ausubels

AUSUBELS MEANINGFUL RECEPTION THEORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING

theory that stresses the importance of prior knowledgespecifically the how and why of assimilation theory and the existence of anchor pointsexplains how strong prior knowledge of a concept or subject can result in greater success with the use of an advance organizer. A second study from the 1980s focused on one thousand 7th and 10th graders in Hong Kong of varying reading levels (Sui, 1986). Texts were selected of varying difficulty and students were given one of two versionsthe linear version or the organizer version. Students who received the organizer version had to read an outline of the text they were about to read as well. Sui (1986) writes in most conditions, both good and poor readers did not cope with the organizer texts as well as they did with the linear texts (p. 421). The study also reported on the level of abstraction, something Ausubel stressed, finding that organizers at an appropriate level of abstraction were believed to enhance the integration of the detailed text, but organizers at an abstract level beyond the reader's ability were found to have a distracting effect on the macrostructure organization (Sui, 1986, p. 422). Sample Learning Activities For my job at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, I co-teach a digital photography best practices and management course that is designed for adults in the area who want to learn how to use their DSLR cameras, take good pictures, and be able to edit, store, and post them to the internet. All of the learning tasks below are for this audience of adults (ages 30-65), who reside in Baltimore City near the Reisterstown Road Branch. These tasks involve aspects of Ausubels theory of meaningful reception and specify the nature of each task and its knowledge domain. Learning Task #1: Changing Shutter Speed One of the most frequent questions I get from students is: I took this picture and it is blurry, how can I fix it? My answer is always that you cannot fix it after the fact, and instead, you need to adjust the shutter speed of the camera in

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order to capture movement. One time a lady brought her camera in and wanted to take pictures of her sons soccer games. She showed me pictures of the blurry ones she had already taken and asked how to fix it next time. In this learning task, I show learners how to change the shutter speed on their camera, usually by locating the dial that controls it, explaining what increasing or decreasing the speed will do, and then having them practice. In relation to Ausubels reception theory, this is meaningful learning because the learner themselves wants to know how to change shutter speed. Their anchor point is the blurry photos they took before, and now via correlative subsumption they can modify and elaborate their previously learned concept (Ausubel, 1968). The knowledge domain for learning task #1 is advanced operation of DSLR camera settings. Learning Task #2: Taking A Good Picture Another question I get is often, How do I take a good picture? While the answer to this varies, I usually teach a technique called the rule of thirds, which states that if you divide the camera frame into thirds horizontally and vertically, you want to place your subject along the intersecting lines because the human eye will be drawn to it (See Appendix A). Teaching this technique meets the three conditions of Ausubels meaningful learning theorythe subject matter is meaningful (everyone wants to take good pictures), the learner learns in an interesting way (getting to go outside and practice with their camera), and it relates to the learners prior knowledgethey already own a camera! The domain of knowledge for task #2 is camera aesthetics operation. I wrote a blog entry with examples of student work and how this task is meaningful for learners (See Appendix A). Learning Task #3: Resources for Editing Photos In this learning task, I distribute an advance organizer (Ausubel, 1978) and provide an outline/overview of the editing resources students can use to edit photos before I teach it to them (See Appendix B). The knowledge domain for task #3 is photo editing and storage best practices.

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References Ausubel, D. P. (1963). The psychology of meaningful verbal learning; An introduction to school learning. New York, NY: Grune & Stratton Ausubel, D. P. (1968). Educational psychology; A cognitive view. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Ausubel, D. P. (Ed.). (1969). Readings in school learning. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Ausubel, D. P., Novak, J., & Hanesian, H. (1978). Educational psychology: A cognitive view (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Barnes, B. R., & Clawson, E. U. (1975). Do advance organizers facilitate learning? Recommendations for further research based on an analysis of 32 studies. Review of Educational Research, 45(4), 637-659. doi:10.2307/1170068 Hartley, J., & Davies, I. K. (1976). Preinstructional strategies: The role of pretests, behavioral objectives, overviews and advance organizers. Review of Educational Research, 46(2), 239-265. Mannes, S. M., & Kintsch, W. (1987). Knowledge organization and text organization. Cognition and Instruction, 4(2), 91-115. doi:10.2307/3233538 Mayer, R. E. (1979). Can advance organizers influence meaningful learning?. Review of Educational Research, 49(2), 371-383. Siu, P. K. (1986). Understanding Chinese prose: Effects of number of ideas, metaphor, and advance organizer on comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78(6), 417423. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.78.6.417

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Appendix A Rule of Thirds PowerPoint Slide and Photography Blog Entry

Please find my blog entry about one of these classes here:

http://www.prattlibrary.org/booksmedia/blog/prattchat.aspx?id=76940&blogid=12298#.UIqVJ8XA-0c

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Appendix B Advance Organizer Used in Photography Class

Digital Photography Workshop Helpful Sites:

Uploading photos from your camera to your computer Instructions for transferring images from your camera to your computer can be found here: http://www.ehow.com/how_2282213_transfer-pictures-from-camera-computer.html Informational/Instructional Sites: Digital Photography Review http://www.dpreview.com/ www.photo.net Photo Editing Sites (you can use online): Pixlr http://pixlr.com/ FotoFlexer http://fotoflexer.com/ CNET article on other photo editing sites: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10170333-2.html Free Photo Editing Software (that you can download): Picasa http://picasa.google.com/ GIMP - A photoshop clone for advanced users http://www.gimp.org/ Photo Sharing Sites: flickr http://www.flickr.com photobucket http://www.photobucket.com A list of other photo sharing sites here: http://hardgeek.org/20-amazing-websites-to-share-your-photos-online