Ausubel’s Meaningful Learning Theory and Its Enlightenment to the Teaching Reform

Abstract.The article briefly comments Ausubel’s mearingful learning theory and draws some enlightenment from it. Nowdays we should combine the traditional instruction method and the demonstration method with class software. Ausubel is a famous American educational psychologist， who has made remarkable achievement by using cognitive perspective to study directly the meaningful language learning activities of human in the practical educational environment.

Keywords:Meaningful learning The teaching reform Ausubel

1 Theoretical Essence and Comments 

1.1 Essence of meaningful receptive learning. According to Ausubel， the main task of school education is to teach students the cultural knowledge of human beings. Based on this point， he proposes meaningful receptive learning. According to him， all classroom learning can be divided into two dimensions: the rote-meaningful dimension and the receptive-discovery dimension. He divides learning into rote learning and meaningful learning on the basis of the relation between the learning materials and the original knowledge of the learners. Meaningful learning is opposite against rote learning. The essence of meaningful learning exists in building a non-arbitrary and essential relation between the new knowledge represented by the symbols (languages and symbols) and the proper concept that has already existed in the learner's cognitive structure. Ausubel distinguishes receptive learning from discovery learning， and meaningful learning from rote learning. According to him， receptive learning should not be regarded the same with rote learning and passive learning， and discovery learning with meaningful learning. He believes that the students' learning psychological activities are till active when the teacher teaches them knowledge by using language system. When learning a kind of new knowledge， the students try to apply the already existing prior knowledge to absorb new knowledge from different aspects and take it into their cognitive structure finally. All this is operated under the instruction by the advanced organizer offered by the teacher. He also supplements that not all the processes of students' receptive learning are active. It is promoted by the teaching skills of the teacher. These points of view which grasp the most essential feature of students’ knowledge learning are very correct. In addition demonstrates to us his points of view with facts from the aspect of students' inner psychological process—the assimilation mechanism of meaningful learning. According to him， whether the learning is meaningful or not depends on whether there is the established relation between new knowledge and the prior knowledge of students.

1.2 Psychological Mechanism of Meaningful Learning. According to Ausubel， the psychological mechanism of meaningful learning is assimilation. And the core of the assimilation theory is: whether a student can gain a kind of new knowledge mainly depends on the already existing related concept of their cognitive structure; meaningful learning only happens when the new information interacts with the relative prior concept in the cognitive structure of the students; As the results of this interaction， the assimilation happens between the meaning of new and old knowledge.

1.3 The Factors that Affect Learning Process. Just as individuals’ inner and emotional factors affect learning through interacting with each other， the cognitive， emotional and social factors also affect the processes of learning. For the cognitive factor of affecting classroom learning， he believes， the main factor is the original knowledge structure (the cognitive structure variables) when the learners learn.The original cognitive structure refers to the substance contents and its main organizational features of individuals’ knowledge structures in a special teaching material field at any particular moment. He believes that cognitive structure has three variables: availability， stability and distinguishability. For the emotion that affects learning progress— social factors， he starts from the subjective factors and the interpersonal determining factors of learning to systematically study the attitude variables of motivation， personality factor， group factor and the teacher features. When discussing the motivation factors in learning， the factor that he mainly concerns is the achievement motivation， that is， the tendency that students attempt to get good grades. In his view， the achievement motivation is mainly composed of cognitive internal motive power， internal motive power of self improvement and affiliated internal motive power. In these threes compositions， the most important is cognitive internal motive power of learning， which is also the most stable. In general， the percentage that the three different internal motive powers account for in the achievement motivation is different according to the individuals’ age， gender， culture， social class and personality structure etc.

1.4 Expository Teaching Mode. The connotation of Ausubel's meaningful learning theory simultaneously involves learning， teaching and course. He advocates the mode of expository teaching in classroom teaching， and believes that expository method is one of the most economic， convenient and effective teaching method. With the expository method， teachers can make the students master a comparatively comprehensive knowledge system through the reasonable logic analysis and demonstration， vivid portrayal and description， inspiring question setting and settling. And it effectively combines knowledge teaching and ideological education with intellectual development and integrates them as a whole for mutual promotion. He also states the theoretical basis of the expository teaching not equal to the “spoon-feeding” teaching. This theoretical basis is the three sufficient and necessary conditions of the meaningful learning. For any form of lecturing teaching， so long as it can lead to students’ meaningful learning and fulfill the three conditions of the meaningful learning， it is certainly not “spoon-feeding” teaching. On the contrary， if teacher's teaching can not promote the meaningful learning of students or fulfill the three conditions of the meaningful learning， it is a kind of invalid teaching. He highly appreciates the advantages of expository method.

Ausubel constructed this learning theory to provide a direct solution to problems in teaching knowledge in schools. This theory makes great contribution to the development of learning theory， but it has its own limitations and needs to be improved.

①The meaningful verbal learning theory is only suitable for explaining students’ knowledge learning， which is the learning process of declarative knowledge， and is not completely applicable to explaining the learning process of procedural knowledge， which makes teaching methods and models based on this also applicable to classroom knowledge teaching while not suitable for the teaching of ability cultivation， skill training and others.

②Ausubel suggests the teaching be based on students’ original knowledge level. He puts emphasis on the efficiency of teaching， focuses on the objective change of cognitive structure and only pays attention to migration of specific knowledge. However， he does little research and discussion about how the subject effectively extracts information related to the current learning materials from existing cognitive structure and continues to adjust and control the migration of learning process， namely learning methods and strategies. The practical experience of learning shows that migration of learning methods and strategies is more common and significant than that of specific knowledge.

2 Inspiration for Current Classroom Teaching Reform 

Knowledge economy and the information age call for quality-oriented education， which requires us to change rote learning into meaningful learning. Ausubel’s meaningful reception learning theory and expository method provide reference for current teaching reform.

Expository method and courseware demonstration method are combined to optimize classroom teaching.

Ausubel believes that expository method is not equivalent to spoon-feeding teaching theory and it has its own advantages. This point has been confirmed in education history. Expository method has been the most important teaching method in the history of education. Analyzed from the media it uses， it mainly transmits teaching information through the combination of language and words with teachers’ expressions and actions. In essence， language and words are the symbols and codes of objective things and belong to the second signal system. Humans have well-developed second signal system. Once people have reached agreement on sound， shape and meaning of language and words， they can effortlessly use them for communication and learning. Therefore， language and words are most targeted， economic and flexible teaching resources. Moreover， language is important condition and tool of thinking. The logical thinking depends on concept while imagery thinking on presentation. Language and words can be the material carrier of both concept and presentation. So it is easy for language and words to enter the learners’ subjective world and spiritual world of knowledge and influence their spiritual world.

But we also notice the limitations of language as media: it’s much slower than thinking， and writing is slowest. The dimension of language is linear， while that of thinking is holographic. Language and words are abstract and simple， which requires students to figure out the actual things represented by language， words， symbols and charts so as to think “lively” no matter what they learn to combine the meaning of language and words as well as knowledge. But students often remember lots of drab writing symbols instead of understanding the actual content. Therefore， the traditional teaching method based on language is abstract and difficult to understand and accept with low efficiency in many aspects， which makes learners tend to be tired. Indeed， some educational technologies like projector， broadcast and TV are used and sound or image information is introduced into teaching， but the transmission of information is single. However， using courseware in the classroom in an appropriate way can make up for these shortcomings. ①Multi-media can provide many kinds of information， such as sound， image， character， animation， etc to stimulate learners’ senses. This not only arouses learners’ interest and attention， but also helps them to remember， generating a good teaching effect. ②Intuitiveness is great. Not only can the tangible objects like animals and plants be displayed on screen intuitively， but the macro and micro world that can not be seen by the naked eye and super-speed law of motion beyond the critical state of speed can also be seen， which enables students to understand and grasp essence of things and contributes to the assimilation of new and old knowledge to make the learning meaningful. ③Speed is high. A great deal of information can be obtained for students to learn in an effective and optimal way.

It should be noted that the courseware we use can not give full play to its role unless it is combined with expository method and the expository method plays a leading role.

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