Influences
Ausubel was influenced by the teachings of Jean Piaget. Similar to Piaget’s ideas of conceptual schemes, Ausubel related this to his explanation of how people acquire knowledge. “David Ausubel theorized that people acquire knowledge primarily by being exposed directly to it rather than through discovery” (Woolfolk et al., 2010, p. 288) In other words, Ausubel believed that understanding concepts, principles, and ideas are achieved through deductive reasoning.
Similarly, he believed in the idea of meaningful learning as opposed to rote memorization. In the preface to his book Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View, he says that “If had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, would say this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly” (Ausubel, 1968, p. vi) Through his belief of meaningful learning, Ausubel developed his theory of advance organizers.
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