Theory of Learning Ausubel
David Ausubel is a well-known educational psychologist with meaningful learning theory. Ausubel distinguishes between learning to find with learning to accept. In learning to accept students only accept, so just memorize it, but in learning to find concepts discovered by students, so do not take lessons for granted. According to Ausubel (Burhanuddin, 1996: 112) meaningful learning is a process of linking new information to relevant concepts contained in a person’s cognitive structure. Cognitive structures include facts, concepts, and generalizations that students have learned and remembered. The main factors that influence meaningful learning according to Ausubel are existing cognitive structures, stability and clarity of knowledge in a particular field of study and at a certain time. Meaningful learning occurs when someone learns by associating new phenomena into their knowledge structures. In the learning process a person constructs what he has learned and associates new experiences, phenomena, and facts into the structure of their knowledge. According to Ausubel and Novak (Burhanuddin, 1996: 115) there are three virtues of meaningful learning, namely: 1. Information learned meaningfully takes longer to remember. 2. New information that has been linked to previous relevant concepts can improve concepts that have been mastered before so as to facilitate the next teaching and learning process to give similar lessons. 3. Information that has been forgotten after being mastered before still leaves a mark so as to facilitate the learning process for similar subject matter even though it has been forgotten. Prerequisites for learning to receive meaningful according to Ausubel, namely: 1. Learning to receive meaningful will only occur if students have a meaningful learning strategy, 2. Learning tasks given to students must be in accordance with the knowledge students have. 3. The learning tasks given must be in accordance with the stage of intellectual development of students. Ausubel’s Meaningful Learning Theory is very close to Constructivism. Both emphasize the importance of students associating experiences, phenomena, and new facts into the existing understanding system. Both emphasize the importance of assimilating new experiences into concepts or understanding that students already have. Both presuppose that in the learning process students are active. Ausubel believes that teachers must be able to develop the cognitive potential of students through meaningful learning processes. Like Bruner and Gagne, Ausubel assumed that student learning activities, especially those at the primary education level, would be beneficial if they were involved in many activities directly. But for students at higher education levels, direct activities will take up a lot of time. For them, according to Ausubel, it is more effective if the teacher uses explanations, concept maps, demonstrations, diagrams, and illustrations. Ausubel’s meaningful learning theory emphasizes the importance of students associating new experiences, phenomena and facts into a system of understanding that has been possessed. In Ausubel’s theory there are principles that must be considered so that meaningful learning can be applied, as follows: 1. Initial arrangements (advance organizer) Initial arrangements direct students to the material to be learned and remind students of previous material that can be used to help teachers in instill a new concept. 2. Progressive differentiation Development of concepts takes place best if the most general, most inclusive elements of a concept are introduced first, then only the more specific and specific things of the concept are given. 3. Superordinate learning As long as information is received and associated with concepts in a cogniive structure (subsumption), the concept grows and experiences differentiation. Superordinate learning can occur if concepts that have been previously studied are known as elements of a broader and more inclusive concept. 4. Integrative Adjustment (integrative reconciliation) The teacher must be able to show explicitly how new meanings are compared and contrasted with narrower previous meanings, and how higher level concepts then take on new meanings.