David P. Ausubel has passed away

I just saw a search on my blog statistics about David P. Ausubel’s death.  I did a search myself and found an obituary.  He passed away on July 9, 2008.  I have used his theories in my research and in my instruction.  He devised the idea of advance organizers, which I have used repeatedly in my instruction to help introduce a complex learning situation.

He lived to the age of 89, and he made a difference in learning theory and methods.

About His Theory

“Before we can present new material effectively, we must increase the stability and clarity of our student’s structures.”

“The sequence of the curriculum is organized so that each successive learning is carefully related to what has been learned before.”

Asubel describes advance organizers as “introductory material presented ahead of the learning task and at a higher level of abstraction and inclusiveness than the learning task itself”.

Examples of Advance organizers

Expository

simply describes the new content

Narrative

presents new information in a story format

Skimming

skimming material before reading can be a powerful organizer

Graphic organizers

effective with all types of organizers: pictographs, descriptive patterns, concept patterns, etc.

David Ausubel says,

“If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, I would say this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows.