According to Ausubel, people acquire knowledge primarily through RECEPTION rather than through discovery. Concepts, principles, and ideas are presented and understood, not discovered. The more organized and focused the presentation, the more thoroughly the individual will learn. He stresses MEANINGFUL VERBAL LEARNING. Rote memory, for example, is not considered meaningful since memorization omits the connection of new knowledge with existing knowledge. Ausubel also proposed his EXPOSITORY TEACHING model to encourage meaningful rather than rote reception learning. In his approach to learning, teachers present material in a carefully organized, sequenced, and finished form. Students receive the most usable material in the most efficient way in this manner. Ausubel believes that learning should progress deductively - from the general to the specific - and not inductively as Bruner recommended. Before entering into the expository lesson, Ausubel dictates the use of his most famous contribution to cognitive educational psychology: the ADVANCED ORGANIZER.
Advanced Organizers. Optimal learning generally occurs when there is a potential fit between the student's schemas and the material to be learned. To foster this association, Ausubel suggests that the lesson always begin with an advanced organizer - an introductory statement of a relationship of high-level concept, broad enough to encompass all the information that will follow. The function of the advanced organizer is to provide SCAFFOLDING or support for the new information. It is a conceptual bridge between new material and a student's current knowledge. Text books contain advanced organizers - the chapter overviews are examples. They serve three purposes: (1) they direct attention to what is important in the coming material; (2) they highlight relationships among ideas that will be presented; and, (3) they remind the student of relevant information already in memory.
Steps in an Expository Lesson. After presenting an advanced organizer, the next step in an Ausubel lesson is to present content in terms of basic similarities and differences, using specific examples. To learn new material, students must comprehend the similarities between the material presented and what they already know. They must also see the differences so that confusion can be avoided. Along with the comparisons, specific examples must come into play. The best way to point out similarities and differences is with examples. Perhaps the best way to understand expository teaching is to look at some specific applications of Ausubel's ideas in the classroom.
For those who are more concrete in their learning, here is a graphic representation of an advanced organizer:
Final Comments on Expository Teaching. Expository teaching works better in some situations than in others. It is most appropriate when you want to teach about the relationships among several concepts. Students must have some knowledge of the actual concepts first. Another consideration is the age of the students. This approach requires students to manipulate abstract ideas; this means expository teaching is more developmentally appropriate for students at the fifth or sixth grade level.
