Assimilation Theory

General

Assimilation theory is one of the cognitivist learning theories developed by an American educational psychologist David Ausubel during 1960s. According to Ausubel, learner's cognitive structure and its development are central to learning. Cognitive structure is, in his own words “hierarchically organized in terms of highly inclusive concepts under which are subsumed less inclusive subconcepts and informational data”. Learning, according to Ausubel's theory, occurs through development of new cognitive structures that will hold newly acquired information.

What is assimilation theory?

Ausubel defines cognitive structure, the central term in his theory, as “individual's organization, stability, and clarity of knowledge in a particular subject matter field at any given time”. The cognitive structure, if well organized, enables faster learning in terms of adding new ideas and structures to it and therefore is the key aspect of learning. If cognitive structure is unorganized or badly connected, the acquisition of new information will be more difficult.

Knowledge is in assimilation theory organized hierarchically in a pyramidal shape where more general ideas and concepts appear at the top of the pyramid and get more and more specific to the bottom of it. New knowledge is assimilated in this hierarchy by anchoring to already existing more general concepts. The closer to the top of the pyramid an idea is, the more general it is and the longer is its life time.

Ausubel distinguishes between meaningful and rote learning. Meaningful learning is learning that is well anchored and integrated in the cognitive structure. Rote learning on the other hand represents knowledge that remains unrelated and unanchored to existing concepts and is therefore easily forgotten. Meaningful learning won't occur unless the new ideas are presented in a clear way that enables their relating with other ideas, unless the learner already possesses those other ideas he can relate the new ones with and unless the learner actually makes an attempt to do so. If those conditions are satisfied, new ideas will remain anchored in his knowledge and if not, learning will remain rote.

As a result of a successful meaningful learning, the new idea will remain anchored to a so called subsumer. That of course doesn't mean that the learned idea can't be forgotten: this process, referred to as obliterative subsumption, happens as more specific idea becomes less and less distinctive from its subsumer until it is finally said to be forgotten.

Another important and rather controversial part of Ausubel's theory are the advance organizers: introductory material presented “in advance of the learning material itself” and “at a higher level of abstraction, generality, and inclusiveness” than the learning material1) Ausubel, 1963, p. 81 . Purpose of advance organizers is to help replace the missing concepts necessary for successful acquisition of new information by providing a link between the new material and the learner's established cognitive structure. Organizers help the learner realize where the new material fits in relation to the prior knowledge about the material.

Advance organizers should be of greater help to students with less organized cognitive structures, since organized cognitive structures already possess developed anchoring ideas.

A visual representation of Ausubels theory. Image borrowed from: http://cmapspublic2.ihmc.us/... Click on the picture to follow the link.

What is the practical meaning of assimilation theory?

Meaningful learning suggested by Ausubel's assimilation theory presents a valuable method for educational process, in which rote learning examples can today be found more frequently. Foreign language learning often requires learning by heart numerous exceptions or grammatical structures (like German strong verbs). This rote learning would be easier and longer lasting in case of connecting new material with already learned language concepts. Link to known concepts (like a sentence with newly learned verb or a story composed of them) should be suggested by teachers but is often not easy to find so it remains ignored.

A successful instructional process is dependent both on learner and teacher. In order to fulfill meaningful learning requirements learner has to have crucial higher level concepts that will serve as anchoring sites (subsumers) or has to be provided with appropriate organizers. The teacher then first has to present learning material in an organized and structured manner, continue with sufficient amount of practice in form of applications of learned material in order to facilitate its assimilation.

Keywords and most important names

Association learning theory, cognitive structure, concepts, subconcepts, hierarchy, anchoring, obliterative subsumption, meaningful learning, rote learning, subsumer, organizer

David Ausubel

Criticisms

Critics of Ausubel's theory often reflect the fact that he doesn't describe construction of organizers so different researches provide different results of their efficiency.

Bibliography

Ivie, Stanley D. Ausubel's Learning Theory: An Approach To Teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills.(educational psychologist David Paul Ausubel). High School Journal 82.1 (Oct 1998): 35(1). Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale. CSU Sacramento University Library. 13 Oct. 2006

Read more

Ausubel, D. P. Learning theory and classroom practice. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. 1967.

Ausubel, D. P. In defense of advance organizers: A reply to the critics. Review of Educational Research, 48, p251-257. 1978.

Ausubel, D. P. Schemata, cognitive structure, and advance organizers: A reply to Anderson, Spiro, and Anderson. American Educational Research Journal, 17, p400-404. 1980.

Ausbell's assimilation theory (graphical overview)