Meaningful learning paradigm

The meaningful learning paradigm was proposed by David Ausubel & Floyd Robinson in 1969. It is based on the following two starting points (Ausubel & Robinson, 1969, pp.50-51.):


 * "the most important factor influencing learning is the quantity, clarity and organization of the learner’s present knowledge. This present knowledge, which consists of the facts, concepts, propositions, theories, and raw perceptual data that the learner has available to him at any point in time, is referred to as his cognitive structure".
 * the nature of the material to be learned.

The authors suggested three conditions for meaningful learning to occur (Ausubel & Robinson, 1969, p.53.):

(a) The material itself must be relatable to some hypothetical cognitive structure in a nonarbitrary and substantive fashion.

(b) The learner must possess relevant ideas to which to relate the material.

(c) The learner must possess the intent to relate these ideas to cognitive structure in a nonarbitrary and substantive fashion.

Ausubel had previously put forward his cognitive theory of learning in 1962, later elaborating on it in The Psychology of Meaningful Verbal Learning (1963) and in Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View (1968).