Meaningful Learning

Eda Gürlen, “Meaningful Learning and Educational Environment,” Journal of Education and Future, 2012, 21–35 . Ausubel’s Meaningful Learning Theory According to Ausubel, learning would be more permanent when an individual

makes sense of new perceptions by relating with the knowledge learned and accumulated in long term memory. Meaning in a psychological manner is a product or a differentiating content resulting from compounding potential meaningful material with cognitive structure (Ausubel & Robinson, 1969). Meaning is a function of how an individual experiences a composition of thinking, feeling and action in line with her/his life experiences. Individuals acquire different life experiences in the different environments. Individual differences and presents context cause to making of different meanings to the same object or situation. Experience and context have a crucial effect on the meaning (Novak, 1998). Learning by discovery makes learning meaningful. Knowledge becomes a temporary knowledge when a concept definition is learned by rote. Meaningful learning requires an upper level of endeavour and provides a permanent knowledge. Ausubel (1968, p. iv) stated the basis of the meaningful learning as mentioned

below; “If I had reduced the educational psychology to a sole principle, I would have said that the primary factor having an effect on the learning is the existed knowledge of the learner. Exam the existed knowledge of the learner, ascertain it and teach according to these.”

According to the expression mentioned above, it is necessary for tea

José Antonio C S Valadares, “Concept Maps and the Meaningful Learning of Science Los Mapas Conceptuales Y El Aprendizaje Significativo de La Ciencia,” 4 (2013), 164–79. In a generic way, a concept map is a diagram that indicates relationships between concepts. In the context of MLT, it is a hierarchical diagram that seeks to reflect the conceptual organization of a knowledge body or part of it, as this organization is understood by whoever builds the map. Its existence derives from the conceptual structure of a given knowledge body, so it corresponds to a set of concepts linked together by linking words to form up meaningful claims.

The following picture shows a simplified model to construct a concept map in order to respect the principles of meaningful learning, specifically the principles of progressive differentiation and integrative reconciliation of concepts.

Journal

Daftar Pustaka

Gürlen, Eda, “Meaningful Learning and Educational Environment,” Journal of Education and Future, 2012, 21–35

Valadares, José Antonio C S, “Concept Maps and the Meaningful Learning of Science Los Mapas Conceptuales Y El Aprendizaje Significativo de La Ciencia,” 4 (2013), 164–79