Meaningful Learning

I remember my writing test at the DMV for my driver’s license. A week ahead of the test date, I started my preparation. My study materials include a training manual from DMV and a bunch of old question papers from one of my friend.

“An international driver with almost ten year’s experience; this test will be very easy”, I thought. I read the book without much concentration. Then I started to answer the old questions. I tried the question papers from one to five. “One hundred percent”, I calculated. However, I was wrong. The real percentage I scored was between ten and thirty.

I was shocked. What happened? I started to rethink.
Finally, I find out the problem. I was not giving perfect attention or concentration to the material I was learning or my over confidence in the subject failed me?

That evening one of my friends took me for a ride around the town. While he was driving, we talked lot about the driver’s test. He showed me the usual roads the examiner takes me for the test and how to drive efficiently. Through out the ride I was watching and studying a real driver, in a real car!

I read the book once again, that night, with full concentration. I was remembering all the pictures from the ride I had. This time I understood lot and I did very well in the followed test (questions six to ten). The percentage increased to ninety to nifty five!

Great! Let me think about the processes. What makes the difference?!

In the first method of learning, I got the entire material in the final form. I tried to internalize the information in a form that will be available for later use. That was Reception learning. However, that method was not at all good for me in that situation.

In the second method of learning, before the reception learning happens, I rearranged the given array of information, integrate it with existing cognitive structure, and recognize or transform the integrated combination in such a way as to create the desired product or discover a missing means-end relationship. That was the discovery learning and that method was very much successful.

Another example is one of my elementary English training. My teacher used to teach new English words, Sentences, basic language, and grammar. In one of his classes, he taught us the words, walk, jump, skip, run, etc. He took us outside our classroom. When he introduces new words; then showed us the meaning. In addition, he asked us to do it. Today, after reading about Meaningful Learning, I think his method of teaching was scientific. He took us from a reception learning setting to discovery learning setting. These two situations made me to believe in discovery learning and to think its importance in the field of instruction.

“Meaningful learning is the process of relating potentially meaningful information to what the learner already known in a non - arbitrary and substantive way. Either rote or meaningful learning can occur in reception and discovery learning situations.”

What I learned from my experiences with DMV test and from my elementary English training verifies the importance of the points below:

Meaningful reception learning implies that the learner is cognitively active.
Learner must employ a meaningful learning set to many learning task. (No Memorizing!)
The material the learner wants to learn must have some potential meaning.
What the learner already know and how that knowledge relates to the learning subject.

According to Ausubel (1961), Cognitive structure is the learner’s overall memorial structure or integrated body of knowledge. This cognitive structure is made up of sets of ideas that are organized hierarchically and by theme. Within this structure, the most inclusive ideas are the strongest and most stable.

In my learning process, I was anchoring specific or relevant ideas in my cognitive structure that provides the entry points for new information to be connected.

Cognitive structure and specific anchoring ideas within the cognitive structure are perquisites to meaningful learning. They describe the memory structure within which all the new knowledge is integrated.

Immediately after the learning for DMV, I remember all the new information I learned and was easily accessible. The next day, subsumed ideas become less and less distinguishable, or dissociable, from the inclusive anchor. On the following day I could no longer retrieve certain points I want to remember, as entities separate and distinct from the anchoring idea. Yes, I have forgotten those points. I need to refresh the material once again.

For me the preparation for the DMV test was easy, because I knew the skill of driving already.

Finally, I won the DMV written test with good score. After the test, I found that the most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. To be ready for learning new material, learners of all sorts must possess a relevant, stable, and organized cognitive structure. The two additional influences on readiness are the age difference among learners and the cultural diversity.

(Reference: Driscoll, M (2005). Psychology of Learning For Instruction. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.)