- Mastering one lesson before moving on to new content.
- Consolidation is achieved by correction, clarification, confirmation, course review (repeated exposure), and feedback (Ausubel, 1968).


Macalester College

There are  five steps of the learning process:
- Concept formation.
- Subsumption.
- Progressive differentiation.
- Integrative reconciliation.
- Consolidation.

Ausubel’s (1968) assimilation theory (Using a Conceptual Approach with Concept Mapping to Promote Critical Thinking)

Jenny E. Vacek, SN, RN. (2009) Using a Conceptual Approach with Concept Mapping to Promote Critical Thinking. Educational Innovation. Journal of Nursing Education Vol. 48, No. 1. Published Online:January 01, 2009 https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20090101-11

Using a Conceptual Approach with Concept Mapping to Promote Critical Thinking

Ausubel distinguished primary and secondary concepts as two distinct types of concept formation. Primary concepts are cognitively molded by young children strictly by observation (Novak, 1998). As their cognitive structures
build, children can obtain new concepts through assimilation, whereby
no visible object is necessary (Novak,1998). Such abstract concepts are called secondary. 


Concept Formation (Using a Conceptual Approach with Concept Mapping to Promote Critical Thinking)

Subsumption occurs when newly perceived information is integrated with previously acquired knowledge; this integration of knowledge is referred to as meaningful learning and is an actual synthesis (a component of critical thinking) of content.

Subsumption (Using a Conceptual Approach with Concept Mapping to Promote Critical Thinking)

- Ausubel (1968) stated that the natural sequence in which human beings cognitively organize and store knowledge is hierarchal (from general to specific).
- Easier for human beings to grasp the whole with its differential parts than to assimilate the differentiated parts and then the whole
- Progressive differentiation is achieved by using a hierarchal series of organizers in a descending manner, whereby each organizer (subset) precedes the detail-differentiated material presented (Ausubel, 1968).


Progressive Differentiation (Using a Conceptual Approach with Concept Mapping to Promote Critical Thinking)

Integrative reconciliation occurs when one understands that a given concept is different yet also similar to another concept (Novak, 1998).

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