Steemhomework for the week! - David Ausubel.

David Paul Ausubel (New York 1918-2008) was a psychologist and pedagogue. He became one of the great references of constructivist psychology. He put a lot of emphasis on developing the teaching based on the knowledge that the student has. That is, the first step for educators, was to find out the virtues that the student had based on their behavior in order to exploit their attitudes.

In this way, for Ausuel, teaching was a process by which the student is helped to continue increasing and perfecting the knowledge he already has, instead of imposing a subject that must be memorized. Education could not be just the follow-up of a guideline as a robot.

Ausubel establishes that learning means that new learning connects with previous ones; not because they are the same, but because they have to do with them in a way that creates a new meaning. It can help in this concept to know that there is an opposite version, which is called mechanical learning, also called rote learning. This kind of learning differs from meaningful learning not only because it does not help to expand real knowledge, but because the new information is also more volatile and easier to forget.

Remember when in school they made you memorize concepts for exams or exhibitions and after presenting little information was stored. This happens with mechanical learning.

The ideas of Ausubel, far from being mere pedagogical proposals, have had fulfilled application in the recent educational systems, being a usual reference in the elaboration of materials, educational programs and curricular designs.