An Investigation Of The Learning Contents Of English And Biology At High School Based On Ausubel's Learning Theory

The present study investigated the differences in the learning contents of English and biology at high school based on Ausubel's theory of meaningful verbal learning, Representational learning, concept learning and propositional learning are three basic types of meaningful learning. Representational learning is to learn the meaning of the single symbol or unitary symbols. Concept learning is to learn the criterial attributes of the concepts. Propositional learning is to learn the meaning of the new ideas expressed in propositional form. These three learning types were the main focus of the present study.The investigation was carried out in the form of questionnaires. The subjects were 127 students from grade 1 of junior high school and 113 students from grade 2 of senior high school. The questionnaires were carried out to check the students' known degree of the contents in the text books in the new term in order to analyze the differences of representational, concept and propositional learning in English and biology learning. There are vocabulary part and sentence part in the questionnaires. The contents of the English questionnaires were selected from each unit of the English books. The contents of the biology questionnaires were selected from each chapter of the biology books. The formal questionnaires were carried out at the beginning of the new term.The results of the investigation are as follows:(1) Representational learning is common in English and biology learning. The students have learned a large number of symbols.(2) Most concepts represented by words (symbols) in the English books have already been familiar to the students; the learning focus is the spelling, pronunciation and meaning of the new English words. The spelling and pronunciation of the symbols in the biology books are familiar to the students while the concepts represented by the symbols are almost new to the students; the learning focus, therefore, is to apprehend and master the concepts.(3) The topics in the junior English book are familiar to the students. The sentences in the text books are the suppositional ones to practice the English expression of the similar topics. There are many contents concerning social problems and other subjects in the senior English book; however, the expressions of the knowledge rather than the knowledge itself are the focus in learning and teaching. As is the case of concept learning, there are many new propositions in the biology books and they form the systematic knowledge on biology. The emphasis in learning is to master the knowledge. After analyzing the above results, the conclusion of the present study is as follows:For the common Chinese high school students, the learning contents in English class is the new symbols and the rules of combining them; the main learning contents in biology class is the new symbols, as well as concepts represented by the words and sentences.The paper consists of six main parts. The first part mainly introduces the research orientation and significance. The second part is a review of the related literature on the research questions. Also discussed in this part is the necessity of the present research. The third part is the theoretical framework of the study and the theory involved in the study including the theory of meaningful verbal learning. The fourth part presents the design of the investigation, including procedures, subjects, instruments, data collection and data analysis. In the fifth part, the results and part of the discussion are presented. The sixth part is the conclusion, which briefly summarizes the major findings, the practical implications, the limitations and questions to be explored in the future.