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The acquisition and retention of knowledge: A cognitive view. By David P. Ausubel. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic, 2000. Hardback 58.00. ISBN 0-79236505-4
I first heard of Ausubel when I studied to be a teacher for the vocational training of nurses. This was in 1974. At that time Ausubel's ideas were 11 years in press. I was a surgeon-assistant then, and I was challenged to use Ausubel's cognitive learning theory with respect to anchoring of ideas and advance organisers. I applied the metaphor of anchoring with introducing the very first apparatus that you see when you enter the theatre in which surgical operations take place, being the table where patients lie on when operated on. I was asked to prepare a mini lesson of three minutes on how this table was related to the former knowledge of my fellow students. The idea of anchoring of ideas appealed to me. My fellow students' former knowledge about tables needed to be brought out. They were all nurses in hospitals with no experience in theatres, and they were used to leaving the patient in the care of surgeon-assistants outside the theatre for hygienic reasons. I wanted to bridge the gap between their general concept of function and form of tables, and the extension of this notion with respect to an apparatus with multiple functions: movable parts, a rubber layer for the patient to lie on, extensions to prepare x-ray provisions, and so on. So I made an advance organiser for the lesson by lining up a list of characteristics of a table. I prepared two themes of anchoring: its function (you can work at it, you can put things on a table), and its form (flat surface, extensions are possible). I started with a question: 'You all know what a table looks like. What would you call characteristics of a table?' One of my fellow-students said: 'You are a surgeon-assistant, right?'. I answered, 'Yes'. `You are no Dracula or are you?'. 'No', I said. She continued, 'I wanted to say that a table is something that you sit at when eating but I find that a disgusting thing to say regarding your profession!' We all laughed. And then the three minutes were up. So much for anchoring new...