Meaningful Learning for Empowerment

Meaningful learning results when the learner chooses to relate new information to ideas the learner already knows. Its quality is also dependent upon the conceptual richness of the new material to be learned. Rote learning occurs when the learner memorizes new information without relating it to prior knowledge, or when learning material that has no relationship to prior knowledge. There is a continuum in learning from pure rote to highly meaningful, and Fig. 3.1 represents this continuum.