Facilitating Executive Learning: Development and Application of a Conceptual Model

We developed our required ten-week Executive MBA Leading Organizational Change course to specifically maximize meaningful learning according to the stipulations of Ausubel’s (1968) cognitive assimilation theory. The centerpiece of our work is the implementation of an eight-step explicit conceptually transparent learning model whose components are internally consistent and require the assimilation of new concepts and propositions into existing conceptual frameworks held by the learner. Concept maps (Novak, 1998), which are presented, help explicate our model, and generalizations to other learning milieus are addressed. While we address specific strengths and weaknesses with our approach, we conclude that we have met Ausubel’s three conditions for meaningful learning.