The meanings of intention and disposition to learn in meaningful learning theory

Abstract

The meaningful learning concept, polysemic in the educative and investigative context, was created for a theory that explains its process, occurrence, and facilitation conditions. Intention and disposition (to learn) are different instants of learning but are also commonly used as synonyms on papers in Portuguese which uses the theory as a theoretical framework. The goal of this essay is to present reflections about the meanings of these concepts on Ausubel’s original work, published in 2000 and, its translation to Portuguese, in 2003. The original text analysis reveals translation inconsistencies for these essential concepts that explain the learning process, particularly the meaningful learning set. These inconsistencies may be contributed to a superficial understanding of its meanings. We propose the use of expression “learning set com significado” due to its complexity and lack of a direct equivalence to its meaning in Portuguese. Finally, we suggest more attention to these concepts and more research on this theme.