Learning paradigms

Learning theories are usually divided into several paradigms which represent different perspectives on the learning process. Theories within the same paradigm share the same point of view. Currently, the most commonly accepted learning paradigms are behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, connectivism, social learning and humanism but there are others as well.

Here we will refer to named learning paradigms and their related learning and instructional design theories. A brief overview of the paradigms follows, and more information can be obtained by clicking on each paradigm name.

Behaviorism:

Time line: Since 1910s

What is learning: Development of desired behavior

Control locus: Environment

Learner role: Passive

Learning process: Support of desired or punishing undesired behavior

Critics: Ignores learner and his mental processes, depends exclusively on overt behavior

Authors: Ivan Pavlov, Burrhus Skinner, John Watson

Social Learning:

Time line: Since 1950s

What is learning: Acquisition of new models of behavior or social competences

Control locus: Split between both learner and environment (reciprocal determinism)

Learner role: Acquisition and interpretation of new knowledge through social interaction

Learning process: Prerequisite for meaningful learning is learners engagement in social activities

Critics: Offers no insight into complex cognitive processes (later improved by social/cognitive theory)

Authors: Julian Rotter, Albert Bandura

Cognitivism:

Time line: Since 1960s

What is learning: Acquisition of new knowledge and developing adequate mental constructions

Control locus: Learner

Learner role: Active and central to the process, he learns objective knowledge from external world

Learning process: An active process of acquiring and processing new information using prior knowledge and experience

Critics: Views knowledge as objective and external to the learner

Authors: John Sweller, Richard Meyer, David Ausbel

Humanism:

Time line: Since 1960s

What is learning: A mean which should help learner in self-actualization and development of personal potentials

Control locus: Learner

Learner role: Active and discovery

Learning process: Active learning through experience

Critics: More psychologically then experimentally grounded approach based on assumptions of free will and a system of human values which are generally believed to be true, yet impossible to prove and sometimes discredited through counterexamples.

Authors: Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow

Constructivism:

Time line: Since 1990s

What is learning: Construction of new knowledge

Control locus: Learner

Learner role: Active, constructing his representation of knowledge using preferred learning styles

Learning process: Construction of subjective representation of knowledge based on prior knowledge and experience

Critics: There is little evidence for some constructivist views, and some even contradict known findings

Authors: John Dewey, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Philip Candy, Rosalind Driver

Connectivism:

Time line: Since 2000s

What is learning: Process of network-forming

Control locus: Mostly learner but also environment

Learner role: Knowledge acquisition in form of establishing connections to other nodes

Learning process: Learning can also reside outside a person (within a database or an organization) and is focused on establishing connections

Critics: A relatively new and according to some not fully developed theory

Authors: George Simens

Other Learning Theories:

Instructional design theories

We will also refer to some instructional design principles:

Cognitive Apprenticeship

Other related theories

Some theories that are not directly orientated on explaining of the learning process, but are also worth mentioning can be found here:

Gestalt Theory (Wertheimer)

Theory of Cognitive Development (Piaget)

Communities of Practice (Lave and Wenger)