Learning theories are usually divided into several paradigms which represent different perspectives on the learning process. Theories within the same paradigm share the same basic point of view. Currently, the most commonly accepted learning paradigms are behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, connectivism, and humanism.
Here the named learning paradigms and their related learning and instructional design theories. A brief overview of the paradigms follows:
- Behaviorism
- Cognitivism
- Humanism
- Constructivism
A brief comparison of learning paradigms can be used to better understand their differences and similarities.
1. Behaviorism
About behaviorism
Behaviorism is a learning paradigm with its roots dating back to the second half of 19th century and works of Ivan Sechenov (1829 - 1905) and Vladimir Bekhterev (1857 - 1927), and gaining a significant attention in the first decades of the 20th century. The most central premise of behaviorism is that, in order to make psychology a real science, it must be orientated on what is observable and measurable. In words of one of the key behaviorists John Watson (1878 - 1958),
Behaviorism is a learning paradigm with its roots dating back to the second half of 19th century and works of Ivan Sechenov (1829 - 1905) and Vladimir Bekhterev (1857 - 1927), and gaining a significant attention in the first decades of the 20th century. The most central premise of behaviorism is that, in order to make psychology a real science, it must be orientated on what is observable and measurable. In words of one of the key behaviorists John Watson (1878 - 1958),
”Psychology, as the behaviorist views it, is a purely objective, experimental branch of natural science which needs introspection as little as do the sciences of chemistry and physics. It is granted that the behavior of animals can be investigated without appeal to consciousness.”
Behaviorists saw the mind as a “black box” and did not attempt to analyze its inner processes like thoughts, feelings, or motivation. Instead, they saw learning as a visible change in one's behavior which, unlike mind processes, can be measured. From behaviorist perspective, a learner starts off as a clear state and simply responds to environmental stimuli. Those responses can be shaped through positive and negative reinforcement (usually a reward for desired and a punishment for undesired behavior), increasing or decreasing the probability of repeating the same behavior. Forming stimulus-response (S-R) associations which result in observable behavior is for behaviorism the most significant form of learning.
This learning paradigm can roughly be divided in two phases:
- behaviorism (1910 - 1930), and
- neobehaviorism (1930 - 1955).
Neobehaviorism outgrew classical behaviorism by attempts to formalize the laws of behavior (sometimes in forms of mathematical expressions) and beliefs that learning can also occur indirectly through observing. Neobehaviorists are sometimes considered a transitional group that shifted dominant learning perspective toward cognitivism.
Learning theories:
Among learning theories listed above, connectionism presents an introduction to behaviorist learning and setting its frames followed by true behaviorist learning perspectives of classical and operand conditioning. Sign learning appeared as first neobehaviorist theory, followed by drive reduction theory, which also incorporated idea of describing learning with intervening variables.
Basic ideas and approximate historical introduction time for each of this theories can be found in this chronological overview.
Instructional design theories and models
Criticisms
Behaviorism today mostly lost its influence and let cognitivism take its place as the dominant learning paradigm. Critics of behaviorist learning usually argue that behaviorism:
- does not explain all kinds o learning since it ignores inner mind activities,
- offers a very limited view on learning since it ignores internal factors such as emotions or motivation,
- ignores fact that learning depends on learner's inner subjective representation of environment and learning history.
Bibliography
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1) Watson, John B. Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it. Psychological Review 20: 158-177. 1913.
2. Cognitivism
2. Cognitivism
About cognitivism
One of the first criticisms of behaviorist learning approach came from gestalt psychologists during the first decades of the 20th century and was related to behaviorist dependencies exclusively on overt behavior. It was the gestalt views on learning that influenced new approaches extending beyond behaviorism and setting the basic principles of what is today known as cognitive theories. In the 1960s behaviorism was as a dominant learning paradigm slowly replaced by cognitivism.
Cognitive approach to learning, unlike behavioral,
- sees learning as the active acquisition of new knowledge and developing adequate mental constructions,
- sets the learner as the locus of control and not just as a passive participant in the process of learning,
- attempts to open the “black box” of his mind and explain complex cognitive processes and architecture,
- addresses learning with regard to insight, information processing, memory, perception,
- emphasizes the role of prior knowledge and experiences for learning outcomes, and
- sees learner as an organized information processor.
Human memory
If human cognitive architecture is to be analyzed, then the role and properties of human memory system should also be accounted for. Memory is often defined as ”an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences”1). Since it has a crucial role in acquisition and retention of knowledge, it was the subject of many researches and an essential part of many cognitivist learning theories.
Gestalt Psychology - Max Wertheimer (1880 – 1943)
Assimilation Theory - David Ausubel (1918 - 2008)
Social Cognitive Learning Theory - Albert Bandura (1925 - )
Conditions of Learning - Robert Gagné (1916 - 2002)
Schema Theory - Richard Anderson (1934 - )
Script Theory - Roger Schank
Dual Coding Theory - Allan Pavio (1925 - )
Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) - John Sweller
Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) - Richard Mayer
Instructional design theories and learning models:
Cone of Experience - Edgar Dale (1900 – 1985)
Elaboration Theory - Charles Reigeluth
Concept Mapping - Joseph Novak
Component Display Theory - Dave Merrill
Structural Learning Theory - Joseph Scandura
Principles and effects of CLT and CTML - (various researchers)
Criticisms
Since the beginning of its intensive development during the 1960s various critics of cognitivism have emerged, challenging its assumption that mental functions can be compared to an information processing model. Some authors like John Searle or Roger Penrose claim that computation, due to its inherent limitations, can never achieve the complexity and possibilities of human mental functions and therefore cannot be successfully used to describe them. Common examples for this are:
- Gödel's incompleteness theorems which claim that ”within any given branch of mathematics, there would always be some propositions that couldn't be proven either true or false using the rules and axioms… of that mathematical branch itself. You might be able to prove every conceivable statement about numbers within a system by going outside the system in order to come up with new rules and axioms, but by doing so you'll only create a larger system with its own unprovable statements.”2). Oversimplified, this means computers will never be capable of human-like cognition since they are limited to a limited set of axioms. The information-processing model should therefore have a limited application in case of humans. Kurt Gödel proved his two theorems of incompleteness in 1931.
- Turing's halting problem which claims that given a description of a program, it is impossible to decide whether the program finishes running or continues to run forever for any given program input. This theorem proven by Alan Turing in 1936 shows how some things are naturally non-computable.
During the 1970s humanism evolved as an opposing view to both behaviorism and cognitivism beginning with the holistic approach, belief in the power of an individual and view learning as a way of fulfilling his potentials.
Bibliography
Cognitivism at Learning Theories. Retrieved February 21, 2011.
Dabbagh, N. The Instructional Design Knowledge Base. George Mason University, Instructional Technology Program. Retrieved March 8, 2011.
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1) Wikipedia: Memory. Retrieved March 21, 2011.
3. Humanism
About humanism
Humanism as a approach to education and learning paradigm was being developed since the 1960s as a contrast to cognitivism and behaviorism and perception of a human being as an object in scientific inquiry. Humanism starts from the belief in inherent human goodness and contrasts Sigmund Freud's and biological approaches, which claim human behavior and cognition are determined by experience and prior events. Most important humanist authors that shaped this theory were Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow whose works were mostly orientated on understanding of personality.
Humanists emphasize:
- importance of responsibility for individuals actions, and present moment,
- worth of every individual, and
- happiness through self-achievement as the ultimate living goal.
Humanist perspectives on learning suggest:
- learning is a natural desire, a mean of self-actualization and development of personal potentials
- importance of learning lies in the process, not outcome,
- learners should have more control over the learning process, which should be based on observing and exploring
- the teacher should be a role-model encouraging the learner and provide him with reasons and motivation for every new part of the learning process.
One of Maslow's contributions widely accepted even far beyond borders of humanism is the hierarchy of needs in which he tried to formulate the human motivation framework. Hierarchy of needs approaches human motivation in terms of different kind of needs that have to be satisfied in order to move to the higher level of needs. Those levels include psychological, safety, society, esteem and self-actualization needs and need to be satisfied in the mentioned order.
Since humanism is more concerned with personal development which can be fostered by learning than with dealing with the results of knowledge acquisition or underlying physical and mental processes, is not always considered to be a learning paradigm. Yet it was exactly these characteristics that enabled humanism to avoid some criticisms common for all other learning paradigms. All the other paradigms, when observed in framework of educational practice attempt to quantify learning and knowledge by breaking it up into measurable but often meaningless pieces often out of any context. They associate learning with the classroom and a number of hours, classes, courses, number of textbooks and lectures and finally tests and grades, but very few real life experiences fit into this concept, especially since they aren't measured by grades. This also implies that someone knows:
- what should be learned by people (which is completely dependent on time, place and culture),
- when it should be learned (which is decided by educational programs and inability to follow them results in diagnose of learning disability),
- how it should be taught (as if there is a best way to teach something without any regard to the student), and
- by whom it should be taught.
Humanism on the other hand associates learning with their own needs in order to achieve self-actualization.
Learning theories:
Experiential Learning - David Kolb (1939 - )
Transformatve Learning Theory - Jack Mezirow
Instructional design theories and learning models:
Facilitation Theory - Carl Rogers (1902 - 1987)
Invitational Learning - William Purkey (1929 - )
Other important contributors:
Criticisms
Common criticisms of humanism suggest:
- humanist approach has a reduced capacity for experimental research,
- lack of methods for treating of different mental health problems, and
- disagreement on the basic humanist assumption of inherent human goodness.
Bibliography
Humanistic Psychology. Retrieved March 25, 2011.
Learning and teaching: Humanistic approaches to learning. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
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4. Constructivism
About constructivism
Opposing to behaviorism and cognitivism, learning paradigms which begin from a point of view that world external to the learner is objective and real and the learner needs to map it's principles and facts, constructivism as a learning paradigm suggests that:
- learning is not a passive, but an active, socially enhanced process of knowledge construction,
- knowledge cannot (and need not) be transferred to the learner, but rather constructed by the learner,
- the learner constructs his own subjective interpretation and subjective meaning of the objective reality by cognizing subject,
- learning occurs through interaction of learner's prior knowledge (knowledge schemata), ideas and experience,
- learning occurs in certain social, cultural and linguistic settings.
Teaching of a discipline should therefore:
- focus not teaching of the body of knowledge, but experiencing the processes and procedures, and
- use language as a tool that can help in guiding student's construction, but keep in mind that language users create subjective meaning based on their experience.
Although constructivist ideas can be tracked back to 18th century and authors like Giambattista Vico it mostly emerged in the 1970s and has been recognized as a paradigm, but also as a theory. Today constructivism usually appears in the literature in a number of variants with two dominant variants:
- social constructivism (also known as personal constructivism or radical constructivism) derived from works of Lev Vygotsky and extended in works of Jean Lave, Allan Collins, John Brown, and Ernst von Glasersfeld, which suggest knowledge is situation-specific and context-dependent and that social environment has a key role in learning, and
- cognitive constructivism (also known as realist constructivism) presented in works of authors like Jean Piaget or Jerome Bruner, which, since knowledge cannot be directly transmitted from person to person, focuses on individual's knowledge construction and learning through discovery.
Learning theories
Social Development Theory - Lev Vygotsky (1896 - 1934)
Stage Theory of Cognitive Development - Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980)
Situated Learning - Jean Lave
Communities of Practice - Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger
Instructional design theories and learning models:
Cognitive Apprenticeship - Allan Collins
Discovery Learning - Jerome Bruner (1915 - )
Criticisms
Constructivist instructional design models have been subjected to much criticisms lately, mostly for promoting pure discovery-learning and minimally guided instruction. Richard Mayer has reviewed results of pure discovery-based learning experiments from 1950s to 1980s and concluded that every decade a new similar approach was invented under different name not making any significant difference. In his own words,
”Pure discovery did not work in the 1960s, it did not work in the 1970s, and it did not work in the 1980s… The debate about discovery has been replayed many times in education, but each time, the research evidence has favored a guided approach to learning.”.
Critics claim discovery-learning and minimally guided instruction, although more enjoyable to students,
can lead to frustration due to failure or misconceptions,
are not as effective as guided learning,
cause great cognitive load,
provide worse results than worked examples,
result in greater time consumption without results improvement,
do not show statistically significant improvements in knowledge when implemented in medical schools, and
that these disadvantages will apply especially to novice learners.
Although constructivism also includes learning methods with a certain degree of guidance and not just discovery learning and minimally guided instruction, critics claim that those methods still ignore proven benefits guidance, worked examples, and induce a higher cognitive load resulting in lower resources available for learning due to orientation on finding a solution to a problem.
It is important to notice that these findings do not indicate that the initial assumptions of constructivism of a learner constructing his own representation of knowledge are wrong. The indicate that suggested instructional design consequences described in discovery learning models with minimal guidance do not necessarily follow. Today it is generally considered that advantages of guidance during instructional process begin to fade only when learners possess sufficient amount of prior knowledge to provide guidance by themselves.
Bibliography
Liu, C. H, and R. Matthews. Vygotsky’s philosophy: Constructivism and its criticisms examined. International Education Journal 6, no. 3: 386–399. 2005.
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