Learning Theories

Learning theories are scientific explanations for how people do and should learn. The two dominant learning theories in education throughout the U. S.—behaviorism and constructivism. Behaviorism is the default learning theory, however, that guides the vast majority of educational practices in our school systems. Critical pedagogy challenges both behaviorism and constructivism as blinded by assumptions and mechanistic.

	[Traditional Practices]	[Progressive Suggestions]	[Critical Lens]
	Behaviorism	Constructivism	Critical Pedagogy
Role of TEACHER	Authoritarian	Facilitator/ Mentor (Coach)	Authoritative (teacher-student)
Role of STUDENT	Receptive (passive)	Active	Empowered (student-teacher)
Role of CONTENT (ends v. means)	Ends (goal)	Means	Means
Nature of REASONING (inductive v. deductive)	Instructional decisions = Deductive	Instructional decisions = Inductive	Not primary over affect; Instructional decisions = Inductive
Assumptions about student thinking/ learning	Analytical (part to whole)	Global (whole to part)	To be monitored by teacher and learner
Responsibility for learning	Primarily the teacher	Primarily the student	Teacher-student/ Student-teacher
Central source of CURRICULUM	Traditions of the field	Student needs and interests	Discovered and defined during process
Nature of ASSESSMENT	Selected response/ serves to label and sort	Created response/ performances	Authentic/ integral part of learning
Nature of learning conditions (individual v. social)	Individual	Social	Social
Nature of QUESTIONS (opened v. closed)	Closed	Opened	Opened
Attitude toward ERROR	Must be avoided	Natural and even necessary element of learning	Sees “error” as dehumanizing and oppressive
Assumptions about MOTIVATION (intrinsic v. extrinsic)	Extrinsic	Intrinsic	To be monitored by teacher and learner
Role of psychology (behavioral v. cognitive)	Behavioral	Cognitive	Postformalism (Kincheloe)
Names associated with theory	Pavlov, Skinner, Thorndike, Watson	Piaget, Dewey, Vygotsky	Freire, hooks, Vygotsky, Giroux, Kincheloe, Apple
Attitude toward standardization	Appropriate goal	Flawed expectation	Dehumanizing
Goal of instruction (answers v. questions)	Answers (correctness)	Questions (possibilities)	Questions that confront norms, assumptions
Perception of the nature of the mind	Blank slate	Jungian (Collective Unconscious)	Cognitive and affective both valued, evolving
Nature of Truth/truth	Truth (absolute)	truth (relative)	Truths as normalized assumptions (oppressive)