Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism

|Basic Principles |
|Objectivism/Behaviorism |Cognitivism |Constructivism |
|Learning happens when a correct response is demonstrated |Learning is a change of knowledge state |Learners build personal interpretation of the world based on |
|following the presentation of a specific environmental stimulus |Knowledge acquisition is described as a mental activity that |experiences and interactions |
|Learning can be detected by observing an organism over a period |entails internal coding and structuring by the learner |Knowledge is embedded in the context in which it is used |
|of time |Learner is viewed as an active participant in the learning |(authentic tasks in meaningful realistic settings) |
|Emphasis is on observable and measurable behaviors |process |Create novel and situation-specific understandings by |
|Uses a "black box" metaphor - the learner is a black box, what |Emphasis is on the building blocks of knowledge (e.g. |"assembling" knowledge from diverse sources appropriate to the |
|happens inside is unknown |identifying prerequisite relationships of content) |problem at hand (flexible use of knowledge) |
|Emphasis is on relationships between environmental variables and|Emphasis on structuring, organizing and sequencing information |Believes that there are many ways (multiple perspectives) of |
|behavior