Learning

Learning Perspective	Behavioral	Cognitive	Constructivist
Definition/Examples	Knowledge existed outside of the student and needed to be acquired through rote memorization. The student would listen and follow directions. Skinner was an advocate of this theory.	With information processing, advocated by Anderson, students learned to acquire knowledge by adopting effective strategies and learning how to organize information effectively. The teacher’s role was to model and teach correct strategies.	Knowledge is constructed by working in groups as active participants and thinkers. The teacher’s role was that of facilitator. Vygotsky was an advocate of this theory.
Strengths	This is helpful when needing to communicate information to a lot of people in a short amount of time. Many times in life it is an important skill to listen and to take notes (which can help with memory), since this is the style many people use when teaching adults, including college-students.	The students are learning strategies they can use to become more effective learners, even when they are no longer in your classroom. As they practice them, they can become skills and motivate students to learn more, since it is easier for them to do so.	This way gives students real life practice in solving difficult problems, and teaches them that it is important to collaborate with others in order to come up with effective solutions. It can also help them feel less isolated as they learn to build community. The scaffolding approach helps the teacher meet the students where they are, and then help them gradually become on their own.
Weaknesses	Studies have shown that students do not retain much by just reading or listening passively. They retain more information when they are actively doing something with the material (this is why the interactive lecture format can be effective with participation and retaining information).	It is difficult to know how much class time to devote to teaching and practicing strategies. Just because students know HOW to do a strategy, does not mean that it has become a habit for them. Also, it takes time away from learning content knowledge.	Like all theories, the theory must be effectively put into practice. Sometimes “group work” becomes the time when two people do all the work, and  the benefits of the sociality are lost. That can be prevented by giving individual grades, and not just group grades. Also, this process can be extremely frustrating for some students, since the challenges are difficult to solve (which is why scaffolding is so important).
Application	Lecture: The lecturer  transmits knowledge to a large group of people who are (hopefully) listening and taking notes. An example is a guest speaker presenting professional development at a school, or the standard college professor teaching style.	ELL Class: The teacher taught a reading class to English Language Learners. He focused every week on a new strategy (skimming, looking for the main idea, looking at pictures and headlines), had the students take notes using a graphic organizer, modeled the strategy, and gave the students opportunity in class to practice that strategy.	Model UN: Students are given challenging real-world problems and need to create a position paper and pose solutions to these challenges. They work with a partner and small group. They have to defend their position verbally in debate form.