Discussion #2

 Constructivist believe that each individual constructs their own meanings and understandings of new knowledge based on individual experiences and evolved beliefs. Instructional design is based on allowing students to construct meanings and knowledge by engaging in design and invention tasks. Environments are defined and redesigned continually to accommodate an indiviuals' evolving needs. Collaborate and cooperative groups are encouraged to problem-solve situations. Instructors are merely facilitators that can offer the necessary support for the learner to manage their own learning needs. 


Objectivist believe that the external world is independent of the mind. The instruction involves developing methods to transmit meaning consistently and efficiently across learners. The environments are usually designed where a specialist in that area facilitate the acquisition of knowledge with emphasis placed on specific knowledge or skills with activities and tasks focused on the creation of a product. Programs are designed around the analysis of the content to be taught, the instructional setting itself, and the learners' prior knowledge. Instructional objectives are are identified, broken down in sequences, and criterion set for assessments that are necessary to measure acquisition of knowledge.


Contextualism maintains that whether one knows is somehow relative to context. It evolved primarily as a response to views that maintain that we have no knowledge of the world around us. Vygotsky (1978) called this the child-in-activity-in-context. This developmental stance also asserts that culture influences what people think about, what skills they obtain, when they can participate in certain activities, and who is allowed to do which activities. In this theory, teachers and students become active participants in the learning process. Learning environments utilize observation, collaboration, and scaffolding. Teachers also recognize the importance of increasing the students' culture awareness and adjust the instructional level based on the learners' response. 

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Behaviorists look at learning as an aspect of conditioning and will advocate a system of rewards and targets in education where as in the cognitive learning theory sees motivation as largely intrinsic.