Theories Of Learning: Constructivist Vs Humanistic – A Critical Evaluation

Theory 1: Venn Diagram

Theory 1: Venn Diagram

Constructivism:

The theory is being propounded by theorists like Dewey and Bruner.  

This Theory claims that a student learns new things and acquires new kwoledge based on past knowledge as well as social interaction (Siemens, 2014).  

The teacher plays an important role as he is expected to continually motivate the student to learn new things, whose role is to explore and understand new things.

The learner’s mind is not a “tabula rasa” or blank slate to be filled by what the teacher wants him to learn. His past experiences or cultural factors determine how he constructs his knowledge. 

Similarities

Both the theories consider learning to be an active process whereby the students are required to participate actively in the learning process.

Both the theories place much emphasis on the role of the learner.

Both the thoeies consider an open, active and interactive learning encronment necessary for the mental development of the child.

In case of both the theories, the teacher intends to explore the inner world of the students and teach accordingly.

Theory 2: Humanistic Theory of Learning

The theory is being propounded by Maslow and Rogers.

This theory states that the learners play a far more active role in determining the learing materials as well as the methods of learning.

The role of the teacher is to create a non-threatening learning environment where a student can learn in accordance with his personal cognitive ability.

The learner’s mind is considered to be nothing more than a “tabula rasa” or blank slate, which needs to be filled by what the teacher wants him to learn.

The role of the teacher is primarily to assist the child achieve his personal growth and a feeling of self-actualizaton.

It is a well-known fact that a young learner usually perceives the facts around him, absorbs the knowledge and process the same,  while acquiring knowledge in a relevant field. There are multiple heories that have developed around the idea of learning, which claim different perspectives about the process in whuch the learing process of a student occurs. While the Constructivist Theory of Learning emohasize the role of  a student in constructing the relevant information, based on the his own subjective representation of objective reality, the Humanistic Theory of Learning claims that a learner acquires knowledge by observing and imitating the behaviours of other people around him. While the Constructivist theory of Learning claims that each studet has a different way of interpreting the knowledge he receives, the Humanistic Theory of Learning claims that learning itself is a self-directed process that does require much motivation in order to encourage the cognitive development of the learner (Dale, 2013). Alhough both the methods of learning intend to encourage the overall well-being of the learner, and rely on making the curriculum as pupil-centered as possible, it would be interesting to critically evaluate the theories and discusss the benefits and limitations of both the theories.

While discussing the Humanistic theory of learning, it should be remembered that the word “Humanism” has been defined as any specific system of thought that is directly concerned with human existence and reasoning. The theory of learning believes that the mind of a young learner is blank, and whatever he will see happening around him, is exactly what he will learn. Each child is deemed to be a separate individual with distinguishable characteristic traits as well as potentialities, and thus the teacher teaching under this theory of learning, is expected to introduce a person-centered learning system (Schultz & Schultz, 2016). The supporters of the Humanistic theory of learning believes that learning itself is an active process, and that the students can develop their knowledge, by participating in the respective learning activities. However, at the same time, the teachers are also expected to play an important role in this regard. According to this theory, the students have personal needs, such as the need of self-fulfilment or the need of belongingness nad affection, and it is the duty of the teacher to act as a facilitator and organizer so as to motivate the students (Taylor & Hamdy, 2013).  The Humnaistic theory of learning emphasizes the importance of the role played by a student and a ateacher alike. While it is the cognitive ability of the learner that determines the learning actities or the learning process to be implemented by the student, it is the duty of the teacher to develop the mind of the learner to its fullest. Under the Humanistic theory of learning, the teacher intends to enhance the living skills of the students, so as to aid the emotional development and mental wrll-being. This theory of learning believes in focusing more on the personal development of the child, satisfying the basic psychological and physiological needs, rather than offering him bookish knowledge. The role of a teacher is to stimulate the student, inspire the learner acquire knowledge by creating a non-threatening environment, and hence this system does not recognize the importance of ay stnadradized curriculum. The teacher is not required to teach difficult chapters to the students, but to aid him in reflecting and analyzing situations on his own (Maslow, 2013). The theory of learning upholds  that any human beig is born in a way that he is inherently good and noble, nad has the potential to be creative in future, and however what he learns in life is determined by what he sees around. Hence, it is the sole duty of the teacher to motivate him, by offering him emotional support, and encouragement, so as to facilitate his personal growth and creativity. The role of the teacher is to act as a role model exhibiting exemplary behaviour, while the role of the student to observe the teacher, reflect, evaluate his own behaviour and make changes if necessary.

Theory 2: Humanistic Theory of Learning

As far as the main benefit of the learning theory is concerned, scholars have stated that the students learning under this system develop with their own pace, and apart from their academic development, much attention is also being paid to their persobal development. Thus, the learners are able to study selflessly, in collaboration with other peers, with a strong team spirit, and without being worried by anxiety of ufair competitions. Thus, this does offer a holistic approach to education in schools. Another benefit here is that the theory largely benefits the students as the entire teaching system is pupil cenered, and without he presence of any external pressure to study well, the students manage can learn thinsg at the pace that suits their cognitive ability. Here, the teachers try their best to act like the role models and facilitate the learning process of the students, and consequently  the students fells highly motivated and engaged in the learning process. The improvement in the learning experience of the sudent has always been linked with better learning outcome. However, despite its benefits, this theory of learning is not free from disadvantages (Arends, 2014). The chief limitation of the theory is that despite being highly learner-friendly, this theory cannot help in the effective development of the child. For example, a teacher teaching with the Humanistic Approach, will teach lessons on Multiplication, by asking the students form teams, co-operate with each other and discover the most effective method for the same. With the teacher’s role being confined to a mere guide, the students may not be able to develop their cognitive ability effectively. Again, another drawback of the theory is that this theory tends to be highly value-drive and hence it intends to focus more on what ought to happen, rather than what can happen. The idealistic approach to teaching, may not be suitable in a fast-moving, competitive world and may slow down the learning process of the student (Myer, 2014).

On the other hand, the Constructivist theory of learning relies on the idea that the learner’s min already consists of his past experiences and social ideas, that need to be developed to facilitate further progress in his knowledge (Thomas et al. , 2014). This theory of learning upholds that the students actively construct their own subjective representations of the objective reality, and hece the act of learning in a highly active, contextualized system (Anderson, 2016). The students are not merely the passive learners, but the active performers, reflecting, comparing and contrasting ideas and analyzing the contents. Under this learning system, the teacher is well-aware that each student has a distinct set of prior knowledge, and hence a custimized curriculum should be formulated to help the student understand a topic as per his existent knowledge (Fosnot, 2013). The teachers eliminate any standardized curriculum, and help in fostering new understanding in students by askig the open-ended questions.

The greatest benefit of using the Constructivist theory of teaching is that it helps in the development of innovative ideas amongst the students, whose ideas do not remain confined to a stric idea only. This approach to teaching helps the learner think outside the bo, connect the lessons with what he already knows and tst the hypothesis of the Same based on his cognitive ability. The eachers do not impose the thoughts of scholars on the students, but raher allows the student construct his own knowledge on his own. The learner consequently learns to become more independent. The interactive, engaging and student-friendly system of education as endorsed by this theory encourages the students acquire knowledge more creatively, via research reports, physical models and artistic representations (Patton et al., 2016). Another striking benefit of this theory of teaching is that it helps in benefitting all the members of a particular group as a whole, and largely contributes to the knowledge. For example, a student belonging to a minor ethnic group may interpret Beauty and the Beast, as a tale that incites hatred towards a different race, while a female tudent may criticize the theme of objectification of women as shown in the tale. Besides, this theory of learning encourages students tow ork in groups, co-operating with their fellow friends and thus helps in improving the social and communication skills of the students. The learner learns to be more independent and usually emerges to be highly confident in future. However, the theory is not free of disadvnatges. First of all, the system of learning endorses the idea of free learning that may produce multiple ideas on the very same topic, and this would lead to a loss of uniformity of learning discourse (Kolb, 2014). It is highly expensive to implement an activeity-oriented and interactive method of teaching within the classrooms, and it si needless to state that it is equally time-consuming. The slow learners may fail tow ork in collaboration with other team members, and are less likely to foster academic improvement in absence of a well-orgnized and systematic theory of learning. The studenst who lack on social skills, or do not have a very knowledgeable peer to work with, is likely to suffer from problems. Som students amy be highly dispappointed as well a they may not be able to strike a proper relation with the his past knowledge and the topic taught in the class.

Reference List:

Anderson, T. (2016). Theories for learning with emerging technologies. Emerging technologies in distance education.

Arends, R. (2014). Learning to teach. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Dale, O., & Smith, R. (2013). Human behavior and the social environment: Social systems theory. Pearson Higher Ed.

Fosnot, C. T. (2013). Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and practice. Teachers College Press.

Kolb, D. A. (2014). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. FT press.

Maslow, A. H. (2013). Toward a psychology of being. Simon and Schuster.

Mayer, R. E. (2014). Incorporating motivation into multimedia learning. Learning and Instruction, 29, 171-173.

Patton, L. D., Renn, K. A., Guido, F. M., Quaye, S. J., & Forney, D. S. (2016). Student development in college: Theory, research, and practice. John Wiley & Sons.

Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2016). Theories of personality. Cengage Learning.

Siemens, G. (2014). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age.

Taylor, D. C., & Hamdy, H. (2013). Adult learning theories: Implications for learning and teaching in medical education: AMEE Guide No. 83. Medical Teacher, 35(11), e1561-e1572.

Thomas, A., Menon, A., Boruff, J., Rodriguez, A. M., & Ahmed, S. (2014). Applications of social constructivist learning theories in knowledge translation for healthcare professionals: a scoping review. Implementation Science, 9(1), 54.