6.2 Applying Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Social Learning & Constructivism
Key Takeaways
Cognitivist planning activates and organizes schemas with advance organizers, chunking, concept maps, and retrieval practice.
Social learning planning relies on modeling, peer models, and vicarious reinforcement, and reciprocal determinism links beliefs, behavior, and environment.
Constructivist planning starts with experiences or problems, targets the ZPD, and uses guided rather than unguided discovery.
Behaviorist planning breaks skills into steps with practice, immediate feedback, reinforcement, and shaping.
Strong lessons use the theory that best fits each component rather than one theory for everything.
Why Planning Draws on Four Theories
ETS asks candidates to apply the basic concepts of four predominant educational theories to instructional contexts, and it names the concepts it expects: cognitivism (schema, information processing, mapping), social learning theory (modeling, reciprocal determinism, vicarious learning), constructivism (learning as experience, problem-based learning, zone of proximal development, scaffolding, inquiry and discovery learning), and behaviorism (conditioning, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, reinforcement, punishment). Strong lesson plans borrow from all four, choosing the theory that fits each part of the lesson.
Cognitivism: Planning for How the Mind Processes Information
- Schema: activate what students know before new content and help them organize new ideas into frameworks.
- Information processing: capture attention, respect working-memory limits by chunking, and plan for encoding and retrieval.
- Mapping: concept maps and graphic organizers make relationships among ideas visible.
Planning moves: an advance organizer (David Ausubel's term for an introductory framework), chunked input, dual coding of words and visuals, worked examples, and retrieval practice.
Social Learning Theory: Planning for Observation and Belief
- Modeling: students learn by watching competent models, including teachers thinking aloud and peers demonstrating strategies.
- Vicarious learning: students learn from the consequences they see others receive.
- Reciprocal determinism: personal factors, behavior, and environment influence each other, so beliefs such as self-efficacy shape and are shaped by what students do.
Planning moves: model before practice, show exemplars and non-exemplars, use peer models similar to the students, and recognize effective strategies publicly.
Constructivism: Planning for Experience and Inquiry
- Learning as experience: students build understanding by acting on and reflecting about experiences.
- Problem-based learning: an authentic, ill-structured problem drives the learning.
- Zone of proximal development and scaffolding: tasks sit just beyond independent ability, with support that fades.
- Inquiry and discovery learning: students investigate and induce principles, ideally with teacher guidance.
Planning moves: open with a phenomenon or problem, plan scaffolds and when to remove them, structure collaboration, and use guided rather than unguided discovery.
Behaviorism: Planning for Practice and Consequences
- Conditioning and reinforcement: clear expectations, immediate feedback, and reinforcement strengthen desired behaviors.
- Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards: extrinsic rewards can start engagement in low-interest tasks, but controlling rewards for already-enjoyable tasks can undermine intrinsic motivation.
- Punishment: it suppresses behavior without teaching an alternative, so plans emphasize reinforcing replacement behaviors.
Planning moves: break complex skills into steps, practice with immediate corrective feedback, shape behavior through successive approximations, and use rewards sparingly and informationally.
One Unit, Four Lenses
| Lesson component (10th-grade chemistry: reaction rates) | Theory | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Opening demonstration: the same tablet dissolves in hot and cold water at very different speeds; students predict and explain | Constructivism | A phenomenon creates a question students want to answer |
| Partially completed concept map linking temperature, concentration, surface area, and catalysts | Cognitivism | Organizes new ideas into a schema and reduces working-memory load |
| Teacher thinks aloud while calculating a rate from data; a student demonstrates the method on a second data set | Social learning | Models expert thinking; a peer model builds classmates' self-efficacy |
| Lab-safety routine practiced step by step with immediate, specific praise and correction | Behaviorism | Establishes a precise, reliable behavior |
| Teams design an experiment to test one variable, with a planning template that is removed for the next lab | Constructivism (scaffolding) | Supports inquiry within the ZPD, then fades support |
Matching the Theory to the Planning Problem
| Planning problem | Theory that helps most | Planning move |
|---|---|---|
| Students forget content a week later | Cognitivism | Spaced retrieval practice and cumulative review built into the unit calendar |
| Students do not know what quality work looks like | Social learning | Model the process with a think-aloud and analyze annotated exemplars |
| Students can recite a rule but cannot apply it to a new situation | Constructivism | An authentic problem that requires the rule, with scaffolds that fade |
| A routine behavior (turning in work, cleaning a lab station) is inconsistent | Behaviorism | Teach the steps, practice, and reinforce consistently |
| Students avoid a subject they believe they are bad at | Social learning (self-efficacy) | Short mastery experiences and peer models of success |
| New material overwhelms students | Cognitivism | Chunk the input and provide a graphic organizer |
A Second Example: 8th-Grade Argument Writing
An 8th-grade English teacher planning a two-week argument-writing unit can use each theory deliberately:
- Constructivism: the unit opens with a real question students care about (should the school start later in the morning?), and students examine sleep research and a community survey before they are taught any structure.
- Cognitivism: a claim-evidence-reasoning organizer gives students a framework for arguments, and a short daily retrieval warm-up reviews terms such as claim, counterclaim, and rebuttal.
- Social learning: the teacher writes an argument paragraph live while thinking aloud, and a student volunteer later explains how she revised a weak rebuttal, giving classmates a peer model close to their own level.
- Behaviorism: peer-review procedures are practiced step by step, and students receive immediate, specific feedback on whether their citations follow the required format.
By the final draft, the organizer and sentence stems are optional, so the scaffolding has faded and students write independently.
Common Exam Traps
- Mislabeling the theory. Concept maps and advance organizers are cognitivist; modeling and vicarious learning are social learning; ZPD and discovery are constructivist; reinforcement is behaviorist.
- Negative reinforcement versus punishment. Negative reinforcement increases a behavior by removing something unpleasant.
- Unguided discovery. Constructivist planning includes guidance; pure discovery overloads novices.
- Rewarding intrinsic interest. Tangible rewards for work students already enjoy can backfire.
A student's belief that she is not a science person leads her to avoid hands-on lab roles. Her avoidance produces weak lab results, and her group begins giving her only note-taking jobs, which strengthens her belief. Which concept best describes this cycle?
Reciprocal determinism
Classical conditioning
Assimilation
Negative reinforcement
Before a lecture on the causes of World War I, a history teacher gives students a partially completed concept map linking militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism. Which theory most directly guides this planning decision?
Behaviorism, because the map reinforces correct answers
Social learning theory, because students observe a model
Cognitivism, because the map activates and organizes a schema and reduces working-memory load
Unguided discovery learning, because students induce the causes without teacher support
Which planning decision best applies behaviorist principles to teaching a new lab-safety routine?
Let students discover the safety steps by experimenting with the equipment
Ask students to write a reflective journal about why lab safety matters
Show a concept map of laboratory hazards
Break the routine into specific steps, have students practice them, and give immediate, specific praise or correction as each step is performed
Sections you finish are checked off in the contents.