The Three Learning Perspectives

The three types of perspectives on learning are the behaviorist, cognitivist, and constructivist perspective. The behaviorist perspective says that all behavior is because of some sort of external stimuli. Behaviorists believe that the way we learn and how we act go hand in hand with how we handle rewards and punishments. The Cognitivist perspective focuses on mental activity. Cognitivists believe that learning is a mental function that occurs when information goes to the brain through our senses. The Constructivist perspective states that knowledge is an element resulting from the learning process. The constructivist is different from cognitvist because its main focus is not souly on the mental process. It also focuses on how each individual’s experiences occur through the mental process.

One thing that these three perspectives have in common is that they believe that a stimulus needs to be involved in some way. Some differences of these perspectives are that the Behaviorist perspective believes learners need knowledge from rewards or punishment. Cognitivist perspective’s focus is on mental activity. Constructivist perspective has knowledge and experiences at its base.

I believe in the behaviorist perspective I have seen how children in the classroom respond to rewards and punishments and learn from knowing what will happen if they do something. This has also been how I have learned throughout school.