Compare and contrast any two Main Perspectives of adolescent learning
(behaviourism, constructive/socio-cultural, cognitive and psychosocial/humanism).
Discuss the implications of the two perspectives for productive adolescent learning in
secondary school classrooms.
Productive adolescent learning is possible through integrating multiple teaching
perspectives in secondary school classrooms. Illustrating comparisons and unearthing
contrasts of the cognitive based teaching approach against the psychosocial and humanistic
viewpoint, one may discover an effective teaching method. Deconstructing various social
factors such as; gender and culture, motivation, intelligence, ability and challenging
behaviours, in relation with Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological systems theory, each
perspective’s effectiveness in the classroom may be determined. By integrating these
concepts into the classroom and analysing their implications, it can be seen how educators
have the opportunity to provide productive adolescent learning.
Productive learning demands outcomes in and out of the classroom. Clark (1999)
presents Bloom’s Taxonomy which divides educational objectives into three ‘domains’:
Cognitive (knowing/head), Affective (feeling/heart) and Psychomotor (doing/hands). A goal
of Bloom’s Taxonomy is to encourage teachers to create a holistic approach to learning,
encompassing the three domains. Utilising a combination of the cognitive, psychosocial and
humanism learning theories, it may become possible to harness all three domains of
students and thus yield productive learning.
“I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can
learn” (Albert Einstein). Individuals experience a diverse array of knowledge which entails
the way in which they construe their environment. A cognitive approach to learning
examines how these differences in experiences will consequently affect what is learnt by
these interactions. Einstein depicts how adjusting a learner’s surroundings ensures
successful teaching. Knowledge is generated through the progressive development of a
learner’s abilities, such as, perception, attention, recognition, application, creativity,
synthesis and evaluation (Bloom’s Taxonomy). Cognitive theory is largely learner centred,
where teachers merely manipulate the instructional material. Instructional manipulation
involves the organisation of content, the pedagogy undertaken by the teacher and the
curriculum. Educators need to have an understanding of their students’ level of prior
knowledge, which will determine how they introduce new information. Shalala (2013) states
that various learner characteristics a pupil may possess (including; facts, procedures,
strategies and the nature of the learner’s memory system) must be recognised in correlation
with instructional manipulation. “There are three forms of memory systems that create our
human cognitive architecture; these include the sensory, working and long-term memories”
(Shalala, 2013). By aligning the learner’s characteristics with specific instructional
manipulation, the cognitive approach attempts to create a deeper understanding of how
instructional information may affect the internal information processing. This can be seen in
secondary schools through Mathematics classrooms. The teacher will attempt to align
students’ previous knowledge with new material in a way that productive learning may take
place, not placing a heavy extraneous cognitive load on the learners. For example, when
learning algebra for the first time in year 7, students have prior experience in problem
solving questions and the basic fundamentals of Mathematics (addition, subtraction,
multiplication), thus if presented in the correct manner, students may be able to take on
board algebraic concepts with greater ease.
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Modal Model (1968) (Image 1.) illustrates the relationships
within the human cognitive architecture. Professor John Sweller (2004) formulated a theory
known as, Cognitive Load, which analyses the capabilities of an individual’s working memory
during complex learning activities.
Image 1. Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Modal Model
“Perceptual and attentional processes limit the amount of information that is available to
the sensory memory” (Shalala, 2013). Not all the available information can be processed
because of the limited capacity of various components of the memory system. Stimulus
entering the sensory memory (see, hear, touch), is then transferred to the working (shortterm) memory which has limited capacity of 7+ or -2 ‘chunks’ of information. An individual’s
long-term memory capacity is infinite. Information is encoded into the long-term memory
through relating information to meaning, procedural skills (e.g. driving) and imagery
(Shalala, 2013).
In stark contrast to the cognitive theory, psychosocial and humanistic approaches to
learning involves responding to student’s wider social needs for personal and community
fulfilment, as a result, developing productive learning. “The principle of psychosocial
development is the individual’s progression toward psychological growth, emotional
maturity, personal adjustment and a capacity for autonomous and competent functioning”
(Loevinger, 1976). Erik Erikson (1959) constructed the psychosocial developmental
framework which illustrates eight ‘turning points’ of an individual’s lifespan. These ‘turning
points’ depict situations that emerge at approximate ages and the relationships that
influence the outcome of each crises. Adolescents in secondary school experience the
‘turning point’, described by Erikson, of identity versus role confusion. The most important
social agents during this developmental stage are peers and role models as they exist in an
individual’s microsystem and/or mesosystem (defined by Bronfenbrenner (1974) as the
systems in closest proximity to an individual which will have major influences on their lives).
This stage of psychological growth emerges at a difficult age for many as adolescence is a
time of rapid change, both physically and psychologically. The ability to provide productive
learning to students is bound by a teacher’s ability to recognise their student’s individual
societal and cultural needs, in order to assist adolescents in unearthing their own identities
in society. Racism in secondary school classrooms raise alarming concerns for teachers and
students as productive learning becomes a difficult goal to achieve. A survey conducted in
secondary schools across England showed 83 per cent of teachers witnessed jokes, namecalling and stereotyping and “a tendency to use asylum seekers as scapegoats for a wide
range of problems in society” (Maddern, 2011). Racism effects an individual’s motivation to
learn as school is seen as a hardship, beyond academics. This is an ongoing problem
throughout the world and needs to be addressed as a top priority especially in schools as
racism can effect one’s life aspirations beyond school.
A humanistic approach is similar to the psychological approach; in that a student’s
diverse range of experiences is perceived as the basis for learning. Humanism rose to
prominence during the mid-20th century in response to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic
theory and B.F. Skinner’s Behaviourist theory. Carl Rogers describes humanism as a learnercentred educating process, “Learning focuses on what students identify as their needs and
the teacher’s role is to facilitate a process to assist students in seeking the information they
need to succeed”. Learners identify, whether the knowledge taught is addressing their
individual needs or discovering meaning, which will ultimately produce noticeable
differences in behaviour and attitude in the classroom.
Comparing the cognitive learning theory to the psychosocial and humanism
approaches, it is apparent that there is a similarity in that learner-centred education is the
cornerstone of each theory. However, in contrast, the teacher’s methodology for providing
productive learning varies within secondary school classrooms. There are many positives to
both theories in terms of producing productive learning, as well as some criticisms, yet it is a
combination of the two which may ultimately provide optimal results.
Learner-centred education is an approach to education where the needs of the
student are the focus. The learner’s abilities, interests and learning styles are central to this
notion of education, engaging the teacher in a facilitator role. This methodology differs
greatly from traditional learning theories such as Behaviourism, where the teacher is at the
centre of the learning process and students take a more passive, receptive role. A teachercentred education entails the teacher making decisions on learning and curriculum. This
traditional approach to learning has led to some criticism, Armstrong (2012) claimed that
“traditional education ignores or suppresses learner responsibility”. Encouraging active
learning in student-centred classrooms appears to be the norm as schools move away from
traditional approaches in an attempt to provide productive learning environments. In this
way, the cognitive, psychosocial and humanism perspectives display student-centred
educational ideals; however, contrasts arise in the pedagogies of the educator.
The cognitive learning theory approach emphasises the need to develop learner
outcomes such as conceptualising, applying, synthesising and evaluating knowledge. These
outcomes represent the Cognitive (knowing/head) domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy. A
student’s ability to develop their understanding in a subject area is determined by their level
of prior knowledge and schema: the mental framework that helps organise knowledge,
direct perception and attention, and guides recall. By stimulating the sensory memory and
illuminating the working memory, students are able to develop further understanding of
content and encode knowledge into the long-term memory system. Adolescence is a time of
physical, emotional and neurological change. “The physical, psychological and social
changes experienced by adolescents are such that psychologists generally regard
adolescence as a critical period for self and identity development” (Erikson, 1968; Marcia,
1987). The human brain is not completely developed until the age of 30, described as the
age of ‘full maturity’ (Sowell et al., 2003), and adolescence appears to be the period of
greatest diversity in brain development (Sowell et al., 2003). Cognitive control, the ability to
guide one’s behaviour and attention, continues to improve throughout adolescence. Using
Luna’s (2009) findings from studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), it is
apparent that adolescents possess “…processing errors, difficulties sustaining a cognitive
control state, and reaching adult levels of precision…”. A cognitive approach to learning is
important in achieving Bloom’s outcomes; however, obstacles arise due to the underdevelopment of the adolescent brain. Criticism of the cognitive theory arises as these
obstacles may in due course adversely affect productive learning.
Similarly, psychosocial and humanism pedagogies are learner-centred; however,
retain different outcomes to that of the cognitive learning approach. In terms of Bloom’s
taxonomy, psychosocial/humanism theories are more focused on the Affective domain
(feeling/heart) and the emotional consequences learning may have on students. There are
five levels in the affective domain, including: receiving, responding, valuing, organising and
characterising (Clark, 1999). Learning is a part of natural human growth, whether it is in the
classroom or not, students will be most affected by their peers. It is important to note that
at the turning point of identity versus role confusion, adolescents are most vulnerable to
change - during their most dynamic years of education. Thus it is imperative, from a
psychosocial/humanistic perspective, for teachers to become active role models to students
whether that is expressed through their pedagogy (indirectly) or directly challenging
student’s social decisions. Humanism involves a sense of discovery for learners, where
learning makes a profound difference to learner’s behaviour, attitude and personality.
Within a secondary school English class, students begin to compose essays on a wide variety
of contexts (namely belonging). Through the essays, students undertake creative
expression, allowing for freedom in their writings, creating a voice they may not express
publicly. This becomes an integral role in productive learning as students create
personalities and attitudes through their essays which convey on through their behaviour to
learning.
A teacher’s role in the cognitive approach is to facilitate the learner and manipulate
instructional material so it may be readily grasped by students. Kirshner (2002) describes
cognitive load theory (CLT) as a tool which may be utilised by educators to assist in the
“…presentation of information that encourages learner activities that optimise intellectual
performance”. CLT promotes a specific learning design and embraces that information
should be presented in a way that enables schema building, prompting germane cognitive
load. The two other types of cognitive load include intrinsic CL (inherent level of difficulty of
a subject – curriculum content) and extraneous CL (the manner in which information is
presented to learners – pedagogy). Germane cognitive load is considered the most
important aspect of CLT as it is directly concerned with the learner’s schema development.
“Focusing on more effective learning may be achieved by using different learning design,
effectively decreasing extraneous cognitive load to increase students’ problem-solving
ability through differentiated scaffolding” (Sweller, 2006). A possible example of the
decreasing of extraneous load in order to encourage further germane application may be
seen in a Science classroom. A secondary school Science teacher attempts to decrease the
amount of content and information he/she presents to the class, instead, allowing students
to form groups where they must perform experiments. Students must gather results from
the tests they have undertaken and attempt to prove their hypothesis, making concluding
statements regarding their findings. This hands-on (Psychomotor Domain) approach to
learning in the classroom will enhance students’ ability to conceptualise, apply and further
synthesise scientific information and thus allow productive learning to take place.
In comparison to the cognitive learning theory, the humanism approach also
provides changes to the Cognitive Domain, as well as the Affective Domain. The role of the
teacher is less domineering and controlling, instead, it involves a motivational approach to
learners so they may experience fulfilment through learning. This contrasts greatly to the
cognitive approach, where, teachers take passive roles enabling students to flourish on their
own accord, utilising as much germane cognitive load as possible by decreasing extraneous
load in the classroom. In terms of educational implications and productive learning,
psychosocial and humanism approaches may best be likened to the Arts (music, visual art,
design and drama). These subjects enable students to use subjective approaches to
material, and in the process, create songs, paintings, inventions and scenes where they are
fully immersed in the subject matter. Motivating students to use their creativity is
empowering and creates self-fulfilment, holistically allowing students to realise the Affective
and Psychomotor outcomes of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Regardless of the pedagogy administered by teachers, an individual’s intelligence
must be considered when considering productive learning. Howard Gardner’s Multiple
Intelligence theory illustrates that individuals possess multiple intelligences, that is,
individuals have a natural predisposition to certain abilities. Gardner (1993) outlines eight
different intelligences, ranging from logical-mathematical learners to bodily-kinaesthetic
learners; he describes all humans to pertain some level of intelligence in all eight areas. In
terms of productive learning it is important as a teacher to take note of a student’s
individual intellects and attempt to differentiate learning to accommodate all of the
students’ needs in the classroom.
Presenting similarities and difference between the cognitive learning theory and the
psychosocial/humanism approach, one may discover an integrated process in providing
productive learning for adolescence. In correlation with the educational implications of
these learning theories in the classroom, teachers and students may further identify the
need for a learner-centred environment, with teachers accepting facilitator roles. This
represents the necessary move away from traditional education systems - created in the
19th century during the Industrial Revolution. Students now have a greater variety of social
needs and aspire to assume roles in society whereby they feel the greatest calling from
within.
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