Philosophical Perspectives

Philosophical perspectives are worldviews that define the nature of the world, the individual’s place in it, and the possible relationships to that world and its parts. Learning and instructional theories are developed with respect to a particular set of assumptions regarding what it means to know and learn. It is our contention that when situational variables require some decision on the part of the educator (and we believe this is always the case), an underlying set of assumptions (whether they be tacit or explicit) will, and should, drive the decision. In this chapter we provide overview descriptions of five psychological perspectives, contrasted in terms of epistemology, ontology, unit of analysis, and whether they suggest dualist relationships. These theories (behaviorism, cognitivism, cognitive constructivism, sociocultural/historicism, and situativity theory) provide frameworks for describing learning and designing instruction. It is the goal of this chapter to clarify these distinctions and the underlying assumptions so instructional designers, teachers, and researchers may make pedagogical decisions more explicitly.