The field of adult education is full of many learning theories, with some dating back over 60 years. But most of them are based upon research that has been conducted in the past 20 years.  Primarily, all of these theories can be categorized into five main categories or orientations. Each orientation has strengths and weaknesses.  Likewise, none are particularly "good" or "bad," but there are times and situations when one may be more appropriate than another, depending upon the targeted clientele and topic being covered. Click on each of the links below to see an overview, the "guiding assumptions," and the role of the instructor, for each learning orientation.

Humanist
Behaviorist
Social Learning
Cognitive
Critical Reflection

The following adult learning orientation material was adapated from: Deshler, J. David and E. Kiely. (1995).  Facilitating Adult Learning Sourcebook.  Department of Education, Cornell University. Cornell Instructional Media Service, pub. 420 Kennedy Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

Orientation	Overview and Guiding Assumptions	Instructor's Role
Humanist	Humanists believe that people are inherently good and possess unlimited potential for growth and development.	Facilitator of learning.
	Learners will naturally progress towards increased competence, autonomy, freedom, and fulfillment.	Helping adults learn how to learn.
	Behavior is a matter of human choice.  People have the freedom and responsibility to become what he/she is capable of becoming.	Helping a person to self-discover learning.
	The purpose of learning is to fulfill one’s potential; a holistic process of personal growth and an active search for meaning; directed by the learner who alone knows his/her needs and goals.	Facilitator must develop trust, warmth, non-judgmental acceptance, genuineness, empathic understanding and caring.
	Involves the whole person, not just behavior and intellect; great emphasis on feelings and affective goals.
	Experience is the primary phenomenon for learning.
	Examples of educational methods: Self-directed learning, experiential learning
	Read more about experiential learning at http://www.reviewing.co.uk/research/experiential.learning.htm

Orientation	Overview and Guiding Assumptions	Instructor's Role
Behaviorist	Learning is a change in overt, observable behavior (not concerned with internal processes).	Instructor focused on specific goals and objectives,
	The course and content of learning are controlled by stimuli in the external environment, not by the individual learner.  Through Behaviorist Learning, a person can construct the appropriate habitat and thereby create any individual he/she wishes.	Instructor is to manage, control and direct learning by arranging the environment, selecting stimuli, reinforcing desired responses, and discouraging undesirable responses.
	Learning results from stimulus and response in a person’s environment.
	Behaviorism is referred to as “Stimulus-Response” learning which is derived from the work of B.F. Skinner’s “Reinforcement Theory.”
	Examples of educational methods: Reinforcement & incentives, instructional feedback, games, simulations

Orientation	Overview and Guiding Assumptions	Instructor's Role
Social Learning	Encompasses large number of theories, models and approaches, including: Behaviorists' concepts of reinforcement and environmental influence. Cognitive notions of internal structures and processes mediating learning. (See Cognitve below.) Belief that learning is a social process.	Instructor is a model (demonstrator) or identifies and provides effective models.
	Most of what people learn is through observations and interactions with other people in a social context.	Social analyst and facilitator of social interactions.
	Observation, reflection, then imitation/modification.
	Focus is on the impact of people on people.
	Examples of educational methods: Demonstrations and trials, apprenticeships, mentoring, tutorials, peer partnerships, on-the-job training

Orientation	Overview and Guiding Assumptions	Instructor's Role
Cognitive	Learning is a process occurring inside the learner in an attempt to make sense out of the world and give meaning to experiences.  Learning is not seen as change in behavior, but as “changes in the way in which the learner understands or organizes the elements of the environment.”	Instructor creates proper conditions for learning.
	Focus is on the thinking process and unobservable constructs such as: meaning, knowledge, intention, concepts, beliefs, expectations, and creativity. Cognitive and cognition relate to knowledge and the process of knowing.  It is internal change that cannot be directly observed.	Provides the environment, materials and feedback so that learners can organize and structure their own knowledge (discovery learning).
	The learner acts on the environment, not the other way around. In other words, the learner takes control of the learning situation.	Structures and organizes information and materials so that learners can assimilate them meaningfully into their knowledge structure.
	The purpose of learning/education is the acquisition of knowledge.	Stimulator of knowledge acquisition.
	Learning results from individual mental functions and processes.
	Examples of educational methods: Metaphors, analogies & simile, chunking (presenting information in "chunks"), concept mapping
	Read more about chunking at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/%7Ebest/html/learning/chunking.htm
	Read more about concept mapping at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/%7Ebest/html/learning/concept.htm

Orientation	Overview and Guiding Assumptions	Instructor's Role
Critical Reflection	Incorporates other four areas, but the distinct difference is critical reflection and capitalizing on learners’ experience.	Instructor's role is that of critical analyst, stimulator of critical reflection, and challenger of assumptions.
	Learner involvement. In general, critical reflection involves the learner in identifying and evaluating the assumptions, beliefs and values that underlie his or her thoughts, feelings or actions. This leads to a transformation in how one looks at the world.	Responds to more than expressed needs.
	Learning goes beyond cognition.  This refers to learning that is deeper, more fundamental, relating to values, philosophy, and worldview and the nature of knowledge itself.	Emphasis is on learner and instructor equality. The educator is simultaneously teacher and learner.
	Learning is transforming basic underlying assumptions, transformative learning. These can become distorted through socialization experiences in schools, families and communities.  Critical reflection learning helps to overcome these. Learning involves transforming basic underlying assumptions of how the world works.	The learner’s role is active participation in utilizing knowledge.
	Examples of educational methods: Focus group inquiry, critical debate, imaging the future, reflective judgment, scenario building

As you are involved in developing distance education programs, you will find that there are many differences in how people want to design educational programs. In the next video, a group of planners, representing the various learning orientations, decide how to construct educational programs.

Learning orientations (4:40)

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Although people behave and act differently, we have some common characteristics that indicate how we will pursue our goals. We'll focus on Maslow's Hierarchy and find out its implications for educational development. 

Destination 2: 4 of 11