The Eight Theories: Perennialism, Essentialism, Behaviorism, Positivism, Progressivism, Reconstructionism, Humanism and Constructivism

Perennialists believe that one should teach the things that one deems to be of everlasting importance to all people everywhere. They believe that the most important topics develop a person. Since details of fact change constantly, these cannot be the most important. Therefore, one should teach principles, not facts. Since people are human, one should teach first about humans, not machines or techniques. Since people are people first, and workers second if at all, one should teach liberal topics first, not vocational topics. Reconstructionists believe that education has two roles. The first is to transmit culture. The second is to modify culture. Essentialists believe that an educated person in a given culture must have a common core of information and skills. It is the job of the schools to transmit the core of essential material as effectively as possible. Behaviorists believe that by carefully controlling the stimuli in the classroom, the teacher can control student behavior. They believe that the environment should be highly organized and the curriculum based on developed behaviorial objectives. Positivists believe that truth and knowledge is observable and measurable. All knowledge is clear and precise and all students are required to learn the same knowledge. Progressivists believe that ideas should be tested by experimentation and that learning is rooted in questions developed by the learner. It emphasizes the the process of education in the classroom. Humanists believe that humans are innately good. Humans are born free but become enslaved by institutions. Humanists believe in the students as a completely autonomous person and therefore education should be without coercion or prescription. Constructivists emphasize hands-on, activity-based teaching and learning during which students develop their own frames of thought. The idea is to give students real life, contemporary problems to tackle.

I think that as a teacher I completely don't believe in Perennialism, Essentialism, Behaviorism, Positivism, and Humanism. I fall more in the Constructivist and Progressivist camp. I like the idea of having students asking questions and going to find the answers. It means that they have a hand in deciding what to learn. I also means that students can focus on what is important to them and what interests. I also like the Constructivist theory because it involves real life problems. I think that schools often try to keep the real world on the other side of the entrance way but they forget that learning, culture and student's past experience walk in with students every day. Those things help to shape what it is that students are interested in. And it is hard to teach someone anything they are not at least a little bit curious about. As adults we pick and choose what things to do based on our preferences all the time. Why shouldn't students get to at least part of the time? Progessivism and Constructivism focus the most on free choice and student value. Both things I think are important to learning.