Shifting the balance between teaching and learning: integrating assessment into the dynamic classroom

Developments in learning theory

Behaviourism
Cognitive/ constructivist
Social constructivist
Constructivism focuses on student activity rather than teacher activity
It emphasizes how students learn by constructing meaning and knowledge

• As we learn, our conceptions of phenomena change
• Acquisition of information in itself does not bring about the change
• but the way we structure that information and think with it does

It follows that effective teaching will require students to engage with and process knowledge in order to acquire understanding.

Social-Constructivist views of effective learning