Abstract:
The theoretical perspectives to learning and assessment influence the activities of
practitioners in education. This review article discusses three theoretical perspectives
which informabout human learning and assessment. The theories discussed are the
behaviorist, the cognitive-constructivist, and the social-constructivist. Each of them
originates either from Aristotle’s Empiricism or from Plato’s Rationalism of knowledge
acquisition and construction. The first assumes the bond between a presented stimulus
and the learner response as an indicator for effective learning. The assessment practice in
this case considers the probability of correct responses. The second assumes the human
mind to be active and powerful in changing the knowledge structure through the process
called assimilation or accommodation. Hence, the assessment focuses on the transfer of
knowledge from the context it was learnt to a new context of knowledge application. In
the third perspective, the acquisition and construction of knowledge include ideas about
culture, social learning, and cooperation. Learning is a collaborative action. That means,
learners participate in establishing goals of learning, peer learning, group learning, peer
assessment, and group assessment. The objective ofthis review is to raise the awareness
of practitioners in the field of education. The review followed the method of content
analysis by identifying key literature in the area of learning theories. Then, comparison
and analysis of the theories were made to see the way each of them positioned learning
and assessing. Therefore, teachers at the different levels will depend on the respective
learning and assessment perspectives to devise learning and assessment environments
which facilitate effective student learning
