The Psychology of Learning and Assessment: A Reviewof the Three Major TheoreticalPerspectives

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