Behaviourist theory

• Breaks down content into smaller chunks (called frames)
• Navigation is teacher-directed and linear
• Programs usually "drill-and-practice" or "tutorial type"
• Pedagogies: Behaviourism, Classical Conditioning, Language Acquisition
• Major theorists include: Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner,
• See also "Radical Behaviourism" - Noam Chomsky

Constructivist theory

• Content knowledge is derived from past constructions
• Learning is an organic process of invention, rather than a mechanical process of accumulation of facts, navigation is non-linear
• Programs usually include simulations which allow students the to investigate concepts by changing variables to discover the effects of these changes
• Pedagogies: constructivist epistemology, constructivism, Zone of Proximal Development, Learning Theory, Multiple Intelligences
• Major theorists include: Jean Piaget, Howard Gardner, Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky, Jerome Bruner, Jean Jacques Rousseau, David Ausubel, Bruno Latour, Peter Ludwig Berger

Critical theory

• Critical of content knowledge as re-presented and a representation of political power relationships among a group
• Critical of a learning environment that is rife with gender and equity issues
• Critical of educational processes that are are used to shape identities, dictating what is accepted as true, normal, or acceptable within a culture, offering privilege to some, and marginalizing or denying others
• Programs and content need to be questioned, in terms of "who" is re-presenting knowledge
• Pedagogies: Critical Theory, Structuralism, Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction, and Marxist Theory
• Major theorists include: Karl Marx, Immanuel Kant, Ferdinand de Saussure, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault

Experiential learning theory

• Experiential education (or "learning by doing") is the process of actively engaging students in an authentic experience that will have consequence.
• Processes of action and reflection reinforce knowledge
• Pedagogies: Problem based Learning, Inquiry based learning, constructivism, connectivism, design culture, and Socratic method.
• Major theorist: John Dewey 

Cognitive Psychology

• The brain shapes itself through experience with the world
• Last part of the brain to form is the frontal lobe through a process called myelination
• Use it or lose it storage/retrieval
• Critical thinking and good decision making needs to be developed, it is not inherent within the mind - support it, scaffold it, and check it.
• The importance of process driven formative assessment is huge for education
• Major theorists

The Theory of the Ancients

• Ancient Philosophy both Eastern and Western are important
• See "The Sophists", particularly Plato and Socrates
• The Socratic Method, a form of philosophical enquiry
• Platonic epistemology holds that knowledge is innate
• Confucianism: the ancient "School of Scholars"
• Neo-Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism