Learning 115being a concrete input-output relation. Learning aims at the reproduction
of responses (output), which were previously conditioned; the brain (as an
organismic container) is viewed as a container that accumulates and
retrieves fixed knowledge; the teacher is the authority who controls the
situation and the learner and is responsible for setting up the input-output
relation; finally, the learner is a passive receiver whose brain is subjected
to the input-output mechanisms and produces the responses expected from
the teacher (not any other). Clearly, the type of learning exclusively
focused on is formal learning (see sect. 1).
3.2. Cognitivism
With the cognitive turn in psychology in the late 1950’s, the core
notion of “information” superseding “meaning” made its appearance,
strongly supported by growing information technologies. The shift from
taking into account the observable outside exclusively (behaviorism) to
address inside processes exclusively (cognitivism) was achieved through
the key terms of information processing and problem-solving – both
explaining basically all psychological processes. Learning is thus problem-
solving, for instance in Bandura’s (1973) social cognitive learning theory
as well as in Bruner’s (1961) discovery learning; the brain is considered a
computer or information processing device; the teacher has a supportive
and observational function, giving feedback to facilitate learning; the
learner is still an isolated subject, though much more active than in
behaviorism. With this theory, the type of learning mentioned as informal
learning (sect. 1) begins to come into view.
3.3. Constructivism
At the end of the twentieth century, a third approach developed where
learning is seen as auto-regulated process of constructing knowledge. The
acquisition of knowledge is a deeply constructive process, so the idea of