There are four dominant pedagogical stances — ways of understanding how people learn. Each of these is a full theory of learning, built on distinct and interconnected assumptions about knowledge, learners, learning, teaching, and the purpose of education. The four theories are:
- Traditional (a mix of behaviourism and cognitive theories)
- Individual constructivist (think Piaget)
- Social constructivist (think Vygotsky)
- Sociocultural (think Lave and Wenger)
The table below, adapted from Aubrey-Smith & Twining (2024, pp. 131–132), outlines the key assumptions made by each theory.
It’s important to understand that a theory is more than a collection of ideas. It’s a coherent explanation. The assumptions within each theory are tightly interwoven: what the theory claims about the nature of knowledge is bound up with its claims about how learning happens, what learners do, and the role of the teacher. Each column in the table represents a complete, internally consistent worldview about learning.
The four theories are not compatible with one another. You cannot, for instance, adopt a view of knowledge from one theory while holding a view of teaching from another — the underlying assumptions clash. To mix them is to create a contradiction, not a synthesis.
In practice, this means you can’t simply switch between theories depending on the context. Each provides a complete and self-contained way of explaining learning. You can't pick and mix between the columns in the table below.
As with most competing explanations, the challenge is not to blend aspects from competing explanations, but to decide which theory (explanation) offers the most convincing and useful account in the light of your educational beliefs and values.
If you want to do an activity to help you see how your beliefs align with these four theories go to https://belief2practice.com/pedagogical-stance.html.