Evaluate the role of the instructor/facilitator

Review Merriam and Cafarella’s organization of learning theories, located in Appendix D in the course text. Select two of the five theories/orientations to learning: behaviorism, cognitivism, humanism, social learning, or constructivism. In a three- to four-page essay (double-spaced, not including title and reference pages), compare the two selected theories or orientations to learning. In your comparison:

• Evaluate the role of the instructor/facilitator.
• Analyze the process by which students learn and create meaning.
• Critique the benefits and challenges of each as they relate to adult development.

Utilize a minimum of two scholarly sources, in addition to the course text, to support your points

Here is the course text below for Appendix D if that will help with this assignment to answer the above three questions:Clearly, not all approaches to teaching and learning lead to change and the potential for personal development. Rote learning, for example, offers little toward challenging adult learners’ values, beliefs, and assumptions (Ausubel, 1968). Merriam and Cafferella’s (1999) organization of a wide array of learning theories into five orientations to learning—behaviorist, cognitivist, humanist, social learning, and constructivist—also vary in their support of developmental outcomes. Merriam and Caffarella’s exploration of these approaches (1999, pp. 248-266) underscores the complexity of the teaching and learning enterprise, which is not easily captured by any one perspective. They also note that these orientations to learning are primarily concerned with change in the individual, which may or may not be directed toward social change. Thus, they do not explicitly capture other perspectives that also may inform adult learning, including Marxism, critical theory, critical pedagogy, multiculturalism, postmodernism, and feminist pedagogy. These perspectives are seen in a “power relations” framework (Merriam and Caffarella, p. 340), focusing on sociocultural contexts where learning takes place. Issues such as power, oppression, interactions of gender, race and class, access to knowledge, and privileged knowledge occupy center stage for teachers and students to critique and challenge contextual influences on learning (Foley, 1995).

As adult educators, when we see a list of named orientations, we tend to start by identifying with one or the other, based on what we know of our own philosophical and attitudinal bent. Although it is valuable to have such a “home base” for thinking about one’s practice, we find that this can lead to an unnecessarily narrowed focus. We have therefore restructured Merriam and Caffarella’s chart to show how one’s existing beliefs and practices may actually fit several theoretical stances (Exhibit D.1).

Exhibit D.1. Relationships of Dimensions of Teaching and Orientation to Learning.

Source: Adapted fromMerriam and Caffarella (1999). Used by permission.

For example, when we see our role as facilitating development of the whole person, we are leaning toward a humanist perspective. If the view of the learning process focuses specifically on changes in learners’ behaviors, we are emphasizing behaviorist intentions. When teaching adults centers on learning how to learn, the orientation is predominantly cognitivist. When the emphasis is on mentoring and modeling, social learning is the core approach. If the overriding concern is making meaning to encourage perspective transformation, we are taking a constructivist stance. With this overview in mind, we will reexamine these orientations toward learning, paying particular attention to their potential to support adult development.