The social-cognitive, behavioral, and constructivist learning theories present different approaches to the concept of education. The last one proposes that people can mediate their learning by constructing schema and expanding them with new information. The behavioral theory concerns itself with the learning and unlearning, which may not be intentional, of particular responses as a result of encountering various situations. The social-cognitive approach can be considered to be between these two extremes, observing the actions of others, analyzing and adapting them, and then incorporating the results into their knowledge base. None of the three theories can fully explain human behavior, and so they all should be considered.
Examples of the application of each theory can be seen within the context of a classroom. Duchesne and McMaugh note that a child’s development of the ability to solve increasingly complex problems of the same nature displays the trends proposed in the constructivist theory. The behavioral theory can be used to motivate the children to participate in logical debates through various reinforcements. The social cognitive theory becomes relevant when children become able to apply what they learned to real-world examples they know. Each of the three theories has areas where it explains the process best, and a teacher should be aware of their uses.