The holistic model represents the world in the form of a single organism, interactive and developing. From this perspective, all the organism elements are not similar, and therefore they are united in their diversity. In this model, it is crucial to study the relationships between different processes. The elemental model, in turn, sees the world as a machine composed of discrete parts. These elementary particles constitute a fundamental reality to which increasingly complex processes are reduced. In this case, prediction through causal relationships and quantitative calculus is possible.
These models can be correlated with artistic and scientific streams of inquiry. The artistic stream is focused on intuition and analysis in studying specific processes, which relates to the holistic model. The scientific stream prefers accurate research, and experiments, which corresponds to the elemental model. Thus, scientists who make up the literature about learning theory – proposers and interpreters – can also be inclined to a particular stream and model. Proposers, also called propounders, offer theories and prefer what can be measured, more likely to use a scientific approach and an elemental model. However, this division does not have to be strict, and scientists can use different methods.