Behaviorist and Constructivist Lesson Plan Differences

The difference between a behaviorist lesson plan and a constructivist lesson plan format is that one is delivered and received in a structured process of thinking and the other is taught and learned by providing the students wider latitude to process the given information and freedom to come up with their own conclusion. The behaviorist lesson plan was designed by Madeline Cheeks Hunter who took it upon herself to come up with a plan in order to raise American education after seeing how public education was being criticized for dropout rates, falling test scores and discipline problems. Madeline Hunter required for teachers to be educated and to fully understand the three realms that she defines as teaching before implementing Hunter’s eight steps design lesson plant. These three realms include: content, learning behaviors of students, and teacher’s behaviors. Hunter’s behaviorist lesson plan consists of students understanding the purpose of the lesson; build a bridge to the activity by either providing a handout or asking a question for the student to begin to see the link between the purpose and what is he/she is to figure out; the teacher exposes the material to be used in order to achieve purpose; then the teacher shows them what is there to be done and how to; checks their understanding and gives a summary of what the intention is and what will be the outcome.

A constructivist lesson plan format will include and not limited to by the teacher’s guidance. The student is presented with a situation then follows with the teacher designing how are the students going to learn the objective, e.g. grouping. In the constructivist format, the students will build a bridge but instead of being the teacher directing the way, the students are given the chance to attempt to explain what the situation is and how are they going to resolve it. The teacher measures the student’s knowledge by their explanations, and he/she states the new guided questions in order to spark the student’s awareness, leading them to a better understanding of the process and how to solve the problem. After, the students exhibit their findings to their classmates and they reflect upon the overall classroom responses.