Learning Paradigms as Philosophies of Practice

In the online class I am teaching, Principles and Practices of Online Course Creation and Instructional Design, I introduced the class to various learning paradigms, which we (and our text) referred to as Philosophies of Practice. These include progressive, behaviorist, radical (critical theorist), constructivist, connectivist, and such. While Creswell speaks about four different “worldviews”–postpositivism, constructivism, advocacy / participatory, and pragmatism–and Guba speaks about–positivism, postpositisism, critical theory, and constructivism–I thought it would be helpful for my students, all of whom are involved in adult learning, to be introduced to this concept and then to wrestle with it.

I asked my students, within our course system, to comment on which one they embrace. I thought it may be too personal to do out here on the public Web, and am acutely concerned with privacy and the safety of a learning environment.

I wonder if they can determine my own preferred paradigm?