The role of education is to help students learn about the real world. The goal of designers or teachers is to interpret events for them. This objectivist model has resulted in somewhat of a stereotyped portrayal of teaching and learning which is a widely criticized and often evoked as the target of educational reform. There is the idea that there is a fixed world of knowledge that the student must come to know. Information is divided into parts and built into a whole concept.
Teachers serve as pipelines and seek to transfer their thoughts and meanings to the passive student.
There is little room for student-initiated questions, independent thought or interaction between students. Where behaviorism emphasizes observable, external behaviours and, as such, avoids reference to meaning, representation and thought, constructivism takes a more cognitive approach. This subtle difference has profound implications for all aspects of a theory of learning. Within constructivism itself, authors, researchers and theorists articulate differently the constructivist perspective by emphasizing different components. Nonetheless, there is some agreement on a large number of issues, for example, on the role of the teacher and learner.