There are six major paradigms of education relevant to health professions education: behavourism, cognitivism, cognitive constructivism, social constructivism (or socio-culturalism), humanism, and, transformative.

We will provide an overview for each, including a brief history, key principles and prominent theorists. We will highlight common concepts and practices from each paradigm that are commonly used in health professions education. Although presented separately in this OS, in typical practice, there is overlap across paradigms.