The paradigma (from the Greek paradeigma – example, sample) is a number of beliefs, values and techniques accepted and used by the members of a scientific community. The paradigms of learning refer to the theories which have successively dominated the educational world and which determined the organization of the learning process in different periods.

The learning theories represent the conceptual models, which join the level of hypotheses with those of principles in systematic knowledge of the activity of learning through a number of scientific affirmations with informative, explanatory, predictive and normative value. These scientific affirmations define the essence, content, conditions, and the basis of learning.

In other words, learning theories explain:

• What is learning?
• How does learning occur?
• What does learning depend on?
• After which process does learning appear?

The behaviouristic theories of learning can be characterized by the fact that in the learning process one takes into consideration only the influences over the learner and the returned reactions to these influences.  The psychic process, which determines the reaction, is declared ‘the black box’, inaccessible to an objective scientific analysis. The field of study is the behaviour of the learner. The founder of behaviourism, John Watson considers that the term ‘behaviour’ is the equivalent of ‘reply’ or ‘reaction’.    Behaviour takes place in the presence of an event determined by the environment, which is called stimulus.

The behaviouristic model of learning is scientifically proved by the empiric philosophy, developed by R. Descartes and J. Locke. According to the empiric philosophy, human thinking is exclusively the fruit of experience. A human being is considered from birth to be void of any knowledge, i.e. ‘tabula rasa’. In this meaning the life lasting acquiring of knowledge depends only on the human being’s own experience in the environment.

The Russian psycho-physiologist I. P. Pavlov, the American psychologists Watson, E. L. Torndike, B. F. Skinner contributed to the creation of the theory of behaviourism.