3D Visualization of Learning Theory Space

As part of a discussion on learning theories at the University of Waterloo, I prepared an analysis of all of the learning theories from the venerable Theory Into Practice (TIP) Database of learning theories online.  I defined a three dimensional space, and situated various learning  theories in that space.  The dimensions of the space are contextual distance, conceptual distance and transactional distance (Moore).

Contextual distance refers to how remote the learning is from the lived experience of students.  Action learning would have low contextual distance, pure math would have high contextual distance.

Conceptual distance refers to how new or how remote the learning point is from what the learners already know.  The concept of scaffolding involves the provision of intermediary structures of learning in order to close conceptual distance between the learner's knowledge base and the target knowledge.

Transactional distance is a distance learning concept devised by Michael G. Moore. I drew three axes from low to high distance for each of these kinds of distance, and plotted where different learning theories fall within that cubic space. It's a good piece of work without a current home, so I am uploading it here for anyone who is interested in it.