Papert (1993) characterizes behavioral approaches as "clean" teaching whereas constructivist approach are "dirty" teaching.

Papert illustrates the differences between behavioral and constructivist teaching by contrasting the way Baby learned to dance in the movie Dirty Dancing with the traditional method:

Clean learning reduces dance to formulas describing steps, and clean learning reduces math to formulates describing procedures to manipulate symbols. the formula for the fox-trot box step is strictly analogous to the formula for adding factions or solving equations. (Papert, 1993, p. 135).

Dirty learning, by contrast, is emotional, complex, and intertwined with the learner's social, cultural, and cognitive context.