Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles

PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING

“The ability to learn is the most significant activity of man.”

Learning is the acquisition of a knowledge-based used with fluency to make

sense of the world, solve problems and make decisions.

By knowing some principles on how learning takes place, we will be guided on

how to teach. Below are some principles of learning from Horne and Pine (1990):

1. Learning is an experience which occurs inside the learner and is

activated by the learner.
 The process of learning is primarily controlled by the learner and not by the
teacher. Learning has to do with something which happens in the unique
world of the learner.
 No one directly teaches anyone anything of significance. People learn what
they want to learn, they see what they want to see, and hear what they
want to hear.
 It must be wise to engage the learners in an activity that is connected to
their life experiences.

2. Learning is the discovery of the personal meaning and relevance of

ideas.
 Students more readily internalize and implement concepts and ideas which
are relevant to their needs and problems.
 What is relevant and meaningful is decided by the learner, and must be
discovered by the learner.
 It is necessary that teacher relates lessons to the needs, interests and
problems of the learners.

3. Learning (behavioral change) is a consequence of experience.

 If experience is the best teacher, then teacher should make use of
experiential learning. Experiential learning makes use of direct as well as
vicarious experiences. We learn from other people’s experiences too, good
as well as not so good experiences.

4. Learning is a cooperative and collaborative process. Cooperation fosters

learning.
 “Two heads are better than one.” People enjoy functioning independently
but they also enjoy functioning interdependently.
 Cooperative approaches are enabling. Through such approaches people
learn to define goals, to plan to interact and to try group arrangements in
problem solving.
 Teachers should make use of more cooperative and collaborative
approaches. This way, students are taught to live together and learn
interdependently.

5. Learning is an evolutionary process.

 Behavioral change requires time and patience.
  Change takes time. Let us not expect results overnight. As teachers and
learners, let us learn to be patient. Things that are worthwhile in life take
time.

6. Learning is sometimes a painful process.

 Behavioral change often calls for giving up the old and comfortable ways of
believing, thinking, and valuing. It is not easy to discard familiar ways of
doing things and incorporate new behavior.
 It may be good to make students realize that learning is a difficult task. It is
accompanied by sacrifice, inconvenience and discomfort. But it leads to
inner joy.

7. One of the richest resources for learning is the learner himself.

 Each individual has an accumulation of experiences, ideas, feelings and
attitudes which comprise a rich vein of material for problem solving and
learning.
 As a teacher, you must draw the learner’s ideas, feelings and experiences.
You midwife the birth of ideas.

8. The process of learning is emotional as well as intellectual.

 Learning is affected by the total state of the individual. People are feeling
beings as well as thinking beings and when their feelings and thoughts are
in harmony, learning is maximized.
 As teachers, let us appeal to our students’ intellect as well as to their
emotions.

9. The process of problem solving and learning is highly unique and

individual.
 Each person has his own unique styles of learning and solving problems.
 It pays to allow students to learn in accordance with their unique learning
styles and multiple intelligences.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EACH STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT

1. Early Childhood

Childhood as a developmental stage of a person can be divided into early

childhood and late childhood. Early childhood refers to that stage between 2 years
to 6 years. This is a critical period wherein the foundation for later development is
laid. Growth trends in physical aspects and body proportion is rapid. Motor skill
development at this stage is dependent on the child’s physical condition. The child
undergoes changes in his pattern of intellectual development. Emotions are easily
stimulated, openly expressed and felt most strongly. As for social development, the
child already develops his self-concept and sex-role identification in the family with his
relationship with other people.

1.1 Characteristics of Early Childhood (Hurlock, 1982)

Names Used by Parents

a. Problem age/ Troublesome age – Children develop distinctive personalities

and demand an independence which, in most cases, they are incapable of
 handling successfully. Some children at this stage are found to be obstinate,
stubborn, negativistic, and antagonistic. They have frequent tantrums and often
bothered by irrational fears, and jealousies.

b. Toy age – Most children spend their waking time playing with toys although toy
play decreases when they reach school age. Most of the children are already
encouraged to engage in games and modified forms of sports.

Name Used by Educators

a. Pre-school age – They are called preschoolers rather than children since they
are not yet old enough physically and mentally to cope with the work they will
be expected to do in their formal schooling. The pressures and expectations
young children are subjected to are very different from those they will
experience when they begin formal education in the first grade.

Names Used by Psychologists

a. Pre-gang age – This stage is the time when children are learning the
foundations of social behavior as a preparation for more highly organized social
life they will be required to adjust to when they enter the first grade.

b. Exploratory age – A label which implies that children want to know what their
environment is, how it works, how it feels, and how they can be a part of it. This
includes people and inanimate objects. One common way of exploring in early
childhood is by asking questions; thus, referring to this as the questioning
stage.

c. Creativity stage – Most children show creativity in their play in early childhood
more than any other time in their lives.

2. Late Childhood

Late childhood stage comes at the age of 6 years to 12 years which coincide
with the elementary schooling age from Grade 1 up to Grade 6. The child’s entrance to
the first grade requires major changes in the pattern of his life even if they already
have a year or more experience in the preschool situation. At first, the child may
experience a state of disequilibrium: emotionally disturbed and difficult to work with.
As entrance to formal schooling is a milestone in a child’s life, he is responsible for the
changes that take place in attitudes, values and behavior.

2.1 Characteristics of Late Childhood (Hurlock, 1982)

Names Used by Parents

a. Troublesome age – Children are no longer willing to do what they are told to
do and when they are more influenced by their peers than by their parents
and other family members.

b. Sloppy age – It is common to children, most especially to boys to be careless

and irresponsible about their clothes and other material possessions. Even
when there are strict rules about grooming and care of possessions, few older
children adhere to these rules unless parents demand that they do so and
threaten them with punishments.
 c. Quarrelsome age – Name-calling, quarrels, actual physical attacks between
siblings are common patterns of behavior among brothers and sisters of this
age. It is a time when emotional climate of the home is far pleasant for all
family members.

Name Used by Educators

a. Elementary School age – It is the time when the child is expected to

acquire the rudiments of knowledge that are considered essential for
successful adjustment to adult life. it is also the time when the child is
expected to learn certain essential skills bot curricular and co-curricular.

b. Critical period – A time when children form habit of being achievers,

underachievers, or overachievers.

Names Used by Psychologists

a. Gang age – The time when children’s major concern is acceptance by their
peers and membership in a gang.

b. Age of Conformity – Children are willing to conform to group approved

standards in terms of appearance, speech, and behavior.

3. Adolescence Stage (13 or 14 to18 years old)

Adolescence, which extends from the time the individual, becomes sexually
mature until eighteen – the legal age of maturity – is divided into three:

1. Pre-adolescence (11 to 13 years)

 Negative phase
 “About face”

2. Early Adolescence (14 to 16 years)

 High school years

 Awkward age
 Physical and mental growth are complete

3. Late Adolescence (17 to 18 years)

 College age
 Smart or show-off age
 Center of attention
 Adjustment to the opposite sex in different activities
 Becomes legally and socially regarded as mature

The term adolescence comes from the Latin word adolescere, meaning “to
grow” or “to grow to maturity.” Primitive people – as was true also in earlier
civilizations – do not consider puberty and adolescence to be distinct periods in the life
span; the child is regarded as an adult when capable of reproduction. Today, term
 adolescence has a broader meaning. It includes mental, emotional, and social maturity
as well as physical maturity.

3.1 Characteristics of Adolescence

a. Adolescence is a period of change

 Heightened emotionality
 Rapid changes that accompany sexual maturing make young adolescents
unsure of themselves, of their capacities, and of their interests.
 Changes in their bodies, their interests, and in the roles the social group
expects them to play create new problems.
 As interest and behavior patterns change, so do values.
 Most adolescents are ambivalent about changes.

b. Adolescence is a problem age

 As they grow more mature, they have the expectancy that they could
manage themselves somehow.
 Adolescents feeling that they are independent rebuffing whatever attempts
any adult, parent, or teacher may extend.

c. Adolescence is a time to search for identity

 They begin to crave identity and are no longer satisfied to be like their
peers in every respect, as they were earlier. J
 They try to establish themselves as individuals by the use of status symbol
in the form of clothes, hairdos, music and any other material possessions.

d. Adolescence is a time of unrealism

 They see themselves and others as they would like them to be rather than
as they are.
 The more unrealistic their aspirations are, the more angry, hurt and
disappointed they will be when they feel that others have let them down or
that they have not lived up to the goals they set for themselves.

e. Adolescence is an important period

f. Adolescence is a transitional period
g. Adolescence is a dreaded age
h. Adolescence is the threshold of adulthood

Source:

Corpuz, Brenda B. and Gloria G. Salandanan. 2015. Principles of Teaching 1 (OBE and K-12
Based). Lorimar Publishing, Inc. Quezon City.

Anonat, Rosa D. 2014. Child and Adolescent Development. Books Atbp. Publishing Corp.,
Mandaluyong City.

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