WMSU-ISMP-GU-001.

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Effective Date: 7-DEC-2016

PED 101- Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles

Learner-Centered Psychological Principles (LCP)
Name: _______________________________________________________
Course and Year: ______________________________________________

Introduction
The learner is the center of instruction. The world of instruction revolves around the learner.
This lesson introduces you to the fourteen (14) learner-centered principles which shall be used
throughout this lesson as a guide in determining appropriate pedagogy for learners at different life
stages.

Objectives
 Explain the 14 principles.
 Advocate for the use of the 14 principles in the teaching-learning process.
 Identify ways on how to apply the 14 principles in instruction as a future teacher.

Try this!
1. Examine the title, “Learner-Centered Principles”. Jot down at least 10 words that come to your
mind.
2. Go back to each word and write phrases about why you think the word can be associated with
LCP.

Think Ahead!
Form groups of five members each. Share your responses (base from the assignment given to you about
the learner-centered principles). Summarize your group’s responses.

We think that Learner-Centered Principles focus on _____________________________________

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Learner-Centered Psychological Principles (LCP)

 WMSU-ISMP-GU-001.00
Effective Date: 7-DEC-2016

Read and Ponder

LEARNER-CENTERED PSYCHOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES

The Learner-Centered Psychological Principles were put together by the American

Psychological Association. The following 14 psychological principles pertain to the learner and the learning
process. The 14 principles have the following aspects:
 They focus on psychological factors that are primarily internal to and under the control of the
learner rather than conditioned habits or psychological factors.
 The principles are intended to deal holistically with the learners in the context of real-world
learning situations.
 The 14 principles are divided into those referring to (1) cognitive and metacognitive, (2)
motivational and affective, (3) developmental and social, and (4) individual difference
factors influencing learners and learning.
 Finally, the principles are intended to apply to all learners.

Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors

1. Nature of the learning process
The learning of complex subject matter is most effective when it is an intentional process of
constructing meaning from information and experience.
 There are different types of learning processes, for example, habit formation in motor learning,
and learning that involves the generation of knowledge, or cognitive skills and learning
strategies.
 Learning in school emphasizes the use of intentional processes that students can use to construct
meaning from information, experiences, and their own thoughts and beliefs.
 Successful learners are active, goal-directed, self-regulating, and assume personal responsibility
for contributing to their own learning.
2. Goals of the learning process
The successful learner, over time and with support and instructional guidance, can create
meaningful, coherent representations of knowledge.
 The strategic nature of learning requires students to be goal-directed.
 To construct useful representations of knowledge and to acquire the thinking and learning
strategies necessary for continued learning success across the life span, students must generate
and pursue personally relevant goals.
 Educators can assist learners in creating meaningful learning goals that are consistent with both
personal and educational aspirations and interests.
3. Construction of Knowledge
The successful learner can link new information with existing knowledge in meaningful ways.
 Knowledge and widens and deepens as students continue to build links between new
information and experiences and their existing knowledge base.
 Educators can assist learners in acquiring and integrating knowledge by a number of strategies
that have been shown to be effective with learners of varying activities, such as concept
mapping, thematic organization.
4. Strategic Thinking
The successful learner can create and use a repertoire of thinking and reasoning strategies to
achieve complex learning goals.
 Successful learners use strategic thinking in their approach to learning, reasoning, problem
solving, and concept learning.
 They understand and use a variety of strategies to help them reach learning and performance
goals and to apply their knowledge in novel situations.
5. Thinking about thinking
Higher order strategies for selecting and monitoring mental operations facilitate creative and
critical learning.

Learner-Centered Psychological Principles (LCP)

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 Successful learners can reflect on how they think and learn, set reasonable learning or
performance goals, select potentially appropriate learning strategies or methods, and monitor
their progress toward these goal.
 Instructional methods that focus on helping learners develop these higher order (metacognitive)
strategies can enhance student learning and personal responsibility for learning.
6. Context of Learning
Learning is influenced by environmental factors, including culture, technology, and
instructional practices.
 Learning does not occur in a vacuum.
 Technologies and instructional practices must be appropriate for learners’ level of prior
knowledge, cognitive abilities, and their learning and thinking strategies.

Motivational and Affective Factors

7. Motivational and emotional influences on learning

What and how much is learned is influenced by the learner’s motivation. Motivation to learn, in
turn, is influenced by the individual’s emotional states, beliefs, interests and goals, and habits of
thinking.
 The rich internal world of thoughts, beliefs, goals, and expectations for success or failure can
enhance or interfere with the learner’s quality of thinking and information processing.
 Students’ beliefs about themselves as learners and the nature of learning have a marked influence
on motivation.
 Positive emotions, such as curiosity, generally enhance motivation and facilitate learning and
performance.
8. Intrinsic motivation to learn
The learner’s creativity, higher order thinking, and natural curiosity all contribute to
motivation to learn. Intrinsic motivation is stimulated by tasks of optimal novelty and difficulty,
relevant to personal interests, and providing for personal choice and control.
 Intrinsic motivation is facilitated on tasks that learners perceive as interesting and personally
relevant and meaningful, appropriate in complexity and difficulty to the learners’ abilities, and
on which they believe they can succeed.
 Educators can encourage and support learners’ natural curiosity and motivation to learn by
attending to individual differences in learners’ perceptions of optimal novelty and difficulty,
relevance, and personal choice and control.
9. Effects of motivation on effort
Acquisition of complex knowledge and skills requires extended learner effort and guided
practice. Without learners’ motivation to learn, the willingness to exert this effort is unlikely without
coercion.
 Effort is another major indicator of motivation to learn.
 Educators need to be concerned with facilitating motivation by strategies that enhance learner
effort and commitment to learning and to achieving high standards of comprehension and
understanding.
 Effective strategies include purposeful learning activities, guided by practices that enhance
positive emotions and intrinsic motivation to learn, and methods that increase learners’
perceptions that is interesting and personally relevant.

Developmental and Social Factors

10. Developmental influences on learning

As individuals develop, there are different opportunities and constraints for learning.
Learning is most effective when differential development within and across physical, intellectual,
Emotional, and social domains is taken into account.
 Individuals learn best when material is appropriate to their developmental level and is presented
in an enjoyable and interesting way.
 The cognitive, emotional, and social development of individual learners and how they interpret
life experiences are affected by prior schooling, home, culture, and community factors.
 Awareness and understanding of developmental differences among children with and without
emotional, physical, or intellectual disabilities, can facilitate the creation of optimal learning
contexts.
Learner-Centered Psychological Principles (LCP)
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 Early and continuing parental involvement in schooling, and the quality of language
interactions and two-way communications between adults and children can influence these
developmental areas.

11. Social influences on learning

Learning is influenced by social interactions, interpersonal, relations and communication
With others.

 Learning can be enhanced when the learner has an opportunity to interact and to collaborate
with others on instructional tasks.
 Learning settings that allow for social interactions, and that respect diversity, encourage,
flexible thinking and social competence.
 In interactive and collaborative instructional contexts, individuals have an opportunity for
perspective taking and reflective thinking that may lead to higher levels of cognitive, social, and
moral development, as well as self-esteem.
 Quality personal relationships that provide stability, trust, and caring can increase learners’
sense of belonging, self-respect and self-acceptance, and provide a positive climate for learning.
 Positive learning climates can also help to establish the context for healthier levels of thinking,
feeling, and behaving.

Individual Differences Factors

12. Individual differences in learning

Learners have different strategies, approaches and capabilities for learning that are a
function of prior experience and heredity.
 Individuals are born with and develop their own capabilities and talents.
 Educators need to help students examine their learning preferences and expand or modify them,
if necessary.
 Educators need to be sensitive to individual differences, in general, They also need to attend to
learner perceptions of the degree to which these differences are accepted and adapted to by
varying instructional methods and materials.

13. Learning and diversity

Learning is most effective when differences in learners’ linguistic, cultural, and social
backgrounds are taken into account.
 The same basic principles of learning, motivation, and effective instruction apply to all learners.
 When learners perceive that their individual differences in abilities, backgrounds, cultures, and
experiences are valued, respected, and accommodated in learning tasks and contexts, levels of
motivation and achievement are enhanced.

14. Standards and Assessment

Setting appropriately high and challenging standards and assessing the learner as well as
learning progress---including diagnostic, process and outcome assessment---are integral parts of
the learning process.
 Assessment provides important information to both the learner and teacher at all stages of the
learning process.
 Effective learning takes place when learners feel challenged to work towards appropriately high
goals.
 Ongoing assessment of the learner’s understanding of the curricular material can provide
valuable feedback to both learners and teachers about progress toward the learning goals.
 Performance assessments can provide other sources of information about the attainment of
learning outcomes.
 Standardized assessment of learner progress and outcomes assessment provides one type of
information about achievement levels both within and across individuals that can inform various
types of programmatic decisions.
 Self-assessment of learning progress can also improve students self appraisal skills and enhance
motivation and self-directed learning.

Learner-Centered Psychological Principles (LCP)

 WMSU-ISMP-GU-001.00
Effective Date: 7-DEC-2016

Learner-Centered Psychological Principles (LCP)