LEARNER-CENTERED PSYCHOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES:

Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors:

The learning of complex subject matter is most effective when it is an intentional process of constructing meaning from information and experience.

habit formation in motor learning and learning that involves the generation of knowledge or cognitive skills, and learning strategies.

Learning in schools 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.

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.

Initially, students’ short-term goals and learning may be sketchy in an area, but over time their understanding can be refined by filling gaps, resolving inconsistencies, and deepening their understanding of the subject matter so that they can reach longer-term goals.

Educators can assist learners in creating meaningful learning goals that are consistent with both personal and educational aspirations and interests.

The successful learner can link new information with existing knowledge in meaningful ways.

Knowledge widens and deepens as students continue to build links between new information and experiences and their existing knowledge base.

The nature of these links can take a variety of forms, such as adding to, modifying, or reorganizing existing knowledge or skills.

How these links are made or develop may vary in different subject areas and among students with varying talents, interests, and abilities

unless new knowledge becomes integrated with the learner’s prior knowledge and understanding, this new knowledge remains isolated, cannot be used most effectively in new tasks, and does not transfer readily to new situations

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 abilities, such as correct mapping and thematic organization or categorizing.

​The successful learner can create and use a repertoire of thinking

approach to learning, reasoning, problem solving, and concept learning.

They understand and can use a variety of strategies to help them reach learning and performance goals, and to apply their knowledge in novel situations.

They also continue to expand their repertoire of strategies by reflecting on the methods they use to see which work well for them, by receiving guided instruction and feedback, and by observing or interacting with appropriate models.

Learning outcomes can be enhanced if educators assist learners in developing, applying, and assessing their strategic learning skills.

Higher order strategies for selecting and monitoring mental operations facilitate creative and critical thinking.

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 goals

successful learners know what to do if a problem occurs or if they are not making sufficient or timely progress toward a goal.

They can generate alternative methods to reach their goal

Instructional methods that focus on helping learners develop this higher order metacognitive strategies can enhance student learning and personal responsibility for learning.

Learning is influenced by environmental factors, including culture, technology, and instructional practices.

Learning does not occur in a vacuum

Teachers play a major interactive role with both the learner and the learning environment.

Technologies and instructional practices must be appropriate for learners’ level of prior knowledge, cognitive abilities, and their learning and thinking strategies.

The classroom environment, particularly the degree to which it is nurturing or not, can also has significant impacts on student learning.

Motivational and Affective Factors:

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.

However, intense negative emotions (e.g., anxiety, panic, rage, insecurity) and relative thoughts (e.g., worrying about competence, ruminating about failure, fearing punishment, ridicule or stigmatizing labels) generally detract from motivation, interfere with learning, and contribute to low performance.

The learner’s creativity, higher order thinking, and natural curiosity all contribute to motivation to learn

stimulated by tasks of optimal novelty and difficulty relevant to personal interests, and providing for personal choice of control.

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.

facilitated on tasks that are comparable to real-world situations

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.

The acquisition of complex knowledge and skills demands the investment of considerable learner energy and strategic effort, along with persistence over time.

​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.

may preclude learners from demonstrating that they are more capable in other areas of performance

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.

Early and continuing parental involvement in schooling and the quality of language interactions and two-way communications between adults and children can influence these areas.

Awareness and understanding of developmental differences among children with and without emotional, physical, or intellectual disabilities can facilitate the creation of optimal learning contexts.

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

Family influences, positive interpersonal support and instruction in self-motivation strategies can offset factors that interfere with optimal learning such as negative beliefs about competence in a particular subject, high levels of test anxiety, negative sex role expectations, and unique pressure to perform well.

Positive learning climates can also help to establish the context for healthier levels of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Such contexts help learners feel safe to share ideas, actively participate in the learning process, and create a learning community.

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. F

preferences for how they like to learn and the pace at which they learn.

Educators need to help students examine their learning preferences and expand or modify them, if necessary

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

language, ethnicity, race, beliefs, and socioeconomic status all can influence learning.

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.

diagnostic, process, and outcome assessment are integral parts of the learning process.

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.

appraisal of the learner’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses, as well as current knowledge and skills, is important for the selection of instructional materials of an optimal degree of difficulty.

can improve students’ self-appraisal skills and enhance motivation and self-directed learning.

can provide other sources of information about the attainment of learning outcomes.

provides one type of information about achievement levels both within and across individuals that can inform various types of programmatic decisions.