Part 1 - Introduction

UNIT 1 Learner-Centered Psychological Principles (LCP)

- Maria Rita D. Lucas, PhD

Learning Outcomes

In this Module, challenge yourself to:

- 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

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

ADVANCE ORGANIZE

Cognitive and Meta Motivational and

cognitive Factor Affective Factors
(6 Principles) (3 Principles)

14
Learner-Centered
Principles

Developmental and Individual

Social Factors Difference Factors
(2 Principles) (3 Principles)
 Analysis

Do this activity before you read about the Learner-Centered Principles.

1. Examine the title, “ Learner-Centered Principles ”, Quickly, 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.

Form groups of three members each. Share your responses. Summarize your groups
responses.
We think that Learner-Centered Principles focus on
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Abstract/Generalization
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 physiological factors. However, the principles
also attempt to acknowledge external environment or contextual factors that interact with
these internal factors.
 The principles are intended to deal holistically with learners in the context of real-world
learning situations. Thus, they are best understood as an organized set of principles; no
principle should be viewed in isolation.
 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 from children, to teachers, to
administrators, to parents, and to community members involved in our educational system.

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 arc different types of learning processes, for example, habit formation in motor
learning; and learning that involves the generation of knowledge, or cognitive skills and
beaming 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 beaming.

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 beaming 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.
3. Construction of knowledge
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 arc made or develop may vary in different subject areas, and among students with
varying talents, interests, and abilities. However, 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
concept mapping and thematic organization or categorizing.

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 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.

5. Thinking about thinking

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.
• In addition, 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 (or reassess the appropriateness and utility of the goal).
• Instructional methods that focus on helping learners develop these higher order
(metacognitive) strategies can enhance student teaming 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. Teachers play a major interactive role with both the
learner and the learning environment. • Cultural or group influences on students can
impact many educationally relevant variables, such as motivation, orientation toward
learning, and ways of thinking.
 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 have
significant impacts on student learning.

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. Motivational and emotional factors also influence both the quality of
thinking and information processing as well as an individual's motivation to learn.
• Positive emotions, such as curiosity, generally enhance motivation and facilitate learning and
performance. Mild anxiety can also enhance learning and performance by focusing the
learner's. attention on a particular task. However, intense negative emotions (e.g., anxiety,
panic, rage, insecurity) and related 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.

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,
• Curiosity, flexible and insightful thinking, and creativity are major indicators of the learners'
intrinsic motivation to learn, which is in large part a function of meeting basic needs to be
competent and to exercise personal 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. Intrinsic motivation is also facilitated on tasks that are
comparable to real-world situations and meet needs for choice and control.
• Educators can encourage and support leamers' natural curiosity and motivation to Team 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. The acquisition of complex

knowledge and skills demands the investment of considerable learner energy and
strategic effort, along with persistence over time.
 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 a task 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 in. Account
• Individuals learn best when material is appropriate to their developmental level and is
presented in an enjoyable and interesting way. Because individual development varies across
intellectual, social, emotional, and physical domains, achievement in different instructional
domains may also vary.
• Overemphasis on one type of developmental readiness—such as reading readiness, for
example—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
developmental 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.

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, .cl caring can increase learners'
sense of belonging, self-respect and self-acceptance, and provide a positive climate for
learning.
• Family influences, positive interpersonal sup, and instruction in self-motivation strategics can
offset factors that interfere wit, optimal teaming such as negative beliefs about competence in a
particular subject, high levels of test anxiety, negative sex role expectations, and undue
pressure to perform well.
• Positive learning climates can also help to establish the context for healthier levels of thinking,
feeling, and behaving. Such come. help learners feel safe to share ideas, actively participate in
the learning process, and create a learning community.

Individual Differences Factors

12. Individual differences in learning

Learners have different strategies, approaches, and capabilities for learning Mat are a function
of prior experience and heredity.
• Individuals are born with and develop their own capabilities and talents.
• In addition, through learning and social.acculturation, they have acquired their own
preferences for how they like to learn and the pace at which they learn. However, these
preferences are not always useful in helping learners reach their learning goals.
• Educators need to help students examine their learning preferences and expand or modify
them, if necessary.
• The interaction between learner differences and curricular and environmental conditions is
another key factor affecting learning outcomes.
• 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 a learning, motivation, and effective instruction apply to all
learners. However, language, ethnicity,
race, beliefs, and socioeconomic stams all can influence teaming.. Careful attention to these
factors in the instructional setting enhances thc possibilities for designing and implementing
appropriate learning environments.
• 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 arc enhanced.

14. Standards and assessment

Setting appropriately high and challenging standard. and assessing the learner as well as
learning progress - including diagnostic, process, and outcome assessment - are integral parts
of she 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: therefore, 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Performance assessments can provide other sources of information about the attainment of
learning outcomes.
• Self-assessments of teaming progress can also improve students self appraisal skills and
enhance motivation and self-directed learning.
Alexander and Murphy gave a summary of the 14 principles and distilled them into five
areas:
1. The knowledge base. One's existing knowledge serves as the foundation of all
future learning. The learner’s previous knowledge will influence new learning specifically on
how he represents new information, makes associations and filters new experiences.
 2. Strategic processing and control. Learners can develop skills to reflect and regulate
their thoughts and behaviors in order to learn more effectively (metacognition).
3. Motivation and affect. Factors such as intrinsic motivation (from within), reasons for
wanting to learn, personal goals and enjoyment of learning tasks all have a crucial role in the
learning process.
4. Development and Individual Differences. Learning is a unique journey for each
person because each learner has his own unique combination of genetic and environmental
factors that influence him. 5. Situation or context. Learning happens in the context of a society
as well as within an individual.

APPLICATION

The application of the 14 principles will be done as you explore the succeeding modules. For
now, keep the 14 principles in mind as you explore the rest of the modules. Always try to relate
these principles to the concepts you will learn, especially when you do the 5-minute non-stop
writing at the end of each module. Happy learning!
 RESEARCH CONNECTION

Read a research or study related to Learner-centered physiological principles

(LCP). fill out the matrix below.

problem Research Methodology

Source: (bibliographical entry format)

Findings Conclusions

How are the findings of this research useful to teachers?

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 REFLECTION

5 Minute Non-Stop Writing begins……NOW!

From the module on Learner-Centred Psychological Principles, I realized that ………