LEARNER- CENTERED

PSYCHOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES
UNIT 1
 APA( AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL
ASSOCIATION)
Focus on psychological factors that are primarily internal to and under
the control of the learner rather than conditioned habits of physiological
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.
COGNITIVE AND MOTIVATIONAL
METACOGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE
FACTORS FACTORS
LEARNER-
CENTERED
PSYCHOLOGICAL
DEVELOPMENTAL
PRINCIPLES INDIVIDUAL
AND SOCIAL DIFFERENCES
FACTORS FACTORS
 Learner-centered Psychological Principles
The 14 Leamer-Centered Principles were prepared by the Leamer-
Centered Principles Work Group of the American Psychological
Association's Board of Educational Affairs (BEA), November 1997, as
cited in Corpuz, et al. (2018). These principles aim to provide a
framework that can contribute to current educational reform and
school redesign efforts. The following 14 psychological principles
pertain to the learner and the learning process. They focus on
psychological factors that are primarily internal to and under the
control of the leamer rather than conditioned habits or
physiological factors.
COGNITIVE AND MOTIVATIONAL
METACOGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE
FACTORS FACTORS
LEARNER-
CENTERED
PSYCHOLOGICAL
DEVELOPMENTAL
PRINCIPLES INDIVIDUAL
AND SOCIAL DIFFERENCES
FACTORS FACTORS
COGNITIVE AND METACOGNITIVE
FACTORS
• NATURE OF THE LEARNING PROCESS
• GOALS OF THE LEARNING PROCESS
• CONSTRUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE
•STRATEGIC THINKING
•THINKING ABOUT THINKING
•CONTEXT OF LEARNING
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 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 principles set
forth in this document focus on this type of 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.
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 are made or develop may vary in different
subject areas, and among students with varying talents,
interests, and abilities.

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.
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 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. 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
•MOTIVATIONAL AND EMOTIONAL
INFLUENCES ON LEARNING
•INTRINSIC MOTIVATION TO LEARN
•EFFECTS OF MOTIVATION ON EFFORT
7. Motivational and emotional Influences on learning

What and how much is learned is influenced by the

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 learners' natural

curiosity and motivation to learn by attending to
individual differences in learners' perception 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 leamers' 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 leamer energy and strategic
effort, along with persistence over time.
Educators need to be concerned with facilitating
motivation through 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
FACTOR
•DEVELOPMENTAL INFLUENCES ON
LEARNING
•SOCIAL INFLUENCES ON LEARNING
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.

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 precludes
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,

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
undue 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
leaming community.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
FACTORS
•INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN
LEARNING
•LEARNING AND DIVERSITY
•STANDARDS AND ASSESSMENT
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.

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 of learning, motivation, and

effective instruction apply to all learners. However,
language, ethnicity, race, beliefs, and socioeconomic status
all can influence learning.
Careful attention to these factors in the instructional
setting enhances the 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 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;
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 leaders 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 learning progress can also improve
students' self-appraisal skills and enhance motivation and
self-directed learning.
ACTIVITY
TIME