LEARNER-

CENTERED
PSYCHOLOGICAL
PRINCIPLES (LCP)
 In this lesson, the learner is the center of the instruction. The world of instruction
revolves around the learner. This module is focused on the fourteen 14 principles that
run through the twenty-five (25) modules of this book.

Advance Organizer: 14 Learner-

Centered Principles

Cognitive and
Motivational and Developmental Individual
Metacognitive
Affective Factors and Social Factors Difference Factors
Factor
(3 principles) (2 principles) (3 principles)
(6 principles)
 Abstraction/Generalization
Learner-Centered Psychological Principles

The 14 psychological principles pertain to the learner and the learning process.
These 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 the 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 are different 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
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. Hoe these links are 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
goasl, 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
 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.
 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 a 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 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.
 Student’s 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.
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 of a function of meeting basic needs to be competent and to
exercise personal control
 Intrinsic motivation is facilitated on task that learners perceive as interesting and personally relevant
and meaningful
 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’ 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 ad 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 in learning
As individual 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
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 an 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, an 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 learning community.
 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
 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 is
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 t which these differences are accepted
and adapted to be 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.

 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 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 for the learner’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses, as well as current 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 assessment 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.
 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 Effect
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.