Polytechnic University of the Philippines

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

Sta. Mesa, Manila

PBTE 5023 Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching

PBTE 1-1

First Semester, AY 2019 - 2020

Prof. Teresa V. Mobilla

14 Learner-Centered Psychological Principles (LCP)

Beltran, Anna Rose V.

Background

Learner-centered psychological principles provide a framework for developing

components of new designs for schooling. These were put together by the Americal

Psychological Association by the year 1997. 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 learner rather than conditioned

habits or physiological factors. The principles also attempt to acknowledge external

environment or contextual factors that interact with these internal factors. These

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 a complex subject matter is most effective when it is an

intentional process of constructing meaning from information and experience. It is

important to know how an individual apply the gained knowledge through learning.

The learning situations or environment provides learning opportunities to us in

the learning process. The following are different types of learning processes according

to the types of activities.

● Habit formation in motor learning

Most of our activities involve with motor skills, in our day-to-day life which an

individual has to learn them in order to maintain his regular life. This learning enables in

acquiring skills to perform all our activities related to muscular coordination in an

efficient way. Ex.: walking, running, etc.

● Verbal learning

This type of learning involves the use of words, language we speak and write and

the communication devices we use. Learning the verbal behavior through rote

memorization and retention of acquired list of words enables linguistics intelligence in

an individual. Ex.: Signs, pictures, symbols, words, figures, sounds, etc.

 ● Cognition learning

Higher order mental processes like thinking, reading, intelligence, generalization

etc., are involved in this type of learning. It includes learning of concepts, principles,

problem solving etc. This cognition learning initiates the process called abstraction and

generalisation which enhances the ability of recognising and identifying things. Ex.: A

child is able to identify a thing or picture with four legs as an animal.

● Sensory learning

This is concerned with perception of things to be learned by primary sensory

organs. Visual learning (through images, symbols, graphs etc.), auditory learning

(through listening), and kinesthetics learning (through physical activities) together

constitute sensory learning. Learner differ in learning through sensory organs to receive

and learn information and experiences. It depends upon the learner to choose any one

or the combination of sensory learning styles to learn concepts, data, information etc.

Learning could be also be in an intentional process. Depending on the way of

acquiring knowledge, learning could be classified further as formal learning and informal

learning. Formal learning states learning objectives in an organised and structured form

and hence it is always intentional. The objective emphasises to gain knowledge, skills

and/or competencies. Ex.: Learning in a formal setting school or workplace. Informal

learning happens through experiences like talking, observing, training etc. It is a natural
way to learn. This learning through experiences may happen at any place at any time

and hence incidental. Ex.: Learning one’s mother tongue or culture or religion etc.

To advocate this principle, as educators, we can set activities like role playing,

physical activities, etc. where the learners will be active and experience self-learning,

teaching them to be goal-directed and to assume personal responsibility for contributing

to their own learning. We use techniques that aid students in constructing meaning from

information, experiences, and their own thoughts and beliefs.

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. Learning becomes purposeful only when

we set goals and aims. Part of this is recognizing and identifying such needs enable us

to evaluate whether learning has been worthwhile and successful. 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 they can reach long-term goals.

Goals are specific objectives that help us to plan our activities and strategies. We

shall consider how goals can be utilized. A short term goal is a goal that only takes a

few days or weeks to achieve, for example, to complete daily homework assignments or
to spend more time on daily homework assignments and complete better quality work. A

long term goal takes several weeks, months, or even a full school semester of year, to

achieve. An example would be to improve a grade by the end of the semester. As

teachers, we shall create meaningful student learning goals consistent with their

personal and educational aspirations and interests.

3. Construction of knowledge

The successful learner can link new information with existing knowledge in

meaningful ways. 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.

Our goal is to assist learners in acquiring and integrating knowledge by using

such strategies 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. This is

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.

To promote this principle, we can give activities that will help the students to

identify which work for them like individual activities like writing an essay and case

studies or group activities like role playing, playing sports and group reports.