LEARNER-CENTERED PSYCHOLOGICAL

PRINCIPLES
Introduction
Psychology is branch of science that studies human behavior, and helps educators and teachers to understand the
nature of diversity of learners. Teachers are now more confident and competent to teach because of the deep understanding of
their learners. They can facilitate learning according learner’s needs.

Learner Principles Associated to Cognitive, Metacognitive, Motivational, and Affective Factors

 In the early 1990’s the American Psychological Association (APA) appointed a group a Task force on Psychology in
Education, to conduct further studies in both psychology and education.
 The purpose of this group was to conduct studies that could further enhance the current understanding of educators
on the nature of the learners about the teaching and learning process. The end goal was to improve the existing school
practices so that learning becomes more meaningful to all kinds of learners.

4 Learner-Centered Principles categorized as follows;

Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors
Cognitive factors refer to the mental process the learners undergo as they process an information. The way learners think
about their thinking as they engage in mental tasks is the concern of the metacognitive factors.
1. The learning of complicated subject matter is most effective when it is an intentional process of constructing
meaning from information and experience.
 Teachers play a significant role in guiding their learners to become active, goal-directed and self-regulating, and to
assume personal responsibility for their learning.
 Learning activities and opportunities provided by the teachers are very important situations where learners can
integrate knowledge and concepts to their experiences
 Whenever a teacher plan their lessons, they always needs to consider how they can bring reality in classroom.
 Learners need to have a clear and concrete understanding of knowledge and concepts for them to know also in what
particular situations they have to apply them.
 Learning through experience is the most effective way of teaching.
 An intentional learning environment is one that fosters activity and feedback and creates a culture that promotes
metacognition, that is, one in which the learner becomes aware of his or her learning process and can use tools to
enhance this learning process.
2. The successful learner, over time and with support and instructional guidance, can create meaningful, coherent
representations of knowledge.
 Learners need to be goal-directed.
 Teachers have to guide learners in terms of determining their personal goals.
 Setting their goals, not dictated by others, to ensure their willingness to achieve them.
 Meaningful learning takes place when what is presented to learners is very much related to their needs and interest.
3. The successful learner can link new information with existing knowledge in meaningful ways.
 In planning a new lessons to be presented, teachers would usually find it more effective when they conduct the
learner’s existing knowledge to new information.
 The integration of prior experiences to a new concept to be learned is a way of making connections between what is
new and what is already known.
 That new knowledge is created from old knowledge is the very heart of constructivism.
 Teachers should initiate more opportunities for learners to share ideas and experiences as the need arises, sharing
prior knowledge can be done creative strategies like concept mapping, group activities, and other collaborative
techniques.
4. The successful learner can create and use a repertoire of thinking and reasoning strategies to achieve complex
learning goals.
 Strategic thinking is a person’s ability to use knowledge in different ways to solve problems
 Strategic thinkers do not easily give up even in difficult situation. They are more challenged to find ways to solve a
problem no matter how many times they already failed.
 Strategic thinkers perceives, committed mistakes as meaningful learning experiences to continue in discovering ways
of arriving at solutions.
 Teachers are supposed to give them as many opportunity to learn, experiment, solve and explore. Thus, to motivate
and encourage the learners to be more creative and innovative in their ideas, opinions and responses are musts for
teachers.
5. Higher-order strategies for selecting and monitoring mental operations facilitate creative and critical thinking
(HOTS)
 One of the most challenging roles of the teachers is to develop among their learners’ higher order thinking skills
(HOTS)
 It means that their learners can do evaluation, synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of concepts.
 Mastering information, discovery, problem solving, creation, and evaluation should also be integrated into their
learning experiences.

EDUC 70 – Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching

 6. Learning is influenced by environmental factors, including culture, technology and instructional practices.
 learning does not only take place inside the classroom.
 Learners learn in the classroom can only have meaning once they see them concretely in their everyday life.
 Digital tools and instructional practices must be carefully selected to facilitate a motivating, stimulating and
encouraging learning environment geared toward effective acquisition of knowledge and skills among learners.

Motivational and Affective Factors

How the learners push themselves to learn and how they value learning are the concerns of the motivational factors.
Meanwhile, the affective factors relate to the attitude, feelings and emotions that learners put into the learning task.
1. What and how much are learned are influenced by the learner’s motivation.
 In lesson planning, the motivation part of the lessons sets the positive mindset of the learner no matter how new,
challenging and technical a topic is.
 If the level of motivation is high they would always find the interest to participate.
 Teachers and parents’ encouragements, praises and rewards can boost the learners’ confidence.
2. The learner’s creativity higher-order thinking, and natural curiosity all contributes to the motivation to learn.
 Intrinsic motivation is manifested when an individual engages in an activity or task that is personally gratifying. It
is personally rewarding and there is no expectation for any external or tangible reward.
 Extrinsic motivation, meanwhile, is its direct opposite. A person engages in a task or activities to earn external
rewards or to avoid punishment in some situations.
 As teachers and mentors, the most important way to motivate your student to learn is to present the value of that
knowledge or concept to their life.
Learning is not only about getting good grades or complying with requirements, but it is more of knowing why they need to
learn such and to what specific instances in their lives that they would be able to use them.

3. Acquisition of sophisticated knowledge and skills requires extensive learner’s effort and guided practice.
 The learners’ motivation to learn is also partnered by their extended efforts
 Teachers facilitate learning opportunities and experiences that encourage learners to exert time and effort and at the
same time commitment and enthusiasm toward a task they have to do and a concept they have to learn.
 Teachers can praise works that have been done well. They can also acknowledge every little achievement of a person.
 Teachers can use the students’ errors and mistakes as opportunities for mentoring. All these raise a person’s
motivation to learn.
 Positive emotions established in the classroom as well as with others make learning interesting for everybody in
general.

Learning Principles on Development Social, and Individual Differences

Development and social factors as well as individual differences are considered critical factors in the capacity of learners
to engage in learning. These principles include the following:
1. As individual develops, there are different opportunities and constraints for learning
 Learning is most effective when differential development within and across physical intellectual, emotional, and
social domain is taken into account. Knowledge on the physical, intellectual, emotional, and social domains of
learners is an excellent spring board for planning learning activities, materials, and assessment.
 Teachers are persons and professionals who should be knowledgeable of the various developmental milestone of the
learner. They should always collaborate with the school administrators, guidance counselors, learners’ parents,
guardians, and even family. Specifically teachers should always look into the readiness of the learners through the
keen observations, diagnostic tools, authentic, assessments, and the like. All of these will help to create optimal
learning contexts and environments
2. Learning is influenced by social interactions, interpersonal relations, and communication with others.
 Collaboration is 21st century skill. All learners should learn the skill of working with other in an instructional setting.
This ability will prepare them for the real world where they are expected to interact effectively to a community of
diverse people.
 Collaborative skills encompass social interactions, interpersonal relations, and communication. Learning activities in
the classroom should offer opportunities for such collaborative skills.
 Group works and group dynamics, as well as group tasks are examples of situations where such can be developed.
 When learners work with their peers and classmates, they learn to appreciate and respect diversity. They practice their
listening skills and at the same time consider each other’s perspectives and contributions on the task to be completed.
When adequately facilitated by the teacher, this ability contributes to a positive and healthy learning such as respect
for each other’s opinions, give-and-take relationships, and taking responsibility for assigned tasks to develop the
interpersonal relationships of learners.
3. Learners have different strategies, approaches, and capabilities for learning that are a function of prior
experience and heredity.
 Diversity is a natural part of life.
 The learning environment is the best example where diversity is manifested between and among learners. Each learner
has his or her learning style, intelligence, potential, skills, talents, learning preferences, as well as cognitive abilities,
which are the effects of both experience and heredity.

EDUC 70 – Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching

 4. Learning is most effective when difference in learners’ linguistic, cultural and social backgrounds are taken
into account.
 Multicultural teaching encourages teachers to consider linguistic, culture, and social back grounds.
 Language can be a barrier in learning when learners cannot express themselves properly.
 Culture makes one person distinct from other people. Students manifest difference to language, values, belief systems
and way of life.
 An inclusive classroom is one that welcomes and respects these differences, which are incorporated into their
learning activities.
5. Setting appropriate high and challenging standards and assessing the learner as well as the learning progress-
including diagnostic, process, and outcome assessment-are integral parts of the learning process.
 Assessment and evaluation are essential parts of the teaching and learning process, the results of assessments
conducted are used to gauge the learner’s strengths, weaknesses, limitations, and areas of difficulties.
 Teachers can also determine what kind of support and scaffold the learners need.
 This process also includes knowing which instructional material would best assist a learner for better school
performance.
 Assessment should be an ongoing process. Whether it was formative or summative, results should be used as means
of improving the teachers’ strategies and techniques in teaching.
 Low results may not always be attributed to students’ negligence and difficulties but may also be, because the
teacher’s strategies was not effective during the delivery of the lesson.
 ASSESSMENT therefore is for both teacher and learner.

METACOGNITION: THINKING ABOUT THINKING

Lesson 1: Metacognition and Metacognitive Knowledge

Definition of Metacognition
✘ attributed to Flavell
✘ "knowledge concerning one's cognitive processes and product or anything related to them, e.g., the learning -related
properties of information and data"

Components of Metacognition
✘ Metacognitive knowledge
✘ Metacognitive regulations
✘ Metacognitive knowledge (knowledge of cognition) refers to "what individual know about their cognition or cognition
in general.
✘ it involves 3 kinds of metacognitive awareness, namely: declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge and
conditional knowledge
.
 Declarative knowledge - learners knowledge about things, understanding of own abilities and knowledge about
oneself as a learner and of the factors that moderates one's performance.
 Procedural knowledge - Task knowledge. Involves the knowledge of how to do things and how skills or
competencies are executed
 Conditional knowledge - Strategy knowledge. Refers to the ability to know when and why various cognitive acts
should be applied

Metacognitive knowledge
✘ Results of an individual’s metacognitive experiences
✘ “An individual has through which knowledge is attained and through regulation process.”

Experience
✘ Two aspects of metacognitive instruction is content knowledge and strategic knowledge -it is essential to think
through a process, learners must have the content knowledge to think about something -Instruction should have a
content component and direct instruction on how to work through a process.
✘ Engaging learners in collaborative discussion of the learning task enables them to enhance their learning -
Collaborating teaching strategies are therefore, useful tools to enhance learner’s reflective thinking.

Lesson 2: Metacognitive Regulation and Control

Metacognition and regulation control

✘ Is the second element of metacognition, whereas the metacognitive knowledge refers to the learners 'knowledge and
beliefs about the factors that affect the cognitive skills.
✘ Metacognitive regulations includes their ability to find out what, when and how to use a particular skill for a given
task.
✘ Self-regulation is essential in metacognition.
✘ Metacognitive regulations Involves 3 processes -Planning -Monitoring -Evaluating
EDUC 70 – Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching
  Planning - involves the selection of appropriate strategies and the allocation of resources that affect performance.
Goals are dichotomized as mastery goals and performance goals.
 Monitoring - awareness of comprehension and task performance -it involves the monitoring of a person's thinking
processes and current stages of knowledge. It involves the awareness of the person that the prerequisite knowledge
and process to manage the task is sufficient to succeed in it. It involves the ability to consider the accuracy of the
knowledge and procedure to solve the task
 Evaluating - assessing knowledge and learning.
- It involves the person's ability to evaluate how well the strategies are used to lead to the solution of the problem
or completion of the task.
- It tells whether or not the procedure resulted to the correct answer or a different answer.
Experience
✘ Two types of learners:
1. Novice – poor readers
2. Proficient – oriented readers
✘ Knowing the metacognitive thinking of learners could help for providing them appropriate intervention for their needs

Lesson 3: Metacognitive Instruction

Principles of Metacognitive Instruction

✘ Metacognitive instruction should be embedded in the context of the task at hand in order to allow for connecting task-
specific condition knowledge the (IF-side) to the procedural knowledge of “How” the skill is applied in the context
of the task (the THEN-side of production rules.
✘ Learners should be informed about the benefit of applying metacognitive skills in order to make them exert the initial
extra effort
✘ Instruction and training should be stretched over time, thus allowing for the formation of production rules and
ensuring the smooth and maintained application of metacognitive skills

Metacognitive Teaching Strategies

 Graphic organizers – are visual illustrations displaying the relationships between facts, information, ideas, or
concept.
 Think aloud – helps learners to think aloud about their thinking as they undertake task.
 Journalizing – can be used together with think aloud. Learners write what was in their mind when they selected an
answer and the reasons for their choice.
 Error analysis – Hopeman (2002) “systematic approach for using feeding metacognitively to improve one’s future
performance.
 Wrapper – method of improving learner’s metacognition before, during, and after class
 Peer mentoring – acquiring knowledge from other students who are more skilled and informed.

COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY

Cognitive Learning Theories
 Cognitive learning derives its meaning from the word cognition, as “the mental action or process of acquiring
knowledge and understanding through thoughts, experience, and the senses”.

Lesson 1: Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory

 Piaget argued that children’s cognitive development is influenced by biological maturation and their interaction with
the environment. Children undergo to stages of development.

Basic Cognitive Concepts:

 Schema- refer to the cognitive structures by which individuals intellectually adapt to and organize their environment
 Assimilation- process of fitting a new experience into an existing or previously created cognitive structure or schema
 Accommodation- process of creating a new schema
 Equilibration- achieving proper balance between assimilation and accommodation.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage 1. Sensori-Motor Stage. (Birth to 2 years)
Children at this stage think through what they see, hear, move, touch, and taste. The term sensori-motor focuses on
the prominence of the senses and muscle movement through which the infant comes to learn about himself and the world.
Object permanence- the ability of the child to know that an object still exists even when out of sight.

Stage 2. Pre-Operational Stage. (Ages 2 to 7)

Intelligence at this stage is intuitive in nature. At this stage the child can now make mental representations and able
to pretend, the child is now ever closer to the use of symbols.

EDUC 70 – Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching

Stage 3. Concrete Operational Stage. (Ages 7 to 11)
Concrete operations are described by Piaget as the ability to engage in “hands on thinking” characterized by organized
and rational thinking.
Stage 4. Formal Operational Stage. (Ages 12 and up)
At this stage, adolescents can engage in mental processes involving abstract thinking and coordination of some
variables. All the earlier mental abilities have been mastered.

Teaching Implications of Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory

 A focus on the process of children’s thinking, not just its products. Instead of simply checking for a correct answer,
teachers should emphasize the student’s understanding and the process they used to get the answer.
 Recognition of the crucial role of children’s self -initiative, active involvement in learning activities.
 A de-emphasis on practices aimed at making children adult-like in their thinking.
 Acceptance of individual differences in developmental stages.

Some Considerations for Teachers to Ponder upon Their Teaching Practices

 Consider the stage characteristics of the student’s thought processes in planning learning activities.
 Use a wide variety of experiences rather than drill on specific tasks to maximize cognitive development.
 Do not assume that reaching adolescence or adulthood guarantees the ability to perform formal operations.
 Remember that each person structures each learning situations in terms of his schemata; therefore, no two persons
will derive the same meaning or benefit from a given experience.
 Individualize learning experiences so that each student is working at a level that is high enough to be challenging and
realistic enough to prevent excessive frustration.
 Provide experience necessary for the development of concepts before the use of these concepts in language.
 Consider learning an active restructuring of thought rather than an increase in content.
 Make full use of wrong answers by helping the student analyze his or her thinking to retain the correct elements and
revise the miscomprehensions.
 Evaluate each student in terms of improving his or her performance.
 Avoid overuse of materials that are so highly structured that creative thought is discouraged.
 Use social interaction in learning experiences to promote increase in both interest and comprehension.

Lesson 2: Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development

Sociocultural Theory
 Formulated by Lev Semenovich Vygotsky
 Social interaction mediated through language is a key factor in the child development.
 Children’s thinking is affected by their knowledge of the social community.

Social Interacrtion -> Cognitive Development <- Language

The Roles of Social Interaction

Children learn from the knowledgeable others (MKO) such as parents, teachers, adults and more advanced peers.
 More Knowledgeable Others (MKO) - is the one who has a higher skill level than the learners in terms of specific
task to perform.

The Roles of Language

 Culturally shaping the over behavior of an individual. Through language, human cognitive development and higher
mental functions are initiated from social communication.
Three Stages of Speech Development
1. Social or External Speech (Birth Approximately 3 Yrs. Old)
 Thinking is primarily in form of images, emotions, and impressions.
2. Egocentric Speech (Age 3-7)
 Children think a loud or talk to themselves as they are doing something.
3. Inner Speech
 Soundless speech or thought.
 Speech becomes internalized and used to guide thinking behavior.

Zone of Proximal Development

 Scaffolding

EDUC 70 – Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching

  The goal of ZPD is to help the child mode from the level of current independent performance to a level of potential
performance with the guidance of MKO.

Teaching Implications
 Promote learning contexts in which students play an active role in learning.
 The teacher and student are collaborators in the learning process, with teachers as facilitator or guide in learner’s
construction and development of skills.

Teachers can organized classroom activities in the following ways:

 Scaffolding provides hints and prompts at different level. In scaffolding the adult does not simplify the task, but the
role of the learner is simplified through the graduated intervention of the teacher
 Instruction can be planned to provide practice with the ZPD for individual children or groups of children
 Cooperative learning activities can be planned with groups of children at different levels who can help each other to
learn.

Lesson 3: Informative Processing Theory

Nature of Information Processing
 Developed by American psychologist George A. Miller, the information processing theory(IPT) of cognitive
development pertains to the study and analysis of what occurs in a person’s mind as he or she receives a bit of
information(Miller,1956).
Sensory Memory - is the state in which the stimuli sensed (heard, seen, touch, smelled, tasted) are temporarily held in mere
seconds for the information to be processed further.
Short Term Memory - serves as a temporary memory while the information is given further processed before it is transferred
to long term memory. Information in this stage is 15-20 seconds only and can hold form 5 to 9 bits of information only at it
given time.
Maintenance Rehearsal - involves repetition of the information to sustain its maintenance in the short term memory.
Elaborative Rehearsal - as the process of relating the new information to what is already known and stored in the long term
memory to make new information more significant.
Long Term Memory - Is the storehouse of information transferred from short term memory.
1. Semantic memory is the memory for ideas words, facts and concepts that are not part of the owns person experience
2. Episodic memory includes the memory of events that happened in a person’s life.
3. Procedural memory accounts for the knowledge about how to do things.
4. Imagery refers to mental images of what is known.

Retrieving Information from the Long Term Memory

 Retrieving information from long term memory involves locating the information and transferring it to the short term
memory to be used in purpose.
Two ways of information retrieval:
 Recalling (Either Free Call Or Cued Call)
o Free Call- the person has to rely on the information previously learned purely by the memory.
o Cued Call- involves the provision of cues and clues to the person to help in the recall of the information.
 Recognition - it involves the learner's with stimuli as choices to make decision or judgment.
Forgetting - Is the loss of information either in the sensory memory, short term memory or long term memory.
Interference - Is the process that occurs when remembering certain information hampered by the presence of other information
(Woolfolk, 2016)
Retroactive Interference - When new information interferes with recalling the previous information.
Proactive Interference - The old information interference with recalling the new information.
Time Decay - Is another factor for the loss of stored information from long term memory.

Teaching Implications of the IPT

1. Make sure you have the student's attention. Develop a signal that tells students to stop what they are doing and
focus on you. Make sure that students respond to the signal, practice using the signal.
2. Move around the room, use gestures and avoid speaking in monotone.
3. Begin a lesson by asking a question that stimulates interest in the topic.
4. Regain the attention of individual students by walking closer to them, using their names, or asking them a question.
5. Help students to separate essential from nonessential details and focus on the most important information.
Summarize instructional objectives to indicate what students should be learning. Relate the material you are
presenting to the objectives you teach.
6. When you make an important point, pause, repeat, ask a student to paraphrase, note the information on the board
in colored chalk, or tell students to highlight the point in their notes or readings. The use of mnemonic devices could
assist learner's retention of the information learned.

7. Help students to make connections between new information and what they already know, review prerequisites to
help students bring to mind the information they will need to understand new material.
8. Provide the repetition and review information. Using graphic organizers for rehearsals can help.
9. Present material in a clear and organized way. Make the purpose of the lesson very clear. Advance organizers can
help.
EDUC 70 – Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching
 10. Focus on meaning, not on memorization. For instance, in teaching new words, help students to associate the new
word to a related word they already understand.

Lesson 4: Problem Solving and Creativity

Problem Solving
 Refers to cognitive processing directed at achieving a goal for which the problem solver does not initially know
a solution method.
Four Major Elements
1. Cognitive - Problem solving occurs within the problem solver’s cognitive system and can only be inferred indirectly
from the problem solver’s behavior.
2. Process - It involves mental computations
3. Directed - Problem solving aim at achieving a goal.
4. Personal - Depends on existing knowledge of the problem solver.
Types of Problems
 Well-Defined Problem - Provides all the information require to solve it.
 Ill-Defined Problems - Initial state of the problem was given but what the goal state looks like not provided.
Approaches to Problem Solving
1. Behaviorist Approach - A person faced with a problem situation is likely to use the same solution previously used
and was effective in the past.
2. Gestalist Approach - Individuals ponders upon how to solve a problems, flash an idea comes to mind, which
eventually provides the best solution to the problem.
Problem Solving Process
Step 1. Identify The Problem And Opportunities
 Determining the cause of the problem to pinpoint the major cause to prioritize in resolving the problems.
 Positive outlook serves as opportunities to do something creative.
Step 2. Define Goals
 Different goals often reflect differences in how people understand a problem.
Step 3. Explore Possible Strategies
 Finding possible strategies to solve the problems.
Two Suggested Strategies
1. Heuristic - “rule of thumb” mental shortcut that woks for solving a problem.
o Random trial and error – randomly selected legal move.
o Hill climbing – selecting the legal move to move the solver closer to the goal state.
o Means-end analysis- creating goals and seeking moves.
2. Algorithm - use of series of steps to solve a problem.
Step 4: Anticipate Outcomes and Act
 Expectation is the solution to the problem.
Step 5: Look Back and Learn
 Proof or effectiveness

Barriers to Problem Solving

1. Mental Set - The situation when the persons become fixated on the use of strategy that previously produced the right
solution, but in the new situation is not the application.
2. Functional Fixated - When individuals fail to recognize that objects can have other purposes, aside from the
traditional use they were made for.
3. Failure to Distinguish Relevant and Irrelevant Information - Happens during analysis of a problem when an
individual cannot discern the relevant information needed in planning the strategy to solve a problem.

Creativity in Problem Solving

 The interaction among aptitude, process, and the environment by which an individual or group produces a perceptible
product that is both novel and useful as defined within social context.

Developmental Theory
 Advocates that creativity develops over time (from potential to achievement).
Cognitive Theory of Creativity
 Ideational thought processes are foundational to creative persons and accomplishment.
Stage and Componential Process of Creativity
 Point out that creative expression proceeds through a series of stages or components.
o Fluency- Ability to produce a great number of ideas.
o Flexibility- ability to simultaneously propose a variety of approaches to a specific problem
o Originality- ability to produce new, original ideas as well as products.
 Creative Process- follows certain stages such as;
o Preparation
o Incubation
o Illumination
o Verification

EDUC 70 – Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching

Transfer of Learning in Problem Solving and Creativity
1. Near Transfer And Far Transfer
o Near Transfer- apply their knowledge and skills in situation that are very close to those which learning
occurred.
o Far Transfer- Find difficulty employing the same skill when a task is transformed into a word, problem
solving.
2. Positive and Negative Transfer
o Positive Transfer - A learners use their prior knowledge or experience in solving a new problem situation.
o Negative Transfer - when the previous learning or skill obstruct the acquisition of new skill or the solving
of a problem.
3. Neutral or Zero Transfer - Happens when past learning or prior experience does not enhance or hinder the
acquisition or a new skill or in the solution of a problem.
How learning is transfer from one place to another?
1. The Theory of Identical Elements (Thorndike) - Quality of transfer depends on the identical elements that are
common in both past and new situations.
2. Theory of Generalization (Judd) - Skills learned are transferrable to other situations.
- If the learners fully understood the lesson and mastered the competency there is a greater likelihood that such
skill can be transferred to a similar situation.
3. Theory of Configuration - What is learned in one situation can be shifted directly to another situation only when
similarity in content, method, or attitude of the two situation id perceive by learner.

BEHAVIOURAL LEARNING THEORIES

“Give me a child, and I will shape him into anything.”
- B.F Skinner

Lesson 1: Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov (1849- 1936)
 Pavlov’s Conditioning: KEY WORDS
o UCS- Unconditioned Stimulus
o UCR- Unconditioned Response
o CS- Conditioned Response
o CR- Conditioned Response
Other Phenomena in Classical Conditioning
 Extinction- when learning passes through time.
 Spontaneous Recovery- recovery after extinction phenomena.
 Generalization- when the dog salivates by just hearing the buzzer.
 Discrimination- when the dog recognizes that the sound of buzzer is different from other stimuli.

Watsonian’s Conditioning
John B. Watson (1982)
 People can have such ability to associating certain feelings, behaviours, instances, and even symbols.
 Unlearning and learning can occur
 Humans are born with emotional responses such as love, fear, and hate.
 The most popular conditioning experiment he did was “Little Albert” – he tried to prove that emotions can be
learned. Anchored that Watson’s belief that learning happens by association.

Lesson 2: Thorndike’s Connectionism

 One of few Psychologist who focuses on education.
 Became prominent because of his “Law of learning " (Associationism or Connectionism )
 Wherein:
Neural impulses= Response
Sensory experiences= Stimulus
1. Law of exercise:
 Law of use -Frequent recurring of the Response to Stimulus strengthens connections.
 Law of disuse - When a Response is not made to a Stimulus, the connection is weakened or even forgotten.
2. Law of effect
 If a response is followed by a "satisfying" state of affairs, the S-R connection is strengthened.
 If a response is followed by an "annoying" state of affairs the S-R connection is weakened.
3. Law of readiness
 If one is prepared to act, to do so is rewarding, and not to do so is punishing.
 Unreadiness leads to weak S-R connection.

4. Law of primacy
 Learning a concept or skill again is more difficult than the first time one has learned it.
EDUC 70 – Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching
  First thing learned=Strongest S-R bond ( Inerasable)
5. Law of intensity
 Exciting, immediate, or even dramatic learning within the real context of the students would tremendously facilitate
learning.
6. Law of recency
 When learners are isolated in time from learning a new concept, the more difficult it is for them to remember.
 Newest lesson= retained
 Old lesson= repressed

Principles of Associative Shifting

 Humans show an almost similar response an entirely different stimulus.
Generalization - Implies that not only skills should be taught in one isolated topic but also the other related topics.

Lesson 3: Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
 One of the most popular behavioral theorists of all time
 He postulated the operant conditioning
Operant Conditioning
 Actively involves the subject’s participant
 The subject has a choice to respond
 The type of learning whereby learning occurs as a consequence of the learner’s behavior
 Dichotomized into reinforcement and punishment
Reinforcement
 Is defined as something that strengthens the behavior or is sometimes called as the response strengthener (Schultz,
2006)
 Positive reinforcement - Is defined as the addition of pleasant stimulus
 Negative reinforcement - Taking something away from a situation that subsequently increases the occurrence of the
response.
 Schedule of reinforcements - refer to when reinforcement is applied
o Continuous Schedule - Reinforcement is given every time
o Intermittent Schedule - Reinforcement is given irregularly
 Fixed Interval – time interval is constant from one to the next
 Variable Interval- time interval varies from occasion to occasion
o Ratio Schedule - Reinforcement is given depending on the number of correct responses or the rate of
responding
 Fixed Ratio- every nth correct response is reinforced, where n is constant
 Variable Ratio- every nth correct response is reinforced, but the value around an average number
n.

Punishment
 Main aim is to weaken the response
 It doesn’t necessarily eliminate the behavior; when the threat of punishment removed, the punished response may
recur
 Positive punishment - Is an addition of an unpleasant stimulus to decrease the behavior
 Negative punishment - Is the removal of rewarding stimulus to decrease behavior

Relationship of reinforcement and punishment Alternatives to punishment

Lesson 4: Neo-Behaviorism
 The neo-behaviorist were more self-consciously trying to formalize the laws of behaviour
 They believed that some mediating variables into the established stimulus-response theory contribute much to
learning.

EDUC 70 – Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching

Tolman’s Purposive Behaviorism
 He insisted that all behaviour is directed because of a purpose
 A behaviour is never merely the result of mindless S-R connections.
 Mental process to be identified in terms of the behaviour to which they lead
 His intervening variables are tied to observable behaviors
 Latent Learning – a form of learning that occurs without any visible reinforcement of the behaviour or associations
that are learned. Occurs every time an organism sees a reason to perform or show it.
 Cognitive Map – it is a mental illustration of the layout of the environment. Everything in our cognitive map
influences our interaction with the environment.

Tolman’s Other Salient Principle

1. Behavior is always purposive – all behaviour is ignited to accomplish a specific goal.
2. Behavior is cognitive – an organisms is mindful of the connections between specific actions and certain outcomes.
3. Reinforcement establishes and confirms expectancies – the more often an expectancy is established, the more
likely it is that the stimuli (signs) associated with it will become linked with the relevant significance (expectancy)

Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

 Albert Bandura - The proponent of the Bandura’s Social Learning Theory.
 Learning - occurs within the social context and by observing and copying others’ behaviour or imitation.
 Modelling - refers to a change in one’s behaviour by observing models. Equated with imitation but modelling is a
more inclusive concept.
Social-Cognitive Theory - This theory has the influence of cognition.
 Self-efficacy – one’s evaluation of his or her own ability to accomplish or perform an action in a particular context.
Fundamental Principles of Social Learning Theory
1. One may learn without changing his or her behaviour – a change in bahavior is always an indication of learning
2. Learning takes place by imitating a model
3. An observing person will always react to the one being imitated depending on whether the model is rewarded
or punished.
4. Acquiring and performing behavior are different.
5. Interaction is vital for successful social learning.
6. Learning is self-regulated
7. Learning may be acquired vicariously.
8. Learning may be reinforced by the model or by the others.
Components of Successful Modeling
 Attention
 Retention
 Production
 Motivation

Experience
 Tolman’s purposive behaviorism - Learning is goal directed and specific, but for some children it is distant and
might be viewed as too complicated.
 Bandura’s Social cognitive Theory - Self-efficacy and learning can be merge and apply them to teaching.

CONSTRUCTIVISM THEORY
Lesson 1: Bruner’s Constructivist Theory. Gestalt Theory, and David Ausuble’s Subsumption Theory

Constructivism
 Coming from the works of Piaget and Vygotsky, this theory asserts that learners derive meaning and form concepts
based on their own experience.
Two Views of Constructivism
 Individual Constructivism - it emphasizes individual construction of knowledge
 Social Constructivism emphasizes that knowledge exists in a social context and is initially shared with others
instead of being represented solely in the mind of an individual.
Characteristics of constructivism
 Learners construct understanding.
 New learning depends on correct understanding
 Learning is facilitated by social interaction
 Meaningful learning occurs within aesthetic learning tasks

Organizing Knowledge
 Concept - is a way of grouping or categorizing objects or in our mind.
 Concept as feature list - learning a concept involves leaning specific features that characterize positive instance of
the concept. A feature is characteristics present in all instances.
 A correlational feature is one that is present in many positive instances but not essential for for concept membership
EDUC 70 – Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching
  Concept as prototypes - a prototype is an idea or visual of a typical example. It is usually formed based on the
positive instances that learners encounter most often.
Making concept-learning effective as a future teacher you can help students learn concepts by doing the following:
• Provide a clear definition of the concept
• Give a variety of positive instances
• Give negative instances
• Provide opportunity for learners to identify positive and negative instances
Schemas and scripts
 Schema is an organized body of knowledge about something.
 Script is a schema that includes series of predictable events about the specific activity.

Bruner’s Constructivist Theory

 Brunner believes that learning is an active process where learners can create new ideas or concepts using their past or
current knowledge about things or situations. Learners can select information, transform them into a new ones, add
them up to come up with a decision or new ideas. Learners when motivated can even go beyond the ideas given to
them.
 “ to perceive is categorize, to conceptualize is to categorize, to learn is to form categories, to make decision is to
categorize”
 Categorization - involves perception, conceptualization, learning, decision making, and making inference.
Four major aspects during teaching and learning process
 Predisposition toward learning - The child’s readiness to learn is an important matter to consider. Love for learning
should be emphasized at an early age. One of the factors that can contribute to this is the parent and teacher’s influence
to the child.
 How a body of knowledge can be structured so that it can be most readily grasped by the learner - topics and
concepts are effectively learned when details are arrange in order in the context of the learner.
 The most effective sequence in which to present material - sequencing of presentation is part of a teacher’s
motivation
 The nature and pacing of rewards and punishments - rewards and punishment should be properly selected and
that whenever they are given to learners, they should know and understand when they were rewarded or punished.

Bruner’s Principle of Instruction

1. Readiness
2. Spiral organization
3. Going beyond the information given

Gestalt Theory
 Gestalt is a German term that means form or pattern. Gestalt psychology was introduced in 1912 by Max Wertheimer.
He is a German psychologist who believe that a whole more than just a totality of its parts. The focus on this theory
was a grouping.
Laws of grouping
 Similarity – elements that have the same features are grouped together
 Proximity – elements that are near to each other are grouped together
 Continuity – elements that define smooth line or even curve are also grouped together
 Closure – elements that fill up missing parts to complete an entity are grouped together

Major principle of Gestalt Theory of learning

1. Learner should be encouraged
2. Gaps, disturbances are essential in learning
3. Instruction should be based on law of organization

Subsumption Theory
 This theory is developed by David Ausubel. This posits how individual learn large meaningful material both verbal
and textual presentations in school setting. The used of advance organizers. Subsumptions means to put something
within something larger or more comprehensive.

Four major aspects of learning process

 Derivative subsumption - A new concept learned is an example of a concept that you have already learned before.

EDUC 70 – Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching

  Correlative subsumption - A new concept learned is an extension or modification of a previously learned
information
 Superordinate subsumption - What was learned are specific examples of a new concept.
 Combinatorial subsumption - A new concept is combined with a prior known concept to enrich both concepts.

DEVELOPMENT THEORIES
Lesson 1: Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory and stages

Stages
1. Trust vs. Mistrust - This is the vital stage to develop trust among children and their nurses. One key in this stage is
nurturing children with basic needs.
2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt - At this stage, children must learn the basics of self-independence. Success in
allowing them to learn results to autonomy, if the process is somehow reversed, shame and doubt takes over.
3. Initiative vs. Guilt - Children should be explore and learn with sufficient guidance; a child must learn from its
environment effectively; children must be given choices and allow to choose.
4. Industry vs. Inferiority - Children are hungry for new learning and knowledge,therefore, supplementation is
essential as well as letting them have a sense of triumph
5. Identity vs. Role Confusion - At this stage, one of the vital factor is social relationship. Bonds from the people
around them should eb strengthen. Also, att his point, their roles should be clear to avoid confusion.

Lesson 2: Psychosocial Stages

1. Intimacy vs Isolation - People in early adulthood (20s through early 40s) are concerned with intimacy vs. isolation.
After we have developed a sense of self in adolescence, we are ready to share our life with others. However, if other
stages have not been successfully resolved, young adults may have trouble developing and maintaining successful
relationships with others. Erikson said that we must have a strong sense of self before we can develop successful
intimate relationships. Adults who do not develop a positive self-concept in adolescence may experience feelings of
loneliness and emotional isolation.
2. Generativity vs. Stagnation - When people reach their 40s, they enter the time known as middle adulthood, which
extends to the mid-60s. The social task of middle adulthood is generativity vs. stagnation. Generativity involves
finding your life’s work and contributing to the development of others through activities such as volunteering,
mentoring, and raising children. During this stage, middle-aged adults begin contributing to the next generation, often
through childbirth and caring for others; they also engage in meaningful and productive work which contributes
positively to society. Those who do not master this task may experience stagnation and feel as though they are not
leaving a mark on the world in a meaningful way; they may have little connection with others and little interest in
productivity and self-improvement.
3. Integrity vs. Despair - From the mid-60s to the end of life, we are in the period of development known as late
adulthood. Erikson’s task at this stage is called integrity vs. despair. He said that people in late adulthood reflect on
their lives and feel either a sense of satisfaction or a sense of failure. People who feel proud of their accomplishments
feel a sense of integrity, and they can look back on their lives with few regrets. However, people who are not
successful at this stage may feel as if their life has been wasted. They focus on what

Lesson 3: Sigmund Freud Psychosexual Theory

 Sigmund Freud's Psycho-sexual Theory states the need to satisfy basic biological needs.
 His theory, also known as the theory of libidinal development, is one of the earliest theories explaining how
personality develops in human things.

 According to Freud, personality development takes place through constant activation of the life instinct. For him, the
first five years of life are determined for the formation of personality. The following is the tabular presentation of the
theories: psycho-social and psycho-sexual.

EDUC 70 – Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching

Lesson 4: Summary of Psychosexual Stages According to Freud

1. Oral
 Birth - 1 year
 Infants find pleasure on doing oral activities like sucking, chewing, biting, and etc. Freud said oral stimulation could
lead to an oral fixation in later life. We see oral personalities all around us such as smokers, nail-biters, finger-
chewers, and thumb suckers. Oral personalities engage in such oral behaviors, particularly when under stress.
2. Anal
 1-3 years
 The libido now becomes focused on the anus, and the child derives great pleasure from defecating. The child is now
fully aware that they are a person in their own right and that their wishes can bring them into conflict with the demands
of the outside world.
3. Phallic
 3-6 years
 The child becomes aware of anatomical sex differences, which sets in motion the conflict between erotic attraction,
resentment, rivalry, jealousy and fear which Freud called the Oedipus complex (in boys) and the Electra complex
(in girls).
 This is resolved through the process of identification, which involves the child adopting the characteristics of the
same sex parent.

Lesson 5: Lawrence Kholberg's Moral Development Theory

 Moral Development - it represents the transformation that occur in a person's form or structure of thought

Kholberg's representation of Moral Development

1. Pre-conventional - consequences or the result of the act are the basis of moral reasoning
 Stage 1:
Punishment and Obedience - motivated by fear punishment
 Stage 2:
Instrumental Relativist - motivated to act by the benefit that may obtain later
2. Conventional - based on the conventions or norms of society
 Stage 3:
Interpersonal Concordance - one is motivated by what others expect in behavior.
 Stage 4:
Law and Order Orientation - one is motivated to act to uphold law and order.
3. Post-Conventional - firmly holding the beliefs and principle that may beyonds the law.
 Stage 5:
Social Contract Legalistic -there is a clear awareness of the relativism of personal values and opinions.
 Stage 6:
Universal- ethical principle - the moral values and principle are defined through the conscience but self-chosen
ethical principle

EDUC 70 – Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching