LEARNER-

CENTERED
PSYCHOLOGICAL
PRINCIPLES
The 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.
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.
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.
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
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.

Learning outcomes can be enhanced if

educators assist learners in developing,
applying, and assessing their strategic
learning skills.
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.
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 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 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.
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 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.
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
learner.
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
 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.
10. Developmental influences on
learning.
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
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.
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.
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 learners and teachers about
progress toward the learning goals.