Part I: Introduction
Part I of this learning material introduces the students to the fourteen (14) learnercentered principles which shall be used throughout as a guide in determining appropriate
pedagogy for learners at different life stages.
Unit 1: Learner-Centered Psychological Principles (LCPs)
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:
1. explain the 14 principles;
2. advocate for the use of the 14 principles in the teaching-learning process; and,
3. identify ways on how to apply the 14 principles in instruction as a future teacher.
A. Introduction
Learner-centered teaching places students at the center of instruction. This means that
the world of instruction revolves around the learners, thus, allowing them to gauge their own
self-worth which creates a higher degree of intrinsic motivation. This approach inverts the
traditional teacher-centered understanding of the learning process and put learners at the
center of the teaching-learning process.
B. Advance Organizer
C. Learner-Centered Psychological Principles
The Learner-Centered Psychological Principles were put together by the American
Psychological Association. The following 14 psychological principles pertain to the learner and
the learning process. The 14 principles have the following aspects:
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They focus on psychological factors that are primarily internal to and under the
control of the learner rather than conditioned habits or physiological factors.
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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 realworld 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 parnets, and to community members involved in our
educational system.
1. Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors
1.1 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
throughts and beliefs.
 Successful learners are active, goal-directed, self-regualting, and assume
personal responsibility for contributing to their own learning.
1.2 Goals of the learning process
The successful learner, over time and with support and instructional guidance, can
create meaningful, coherent respresentations 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.
1.3 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, interest, and abilities. However, unless new knowledge
becomes integrated with the learner’s prior knowledge and understanding,
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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.
1.4 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.
 Learning outcomes can be enhance if educators assist learners in developing,
applying, and assessing their strategic learning skills.
1.5 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.
1.6 Context of learning
Learning is influenced by environmental factors, including culture, technology, and
instructional practices.
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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.
2. Motivational and Affective Factors
2.1 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, interest and goals, and habits of thinking.
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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.
However, intense negative emotions (e.g., anxiety, panic, rage, insecurity)
and relted 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.
2.2 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 interest, and providing for personal
choice and control.
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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 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 realworld situations and meet needs for choice and control.
Education 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.
2.3 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.
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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 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
tht enhance positive emotions and intrinsic motivation to learn, and methods
that increase learners’ perceptions tht a task is interesting and personally
relevant.
3. Developmental and Social Factors
3.1 Developmental influences on learning
As individuals develop, there 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.
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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 development 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.
3.2 Social influences on learning
Learning is influenced by social interactions, interpersonal relations, and
communication with others.
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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 tht 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 selfesteem.
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.
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Family influences, positive interpersonal support and instruction in selfmotivation strategies can offset factors tht 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.
4. Individual Differences Factors
4.1 Individual differences in learning
Learners have different strategies, approaches, and capabilities for learning that
are a function of prior experience and heredity.
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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.
4.2 Learning and diversity
Learning is most effective when differences in learners’ linguistic, cultural, and
social backgrounds are taken into account.
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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.
4.3 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.
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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.
Standardied 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.
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 affect. Factors such as instrinsic motivation (from within), reasons for
wanting to learn, personal goals and enjoyment of learnig 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.
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5. Situation or context. Learning happens in the context of a society as well as within an
individual.
Unit 2: Basic Concepts and Issues on Human Development
Every living creature is called to become what it is meant to be. The caterpillar is meant
to become a butterfly; a seed into a full grown herb, bush or tree; and a human baby into a
mature person.
How this development happens is what we learn in biology class. The process of
development involves beginnings and endings. What was this organism then? What will this
organism be?
A number of researches on human development have been conducted. A lot of theories
on human development have been forwarded. Researches on human development continue as
existing theories get corrected, complemented or replaced. Up to the present, several issues on
human development are unresolved and so the search for explanations continue.
This unit introduces human development as a process, the developmental tasks that
come along with each developmental stage and relevant issues that are raised about human
development.
Module A
Human Development: Meaning, Concepts and Approaches
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:
1. define human development and
2. distinguish between the traditional and life-span approach of development.
Introduction
How does the process of development take place? What do experts say about
development? These are the concerns of this module.
Two Approaches to Human Development
If you believe that Kenn and Naschielle will show extensive change from birth to
adolescence, little or no change in adulthood and decline in late old age, the approach to
development is traditional. In contrast, if you believe that even in adulthood developmental
change takes place as it does during childhood, the approach is termed life-span approach.
What are the characteristics of human development from a life-span perspective? Paul
Baltes (Santrock, 2002), an expert in life-span development, gives the following characteristics:
1. Development is lifelong. It does not end in adulthood. Kenn and Naschielle will continue
developing even in adulthood.
2. Development is plastic. Plasticity refers to the potential for change. Development is
possible throughout the life-span. No one is too old to learn. There is no such thing as “I
am too old for that…” Neither Kenn nor Naschielle will be too old to learn something.
Aging is associated with declines in certain intellectual abilities. These declines can be
prevented or reduced. In one research study, the reasoning abilities of older adults were
improved through retraining.
3. Development is multidimensional. Development consists of biological, cognitive, and
socio-emotional dimensions. Development as a process is complex because it is the
product of biological, cognitive and socioemotional processes.
Biological processes involve changes in the individual’s physical nature. The brains of
Kenn and Naschielle develop. They will gain height and weight. They will experience
hormonal changes when they reach the period of puberty, and cardiovascular decline as
they approach late adulthood. All these show the common biological processes in
development.
Development is relatively orderly. Kenn and Naschielle will learn to sit, crawl
then walk before they can run. The muscular control of the trunk and the arms comes
earlier as compared to the hads and fingers. This is the proximodistal pattern. During
infancy, the greatest growth always occurs at the top – the head – with physical growth
in size, weight and future differentiation gradually working its way down from top to
bottom (for example, neck, shoulder, middle trunk and so on). This is cephalo-caudal
pattern. These development patterns are common to Naschielle and Kenn.
Development takes place gradually. Kenn and Naschielle won’t develop into
pimply teenagers overnight. It takes years before they become one. In fact, that’s the
way of nature. The bud does not blossom suddenly. The seed does not germinate
overnight. While some changes occur in a flash of insight, more often it takes weeks,
months, or years for a person to undergo changes that result in the display of
developmental characteristics.
Cognitive processes involve changes in the individual’s thought, intelligence, and
language. Kenn and Naschielle develop from mere sounds to a word becoming two
words, the two words becoming a sentence. They would move on to memorizing their
first prayer, singing Bayang Magiliw in every flag ceremony to imagining what it would
be like to be a teacher or a pilot, playing chess ad solving a complex math problem. All
these reflect the role of cognitive processes in development.
Socioemotional processes include changes in the individual’s relationships with
other people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality. As babies, Kenn and
Naschielle responded with a sweet smile when affectionately touched and frowned
when displeased and even showed temper tantrum when they could not get or do what
they wanted. From aggressive children, they may develop into a fine lady and a
gentleman or otherwise, depending on a myriad of factors. They may fall in love and get
inspired for life or may end up betrayed, deserted and desperate afterwards. All these
reflect the role of sociemotional processes in development.
These biological, cognitive and socioemotional processes are inestricably
intertwined. While these processed are studied separtately, the effect of one process or
factor on a person’s development is not isolated from the other processes. If Kenn and
Naschielle were undernourished and troubled by the thought of father and mother
about to separate, they could not concentrate on their studies and consequently would
fail and repeat. As a consequence, they may lose face and drop out of school, revert to
illiteracy, become unskilled, unemployed and so on and so forth. See how a biological
process, affects the cognitive process which in turn, affects the socioemotional process.
4. Development is contextual. Individuals are changing beings in a changing world.
Individuals respond to and act on contexts. These contexts include the inividual’s
biological make up, physical environment, cognitive processes, historical, social and
cultural contexts. Kenn’s and Naschielle’s biological make up, social and cultural
contexts may vary and therefore make them develop differently from each other.
5. Development involves growth, maintenance and regulation. Growth, maintenance and
regulation are three goals of human development. The goals of indviduals vary among
developmental stages. For instance, as individuals reach middle and late adulthood,
concern with growth gets into the back stage while maintenance and regulation take the
center stage.
Module B
The Stages of Development and Developmental Tasks
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:
1. define developmental tasks;
2. describe the developmental tasks in each developmental stage; and,
3. come up with research abstracts / summaries of researches on developmental tasks.
Introduction
For every developmental stage, there is an expected developmental task. What happens
when the expected developmental tasks are not achieved at the corresponding developmental
stage? How can you help children achieve these developmental tasks?
Concept of Developmental Tasks
In each stage of development, a certain task or tasks are expected of every individual.
Robert Havighurst defines developmental task as one that “arises at a certain period in our life,
the successful achievement of which leads to happiness and success with later tasks while
failure leads to unhappiness, social disapproval, and difficulty with later tasks.”
Developmental Stages
There are eight developmental stages given by Santrock. The eight developmental
stages cited by Santrock are the same with Havighurst’s six developmental stages only that
Havighurst did not include prenatal period. Havighurst combined infancy and early childhood
while Santrock mentioned them as two separate stages.
The Developmental Tasks (Santrock, 2002)
The developmental tasks and outstanding trait of each stage as described by Santrock
are as follows:
1. Prenatal period (from conception to birth) – It involves tremendous growth – from a
single cell to an organism complete with brain and behavioral capabilities.
2. Infancy (from birth to 18-24 months) – A time of extreme dependence on adults. Many
psychological activities are just beginning – language, symbolic thought, sensorimotor
coordination and social learning.
3. Early childhood (end of infancy to 5-6 years - Grade I) – These are the preschool years.
Young children learn to become more self-sufficient and to care for themselves, develop
school readiness skills and spend many hours in play with peers.
4. Middle and late childhood (6-11 years of age, the elementary school years) – The
fundamental skills of reading, writing and arithmetic are mastered. The child is formally
exposed to the larger world and its culture. Achievement becomes a more central theme
of the child’s world and self-control increases.
5. Adolescence – (10-12 years of age ending up to 18-22 years of age) Begins with rapid
physical changes – dramatic gains in height and weight, changes in body contour; and
the development of sexual characteristics such as enlargement of the breasts,
development of pubic ad facial hair, and deepening of the voice. Pursuit of independence
and identity are prominent. Thought is more logical, abstract and idealistic. More time is
spent outside of the family.
6. Early adulthood (from late teens or early 20s lasting through the 30s) – It is a time of
establishing personal and economic independence, career development, selecting a
mate, lerning to live with someone in an intimate way, starting a family and rearing
children.
7. Middle adulthood (40 to 60 years of age) – It is a time of expanding personal and social
involvement and responsibility; of assisting the next generation in becoming competent
and mature individuals; and of reaching and maintaining satisfaction in a career.
8. Late adulthood (60s and above) It is a time for adjustment to decreasing strength and
health, life review, retirement, and adjustment to new social roles.
Module C
Issues on Human Development
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to take a research-based position on
the three issues on development.
Introduction
Each has his / her own informal ways of looking at one’s own and other people’s
development. These paradigms of human development while obviously lacking in scholastic
vigor, provide a conceptual framework for understanding oneself and others. Scholars have
come up with their own models of human development. Back up by solid research, they take
stand on issues on human development.
The issues presented can be translated into questions that have sparked animated
devate among developmentalits. Are girls less likely to do well in math because of their
‘feminine’ nature or because of society’s ‘masculine’ bias? How extensively can the elderly be
trained to reason more effectively? How much, if at all, does memory decline in old age? Can
techniques be used to prevent or reduce the decline? For children who experienced a world of
poverty, neglect by parents, and poor schooling in childhood, can enriched experiences in
adolescence remove the ‘deficits’ that they encountered earlier in their development.
Based on the presentations, each one has his/her own explanations for his/her stand on
the developmental issues. What is the right answer? Up to this time, the debate continues.
Researches are on-going. Most life-span developmentalists recognize that extreme positions on
these issues are unwise. Development Is not all nature or all nurture, not all continuity or
discontinuity and not all stability or all change. Both nature and nurture, continuity and
discontinuity, stability and change characterize the life-span development. The key to
development is the interaction of nature and nurture rather than either factor along. In other
words, it is a matter of “both-and” not “either-or.”
To summarize, both genes and environment are necessary for a person even to exist.
Without genes, there is no person; without environment, there is no person. Heredity and
environment operate together or cooperate and interact – to produce a person’s intelligence,
temperament, height, weight… ability to read and so on.
If heredity and environment interact, which one has a greater influence or contribution,
heredity or environment? The relative contributions of heredity and environment are not
additive. So one cannot say 50% is a contribution of heredity and 50% of environment. Neither
is it correct to say that full genetic expression happens once, around conception or birth, after
which genetic legacy is taken intpo the world to see how far it gets. Genes produce proteins
throughout the life span, in many different environments. Or they don’t produce these
proteins, depending on how harsh or nourishing those environments are.
Unit 3: Developmental Theories and Other Relevant Theories
Module D
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:
1. explain Freud’s views about child and adolescence development and
2. draw implications of Freud’s theory to education.
Introduction
Freud’s views about human development are more than a century old. He can be
considered the most well known psychologist because of his very interesting theory about the
unconscious and also about sexual development. Although a lot of his views were criticized and
some considered them debunked, (he himself recanted some of his earlier views).
Freud’s theory remains to be one of the most influential in psychology. His theory
sparked the ideas in the brilliant minds of other theorists and thus became the starting point of
many other theories, notable of which is Erikson’s Psychosocial theory.
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