I was working on one of my assignments for my doctoral studies and searching for a good definition of student-centered learning. Imagine my delight when I realized that APA provides a beautiful and comprehensive definition that is a real joy to read. As many of you already know, Nina’s Notes is dedicated to helping teachers to adopt and use more student-centered practices in their classroom. I just want to group the practices into the 3Cs to have a manageable and functional framework. Yet, what I see below fits perfectly well into my teaching/learning philosophy (emphasis and colouring mine):
What else can I say?
This is exactly how I was taught during my own teacher education in Finland. The teaching and learning process where teachers are learning facilitators and students intrinsically motivated and accountable for their own learning should look like this in the classrooms everywhere in the world! And APA even provides more tools for getting there!
Please read ahead:
COGNITIVE AND METACOGNITIVE FACTORS
The learning of complex subject matter is most effective when it is an intentional process of constructing meaning from information and experience.
The successful learner, over time and with support and instructional guidance, can create meaningful, coherent representations of knowledge.
The successful learner can link new information with existing knowledge in meaningful ways.
The successful learner can create and use a repertoire of thinking and reasoning strategies to achieve complex learning goals.
Higher order strategies for selecting and monitoring mental operations facilitate creative and critical thinking.
Learning is influenced by environmental factors, including culture, technology, and instructional practices.
MOTIVATIONAL AND AFFECTIVE FACTORS
What and how much is learned is influenced by the learner’s motivation. Motivation to learn, in turn, is influenced by the individual’s emotional states, beliefs, interests and goals, and habits of thinking.
The learner’s creativity, higher order thinking, and natural curiosity all contribute to motivation to learn.
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.
DEVELOPMENTAL AND SOCIAL FACTORS
As individuals develop, they encounter different opportunities and experience different constraints for learning. Learning is most effective when differential development within and across physical, intellectual, emotional, and social domains is taken into account.
Learning is influenced by social interactions, interpersonal relations, and communication with others.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES FACTORS
Learners have different strategies, approaches, and capabilities for learning that are a function of prior experience and heredity.
Learning is most effective when differences in learners’ linguistic, cultural, and social backgrounds are taken into account.
Principle 14: Standards and assessment
Setting appropriately high and challenging standards and assessing the learner and learning progress-including diagnostic, process, and outcome assessment-are integral parts of the learning process.
How can we make this become reality in classrooms? Please check Nina’s Notes for some tools! And let’s keep on collaborating in highlighting the importance of student-centered practices!
Summarized from the APA Work Group of the Board of Educational Affairs (1997, November). Learner-centered psychological principles: Guidelines for school reform and redesign. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. http://www.jodypaul.com/lct/lct.psychprinc.html
Also see: http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/techconf00/mccombs_paper.html for more information about learner-centered practices and their importance to the field of contemporary education.