PRINCIPLES OF
TEACHING
“The ability to learn is the most significant activity of a man”
HOW DO WE DEFINE
LEARNING?
LEARNING
The acquisition of a knowledge-base used with fluency to
make sense of the world, solve problems and make decisions.
The key words are:
1. acquisition of a knowledge-base
2. Fluency
3. make sense of the world
4. solve problems
5. make decisions
PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
1. Learning is an experience which occurs inside the learner and
is activated by the learner.
Learning is not only a function of what a teacher does to, or says
to, or provides for a learner. More significantly, learning has to do
with something which happens in the unique world of the learner.
It flourishes in a situations in which teaching is seen as a facilitating
process that assist people to explore and discover the personal
meaning of events for them.
PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
2. Learning is the discovery of the personal meaning and
relevance of ideas.
Students more readily internalize and implement concepts
and ideas which are relevant to their needs and problems.
It is necessary that teacher relates lessons to the needs,
interest and problems of the learners.
PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
3. Learning (behavioral change) is a sequence of
experience.
For effective learning, giving information is not enough,
people become responsible and independent not from
having people tell them that they should be responsible and
independent but from having experienced authentic
responsibility and independence.
PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
4. Learning is a cooperative and collaborative process.
Cooperation fosters learning.
“Two heads are better than one” People enjoy functioning
independently but they also enjoy functioning
interdependently. Interactive process appears to “scratch
and kick” peoples curiosity, potential and creativity.
PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
Cooperative approaches are enabling. Through such
approach people learn to define goals, to plan to interact
and to try group arrangements in problem solving.
Paradoxically, as people invest them selves in collaborative
group approaches they develop a firmer sense of their own
identification. They begin to realize that they count, that they
have something to give and to learn. Problems which are
identified and delineated through cooperative interaction
appear to challenge and to stretch people produce creative
solutions and to become more creative individuals.
PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
Teacher should make use more of cooperative and
collaborative approaches. This way, students are taught to
live together and learn interdependently.
PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
5. Learning is an evolutionary process.
This principle states that behavioral change or learning
requires time and patience. Learning is associated in a step-
by-step process that happened in a span of time.
PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
6. Learning is sometime a painful process.
Behavioral change often calls for giving up the old and
comfortable ways of believing, thinking, and valuing. It is not
easy to discard familiar ways of doing things and incorporate
new behavior. However, the pain of breaking away from the
old and the comfortable is usually followed by appreciation
and pleasure in the discovery of an evolving idea of a
changing self.
PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
7. One of the richest resources for learning is the learner
himself.
In a day and age when so much emphasis is being
placed upon instructional media, books and speakers as
resources for learning, we tend to overlook perhaps the richest
source of all – the learner himself. Each individual has an
accumulation of experiences, ideas, feelings and attitudes
which comprise a rich vein of material for problem solving and
learning.
PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
8. The process of learning is emotional as well as intellectual.
Learning is affected by the total state of the of the
individual. People are feeling beings as well as thinking
beings and when their feelings and thoughts are in harmony
learning is maximized.
PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
9. The process of problem solving and learning is highly
unique and individual.
Each person has his own unique styles of learning and
solving problems. Some personal styles of learning and
problem solving are highly effective, others styles are not as
effective, and still others may be ineffective.
LAW OF LEARNING
BY THORNDIKE(1932)
LAW OF EFFECT
• Learning is strengthened when accompanied by
pleasant or satisfying feeling.
• Learning is weakened when associated with an
unpleasant feeling.
• Learning takes place properly when it results in
satisfaction and the learners derives pleasures out of it.
LAW OF EXERCISE
• Things most often repeated are best remembered.
• Students do not learn complex task in a single session.
LAW OF READINESS
• Individuals learn best when they are physically, mentally,
and emotional ready to learn, and they do not learn
well if they see no reason for learning
LAW OF PRIMACY
• Things learned first create a strong impression.
• What is taught must be right the first time.
LAW OF RECENCY
• Things most recently learned are best remembered.
LAW OF INTENSITY
• The more intense the material taught, the more it is likely
learned
LAW OF FREEDOM
• Things freely learned are best learned
• The greater the freedom enjoyed by the students in the
class, the greater is the intellectual and moral
advancement enjoyed by them.