What Do We Know About Learners and Learning? The Learner-Centered Framework: Bringing the Educational System into Balance

Abstract

This paper introduces “learner-centered” education from a research and theory base that integrates what we know about learners and learning both inside and outside formal school settings and describes the work of the author and colleagues in developing self-assessment and reflection tools for K‐20 teachers and their students. Building on the Learner-Centered Psychological Principles (APA, 1993, 1997), data on more than 20,000 students and their teachers in kindergarten through graduate school were collected with the Assessment of Learner-Centered Practices (ALCP) surveys (McCombs, 1997, 1999; McCombs and Lauer, 1997; McCombs and Pierce, 1999; McCombs and Quiat, 1999). The surveys identify teacher beliefs and discrepancies between teacher and student perspectives on practices, and help teachers to reflect on and change practices as well as to identify personalized staff development needs. Data indicated that the best predictor of student motivation and achievement, at all age levels, was a common domain of practice that creates positive relationships between students and teachers and a positive climate for learning. Implications for moving from personal to systems change based on student perspectives will briefly be presented.