Universal principles of learning require unique applications for gifted students.

Abstract

In 2015, the American Psychological Association (APA) released a document titled Top 20 Principles From Psychology for PreK-12 Teaching and Learning (APA, Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education, 2015). It was derived from a multiyear effort by psychologists from a number of subdisciplines, including evaluation, measurement, and statistics; developmental psychology; personality and social psychology; the psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts; consulting psychology; educational psychology; school psychology; counseling psychology; community psychology; psychology of women; media psychology and technology; group psychology and group psychotherapy; psychological study of men and masculinity; and clinical child and adolescent psychology. The report stemmed from a thought experiment: If you could promote only two principles that were essential for student learning and well-being, what would they be? The group came to a consensus on the drop dead principles that teachers needed to master to be successful in the classroom. The list started off with over 40 contenders, and as a result of debate over the evidence for each one, the pool was narrowed to the top 20. The results of these multiyear discussions led to a peerreviewed document that described each principle and its classroom applications and included primary references. The document has been translated into Spanish, Mandarin, Slovenian and Turkish (see http://www.apa.org/ed/schools/teaching-learning/top-twentyprinciples.aspx) and will soon be available in French, Arabic, Serbian, Portuguese, and Korean. The 20 principles are presented here by topic:How do students think and learn?1. Students' beliefs or perceptions about intelligence and ability affect their cognitive functioning and learning.2. What students already know affects their learning.3. Students' cognitive development and learning are not limited by general stages of development.4. Learning is based on context, so generalizing learning to new contexts is not spontaneous but instead needs to be facilitated.5. Acquiring long-term knowledge and skill is largely dependent on practice.6. Clear, explanatory, and timely feedback to students is important for learning.7. Students' self-regulation assists learning, and self-regulatory skills can be taught.8. Student creativity can be fostered.What motivates students?9. Students tend to enjoy learning and perform better when they are more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated to achieve.10. Students persist in the face of challenging tasks and process information more deeply when they adopt mastery goals rather than performance goals.11. Teachers' expectations about their students affect students' opportunities to learn, their motivation, and their learning outcomes.12. Setting goals that are short term (proximal), specific, and moderately challenging enhances motivation more than does establishing goals that are long term (distal), general, and overly challenging.Why are social context, interpersonal relationships, and emotional well-being important to student learning?13. Learning is situated within multiple social contexts.14. Interpersonal relationships and communication are critical to both the teaching-learning process and the social-emotional development of students.15. Emotional well-being influences educational performance, learning, and development.How can the classroom best be managed?16. Expectations for classroom conduct and social interaction are learned and can be taught using proven principles of behavior and effective classroom instruction.17. Effective classroom management is based on (a) setting and communicating high expectations, (b) consistently nurturing positive relationships, and (c) providing a high level of student support.How should student progress be assessed?18. …