As educators, we are sometimes prone to “miss the forest for the trees” when preparing a course

or a lesson.
That is, we often focus on the immediacy of crafting a lesson outline, selecting learning methods,
creating teaching resources, rehearsing techniques for teaching, and thinking of ways to keep the
lesson interesting and meaningful to our students.
All well and good, unless in the process we forget the foundational principles of effective
teaching and learning.
It can be helpful to keep these 10 perennial principles about learning in mind as we prepare to
teach.
 
1. We learn to do by doing. One of the facts many teachers and presenters have a hard time
accepting is that the learner is the agent of learning, not the teacher. If the teacher, trainer, or
presenter is doing most of the work it’s a safe bet that he or she is the one doing most of the
learning. Passive learners don’t learn.
 
2. We learn to do what we do and not something else. What we ask learners to do (the
learning activity) must be congruent to the end we want to achieve. If we want the learner to
learn to ride a bike he or she must actually ride a bike. If we want a learner to learn the Bible
then he or she must study the Bible, not sit and listen to someone else who has studied the Bible.
If want the learner to learn to be a leader then he or she must actually lead.
 
3. Without readiness, learning is inefficient and may be harmful. Learning comes at its own
time for each learner. Some things cannot be learned before their time. Until a learner is ready
cognitively, emotionally, circumstantially and volitionally he or she is not able to learn,
regardless of how hard we may work at it.
 
4. Without motivation, there can be no learning at all. Learners must be willing to learn as
well as ready to learn. One is a matter of capacity, the other is a matter of volition. You can’t
teach the unwilling.
 
5. For effective learning, student responses must be immediately reinforced. The greater the
lag time between practice and feedback the less retention there is and the greater the chance for
misunderstanding or misapplication.
 
6. Meaningful content is better learned and longer retained than less meaningful
content. Trivia may be entertaining, but unless learners perceive that the content of their study is
relevant and applicable to their lives it will not be retained.
 
7. For the greatest amount of transfer learning, responses should be learned in the way
they are going to be used. In other words, form really does matter—how you do something
matters, and, the context of learning matters. Simulations have their limits, and “pretend
learning” is ultimately ineffective.
 
8. One’s response to the learning experience will vary according to how one perceives the
situation. In order to solicit the appropriate response from the learner, we may need to change
the student’s frame of reference first.
 
9. An individual’s responses will vary according to the learning context. The environment
for learning can enhance or inhibit the learning experience. Determining the best context for
learning is important. The classroom is not the best place for every kind of learning.
 
10. One does the only thing one can do given the physical inheritance, background,
capacities, and present acting forces. As teachers, we strive to do the best we can to provide
the conditions and opportunity for learning, but we must embrace the truth that, ultimately, the
learner is the agent of learning. How well and how consistently do you apply the ten principles in
your teaching?