The principles of learning are a set of characteristics that have been identified by educational psychologists and researchers as generally applicable to the learning process. These principles have been discovered, tested, and used in practical situations, and they provide additional insight into what makes people learn most effectively. The following is a list of the key principles of learning:

• Learning is a process of actively constructing knowledge: Students construct knowledge and make it meaningful in terms of their prior knowledge and experiences.

• Students prior knowledge can help or hinder learning: When knowledge is inert, insufficient for the task, activated inappropriately, or inaccurate, it can interfere with or impede new learning.

• How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know: When knowledge is accurately and meaningfully organized, students are better able to retrieve and apply their knowledge effectively and efficiently.

• Students motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn: Students must be motivated to learn in order to effectively acquire new knowledge and skills.

• To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned: Students must develop the necessary skills and knowledge to perform complex tasks, practice combining and integrating them to develop greater fluency and automaticity, and learn when and how to apply what they have learned.

• Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students learning: Students must receive feedback on their performance in order to improve their learning.

• Students current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning: The learning environment and the social and emotional climate of the classroom can impact students learning.

• To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning: Students must develop metacognitive skills to monitor and adjust their learning strategies.

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