This presentation provides an overview of how to understand a learner.

1. UNDERSTANDING THE
LEARNER

2. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
 Individual differences refers to the extent and kind
of variations or similarities among people on
some of the important psychological aspects such
as intelligence, personality, interest, and aptitude.
 Every learner is different and so are their needs.
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3. ROLE OF REWARDS IN LEARNING
 Is delivered contingently. Pairing a piece of candy
(tangible reward) or verbal praise (intangible reward)
withcompleting a class assignment may enhance
performance of the class assignment and cause
participants to feel competent because they completed
the assignment.
 Specifies the particulars of the accomplishments. That is,
to be told “You're a good test taker.” (the personal
attribute is test taking) versus "You did a good job on this
test.” (the performance is a “good job” on the test) can be
detrimental to personality functioning and can decrease
interest and performance.
 Shows spontaneity, variety, and other signs of credibility;
suggests clear attention to the students
accomplishment.- “you earned the honor of being class
leader next week for accomplishing level 2 of the rubric,
your best work yet.”
 Is given in recognition of noteworthy effort or success at
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4. ROLE OF REINFORCEMENT IN
LEARNING
 REINFORCEMENT
A simple definition of reinforcement is something that
happens after a behavior that makes the behavior
more likely to occur again.
Reinforcers can take many forms, including tangible
items such as stickers or small prizes, and intangible
motivators, such as social activities, sensory activities
or special privileges. Every class is different, and
several types of reinforcers may be used to motivate
different students.
Before beginning any reinforcement system, it is a
good idea to survey students to find out what they find
motivating4 Medhavi Gugnani

5.  Token economy
A token economy is a system in which students
earn some type of a token that can be exchanged
later for a specific reinforcer. If you choose to use
a token economy, you will need to carefully plan
the logistics of the system. Token economies can
be very complex, but a few rules of thumb will
help to make the system manageable.
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6. DISCOVERY LEARNING
 Discovery learning refers to various instructional
design models that engages students in learning
through discovery.
 According to van Joolingen (1999:385): “ Discovery
learning is a type of learning where learners construct
their own knowledge by experimenting with a domain,
and inferring rules from the results of these
experiments. The basic idea of this kind of learning is
that because learners can design their own
experiments in the domain and infer the rules of the
domain themselves they are actually constructing
their knowledge. Because of these constructive
activities, it is assumed they will understand the
domain at a higher level than when the necessary6 Medhavi Gugnani

7. DISCOVERY LEARNING IN PRACTICE
The Pedagogical aims are threefold:
(1) Promote "deep" learning
(2) Promote meta-cognitive skills (develop problem-solving skills,
creativity, etc.)
(3) Promote student engagement.
 Discovery Learning provides students with opportunities to
develop hypotheses to answer questions and can contribute to
the development of a lifelong love of learning. Students propose
issues or problems, gather data and observations to develop
hypotheses, confirm or refine their hypotheses, and explain or
prove their problems.
 Discovery learning is based on this "Aha!" method.
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8. ZONE OF PROXIMAL
DEVELOPMENT (ZPD)
 Vygotsky also introduced the idea that children can
perform more challenging tasks when assisted by
more advanced and competent individuals.
 Vygotsky identified two levels of development: actual
development, which is the upper limit of tasks a child
can perform individually, and level of potential
development, which is the upper limit of tasks a child
can perform with the assistance of a more competent
individual. According to Vygotsky, in order to get a
true assessment of a child's actual and potential
development, we should assess capabilities both
when the child is performing the activity alone and
with a more competent individual.
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9.  For example, our young child exhibited that her actual
development was that she knew the blocks belonged in the
holes, but she couldn't quite determine how to actually put them
in. Her level of potential development was being able to put the
blocks in with the help of her father, an advanced individual
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10.  Our next assumption is that challenging tasks promote maximum
cognitive growth. Vygotsky described this as the zone of
proximal development , or commonly referred to as ZPD. ZPD
is the range of tasks that a child can perform with the help and
guidance of others but cannot yet perform independently.
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11. SCAFFOLDING
 Scaffolding is directly related to zone of proximal development in that it is the
support mechanism that helps a learner successfully perform a task within
his or her ZPD. Typically, this process is completed by a more competent
individual supporting the learning of a less competent individual. So, for
example, there could be a teacher assisting a student, or a higher-level peer
assisting a younger peer.
 Giving clues on how to solve an equation is an example of scaffolding
Scaffolding is applied similarly in the classroom. First, the teacher should
provide clues about how to proceed through the problem. As the child
becomes capable of solving the problem without support, the teacher
gradually removes these clues. This process is referred to as fading.
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12. ASSESSING ZPD
The zone of proximal development should be
assessed by instructors on a regular basis. This
can be done through the following steps:
 The teacher should demonstrate solving a
problem and observe whether the child can
imitate the demonstration.
 The teacher should begin solving the problem
and ask the learner to complete the solution.
 The teacher should ask the child to cooperate
with another, more developed child in solving the
problem.
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13. THANK YOU!
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