The Department of Education

State and SJU Learning Principles

In order to be recommended by SJU for Pennsylvania certification, each student must demonstrate success in using ten state learning principles along with the five developed by the SJU Education Department. These are listed and briefly described below. In the Introduction to this section of the Department web site and in the Program Guidelines section of each program report, the five SJU learning principles are referred to as “guidelines” because they accompany the state guidelines for each content area. However, in defining the specific competencies expected of all students who plan to successfully complete a program, they are referred to as learning principles that accompany the ten state learning principles. Taken together, the fifteen subsume the content and skills included in all three sections of the individual Program Guidelines.

As we begin our portfolio program, we are in the process of linking the fifteen learning principles with portfolio artifacts for each of the required courses at the undergraduate level. An artifact is a student product, performance, project, paper, exam, or other demonstration of learning. Students have some choice as to which artifacts they will include in their portfolios, but they must demonstrate competence with all fifteen principles. Instructors are asked to include in their syllabi a listing of those assignments that will serve as artifacts for the different learning principles. This year’s freshmen will be expected to present at the end of a four year program a completed portfolio that contains ample evidence of all fifteen learning principles.

I. State Learning Principles

Learning Principle 1 – Knowledge of Subject Matter
The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline he or she teaches, and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for all students.

Learning Principle 2 – Knowledge of Human Development and Learning
The teacher understands how all children learn and develop and can provide learning opportunities that support their intellectual, social, career, and personal development.

Learning Principle 3 – Adapting Instruction for Individual Needs
The teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that foster achievement of diverse learners in the inclusive classroom.

Learning Principle 4 – Multiple Instructional Strategies
The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students’ development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.

Top of Page

Learning Principle 5 – Classroom Motivation and Management Skills The teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.

Learning Principle 6 – Communication Skills
The teacher uses knowledge of effective verbal, nonverbal, and media
communication techniques supported by appropriate technology to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.

Learning Principle 7 – Instructional Planning Skills
The teacher plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, the students, the community, and curriculum goals.

Learning Principle 8 – Assessment of Student Learning
The teacher understands and uses formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and ensure the continuous intellectual, social, and physical development of the learner.

Learning Principle 9 – Professional Commitment and Responsibility
The teacher thinks systematically about practice, learns from experience, seeks the advice of others, draws upon educational research and scholarship, and actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.

Learning Principle 10 – Partnerships
The teacher contributes to school effectiveness by collaborating with other professionals and parents, by using community resources, and by working as an advocate to improve opportunities for student learning.

II. SJU Learning Principles

Learning Principle 1 – Faith Justice and Education
Teaching from a faith-based perspective, the teacher gives priority to the development of social justice and equity in the classroom.

Learning Principle 2 – Education in the Community Context
The teacher fosters relationships between the school and the communities it serves, taking into consideration such issues as gender, race, and class, as well as promoting the sharing of resources and perspectives that enhance and enrich learning in a community of learners.

Learning Principle 3 – Multiple Paradigms in American Education
The teacher views education through the lenses of different paradigms that seek to describe the role of education in a democratic society. These include social, economic, cultural, critical, and constructivist paradigms.

Learning Principle 4 – The Role of the Scholar-Practitioner Model in Education
The teacher is able to make connections between theory and practice, and understands the role that scholarly research can play in guiding the work of the practitioner.

Learning Principle 5 – The Role of an Interdisciplinary Curriculum
The teacher uses an interdisciplinary approach to teaching based on an understanding that learning is enhanced when students make connections among different subject areas.