HPL Framework

The HPL Framework, or How People Learn framework, is a framework for using and designing effective learning environments, initially described in Chapter 6 of the How People Learn book.
 
The HPL framework provides four interrelated perspectives on learning, including how a learning environment is knowledge-centered, assessment-centered, community-centered, and learner-centered (see the figure below).  These four perspectives need to all be considered to ensure effective learning.
 
HPL Framework
 
 
 
Here are some quotes from the How People Learn book describing the different aspects of this framework:
 
Learner-centered
 
"We use the term "learner centered" to refer to environments that pay careful attention to the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that learners bring to the educational setting."
 
Knowledge-centered
 
"Knowledge-centered environments take seriously the need to help students become knowledgeable (Bruner, 1981) by learning in ways that lead to understanding and subsequent transfer."
 
"Knowledge-centered environments intersect with learner-centered environments when instruction begins with a concern for students' initial preconceptions about the subject matter"
 
Assessment-centered
 
"The key principles of assessment are that they should provide opportunities for feedback and revision and that what is assessed must be congruent with one's learning goals."
 
Community-centered
 
"We use the term community centered to refer to several aspects of community, including the classroom as a community, the school as a community, and the degree to which students, teachers, and administers feel connected to the larger community of homes, businesses, states, the nation, and even the world."
 
"At the level of classrooms and schools, learning seems to be enhanced by social norms that value the search for understanding and allow students (and teachers) the freedom to make mistakes in order to learn."
 
Applying the HPL Framework
 
Some learning environments lean heavily in one aspect, for example assessment or knowledge-centeredness.
A quiz is obviously assessment-centered, and a book is more knowledge-centered.
 
Generally it appears that effective & complete learning environments consider all aspects and balance them.
 
More Info
 
Description of the How People Learn framework - from the VaNTH bioengineering education project
 
Groups:

Disclaimer

Any opinions expressed here, except as specifically noted, are those of the individual authors or commenters and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the Department of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences, the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services, or Utah State University.