Why Build A Learning Environment?
As a teacher you have a responsibility to your students and to society to educate the students who have been entrusted to you.
The environment in which the students learn will be a major factor as to how successful they and you are. It is up to you to create a learning environment.
The Physical Environment
If you have control over how your classroom is configured, what are the essentials? You need some kind of board or screen for whole class teaching. It must be possible for every student to see the board clearly. And of course the students need to be comfortable.
I get round the “back of the class” mentality by having a horseshoe so everyone is at the front.
You will have to check your students for eyesight and hearing because in every class there are likely to be students with some visual or auditory weakness. Often it is undeclared and sometimes the student is not really aware. Look for the student with their head or body at a strange angle.
Having identified a problem get it resolved.
The brightly coloured posters you have up need to have a purpose beyond mere decoration. They should reinforce the subject messages and the social messages you are trying to impart.
It really is not ideal to have tired flyblown messages up for years on end.
And if it is right that a poster is up all year, move it to different locations so it seems fresher.
I was astonished to learn of one Deputy Head Teacher who had on display not the work of the students in this class but students from a different school where she had previously worked. Her explanation was that this work on display was models which the children could emulate. One weeps when one thinks of all the opportunity for interaction and praise that this teacher was throwing away.
And what about the message she was conveying to her students that not one of them was worthy?
In some schools the very best work from every age group is on public display. And in some schools no work is on display. The opportunities being thrown away here are not only negatively affecting the children.
The opportunity for parents and visitors to see what the children do is also lost.
Most teachers do group work because it creates opportunities for collaborative work, differentiation, mixing up social groups, and practising purposive communication. The layout of the room can reflect this. Tables for two, or four, or more are more conducive to group work than when children have to physically turn around to collaborate.
There is also the possibility for a learning carousel where children rotate round the room participating in various activities.
Physical Objects
The importance of physical objects is often not appreciated. The map of the world, the map of the country, the map of the county or of the town have a very real purpose. They help the student to understand where s/he is. It also arouses curiosity about the areas where the child is not.
Contour models are better than contour maps because most people cannot visualise a contour map.
The prism, the tetrahedron, the yardstick or metre rule, the litre or pint or gallon container all stimulate thought. Artefacts from other societies, or from your country’s history, that can be seen and touched have a huge impact. Even cardboard boxes from other countries arouse interest. Why are they here – in our town?
Subject specific physical objects are also important. In a language class, posters in the relevant language arouse interest, particularly if they are changed frequently.
Cartoons illustrating history or law or education or biology are interesting, and are even better for being changed at intervals. And if you have a spare skull or skeleton take it out of the cupboard and put it on display for a month.
Some children are really influenced and helped by being able to touch things.
I had a history teacher who devised quizzes which involved attaching wires to terminals. If the answer was correct a light came on, and if the answer was wrong a rude noise resulted. I will be mentioning him again later.
Discipline and Expectations
What we really want is for the students to develop self discipline.
Time spent controlling and containing and disciplining is time wasted when you are not teaching and when the students are not learning. And the “good” students are fed up with all the wasted time – and sometimes they act up in protest.
For some children who just want attention “CBG” may be appropriate. “Catch Them Being Good” so they get teacher’s attention and praise when they are good is more constructive than having to give attention when they are naughty.
The “contract” notion of classroom behavior can be used, but often it is poorly used. In the first class of each year I usually set out what the students can reasonably expect of me and what I can reasonably expect of them. I start with what they can expect of me, and then I ask the same of them. Turn up prepared for the class, work hard in class, and positive co-operation from all of us. “Turn round marking quickly” requires work to be in on time.
The practicalities have to be explained – why lateness matters is better to be discussed by the class so the reasoning is coming from the students rather than from the teacher.
Students are often genuinely surprised when I explain that I “read” the class and that their talking makes my “”reading” more difficult.
My classes are asked to “own” timekeeping, turning up prepared, only asking one intelligent question an hour so everyone gets a chance, and not talking about unrelated matters.
I also explain that many of the class are going to ask me to provide a reference for prospective employers or for further study. As I am putting my reputation on the line, I will not give other than honest references. Poor work, poor classroom behaviour, frequent lateness or absence will all feature in any reference I give.
I also tell them that I have sometimes refused to give references for students who are not attending or who are not helpful when they do attend.
I was lucky to be teaching Law. I would explain that I am today assessing their capacity as lawyers to follow a simple instruction. “Take your mobile telephone out. Turn it off. Put it away”. I said that we would know by the end of the class which students did not yet have the personal skills to become lawyers.
I had previously been in practice. I would say that whereas I had worried about my clients I enjoyed this teaching job because I did not worry about the students. This met predictable shock.
I explained that the students who were working hard I did not need to worry about. The students who were not working hard why should I worry about? More than one student commented that this was blunt but clear.
In the first class with a group of students I would enquire how many hours work there was in a full time paid job? After discussion the class would agree at around 38 hours a week. Then I would ask how many hours a week a full time Law student should work?
There was always a crashing silence because they all knew the correct answer was “38” but none of them were putting in those hours. I pointed out that their competitors at the good universities are working those hours and more. My expectation was “38 hours” but it had to be their individual decisions.
One of my colleagues had a good line.
“How old are you?” – “20”
“At twenty, who is responsible for the quality and effort you put into your studies?”
“I am.”
“Why have you not prepared for this seminar?”
If you make your expectations clear, and you are transparent and committed, the class will usually respond.
Co-operative Working
I always explain that there is no limit on the number of First Class and 2:1 degrees the college gives out. I encouraged the students to form study groups.
When I was a Law student my study group studied at home after supper and met in the pub at 9.30pm. We talked Law until 10pm and then we turned Law off, and talked about important things like football and sex.
Tests and Homework
Testing can be “formative” or “summative”. Formative testing is where you have quizzes or similar to see what knowledge the students have retained and can regurgitate. If a number of students are making the same error, perhaps the teaching was inadequate. Ouch! There is time to correct and to consolidate and to reinforce.
My history teacher had a pattern. He would in his quizzes always ask questions in groups of five, to which the answer was always the same.
Who was the son of King James The First?
Who was the King who tried to arrest five Members of Parliament?
Who was the King who lost his head?
Who was the father of Charles the Second?
Who was the father of James the Second?
Once we knew his pattern we all did well in the tests, and the tests reinforced the relationships and patterns we needed to understand. It was only many years later that I realised that he was using his formative assessments to reinforce and consolidate knowledge. At the time I wondered how he had such a good reputation as a teacher when he set such easy tests.
In one of my law seminars a student asked why for three seminars running I had asked essentially the same question three different ways. His examination was in January. I asked “Is there anything important happening in January?”
He thought, and then he smiled and he shut up.
Homework should be used for consolidating and reinforcing and exercising knowledge already gained. There is a fine line between that and asking the student to invent a new theorum or a new method on their own at home. Not everyone has parents or older siblings who can help. You have to be fair.
Summative testing is the year end exam.
Maslow
Maslow’s hierarchy of need is hugely important. Make sure your children are not being bullied or ganged up on or otherwise made unhappy. Sometimes the problem is at home but far too often the problem is in school and the teachers do not see it.
Finale
In some parts of the world children walk miles to school. In some parts of the world parents pay for their children’s education. Some classrooms are just a clearing in a wood. I have seen classes being taught in a field by the side of the road. Generally speaking, the children are committed and the teachers are committed.
With all the physical resources we in the First World have we should do better than we do. Our problem is motivation, communication of expectations, and learning self discipline.
And the same for our students.
Recent Comments