Salient Features of a Learning Environment

Salient Features of a Learning Environment

Author: Santosh Kumar Biswa, Sr. Teacher, Damphu CS, Tsirang, Bhutan

 

The success and failure of students in the classroom depend on the type of learning environment students are exposed to (Harr, n.d.). In this 21st-century world, students demand the type of classroom that supports thinking, not just the traditional type. Teachers should be able to uplift their learning capacity supported by varied teaching practices in the classroom that make learning impactful and interactive so that they can gain new learning skills (Movchan, 2018). To make the learning environment effective, teachers should be able to make an appropriate choice while planning for the instructional design model and also make students feel safe and supported in the classroom (Virtual College, 2022). This write-up elaborates on salient features of the learning environment and some of the limitations it carries for the implementation process.

Salient Features of an Effective Learning Environment

The most stressful and challenging part of teaching is making the classroom learning environment an effective and best one. The teacher should be able to create a stimulating classroom learning environment by promoting innovation and a positive learning culture by maintaining good classroom culture and organization. Moreover, the teacher should be able to make the learning environment a conducive one with enough time to interact and learn during the teaching and learning process (Wanjohi, 2010). There are many features of a learning environment, but some of the most important and salient features of an effective learning environment in any classroom are as below:

Address Learners’ Needs and Motivate Them

As a teacher, it is very important to understand the psychological needs of the learners is vital so that they are helped to progress in their learning. The teacher should accommodate their intrinsic needs with a positive attitude at all times so that they get motivated. This would enable teachers to provoke any expectations through reflective thinking based on the lessons learned (Seel, Lchmann, Blumschien, and Podolskiy, 2017). The teacher needs to focus on praising students to motivate them instead of focusing on their negative aspects (Studentreasures, 2021). Motivating students is a challenging task because we often fail to understand a student’s emotional state and they are neglected in trying to understand what they are going through. The teacher needs to communicate well and understand the learners in knowing their learning status and any insecurities they carry so that they stay motivated and perform well.

Creating a Supportive Learning Culture in the Classroom

Creating a supportive learning culture in the classroom is one of the effective ways to promote a positive learning environment in the classroom. Students should feel that they are supported during their learning process because individual students do not share their ideas with others or even bother to ask others for any form of help. Introducing peer-to-peer help and support systems in the classroom can help them explore and exchange their ideas. Teachers should also encourage students to build the habit of seeking help from their peers and their teachers whenever they need help. They should be assured that they are supported in their classroom by their teacher and their peers. Mostly, in my classroom, I have the system of appointing at least one mentor in each group who can lead the group and support low achievers through the system of support within a learning environment. The limitation is that not all teachers follow it due to lack of time and administration pressure. A teacher should adjust and make it happen in the classroom so that an effective learning environment can be promoted along with the social development of the students. Moreover, using multiculturalism and differentiated instructions in the classroom can also promote effective learning as it exposes students to the citizens of the future and be global citizens through diversity and socio-culture awareness (Canadian International School, 2020), and differentiated instructions enable them to cater the needs, strengths, and interests of the individual students to learn through differentiated content, process, and products (Lazel, 2021).

A teacher should be acting as a role model in the class.

The teacher should act as a role model in the classroom who shows a keen interest in the subject matter (Wanjohi, 2010). He should be able to inspire students at all levels so that subject matters become alive and appropriate for the learners to achieve their educational goals.  A kind of reinforcement from the teacher’s side with optimum teacher-student relationships is required so that they can understand the situation closely and solve it together without hindrance. They should ensure students that their teacher is available to talk with them and address their problems (EDBlog, 2020). Any behavioral cases should be seriously and immediately handled to help students recover through the appropriate procedures. The limitation we have is the readiness from the teacher’s side to be the role model, especially during the instructional hours, because mostly they focus on the content rather than any other aspect of the teaching process. Some even stick to the old traditional methods of teaching their students with fixed minds without any notions of providing an opportunity for students to explore.

Inculcating Reflective Experiential Learning in the Classroom

Teachers should promote reflective experiential learning in the classroom to enable students to create meaning out of what they are learning, gain experience, and draw knowledge through the lens of the constructivist approach. According to Schwartz (2012), he stated that teachers should be able to make students bring ‘the theory to life” by reflecting on their learning experience to enable them to deepen learning by understanding themselves. The limitation here is that teachers hardly make students reflect since they are more engrossed in teaching the content than contextualizing it in the classroom. The teacher should remain focused in the school on using cognitive domains to address the issues by including all three domains, such as affective, cognitive, or psychomotor, in his lesson. It would ensure a better learning experience in terms of styles and modalities in the classroom (LSME, 2019).

Focusing on effective teaching using Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction

The study culture in the classroom should shift from classroom learning to learning through real-world settings so that students would be able to meet future needs. Using Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction is one of the proven effective ways to help students in the classroom learn through constructive activities for better learning and understanding. Every step involved in Gagne’s nine events helps teachers provide a guide during the learning process (Emerald Works Limited, 2022). The limitation it has is that it makes students too much dependent on the teacher and they may not be able to excel in problem-solving skills on their own due to limited knowledge gained. On the other hand, it is time-consuming during the development stage of the activity. If the teacher designs the lesson purely based on learned-centered and follows a self-directed approach with identified teaching and learning materials, the stated limit can be solved. Additionally, the teacher should provide some instructional support during the activity by restructuring the lesson and helping them with alternative strategies so that students get enough learning opportunities to expose themselves to a variety of stimuli.

Conclusion

Thus, it is evident from the features explained above that for any effective learning environment proper instructional design choices are necessary that ensure an appropriate and accessible learning environment for the students. Moreover, the learning environment should be safe for students to address any barriers between the students and the learning tools. The teacher plays a significant role in designing instruction appropriately that meets the student’s needs and has a positive attitude towards education.

References

CIS. (2020). The advantages of a multicultural classroom. https://www.canadianinternationalschool.com/the-advantages-of-a-multicultural-classroom/

ED Blog. (2020). Common Barriers to Learning and How to Eradicate Them. https://blog.edclass.com/common-barriers-to-learning-and-how-to-eridicate-them/

Emerald Works Limited. (2022). Gagne's Nine Levels of Learning. Mind Tools. https://www.mindtools. com/pages/article/gagne.htm

Harr, N. (n.d.). Learning Environments II. https://sites.google.com/site/elps710/readings---learning/how-people-learn/learning-environments-ii

Kaplan, D.E. (2017). Creative technology in the curriculum in online teacher training. https://www.scirp.org/journal/papercitationdetails.aspx?paperid=77518&JournalID=136

Lazel. (2021). Differentiated Instruction. https://www.learninga-z.com/site/what-we-do/differentiated-instruction

LSME. (2019). The Three (3) Domains of Learning – Cognitive; Affective; and Psychomotor (Caps) – It’s Application in Teaching and Learning. London School of Management. https://lsme.ac.uk/blog/the-three-3-domains-of-learning

McGarry, O. (2019). 6 Barriers to Learning (and How to Overcome Them). https://www.learnupon.com/blog/barriers-to-learning/

Movchan, S. (2018). What Makes a Good Learning Environment? https://raccoongang.com/blog/what-makes-good-learning-environment/

Schwartz, M. (2012). Best practices in experiential learning. https://www.mcgill.ca/eln/files/eln/doc_ryerson_bestpracticesryerson.pdf

Seel, N. M., Lchmann, T., Blumschien, P., & Podolskiy, O. A. (2017). Instructional design for learning: Theoretical foundations, 1 - 17. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Instructional_Design_for_Learning/UmCwDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

Studentreasures. (2021). How to Create a Positive Learning Environment for the Upcoming School Year. https://studentreasures.com/blog/teaching-strategies/how-to-create-a-positive-learning-environment-in-person-and-online-this-school-year/

Virtual College. (2022). What Makes a Good Learning Environment? https://www.virtual-college.co.uk/resources/what-makes-a-good-learning-environment

Wanjohi, A.M. (2010). Features of an effective learning environment. KENPRO Publications. Available online at http://www.kenpro.org/papers/features-of-an-effective-learning-environment.htm