Unit -3 Classroom management (6403)

 

(Unit -3)

Classroom learning environment

Learning

Learning is the act of acquiring new or modifying and reinforcing existing, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, plants and some machines. (Wikipedia)

Learning environment

The term “learning environment” is one of the most often used in the field of education. Due to its extensive use, it carries wide meaning and scope therefore it is difficult to define. Creating a classroom community and culture remain another necessary aspect when fostering a safe learning environment. Students need to understand what they have in common with their fellow learners in the classroom.

Definitions of learning environment

Learning environment also refers to learning resources and technology, means of teaching, modes of learning, and connections to societal and global contexts.

‘Learning environment refers to the diverse physical locations, contexts, and cultures in which students learn.

Learning environment is the place where teaching and learning take place in the most effective and productive manner.  It consists of the classroom and all the instructional features and  non threatening classroom climate needed in planning and implementing all teaching and learning activities.

Effective learning environment

Effective learning environment (also known as classroom management) involves organizing classroom activities, instructions, and the physical classroom to provide for effective use of time, to create a happy, productive learning environment, and to minimize disruptions. 

Classroom activities for effective learning environment

Classrooms are meant to implement the curriculum developed as per requirement of the educational policies and plans of the government. The effective implementation of the curriculum is assessed on the basis of the objectives that have been achieved by that implementation. The classrooms activities are aligned with the objectives set in the curriculum and are based upon the learning environment created by the teachers.

Learning environment can be examined from three perspectives and include a number of classroom activities.

I-setting up and maintaining the classroom

The physical space of the effective learning environment for the classrooms that is organized into number of interest areas involving different activities such as blocks, dramatic play, toys and games, art, library, discovery, computers and outdoors visits.

Interest areas offer multiple opportunities for students to explore, discover, and grow.

II- establishing a structure for each day

The managed routines and schedule create a sense of order in effective classrooms. Students being well aware of their responsibilities and obligations respond well to the teachers’ instructional delivery techniques

III-creating a classroom community

The classroom community is only established when the teacher has an ability to involve the students in the effectives activities. Therefore, it is based on the social/emotional environment of the classroom. Teachers relate to students in positive ways and help them do the same with one another.

Types of learning environments

Traditional schooling is based on an educational setup that has been around from many decades. Here the purpose of education was to prepare people for jobs for specific areas. Some of the types of learning environments have been discussed below.

I. Passive learning environment

Such traditional education is rooted in the stimulus-response method of behavioural psychology. The leader, or teacher, presents the stimulus and then assesses the students to see if they have learned the appropriate information.

II. Active learning environment

The new paradigm for active education puts the learner in control of the learning process. Students can pursue topics that interest them. The process of learning becomes as important as the result. The goal of active learning is to give students the ability to explore on their own, not to simply spoon-feed them specific facts.

Individual differences and their impact on classroom learning environment

The people differ from each other is obvious. How and why they differ is less clear and is the subject of the study of individual differences (ids). Research in ids ranges from analyses the study of social, ethnic, and cultural differences and includes research on cognitive abilities, interpersonal styles, and emotional reactivity.

Researchers of individual differences addressed three broad areas:

1) Developing an adequate descriptive taxonomy of how people differ;

2) Applying differences in one situation to predict differences in other situations; and

3) Testing theoretical explanations of the structure and dynamics of individual differences.

Techniques to overcome individual differences

There are many techniques to overcome this problem some of them are listed below.

I-classroom behavioural strategies and interventions

The classroom teacher needs to ensure acceptance for all students in the classroom. Teachers’ actions that can promote acceptance include:

·         Choosing learning materials to represent all groups of students

·         Ensuring that all students can participate in extra activities

·         valuing, respecting, and talking about differences

·         Celebrating cultural and ethnic differences

II-developing classroom rules

Well-defined rules in the classroom can prevent many difficulties. When students are involved in the development of the rules, they are more likely to adhere to them and understand why they have been put into place.

III-positive classroom discipline

Teachers need to build a classroom environment where positive interactions are the norm and disciplinary consequences are minimized. It is important that teachers provide Immediate, frequent, and positive feedback.

The physical setting

It is very important to assess how and to what extent teachers actively utilize and manipulate the physical classroom environment as part of their instructional design. It is difficult, if not impossible, to separate instructional activity from the environmental setting within which it occurs. There are different components of physical setting; teacher can manipulate these components during the teaching learning process for achieving the better results and enhancing the students learning. The classroom temperature, lighting and air quality would appear to have some effect on the learning environment.

1- Classroom arrangement

Classroom furnishings arrangement appears to be the most salient dimension for supporting curricular objectives. A classroom may contain elements of both territorial and functional styles depending on the instructional design, although typically one arrangement will dominate over the other.

·         Territorial arrangement:

Physical space is partitioned into small portions of student-owned space. That is, each student is assigned a desk in which to store personal belongings.

·         Functional arrangement:

The physical space is divided into common interest areas or learning centers available to all students.

2.  Arrangement of the physical environment to support teaching learning process

The physical arrangement of the classroom can serve as a powerful setting event for providing students effective instruction and facilitate (or inhibit) positive teaching/learning communications.

·         Arranging space

The physical layout reflects your teaching style. If teachers want students to collaborate in small groups, for example, organize them around tables or clusters of desks.

·         Desk placement

Arrange the room so that you can make eye contact with every student and reach each student with ease.

·         Environmental preferences

Other important environmental features include temperature, lighting, and noise level. These factors affect students in different ways and are directly related to individual learning styles.

The emotional climate

Emotional climate is a concept that quantifies the “climate” of a community, being a small group, a classroom, an organization, a geographical region. Emotional climates indicate the emotional relationships interwoven among members of a community and describe the quality of the environment within a particular context

Emotional atmosphere, climate, and culture

Emotional atmospheres are important in their own right and may blend into some of the climates. Furthermore, a shift in emotional atmosphere may indicate a change in climate.

Emotional culture is dynamically stable. It is usually held in place by a network of socialization practices and ordinarily only changes when a culture is transformed over generations of people.

Climates, on the other hand, are more dependent on political, religious, economic and educational factors and may change within the course of a single generation.

School climate

Perry was the first educational leader to explicitly write about how school climate affects students’ and the process of learning.

School climate reflects students, school personnel and parents social, emotional and ethical as well as academic experiences of school life.

Strategies for creating positive emotional climate

There are number of components that are directly connected with the school and classroom climate. These components and strategies to overcome the problems in creating positive emotional climate are discussed in the following lines.

·         Emphasize listening

Pupils must listen respectfully to adults and to their peers, and teachers, administrators, and other adults must listen respectfully to their students and to each other. Grownups often expect that students listen to adults in authority.

·         Development of Confidence for Sharing

A school climate in which students connect to each other and to adults is one that promotes a safe and secure educational environment. A student who finds the 'courage to tell a caring adult about a friend in pain may save a life.

·         Stop Bullying

Bullying is a continuum of abuse, ranging from verbal taunts to physical threats to dangerous acts. Bullying is not playful behaviour. In bullying, one student assumes power by word or deed over another in a mean-spirited and/or harmful manner. In a school with a culture of safety and connection, both the bully and the student who is the victim of the bullying are attended to in a respectful manner.

·         Involving Students in Planning, Creating and Maintaining Climate

Creating a safe school climate is a process that should involve all members of the school community, including teachers, students, parents, counselors, administrators, health staff, security professionals and support personnel. Climates of safety should be collaborative ones.

·         Awareness about Physical Environments

Building structure, facility safety plans, lighting, space and architecture (among other physical attributes of educational institutions) all can contribute to whether a school environment feels, or is in fact, safe or unsafe.

Identifying self-esteem

Self-esteem is an individual's subjective evaluation of their own worth. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about oneself as well as emotional states, such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. Self-esteem is the disposition to experience oneself as being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and of being worthy of happiness.

Classroom activities to build self-esteem

The six practices that are found to be essential for the developing self-esteem: 

 

1. The practice of living consciously:

Respect for facts; being present to what we are doing while are doing it; seeking and being eagerly open to any information, knowledge, or feedback that bears on our interests, values, goals, and projects; seeking to understand not only the world external to self but also our inner world, so that we do not out of self-blindness.

2. The practice of self-acceptance:

The willingness to own, experience, and take

Responsibility for our thoughts, feelings, and actions, without avoidance, denial, or disowning and also without self-denial; giving oneself permission to think one’s thoughts, experience one’s emotions, and look at one’s actions without necessarily liking, endorsing, or condoning them; the virtue of realism applied to the self.

3. The practice of self-responsibility:

 Realizing that we are the author of our choices and actions; that each one of us is responsible for life and well-being and for the attainment of our goals; that if we need the cooperation of other people to achieve our goals, we must offer values in exchange.

4. The practice of self-assertiveness:

Being authentic in our dealings with others; treating our values and persons with decent respect in social contexts; refusing to fake the reality of who we are or what we esteem in order to avoid disapproval; the willingness to stand up for ourselves and our ideas in appropriate ways in appropriate contexts.

5. The practice of living purposefully:

 Identifying our short-term and long-term goals or purposes and the actions needed to attain them (formulating an action plan); organizing behaviour in the service of those goals; monitoring action to be Sure we stay on track; and paying attention to outcome so as to recognize if and when we need to go back.

6. The practice of personal integrity:

Living with congruence between what we know, what we profess, and what we do; telling the truth, honoring our commitments, exemplifying in action the values we profess to admire.

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