Positive Learning Environment

Positive Learning Environment

"Most teachers have little control over school policy, curriculum, choice of texts, or special placement of students, but most have a great deal of autonomy inside the classroom. To a degree shared by only a few other occupations, such as police work, public education rests precariously on the skill and virtue of the people at the bottom of the institutional pyramid." ~Tracy Kidder

The expectations of schools today are much more demanding than ever before. In the early years of curriculum, mass education was likened to mass production in factories, where the classroom structure created an assembly line atmosphere in schools. Today, students are expected to not only absorb factual information, but to understand the interrelationship of these facts and the greater meaning behind them. Students also must develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills so they can adapt and contribute to a changing society. How can teachers help? Teachers can help by fostering a positive learning environment.

Positive learning environments support the developmental needs of students, not only academically, but also socially and personally. Students thrive in environments where they feel safe amongst their peers, comfortable amongst themselves, nurtured and respected, and motivated to learn. All students, even those who have learning difficulties and personal challenges, can do well when they are physically comfortable, mentally motivated, and emotionally supported.

Creating a positive learning environment will optimize student learning, help you build a cohesive classroom community, and create a pleasant work environment for both you and your students. Since students are unique individuals and come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, a positive environment may not occur naturally but require careful planning and nurturing from the teacher and other educators. There are many factors that can affect a positive learning environment.

Respectful relationships are just one factor for maintaining positive environments. The key for creating positive environments starts at the top levels, modeled via principals to classroom teachers and through to the individual learners. A simple assessment of our own environment will help educators to determine some of the factors to consider by asking the questions below, to determine whether we promote a comfortable, supportive, safe, peaceful, and positive environment:

1. How have you fostered the creation and advancement of an engaging learning community and effective learning environment?

2. Do you create a positive learning environment where students feel valued, prepared to leave their comfort zone, and willing to ask questions?

3. Is it a place where all students are able to express personal ideas, views, and feel valued and encouraged?

4. Is it a place where all people feel respected, feel they can be themselves, and feel that they can express different ideas or views?

5. Is your school a place where all people feel calm, confident, free from harm (emotional, mental as well as physical) and know that others are sensitive to their individual needs?

Our role as educators is to increase student motivation, develop the strategies and skills that make a student more engaged and create an environment where students are able to take ownership of their own learning. Interest is an important motivator for a student. So is the desire to learn. When you link these two things together, you create the right conditions for academic success. Some students seem naturally enthusiastic about learning, while others need more support to engage in their educational experience. Once children start school, they begin forming beliefs about their school-related successes and failures. The sources to which children attribute their successes and failures have important implications for how they approach and cope with learning situations.

According to Wilen et al., (2004), part of building a supportive climate for learning involves teachers sharing their expectations concerning learning of content, achievement, and social behavior with their students.

A teacher is only as good as the learning environment he can create. How many times have you been part of a classroom where you knew the teacher was brilliant, but he just couldn't engage the learners or create an interesting lesson? We have all been in that situation. Creating a positive learning environment and being able to design effective lesson plans is the foundation for student learning.

Classroom management is often associated with classroom discipline or class control. Gaining and maintaining student attention throughout a lesson or creating a respectful environment would be a more appropriate way to think about your classroom setting. Years ago, an effective teacher may have been one that kept her class orderly and had complete classroom control. Today, you of course still want a sense of order and routine, but I believe that the goal for a educator should be to actively motivate and engage the learners, and to have them understand the material, concept, or idea being presented in positive and supportive learning environment.

Your disposition and attitude as an educator are critical factors in designing a well-organized, positive, supportive, and well-managed classroom conducive to learning. If you do not have the respect of the students and if you cannot gain and maintain their attention, you will not be able to teach your lessons effectively. Respect comes from giving respect and providing an atmosphere of respect for others. Do you smile? Do you greet students pleasantly at the door? Are you prepared and organized? (Students can easily tell if you're not, and you are sending a message that you do not have respect for them if you are unprepared and not organized.) Do you like to talk with students one on one? Do you move around the room in an effort to make all students feel your presence by physical proximity? Do you consider yourself a positive force in the classroom? Do you respect differences and promote fairness for all?

Sometimes it is the little things that promote a positive behavior. Making eye contact with children and knowing their names, or stating something positive about an incorrect response before correcting it shows children that they are important. Providing students with options, whether it be to ask young children in a class to vote as to whether to do math before or after lunch or giving each child a choice for how to creatively display a favorite scene from a book, empowers them and provides a sense of personal security. A