The Design of Learning Environments

Changes in Educational Goals: This section brought to light the changing expectations of students in academic environments. The claims of schools “getting worse” is actually an opinion that I shared, not necessarily due to the direction of the teaching or curriculum but because of other instances occurring in schools such as violence, in-appropriate relationships between students and teachers and corruption in the administration. When evaluating practices in the classroom itself, more is expected of students now than ever and the fact that students are capable of meeting and/or exceeding these expectations in many cases is an indication that improvements are taking place in classrooms however, there is room for progression in the educational system overall.

Learner-Centered Environments: I think all classrooms should encompass some form of learner-centered environments. If students do not feel that teachers care enough to relate to them, they will not learn. Although I don’t think that teachers can completely structure classrooms as learner-centered environments (unless they are extremely small classes or special education) it’s important to become acquainted with students so that lessons can be planned accordingly.

Knowledge Centered Environments: This may be one of the most important learning environments because the ultimate goal of any classroom setting is for learning to take place. When planning instruction, it is also essential to make sure students see the correlation between what is being taught and how it can be applied in the real world. I remember frequently asking my math teachers how some forms of algebra and trigonometry could be applied in the real world and neither of them could answer. Since those teachers were not able to bridge the gap I was never fully able to grasp all of those concepts or why they were important to know. Not knowing how to apply concepts can result in rote learning taking place in the classroom.

Community Centered Environments: I think that community-centered environments and learner-centered environments go hand-in-hand. Activities that occur within a school community certainly affect a student’s ability to learn. If students live in an environment with single, working mothers who may have multiple jobs, this may mean they have no supervision after-school. In some cases, during the course of the day, the only learning that will take place for these students is in the classroom. Teachers must take into account that students are not responsible for themselves if there is no parent present, or if an elderly grandmother cares for a child after school and can not see to it that homework is completed. A friend of mine taught at an inner city middle school in Los Angeles, CA where gang violence was extremely prevalent. One of her students was a member of a gang and was killed during that school year. Communities with violence definitely have an impact on students’ focus and their ability to learn. I once taught a class where almost all of the dialogue of one student was from songs, television shows or movies. It was clear that the bulk of his time was spent in front of the television. Although he was entertaining, he was often unengaged unless the lessons were centered around media. Teachers in these types of environment must adapt accordingly so lessons fit with these types of communities and classroom learning is more meaningful than ever.