Comments on the book by JD, Brown, AL and Cocking, RR (2001) How people learn: brain, mind, experience and school, National Academy Press, Washington, DC. Chapter Six, Designs of Learning Environment offers a way to bring forth a school that is responsive to its learners who is also responsive to his/her environment. To summarize, the article mentions the shift in goals in education: From education that espouses writing by copying words to that where students (even at the early school level) compose their own stories, reflections, comments and criticisms. It mentions that there are four considerations when designing a learning environment. 1. The learner / student (who) or being learner-centered; 2. The body of knowledge (what) or being knowledge-centered; 3. The technique to use (how) through assessment and feedback of 1 & 2 or being assessment-centered; 4. The reason (why) for teaching / learning - depends on relevance to or norms of community or being community-centered.
And all 4 have to be considered jointly in designing an environment for learning to be effective. To illustrate, in my class, I must consider the learner (culture, ability, developmental stage etc.), the body of knowledge (the curriculum, the way this is taught, helping students learn) to come up with the best technique for teaching this (through assessment & feedback) to be beneficial to our commtunity (the school I am in, the Ateneo, and to the “broader community”). Also, designing how the community can be beneficial to the child. As I read this article, I reflect on our school and ask these questions: To what extent is my school a learner-centered? knowledge-centered environment? assessment-centered environment? and my community-centered environment? How are all these “four perspectives” aligned in my school? What can I do to help in improving and “designing” the environment I am in, for the children? These are exciting and yet challenging times in Education. With so many educational researches conducted, designing a learning environment is one of these challenges. All these for the purpose of bringing up a child who is truly whole; nourishing not only his knowing, doing, feeling, but also his being.
Recall from your personal experience:what makes 1) an effective learning environment?; 2) an ineffective learning environment? What makes for an effective learning environment? The facilities, the resources available, IT may all play an important role in making a school learning environment effective. However, I think the teacher is the key to an effective learning environment. The teacher can nurture a sense of wanting to learn and know more, feelings of a sense of “belonging and empowerment” in a child, help a child bloom. At the same time, an uncaring teacher can make a learning environment ineffective by lowering his/her self-esteem, boring a child, misunderstanding a child, making a child averse to school. I remember my pre-school teacher. Everyday, I would go to school screaming. My mother was at wit’s end on what to do. A turning point was when my teacher (inspite of my behavior), gave me a role in a small class play. I have observed teachers who are both knowledgeable, know how to impart this knowledge and make school a haven for learners. I remember my secondary literature teacher. I loved reading stories, books, and novels. However, poems, I did not like much-it was more an indifference towards poems. That was until I met my literature teacher. She would come in her class and you could literally see her eyes light up. When she would talk to us and help us understand poems-her eyes were always bright and shiny. It was her passion for poems that helped us get to love it. However, it was not just her love for literature. It was also because she was a person who cared, not in an overboard manner. In contrast, we had this teacher who was unkind to my naughty classmates or to my classmates who did not answer well in class. Even if I was not the brunt of her put downs, it was still unnerving to go to a class whose teacher belittled others. It made for an ineffective learning environment since the atmosphere became psychologically “unsafe”. I know I was ineffective in my teaching when I would not prepare well for class. It would be hard for me to hold my students` attention. Aside from the teacher, what I find also most helpful is if the family of a child is also supportive. Majority of my students who are avid independent learners, also have families whose goals are aligned with the school`s mission-vision; whose values are aligned with the school`s values. An effective school environment is actually a whole mix of everything in the environment: the faculty, the curriculum, the resources, facilities, administration, the classmates, the community and even the learner himself. But a teacher is crucial in promoting an effective learning environment.
2 comments:
Comments on the book by JD, Brown, AL and Cocking, RR (2001) How people learn: brain, mind, experience and school, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
Chapter Six, Designs of Learning Environment offers a way to bring forth a school that is responsive to its learners who is also responsive to his/her environment.
To summarize, the article mentions the shift in goals in education: From education that espouses writing by copying words to that where students (even at the early school level) compose their own stories, reflections, comments and criticisms. It mentions that there are four considerations when designing a learning environment.
1. The learner / student (who) or being learner-centered;
2. The body of knowledge (what) or being knowledge-centered;
3. The technique to use (how) through assessment and feedback of 1 & 2 or being assessment-centered;
4. The reason (why) for teaching / learning - depends on relevance to or norms of community or being community-centered.
And all 4 have to be considered jointly in designing an environment for learning to be effective. To illustrate, in my class, I must consider the learner (culture, ability, developmental stage etc.), the body of knowledge (the curriculum, the way this is taught, helping students learn) to come up with the best technique for teaching this (through assessment & feedback) to be beneficial to our commtunity (the school I am in, the Ateneo, and to the “broader community”). Also, designing how the community can be beneficial to the child. As I read this article, I reflect on our school and ask these questions: To what extent is my school a learner-centered? knowledge-centered environment? assessment-centered environment? and my community-centered environment? How are all these “four perspectives” aligned in my school? What can I do to help in improving and “designing” the environment I am in, for the children? These are exciting and yet challenging times in Education. With so many educational researches conducted, designing a learning environment is one of these challenges. All these for the purpose of bringing up a child who is truly whole; nourishing not only his knowing, doing, feeling, but also his being.
Recall from your personal experience:what makes 1) an effective learning environment?; 2) an ineffective learning environment?
What makes for an effective learning environment? The facilities, the resources available, IT may all play an important role in making a school learning environment effective. However, I think the teacher is the key to an effective learning environment. The teacher can nurture a sense of wanting to learn and know more, feelings of a sense of “belonging and empowerment” in a child, help a child bloom. At the same time, an uncaring teacher can make a learning environment ineffective by lowering his/her self-esteem, boring a child, misunderstanding a child, making a child averse to school. I remember my pre-school teacher. Everyday, I would go to school screaming. My mother was at wit’s end on what to do. A turning point was when my teacher (inspite of my behavior), gave me a role in a small class play. I have observed teachers who are both knowledgeable, know how to impart this knowledge and make school a haven for learners. I remember my secondary literature teacher. I loved reading stories, books, and novels. However, poems, I did not like much-it was more an indifference towards poems. That was until I met my literature teacher. She would come in her class and you could literally see her eyes light up. When she would talk to us and help us understand poems-her eyes were always bright and shiny. It was her passion for poems that helped us get to love it. However, it was not just her love for literature. It was also because she was a person who cared, not in an overboard manner. In contrast, we had this teacher who was unkind to my naughty classmates or to my classmates who did not answer well in class. Even if I was not the brunt of her put downs, it was still unnerving to go to a class whose teacher belittled others. It made for an ineffective learning environment since the atmosphere became psychologically “unsafe”. I know I was ineffective in my teaching when I would not prepare well for class. It would be hard for me to hold my students` attention. Aside from the teacher, what I find also most helpful is if the family of a child is also supportive. Majority of my students who are avid independent learners, also have families whose goals are aligned with the school`s mission-vision; whose values are aligned with the school`s values. An effective school environment is actually a whole mix of everything in the environment: the faculty, the curriculum, the resources, facilities, administration, the classmates, the community and even the learner himself. But a teacher is crucial in promoting an effective learning environment.
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