Positive Learning Environment

Positive Learning Environment

1. Assessment

   • Cater for diverse needs of students
     • Formative Assessment
       • Encourage students to learn and progress
         • Bloom's Taxonomy - 3 domains (Cognitive , affective and Psychomotor) and the levels in each domain
           • Integrate the levels in each domain in the learning objectives
         • Give feedback for tests and assignments
     • Summative assessment
     • Gardner's multiple Intelligence: suggests each person has different capacities and posess different types of intelligences in varying amounts
       • Have different types of assessments (e.g. exam, quiz, practical assessment ))
   • Fair assessment
     • Multiple assessments throughout school term
     • Have a coherent rubric for marking assessments

2. Behaviour Management

   • Bandura's Social Cognitive theory - people learn by observing the behaviour of others
     • Model good behaviour and positive attitudes
   • Jacob Kounin - Instructional management: Teacherrs prevent misbehaviour by by using management and keeping students on task
     • Effective teacher planning
       • Plan for interactive lessons to keep students engaged
         • Quizzes and competitions
       • Assigning seats, groups
     • Create routine (e.g.. walk into the classroom, take out books etc.) to give sense of direction and reduce misbehaviour
   • Both students and teachers should be involved in taking control of behaviour management
     • Students should be responsible and accountable
       • Agreeing on rules as a whole class at the beginning of term

3. Physical environment

   • The physical environment should foster a safe learning environment for students
     • Classroom arrangement in groups foster discussion, improvement of social skills and learning
       • There should be a certain level of noise from collaborative work and discussion
     • Lead to a emotionally safe environment for students
       • Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: suggests that the most basic needs should be met before an individual feels they are able to achieve the higher needs
         • Create effective collaborative environment to foster a sense of belonging
         • Decorate classrooms with work to foster sense of belonging, pride in work
   • There should be resources available to all students
     • Availability of textbooks, computers, interactive whiteboards
       • Students should be engaged in mulltimodal learning

4. Teacher Awareness and Effectiveness

   • Positive student-teacher relationship
     • Seek feedback and input from students (e.g. feedback cards)
   • Teachers should continually seek to improve their performance
     • Reflect on practices (e.g. classroom video)

5. Parental Involvement

   • Communication with parents is important to learn about students' home life
     • Urie Bronfenbrenner : Ecological systems theory:: students' learning is affected by their environment, including their home environment and the community
       • Phone parents
   • Parents should be involved and supportive
     • send report cards

6. Differentiation and motivation of students

   • Cater for diversity such as academic levels. ESL students, learning disabilities etc
     • Vygotsky - Zone of Proximal Development: Give students tasks they find challenging but is a level they can achieve.
       • Gve students worksheets with differing difficulty, and they can choose which one to start work on
       • Groupwork/Collaborative learning where students with higher abilities can help peers
       • Understand that every student is at a different level. Don't compare them to other students, but compare to their own progress
     • Effective lesson planning
       • Teacher should have a strong understanding of the curriculum, so they are able to create authentic learning experiences for all students
     • Be supportive and prepare different resources that match the students' learning
       • Use laptops, video etc. as some students may learn better with technology
     • Give higher ability students extension activities to engage and deepen understanding

7. Target group:

   • Age: years 7-12
     • Subject: Mathematics
       • School: Public or Private
         • Community: Diverse range of students including ESL students, students from different cultures, learning disabilities and academic level
           • Key
             • Key concepts
               • Theories
                 • Philosophy
                   • Practice

8. My personal philosophy is that

   • Teachers consider the environment the student is in (community, family etc) and work together with parents where possible to bring about the best learning experience for students.
     • Assessments are fair, valid and reliable and cater to the diverse needs of students.
       • Teachers build positive relationships with students to motivate them and use differentiation to cater to all students' learning.
         • Teachers plan lessons effectively to prevent misbehaviour and promote students to take responsibility for their actions.
           • Teachers continually look improvement
             • The classroom should be an emotionally and physically safe place for students to learn