Creating Significant Learning Environments
5313:CSLE
5313:CSLE
What's It All About
Creating A Significant Learning Environment with A New Culture of Learning
To create a significant learning environment embedded within a new culture of learning, the focus should be centered around student learning and emphasize the core elements of passion, imagination and constraint built with play. For children, passion comes from their view of the world and the curiosity that they have as they grow and evolve. As educators, it is important that we create environments that give students the chance to explore and cultivate their passions. Furthermore, while imagination and play are also prominent in children, teacher-centered, and test focused classrooms place a stark hold on these outlets, instead of pursuing and expanding upon those curiosities. What it boils down to is outlined clearly in the formula discussed by Thomas and Brown (2011) that claims, “play becomes a strategy for embracing change, rather than a way for growing out of it” (p. 48). Embracing the new culture of learning requires one to look at the dimensions in which learning is based on, knowing, making, and playing (Thomas & Brown, 2011). A classroom where passion and imagination with constraint are embraced through the dimensions of knowing, making, and playing, is a student-centered classroom where authentic learning is occurring. This not only creates a significant learning environment, but allows students to develop the 21st century skills necessary to succeed.
My Learning Philosophy
Being a part of the education field requires me to understand how students, as well as adults learn. As a teacher, most of my attention was focused on my teaching philosophy, but as I become more acclimated with my role as a Learning Specialist, I find myself truly focusing on the learning. I find that focusing on the teaching felt ‘normal’ because it was how I had been trained, conditioned. Now, I understand that the teacher needs to serve as the coach, mentor or facilitator rather than the only expert in the room. The questions I ask today align with the needs of the learners, focusing on how the students learn and how I can help facilitate that learning. While I’m no longer in the classroom I still understand that my teaching philosophy and my learning philosophy have to align and coincide with a desire to create significant learning environments (CSLE).
Aligning Outcomes, Assessments & Activities
Creating a significant learning environment requires an emphasis to be placed on the outcomes, activities and assessments for particular units. Outcomes, activities, and assessments should be aligned in foundational knowledge, application, integration, human dimension/caring, and learning how to learn (Fink, 2003) in order for significant learning to occur. Essentially, significant learning done within the realm of authentic learning environments allows students to develop connections and learn based on context rather than simply memorizing content, which is crucial to developing lifelong learners.
Understanding by Design (UbD)
Fink’s strategy and approach towards backwards design, includes the use of a 3 column table, and of broad view in connection to an overarching goal. By using my information in my 3 column table, I was able to dig deeper into my outcomes to create a specific plan, which is referred to as an UbD Template. Completing the Ubd Template, allows for a deeper look into how the outcomes shown in the 3 column table would be reached, and is broken down into 3 stages- desired results, assessment evidence and learning plan.
With the UbD template, an importance is placed on the establishment of long term goals which places the emphasis on understanding rather than just simply knowing information. Wiggins and McTighe (2005) argue that "the greatest defect in teacher lesson plans...is that the key intellectual priorities - deep understandings of transferable big ideas, and competence at core performance tasks - are falling through the cracks of lessons, units, and courses devoted to developing thousands of discrete elements of knowledge and skill, unprioritized and unconnected" (p. 58). The UbD Template places the emphasis on the goals and reestablishes the need for learning to be both meaningful and memorable in order for authentic connections to be made.
Growth Mindset-revised
Utilizing my growth mindset required the cooperation of myself, the teacher whose class is used as a pilot, and the students. To begin, I had to realize that a growth mindset was more than just words, but it was action based, and needed to be modeled. This prompted me to spend time with the Instructor of my piloted course first, to ensure that we were on the same page regarding how to foster that environment with the classroom. It is important that the growth mindset be implemented properly in order for it to be effective.
When creating significant learning environments, feedback and grades tend to be controversial factors. Highlighting the importance of a growth mindset helps students see the importance of LEARNING instead of grades and ACCEPT feedback as learning experiences rather than negative criticism. Additionally, growth mindset can also help develop grit, a term that can at times be misused, but is indicative of a lifelong trait of strength of character and perseverance, something that the growth mindset can simultaneously develop. In sum, significant learning environments create lifelong learners, and when the significant learning environment revolves around the growth mindset, learners recognize that lifelong learning is attainable.
