Lina Hassan H00202632

EPC3903 Journal 2 of Week 2

The learning Environment

Class is the place where students build their knowledge in. The
environment of the class is very important to students because it affects the way of
their learning (Adelman, H. S. & Taylor, L). As a result, the learning environment
should be perfect to suit students needs. Learning environment should be active,
positive, and fulfill students needs. Active learning environment is the process of
having students engaged in the activities like reading, writing, or thinking (Active
Learning). In my experience I tried to have active learning environment, where
students are engaged in class activities. For example, when I taught formatting text
lesson for grade one I used to give them B, I, and U cartoon characters so they can
link between them and the first letters of Bold, Italic, and Underline. As a result,
students will be active about coloring the characters, and they will link this activity to
the main idea of the lesson. Moreover, considering instructional equity, awareness of
bias and instructional differentiation in class will help the students at their learning
environment. For example, teacher would be more supportive, helpful, and
encouraging to that group of students who needs it. She will give instructions equally
to each level of groups, help each level of students on what they need to be helped in,
and explain the instructions differently to each level so they would understand.
Therefore, learning environment would be relaxed, warm, and supportive (Kyriacou,
2007). In my experience, I used to help and support the individuals by repeating
instructions in a simpler way so each student would understand, and I would go to
each student individually to help them if they had hard time on doing the activity. In
the same class of formatting text I would repeat the instructions to the students, and
simplify them to make sure that every student understands what they have to do, and I
Lina Hassan H00202632
EPC3903 Journal 2 of Week 2

would ask one of the students to say what they have to do, because then they will have
the instructions in a simpler way from one of their classmates.
Establishing an active learning environment require students involvement,
if not the learning environment would be the same as the old teaching methods. In
teaching practice I used lots of activities to ensure that students are active in the class.
For example I used to give students lots of coloring activities to have a sense of
relaxation in the class. Coloring activities are example of playing in class, and playing
help children to extend their learning through playing (Bruce, 2011). For that, having
students knowledge is being built, feel of warm and relaxation, and fulfill students
needs is being established is the type of learning environment I want my students to
be in. However, is there something that I am missing that should be added to these
previous elements?
By the same token of learning environment, having safety in the class is
very important. Because the teaching practice is happening in ICT lab electricity is
with us all the time. For this reason, the teacher puts lots of signs in the class to aware
the students of importance of safeness in the class, stick to the rule of not having any
kind of drinks on the desks, and making sure to remind them about the rules in the
beginning of each year. However, because the age of the students is very small does
the teacher have to remind the students about the safety rules each class?






Lina Hassan H00202632
EPC3903 Journal 2 of Week 2

References


Adelman, H. S. & Taylor, L. (in press). Classroom climate. In S. W. Lee, P. A. Lowe,
& E Robinson (Eds.),Encyclopedia of School Psychology. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Active Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved from National Dropout Prevention : Retrieved from
http://www.dropoutprevention.org/effective-strategies/active-learning

Bruce, T. (2011). Learning Through Play for babies, toddlers and young children .
London: Hodder Education.

Kyriacou, C. (2007). Essential teaching skills. United Kingdom: Nelson Thornes.