High Performance Learning Environments

High Performance Learning Environments

“Teachers need to routinely project attitudes, beliefs, expectations, and attributions…that imply that your students share your own enthusiasm for learning. To the extent that you treat your students as if they already are eager learners, they will be more likely to become eager learners.”

                                                                                       - Brophy (1986)

In a classroom where the students see that their teacher is committed to increasing their performance, the students themselves are motivated to do so. Students thrive in a positive learning environment incorporating features that are proven to improve student performance.

In this blog I will be discussing and sharing my opinion on the teaching strategies of three different teachers with special emphasis on the academic expectations, behavioral expectations, and norms and procedures.

Ms. Migdol’s Class (Roller coaster physics):

One of the first points I noted in the video was that the students were independent learners, they knew that they were the problem solvers the teacher is there merely to guide them. The teacher has set high expectations for each student and it has set up the activity execution in such a way that every student is actively participating. These students are applying their knowledge of the subject matter in every way possible and from all aspects. The ‘ chimer’ concept is a great idea, that has a number of benefits; it gives the teacher an idea of where her students are standing concept wise, and secondly it students are listening to each other and learning from each other.

The students have a budget within which they have to operate and execute the roller coaster construction, besides this they have limited material available to them; the rationale behind this is that limited access to the material will allow the student to do critical thinking and improvise. Ms. Migdol say’s, “ The more the constraints the better the problem solvers they become”. The students know what they are doing and it will not be something that they will forget once the project is over , it is knowledge that they have gained and will retain and apply it through out life.

There is great emphasis on communication in Ms. Migdol’s class, the way in which her class operates this necessary for successfully completing the project. Positive behavioral management is obvious from the collaboration and communication skills of these students. They are provided with various opportunities where they listen to the point of views or opinions of their peers, they analyze it and then they put the best of everyone’s ideas in the design. The Individual sketch idea is one such example, all of the students have to sketch a design of the roller coaster and they need to justify or explain the logic behind their design, they have to then sell their idea to their peers. Then they collaboratively make a group sketch and take the best of each individual students ideas and combine them for a successful end result.

The teacher has a system and procedure throughout the activity from beginning till end, the students have to be attentive, alert, they need to display knowledge and understanding of the material, and they have to show respect towards their peers ideas and value their opinions. Ms. Migdol herself is monitoring, questioning the student’s logics and choices, and guiding the students the entire time.

The Chinese Third Grade Math Class:

The video and article both depict the Chinese style of learning and the great stress that the put on Mathematics. The article states that the Chinese student on the average work on Math for 15 hours every week. The Chinese teachers and parents both have extremely high expectations from the students/ children. They place great emphasis on procedural knowledge and are sticklers for rigid practice routines; however very few of these teachers get the opportunity to be able to use math activities that connect to real life situations, they just end up teaching the students the necessary information and the process involved.

The teacher in this video displays high expectations from students, she wants participation of all the students as they collectively say their multiplication tables. There is a great emphasis on memorization of mathematical concepts especially the multiplication tables and the way the teacher has them doing it in her class seems to be a fun way as they are all sort of chanting it, they will probably have know their tables of the tip of their tongues for the rest of their lives.

There seems to be a positive behavioral environment in the class, with all the students participating and interested in the learning process. There is display of procedure as the teacher goes through the math lesson and no one is shouting out the answer you can see raised hands and it is all quite systematic.

Whole Brain Teaching:

The third and last video shows an effective technique for behavioral management and reinforcement strategies for class rules and procedures.

The concept behind this technique is that the most effective way for a student to raise the performance of a student is to stimulate the whole brain; this can be done by teaching them in such a way that they see, they hear, they say, and feel the ( in this case they use gestures), and if the teacher can make the activity fun then it will involve the limbic system which is the portion of the brain that controls the emotional engagement, and thus they will involve all 5 senses and this will result in a life long learning experience.

The video suggests that the teacher holds high academic expectations form her students, they use the all five learning modes as the explain the lesson plans to their peers, which is a great way to learn, it is student to student learning and learning from your peers is an effective mode of gaining knowledge and understanding of material; the teacher in the meanwhile goes around the classroom monitoring the students explaining points to their peer, in this way she gets an idea about how well her students understanding the subject matter.

The ‘Switch’ exercise is a great way to keep all students involved, those who are the listeners and those who are the talkers. This strategy allows the students to switch roles when the teacher calls out, so every student gets an opportunity to be involved in the teaching and the listening process.

This strategy is an effective way to manage student behavior, it reinforces positive behavior in a fun, upbeat and positive environment and I think that it will engage most students if not all.

The video advocates that having the rules displayed on the wall, or on the board, or on a paper is not enough to be effective it needs to be reinforced into the minds of the students time and time again. The students needed to be reminded continuously so the students can grasp the rules and actually implement them.

Setting High Performance Expectations Among My First Grade Students:

All three videos have shown me great strategies that can help me in creating a positive classroom that will be conducive to learning and motivate the students to be high performers.

Ms. Migdol’s class video about roller coaster physics was very impressive and I would want my students to learn in the way her students were, I would want them to be problem solvers and learn to work well in collaboration with one another, and they place value on and honor each others opinions. I would want to promote critical and logical thinking the way Ms. Migdol was doing among her students.

The Chinese math video shows a great way to memorize vocabulary words or key points, it will be especially helpful because I plan to teach young children who learn more through songs and movements.

I think that the whole brain video is a wonderful way to reinforce class rules and procedures and I would definitely want to use that in my class, as the article following the video indicates that with elementary school children the teacher should rehearse the rules three to four times a day so that it stays in the minds of the students. I will do this as I think it is a great way to get the attention of the children and correct the students who are defying the class rule, in a very positive manner requiring the minimum usage of words.