LEARNING

ENVIRONMENT
 LEARNING

Learning is the act of acquiring new or modifying

and reinforcing existing, knowledge, behaviors,
Skills, values, or preferences and may involve
synthesizing different types of information. The
ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals,
plants and some machines.
 Learning Environment

Learning Environment is the place where

teaching and learning take place in the most
effective and productive manner. It consists of
the classroom and all the instructional features
and non-threatening classroom climate needed
in planning and implementing all teaching and
learning activities.
 Effective Learning Environment

Effective learning environment (also known as

classroom management) involves organizing
classroom activities, instructions, and the physical
classroom to provide for effective use of time, to
create a happy, productive learning environment,
and to minimize disruptions.
 Structuring the
Physical
Environment

Desk arrangements

Student placement

Light Arrangements

Classroom decoration
 Desk Arrangement
 Desks
in groups,
with students
facing each
other, can help
stimulate
student
discussion.
 Desk Arrangement
Desks in single or
double rows
are good
demonstrations,
for
independent
work and exams.
 Desk Arrangement

Desks in
u-shapes
are
recommended
where possible.
 Desk Arrangement

 Desks in workstations
are suited for
students who have
developed self
management skills.
 Student Placement
 Place easily distracted students away
from each other, doorways, windows
and areas of high traffic.
 An inclusive classroom should place
students in areas of the class best
suited to their needs.
 Classroom Decoration
 Students like to see their own work
displayed, even in High Schools
 Class-made posters help students
develop a sense of belonging to the
classroom
 Plants and animals can have positive
effects on the classroom (Nicholls, 2006)
Structuring theEmotional, Behavioral
and Instructional Environment

“It is the teacher’s responsibility to value each

and every one of the students in their class, so
that each student feels special and important.”
(Groundwater-Smith et al, 1998)
10 Tips for Effective Learning Environment

1. Build Community.
2. Design a safe, Friendly and Well Managed
Classroom Environment.
3. Include Students in Creating Rules, Norms,
Routines, and Consequences.
4. Create a Variety of Communication
Channels.
5. Always Be Calm, Fair, and
Consistent
10 Tips for Effective Learning Environment

6. Know the Students You Teach

7. Address Conflict Quickly and Wisely
8. Integrate Positive Classroom Rituals
9. Keep It Real
10. Partner with Parents and Guardians
 Build Community

Building caring relationships with

students is the cornerstone of good
classroom management. Building these
relationships—teacher-student, student-
student, classroom-community—and
creating the time and space to do so in
the beginning of the year and throughout
the following months can make or break
a classroom. Simply put, when there is
care in the air, there will be significantly
fewer behavioral problems. Get to know
one another: Teachers and students
begin learning one another’s names the
first day of school and should be able to
address one another by name within two
weeks.
 Design a Safe, Friendly, and Well-
Managed Classroom
Environment
The right physical environment helps
create a positive learning community.
When students walk into a classroom,
they need to feel ownership. Their writing
assignments and projects should prevail
on the walls, and they should have easy
access to supplies and handouts and a
place to turn in class assignments. Ask
students to be designers of their room:
They choose where to hang the
dioramas on photosynthesis or the book
reports, and they get to do the hanging.
Also, charts, directions—any permanent
posters—should be written by student
hands. The more they see themselves in
the environment, the more they feel
valued (and the fewer number of
conflicts we teachers will
have them). with
 Include Students in Creating Rules,
Norms, Routines, and
Consequences
Rules are different from routines and
norms. Rules come with consequences
whereas routines and norms have
reminders. When establishing both rules
and routines, it’s crucial that students
have a say in the matter. The teacher’s
role is to facilitate and guide students
through the steps to develop social
contracts. What’s the result? Students
have full ownership in what has been
decided around class norms,
expectations, and consequences. The
start of a new school year is the ideal
time to draw up a social contract. Start
by asking kids to brainstorm about all the
things they see, feel, and hear in
classroom that make a feel
comfortable, safe, and happy.them
 Create a Variety of Communication
Channels
 Having varied and reliable options for students to
talk with you will help keep your class running
smoothly. Encourage students to connect with
you online. Provide them with your school email
account so they can send you their questions,
concerns, and suggestions, or use social-media
tools to connect with students who are old
enough to have Facebook accounts. Offer a
variety of times when you are available. This will
make certain that all students are able to come
and sit down with you privately for a chat if
needed (before school, once a week
at
lunchtime, any day after school). Place a
suggestion box on your desk where students can
leave anonymous notes. Include one or two
assignments for which students can just freewrite
anything, including a letter to you if they wish.
Students grow emotionally and socially as they
share their intellectual thoughts and ideas with
one another. As teachers, we must explicitly
integrate as much time for this as possible. We
can do so through such activities as tea parties,
and birthday parties.
 Always Be Calm, Fair, and Consistent

 Trust is the beating, healthy heart of a

functioning classroom. Without it,
classroom management is nearly as is
building relationships
impossible,
with students. A calm, fair, and consistent
teacher is a trusted one. Always keep a
calm and steady demeanor, even if your
head and heart are telling you to act
differently. Use those acting skills we all
acquire as teachers! And when you feel
the blood boiling, remember this: Kids do
not trust reactive teachers, and often they
don’t respect them. Fear should never be
the great motivator in our classrooms. So
please don’t shout.
 Know the Students You Teach

A teacher must know about his

or her students as it is the first trait
of
leadership. Ask this
question, yourself “How
myself?” welldo
Thinking
I know
question helps
about
you to better knowth
and understand your students. By is
looking at your own background
(economics, culture, education, and
gender), you will be able to
acknowledge the lens through which
you your students.
view
example, if you grew For middle
class but teach up students
families live mainly below whose the
poverty line; you can take time to
learn about their specific challenges.
 Address Conflict Quickly and Wisely
 Don’t let conflict fester. That means you should
be sure to address an issue between you and
a student or between two students as quickly
as possible. Bad feelings—on your part or the
students—can so quickly grow from molehills
into mountains.
 Now, for handling those conflicts wisely, you
and the student should step away from the
other students, just in the doorway of the
classroom perhaps. Ask naive questions such
as, “How might I help you?” Don’t accuse the
child of anything. Act as if you do care, even if
you have the opposite feeling at that moment.
The student will usually become disarmed
because he or she is expecting you to be
angry and confrontational. So you should
always take a positive approach. Say, “It looks
like you have a question” rather than, “Why are
you off task and talking?”
 When students have conflicts with each other,
remain neutral. Use neutral language as you
act as a mediator to help them resolve the
problem peacefully.
 Integrate Positive Classroom Rituals
It’s more common in elementary grades
that the day will begin with a community-
building activity. But getting off to a good
start is important at all ages. A teacher
can arrange morning meetings during
which each individual in the group is
acknowledged. It creates a feeling of “we
are all in this together.” Ask for a few
volunteers to share something good that
has happened to them (getting an A on a
test or having a new baby in the family, for
instance). The student can also share an
upcoming event that is positive (such as a
birthday or trip). Ask students to say one
word that describes how they are feeling
today. Start with a volunteer and then
“whip around” the room.
 Keep It Real

 Discover the things your

students are interested
trends, music,
in— TV shows, and
games—and incorporate those
as you teach the skills,
concepts, and knowledge they
need. You want to attach the
learning to their lives as often
as possible. If the start and end
of a unit feel “real” to your
students, then they are more
likely to be engaged during the
important journey in the middle.
 Partner with Parents and Guardians

 This is the last tip for a

Teachers know that partnering with
reason.
parents is neither easy nor
completely in our control. Returning a
teacher’s call may not be the top
priority for a parent or guardian. They
may be more concerned with paying
bills, putting food on the table, and so
much more beyond our
imaginations. Yet connecting home
and school is worth the extra effort
because of the benefits for students.
And
that I effective
believe learning takes place
only when teacher, and
parents are at one page.
student
 WHAT IS IMPACT OF TIME
ON LEARNING
Time plays very important role in every
field of life, especially in teaching learning
process. Obviously, if no time is spent
teaching a subject, students will not learn
it. However, within the usual range of time
allocated to instruction, how much
difference does time make? An effective
classroom environment for teaching and
learning can be created by the teacher for
maximizing the dedicated time for
instruction and learning. Besides effective
curriculum planning and systemic
assessment, following effective strategies
for delivering instruction and classroom
procedures can be adopted for preventing
and responding to student problem
behavior: -
Using Allocated Time for Instructions.
Using Engaged Time Effectively.
Using Allocated Time for Instructions
Allocated time (also known as available instructional time) is
the time during which students have an opportunity to learn.
When the teacher is lecturing, students can learn by paying
attention. When students have written assignments or other
tasks, they can learn by doing them. Allocated time can be
used effectively by: -
 Preventing Lost Time
 Preventing Lost Starts and Early Finishes
 Preventing Interruptions
 Handling Routine Procedures
 Minimizing Time Spent on Discipline
Using Allocated Time for Instructions

Preventing Lost Time
A school is the place for learning and not for marking time.
A teacher can use effectively the lost time by taking
initiatives on the spot, eg. A teacher took her grade four
class to the school library, which she found locked. She
sent a student for the key, and while the class waited, the
teacher whispered to her students, “Let’s work on our Time
Tables. Five nines are? Seven nines are? Did a couple of
minutes working on Time Tables facts increase the
students’ achievement? Of course not. But it probably did
help to develop a perception that school is for learning, not
for time marking.
Using Allocated Time for Instructions
Preventing Late Starts and Early Finishes

A surprising amount of allocated instructional time is lost
because the teacher does not start teaching at the
beginning of the period in most of the schools. Teachers
might spend a long time maintaining attendance register,
dealing with late students or other disciplinary problems
before starting the lesson. A crisp, on-time start to a lesson
is important for setting a purposive tone to instruction.
Students must know that if they are late, they will miss
something interesting, fun, and important. Teachers also
shortchange students by stop teaching before the end of
the period. To overcome this problem you can plan more
instructions than you think you’ll need, in case you finish
the lesson early.
 Using Allocated Time for Instructions

Preventing Interruptions
One important cause of lost allocated time for
instructions is interruptions. Interruptions may be
exactly imposed, such as mobile phone calls or the
need to sign forms sent from the principal’s office.
Interruptions not only directly cut into the time for
instructions; they also break the momentum of the
lesson, which reduces students’ attention to the
task at hand. Interruptions can be avoided by
planning. For example, putting a “Do not disturb –
learning in progress” sign on the door and switching
off the mobile phones.
 Using Allocated Time for Instructions

Handling Routine Procedures
Some teachers spend too much time on simple
classroom routines such as erasing the black
board, getting and depositing papers from the office,
distributing and collecting the papers and material
in the class. In other hand many teachers assign
regular class helpers to take care of distribution and
collection of papers, taking messages to the office,
erasing the black board, and other routine tasks
that are annoying interruptions for teachers but that
students love to do. Teachers should use student
power as much as possible.
 Using Allocated Time for Instructions

Minimizing Time Spent on Discipline
Disciplinary statements or actions should not interrupt the
flow of the lesson. A sharp glance, silently moving close to
an offending student, or a hand signal, such as putting finger
to lips to remind a student to be silent, is usually effective for
the kind of minor behavior problems that teachers must
constantly deal with, and they allow the lesson to proceed
without interruption. If students need talking to about
discipline problems, the time to do it is after the lesson or
after school, not in the middle of a lesson. If Momal and
Ayesha are talking during a quiet reading time instead of
working, it will be better to say, “Momal and Aysha, see me
after the class,” than to launch into an on-the-spot speech
about the importance of being on-task during seatwork
times.
 Using Engaged Time Effectively
Engaged time is the time students actually spend doing
assigned work. Engaged time may be different for each
student, depending upon a student’s attentiveness and
willingness to work. Strategies for maximizing student time on-
task and to increase their engagement will be discussed in the
following sections:
Teaching Engaging
Lessons Maintaining
Momentum
Maintaining Smoothness of
Instructions Managing
Transitions
Maintaining Group
Focus Withitness
 Using Engaged Time Effectively

Teaching Engaging Lessons
The best way to increase students’ time on-task is to
teach lessons that are so interesting, engaging, and
relevant to students’ interests that students will pay
attention and eagerly do what is asked of them. Part
of this strategy calls for the teacher to emphasize
active, rapidly paced instructions with varied modes of
presentation and frequent opportunities for students
participation and todeemphasized independent
seatwork, especially unsupervised seatwork as in
follow up time in elementary reading classes.
 Using Engaged Time Effectively
 Maintaining Momentum
Maintaining momentum during a lesson is a key to
keeping task engagement high. Momentum refers to
the avoidance of interruptions or slowdowns (Kounin,
1970). In a class that maintains good momentum,
 students always have something to do and, once
started working, are not interrupted. Anyone who has
tried to write a term paper only to be interrupted by
telephone calls, knock on the door, and other
disturbances knows that these interruptions cause
much more damages to concentration and progress
than the amount of time they take.
 Using Engaged Time Effectively

Maintaining Smoothness of
Instructions
– Smoothness refers to continued focus on
a meaningful sequence of instruction.
Smooth instruction avoids jumping without

transitions from topic to topic or from the
lesson to other activities, which produces
“jarring breaks in the activity flow”.
 Using Engaged Time Effectively

Managing Transitions
Transitions are changes from one activity to another; for
exmple, from lecture to seatwork, from subject to subject, or
from lesson to lunch. Transitions are occupying 15 percent of
class time (Burns, 1984). Teachers' efficiency at managing
transitions between activities is positively related to their
students' achievement. Following are three rules for the
management of transitions:
1.When making a transition, give a clear signal to which the
students have been taught to respond.
2.Before the transition is made, students must be certain about
what they are to do when the signal is given.
3.Make transitions all at once. Students should be trained to
make transitions as a group, rather than one student at a time.
 Using Engaged Time Effectively

Maintaining Group Focus

Maintaining group focus means using
classroom organization strategies and
questioning techniques that ensure that all
students in the class stay involved in the
lesson, even when only one student is called
on by the teacher. Group Alerting is a
questioning strategy that is designed to keep all
students on their toes during a lecture or
discussion.
 Using Engaged Time Effectively
One example of group alerting is creating suspense before
calling on a student by saying, "Given triangle ABC, if we know
the measures of sides A and B and of angle AB, what else
can we find out about the triangle? . . . [Pause] . . . Maria?"
Note that this keeps the whole class thinking until Maria's
name is called. The opposite effect would have been created
by saying, "Maria, given triangle ABC . . . ," because only
Maria would have been alerted. Calling on students in a
random order is another example of group alerting, as is letting
students know that they may be asked questions about the
preceding reciter's answers. For example, the teacher might
follow up Maria's answer with "What is the name of the
postulate that Maria used? . . . . Noreen?
 Using Engaged Time Effectively

Withitness
It describes teacher’s actions that indicate awareness of
students' behavior at all times. It also called "having eyes in
the back of one's head." Teachers who are with-it can respond

immediately to student misbehavior and know who started
what. Teachers who lack withitness can make the error of
scolding the wrong student.

Effective classroom managers have the ability to interpret and
act on the mood of the class as a whole. They notice when
students are beginning to be restless or are otherwise showing
signs of declining attention, and they act on this information to
change activities to recapture student engagement.
 Using Engaged Time Effectively

Overlapping
Overlapping refers to the teacher's ability to respond
to behavior problems without interrupting the
 classroom lesson or other instructional activity. For
example, one teacher was teaching a lesson on
reading comprehension when he saw a student

looking at a book that was unrelated to the lesson.
Without interrupting his lesson, the teacher walked
over to the student, took her book, closed it, and put it
on her desk, all while continuing to speak to the
class. This took care of the misbehavior without
slowing the momentum of the lesson; the rest of the
class hardly noticed that the event occurred.
THANK YOU