CREATING A NEW LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

In a world full of standardized tests and memorization, how do we make learning come alive? What changes are needed in education to spark student’s interest and make them care about content being taught? What is missing when it comes to students making meaningful connections with content and what is stopping many classrooms from cultivating a significant learning environment all together? A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination of a World of Constant Change delivers the message that classrooms are missing key components that cultivate creativity and engagement. Today's classrooms aren’t leaving room for students' imaginations to run wild and form questions that could lead them to their own unique solutions. Teachers are not finding ways to feed student’s passion. There is no constraint in engagement to hold students attention. Learning is also missing the main ingredient that is necessary to create these significant learning environments. This key ingredient is play. “Children, for instance, embrace play as a central part of how they experience the world, and they learn that questioning the world is one of the key ways they can understand it.” (Thomas & Brown, 2011). Knowing this, are we, as educators, embracing play? Are we meeting students where they are and helping them to question the learning as a means of sparking their imagination? Reflecting on these things and refocusing the way we approach education can be beneficial to student's success and achievement moving forwards.

​

In many classrooms, students walk in, the teacher teaches the lesson, students complete a worksheet, and class ends. Many educators never get away from this model of teaching because it has worked for so many years and it seems to be the way to make sure all content is taught before standardized testing time. Because of this, students miss out on so many authentic learning opportunities. When it was my first year as a teacher, I was guilty of following this model of teaching because many of the veteran teachers used it. They said it was a tried and true method of getting through the content. During my first year using this method, I often wondered why students were staring off into space, drawing in their folders, and constantly asking for a bathroom pass. My class wasn’t holding their attention. It definitely wasn’t something that they were passionate about. To them, health was just an elective used to pass the time. Looking back, I can’t blame them. I was new and figuring education out, but my class could’ve been compared to watching paint dry. Once I learned to do better, I did. My class became project based and I saw a change in the way that students responded to my class. For once, they were actually asking questions and enjoying the learning. My classroom atmosphere took a dramatic turn in the right direction when I introduced peer to peer learning and play. In many of today’s classrooms, there is no room for play in learning, which ultimately is a big mistake. “Play can be defined as the tension between rules of the game and the freedom to act within those rules. When play happens, it creates a context in which information, ideas, and passion grow.” (Thomas & Brown, 2011) Ideas, passion, and growth are key elements of cultivating a significant learning environment.

​

Another thing that can sometimes be missing from the classroom is constraint. In other words, a challenge is missing. So many times, students have behavioral issues or problems focusing because they are not being challenged. When a lesson lacks constraint, you may lose the learner's attention every time. Constraint is essential in building significant learning environments because students are now creating in the midst of challenges. When an obstacle is present, and students have to figure out a way to make things work, they are usually more engaged and use their imagination and creativity to form valid solutions. It is important that student’s interests be piqued during the learning process. This is where critical thinking, problem solving, and authentic learning takes place. As a soccer coach, this takes place during the game because players have to find a way to move the ball up a field without the use of their hands. On the other hand, if the athletes could pick up the ball and simply throw it to a team member, it wouldn’t be as challenging and the students may lose interest in the soccer program as time passes.

​

I think the main challenge to creating the new learning environment is that teachers are on a tight schedule to teach students to pass a standardized test. Because of this, there isn’t much room to really create those lessons that cultivate creativity. Because of their strict teaching schedule, it is sometimes harder for them to fit in the engaging lesson plans that lead to authentic learning. It may be hard to make teaching student centered and even harder for learners to have a choice, use their voice, and take ownership of their learning. Peer to peer learning, which was mentioned in the book, definitely helped me to engage my classroom when I was seeking to have more engagement.

​

Adopting the perspective of creating significant learning environments will impact my organization because learners will actually learn and understand why the content is important. Learners will take part in their learning and have ownership of their learning. “Memorization, one of the basic staples of education, is not a bad way to learn about things that seldomly change, such as a spelling bee, the periodic table of the elements, and dates in history. Unfortunately, however, what students memorize are things they don’t actually use every day in their day-to-day-lives.” (Thomas & Brown, 2011) Adopting this perspective is significant because we are actually giving students the opportunity to learn things that will assist them with everyday life which will help to prepare them for the future. When I was teaching health, it was easy to have a significant learning environment because it was project based and the students had a choice in the manner in which the projects were presented. The content was literally things that related to everyday life like hygiene, nutrition, decision making skills, and safety. It also helped that health was an elective and there was no standardized test to accompany the class. I also found that there are major benefits to incorporating technology into the classroom. It is no secret that students love technology. Tying in something that students are already passionate about, like their phone or laptops, helps to make them want to be engaged. Adopting this perspective will also change the way that classrooms are ran. There will need to be new procedures put in place and rules to adapt to the new culture of learning. An example of this would be the rule that tells students that electronic devices are not accepted in class. A new culture of learning would be to embrace electronics and other things that students love that could promote learning.

​

Creating a significant learning environment is so important when it comes to health education. My innovation plan describes the online wellness blended learning initiative catered to educating the community about lifestyle changes that could help them to prevent preventable diseases through education, technology, and peer support. It is my hope to deliver interactive health modules that spark passion and piques interest because their learners' lives depend on them internalizing this information. A New Culture of Learning will impact my innovation plan with the use of peer to peer learning which is important because a big part of my innovation plan is the different support groups that will be available through the online initiative. "Moreover, students are willing to learn from one another in deep and profound ways. They turn diversity into strength and build their own networked communities based on interest and shared passion and perspective." (Thomas & Brown, 2011) 

​

Another impact the reading will have on my innovation plan will be learning through inquiry.  I really want the learners to take a look at the lifestyles they are living and ask themselves what it will take and what sacrifices need to be made to make their overall wellness a reality. Naturally, when it comes to making a lifestyle change, whether physically, mentally or socially, there is going to be constraint. It is challenging to change unhealthy ways of life that you either enjoyed or made you comfortable. I’m hoping that their passion for their own health, the encouragement of play, constraint, and imagination of the benefits of a healthier lifestyle would help them to buy into this program. Through this blended wellness learning initiative, learners must embrace change to achieve the level of wellness they are seeking. It is my hope that the online wellness blended learning initiative will assist learners with making the healthy lifestyle changes needed to help create healthy, longer lives.

​

I believe that the perspective gained from reading and through my experience as an educator is broad enough to become the foundational perspective that will influence the way that I approach all education in the future. I’ve had to take a hard look at the way I approached education and learning in the past and it didn’t match up with the fast paced changes of the world today. Learning to move from a teacher centered method to a student/learning centered method has really opened my eyes. Learning isn’t about me, as an educator. It is all about the learner. There are so many diverse learning styles in every learning environment and it has been beneficial to everyone when the focus becomes creating those authentic opportunities for learning. Making students ask questions, making them passionate, and encouraging to imagine makes the learning worthwhile for every learner, not just the overachievers. Students are deserving of a safe space to learn from failures, not change the level of imagination or creativity used, and a place where effort is praised. A New Culture of Learning advocates for learners to dream big and become the problem solvers of tomorrow. 

​

References

​

Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011) A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination For A World of Constant Change. Lexington, KY, USA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

​

A New Culture of Learning, Douglas Thomas at TEDxUFM. (2012, September 12). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM80GXlyX0U

​