Thaddeus Ryan Komorowski
Significant Learning Environments
A New Culture of Learning
To create a significant learning environment within a new learning culture, the focus should be on student-centered learning and emphasize the core elements of passion, imagination, and discovery built with “play” in mind. Thomas and Brown, in their book “A New Culture of Learning” (2012), describe play as the tension between the rules of the game and the freedom to act within those rules. But when play happens within a medium for learning—much like a culture in a petri dish—it creates a context in which information, ideas, and passions grow”(p. 7). For children, passion comes from their view of the world and their curiosity as they grow and evolve. As educators, it is essential that we create environments that give students the chance to explore and cultivate their passions through developing environments that encourage “play” instead of being penalized for incorrect answers or ideas.
“Furthermore, while imagination and play are prominent in children, teacher-centered and test-focused classrooms have forced students to become motivated by grades instead of pursuing and expanding upon those curiosities that create their passion and take their learning further than any current educational setting will allow. This view of creating a different environment is outlined clearly in the formula discussed by Thomas and Brown (2011), who claim that “play becomes a strategy for embracing change, rather than a way for growing out of it” (p. 48). Embracing the new learning culture requires looking at the dimensions on which learning is based on, knowing, making, and playing (Thomas & Brown, 2011). A student-centered classroom is a classroom where passion and imagination, within the learning and safety guidelines, are embraced through the dimensions of knowing, making, and playing. This creates a significant learning environment and allows students to develop the 21st-century skills necessary to succeed.
References
Thomas, Douglas; Seely Brown, John. (2012): A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change
(p. 7, 48). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Learning Philosophy - Intro
Learning is an enduring change in behavior, or in the capacity to behave in a given fashion, which results from practice or other forms of experience.”
-Dale H. Schunk
I have chosen a quote from Dale H. Schunk as my definition because it brings together much of what I have read thus far. Just as there is no one accepted definition of learning, there are several learning theories that speak to how students learn, and each has its own recommendation on how to create the best learning environment.
My leaning Philosophy can be summed up in an old adage that states: “Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand.” But now, seeing through a comprehensive student-centered learning lens, I would like to take this a step further by adding, “challenge me, and I learn.”
Aligning Outcomes, Assessments & Activities
Creating a significant learning environment requires an emphasis 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.
References
Fink, D. (2003). A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. San Francisco; Jossey-Bass.
Understanding by Design (UbD)
Fink’s strategy and approach towards backwards design, includes the use of a 3-column table, and of a broad view in connection to an overarching goal. By using the 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, importance is placed on the establishment of long-term goals, which emphasize understanding rather than simply knowing information. Wiggins and McTighe (2005) argue that "We cannot stress enough the importance of long-term priorities in planning. Justifiable decisions about what to teach, what to leave out, what to emphasize, and what to minimize can be made only if there are agreed-upon priorities related to exit-level objectives. With no long-term goals, there is no perspective—hence no check on the teacher habit of merely teaching to short-term, content-related objectives" (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
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 a consistent and daily growth mindset, learners recognize that improvement and success is a lifelong skill. This is best illustrated by three layers of behavior change and by striving to make a growth mindset part of learner's identity
