Learning Environment (Finale)

This slide aptly summarised what we have learnt in this 5-day course on "Assessing and Improving Learning Environment". The two main factors in the entire learning environment, the People and the Physical Environment, interact and influence one another. In addition, external factors would also exert influences directly or indirectly on the people and the environment. Above all, careful handling of the personal needs (both hygiene and motivational) of the students is essential to help them demonstrate the desired human behavior in the learning environment.

Learning Environment (Day 4)

Research instrument, WIHIC (What Is Happening In This Class?), was the highlight of today's learning journey. WIHIC questionnaire is widely used by School Climate researchers to collect information which will be used to assess the "health" of the learning environment.

Besides being taught how to use the WIHIC questionnaire, we were also led through a passage on how to administer the questionnaire as a researcher. As a principle rule, the researcher must administer the survey personally. This is to allow respondents to seek clarification if they have doubts about the questionnaire. A researcher must be punctual for the survey; read the instructions to the respondents; read out the items one by one; pause to answer questions; and count the number of questionnaires collected.

We have also learnt how to administer the data entry into the Excel Spreadsheet, and subsequently used these data to generate statistics on the reliability of data, item mean, scale mean, standard deviation and comparison of the preferred results vs actual results via the SPSS software.

The most challenging task of the day was to generate a research report with reference to these analysed information. We were lucky to have Dr Quek sharing with us in great details on how to draft a research report. She even showed us some samples to help ease our pain. Personally, I was quite amazed by the vast amount of works a research has to perform to genearte a good research report. And I strongly believed teamwork is the key to meet the submission dateline of our group project - the Research Report!

Learning Environment (Day 3)

Today, we dwelled more in depth on how to assess the learning environment. We were given case reports of School Climate surveys conducted on three neighbourhood secondary schools in Singapore. We critically examined the factors contributing to a conducive or non-conducive learning environments by making reference to the Moos' key dimensions of school environments (i.e. Relationship, Personal Growth, and Systems Maintenance and System Change), as follows:

Relationship

- Student Support. There is good rapport between teachers and students; and students behave in a responsible, self-disciplined manner.

- Affiliation. Teachers can obtain assistance, advice and encouragement; and are made to feel accepted by colleagues.

Personal Growth

- Professional Interest. Teachers discuss professional matters, show interest in their work and seek further professional development.

- Achievement Orientation. Teachers value and expect high student achievement; and competition among students is encouraged.

System Maintenance and System Change

- Staff Freedom. Teachers are free of set rules, guidelines and procedures; and free of supervision to ensure rule compliance.

- Participatory Decision Making. Teachers have the opportunity to participate in decision making.

- Innovation. The school is in favour of planned change and experimentation; and fosters individualisation.

- Resource Adequacy. Support personnel, facilities, finance, equipment and resources are suitable and adequate.

- Work Pressure. The extent to which work pressure dominates the school environment.

Lessons learnt from these case studies were:

- School Leadership (i.e. Principal). There are varying styles of management such as the Very Strict/Authoritarian, Commanding/Authoritative, Laissez Faire, or Indifferent. On one extreme, an authoritarian principal will decide on what he/she thinks is good for the school without allowing participatory decision-making by the teachers and staff. Although in most cases the teachers will deliver the results that the principal has set, they will not enjoy much satisfaction since their views are not heard and valued. On the other end, an indifferent principal allows teachers and staff total freedom to do what they want, but the school is unlikely to excel due to lack of vision and directions. A good leader should set clear directions and guidelines, and at the same time empower the teachers to make decision within the defined boundaries.

- Holistic Survey. In most School Climate surveys, the attention is usually focused on the Leadership (i.e. the principal), the students and the physical environment. This is incomplete. The teachers are directly involved in engaging the students and are responsible to "add value" to the students in term of knowledge, skills and values. Therefore, the quality of teachers should be an important aspect in the learning environment. In School Climate survey, researcher should purposefully design appropriate questionnaire to collect data on the teachers.

Learning Environment (Day 2)

Its another day of exciting journey on Learning Environment (LE). To trace the development of LE, my friends and I were introduced to the leading Gurus in this field, as follows:

Kurt Z. Lewin (http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-lewin.htm)

Kurt Lewin's (1890-1947) work had a profound impact on social psychology, experiential learning, group dynamics and action research. His Field Theory is summarised as follows: (1) Behaviour is a function of the field that exists at the time the behaviour occurs, (2) Analysis begins with the situation as a whole from which are differentiated the component parts, and (3) The concrete person in a concrete situation can be represented mathematically.

This is reflected in his formula, B=f(P, E), which identifies that behavior (B) is considered to be a function (f) of the person (P) and the environment (E).

Henry A. Murray (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_A._Murray http://allpsych.com/personalitysynopsis/murray.html)

Henry A. Murray (1893-1988) was an American psychologist who taught for over 30 years at Harvard University. He was founder of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and developed a theory of personality based on "need" and "press". He was focused on basic needs in personality which he called psychogenic needs. He believed these needs were largely at the unconscious level.

Murray contended that environmental forces played a significant role in the exhibition of the psychogenic needs. He called the forces "press," referring to the pressure they put on us that forces us to act. He further argued for a difference between the real environmental forces, alpha press, and those that are merely perceived, beta press.

Herbert J. Walberg (http://www.hoover.org/bios/walberg.html, http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-8312(196911)6%3A4%3C529%3APCLAAT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J)

Herbert J. Walberg, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education, is a University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research focuses on psychology, education policy and education productivity.

In 1960s, Walberg was involved in an experimentally based physics course for secondary school students in the United States to determine if the new approach to the teaching and learning of physics in American classrooms made a difference to classroom climate. His contribution was significant because he discovered that students are capable of making valid summary judgments about their classrooms and that could help in learning environment research.

From the 1970s, research on the learning environments were centered on the conceptualization and assessment of classroom environments.

Rudolf H. Moos (http://med.stanford.edu/profiles/viewBiosketch?facultyId=4510&name=Rudolf_Moos, http://www.aare.edu.au/02pap/ken02087.htm)

Rudolf Moos is a Professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University since 1972. His expertise is in the dimensions of social climates. He researched the perceptions of the environment of the members of the environment as well as the well being of the participants.

In 1986, Moos designed the instrument, the Work Environment Scale (WES), which contained scales that are appropriate for examining the dimensions of school environments. The instrument was designed to gather data on the key dimensions of Relationship, Personal Growth, and Systems Maintenance and System Change. Data gathered through the use of the instrument was able to shed light on staff involvement, peer cohesion, supervisor support, autonomy, work pressure, clarity, control, innovation and physical comfort.

Barry J. Fraser
(http://www.smec.curtin.edu.au/staff/fraser.cfm)

Professor Barry Fraser is the Director of SMEC and the Key Centre for School Science and Mathematics and the Dean of Graduate Studies within the Faculty of Science & Engineering at the Curtin University of Technology, Australia.

His contribution to Learning Environment included the use of a variety of quantitative and qualitative techniques in the development, refinement and validation of questionnaires to assess students' or teachers’ perceptions of classroom or school environments; investigations of the effects of classroom environments on student outcomes; and evaluation of educational programmes.

My Reflection

Knowing the Gurus and their contributions in Learning Environment is an important step to grasp a good understanding of the important aspects in the learning environment, and how these aspects interact and influence each other to determine the success or failure in teaching.

There are much to learn about Learning Environment.

Learning Environment (Day 1)

Today, we embarked on the exciting journey to discover more about Learning Environment with Dr Gwendoline Quek, an Assistant Professor with NIE, as our tour guide.

Through a podcast created by Dr Quek (http://www.drquek.blogspot.com/), we learnt that the three key components in learning environment are the person, personal needs, and human behavior. An effective trainer or facilitator is responsible to provide a conducive learning environment so that learners can learn effectively in a non-threatening situation. Whichever learning strategies a trainer may apply, he is to ensure that learning is fun, exciting, engaging and enriching (LIFE3).

Experts in the field of Learning Environment have shared that factors constituting to a Learning Environment include: Organisation/Community (goals, mission, vision and quality standards), Task (duties and responsibilities), Performance (both individual and group) and People (personal needs, attributes, motivation and roles). Of all these factors, its undisputed that the most challenging task of a trainer or facilitator is to deal with the People (i.e. students). While resources can be invested to provide the best physical learning environment with state-of-the-art instructional equipment, its the process of assessing, profiling and engaging the learners that will ensure ultimate success in teaching.

There are so much to learn .......... to be effective trainer.

Finally, I am a Blogger!

Wow! After many years... I am finally a blogger.

I used to admire how people enjoy blogging - sharing their excitements about their life, reflecting on their experiences and setbacks, jokes, stories, pictures, movies, and much much more. I was particularly amazed when I discovered that my youngest son, Jordan (see picture), who is currently in Primary 5, was also blogging! Amidst his busy school works, he would without fail add a post to his blog at least once a week. And until this day, he still refused to let me access his blog. He said, "this is where I do reflections on the lessons learnt from my teachers, and where I let go frustrations on the little little bad experiences and hiccups I had in school."

I think Jordan will be amazed too...... if he knows that Daddy also has a blog.