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.