Creating Significant Learning Environments
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In education we are good at what we do. When you look at education as a whole, you will find many successes over past decades and how it is now common for people to know how to solve simple math while grocery shopping or read a menu at their favorite restaurant. At one time it was not common for people to be able to read and write so we can say that education and educators are good at what they do. Even though we have gotten really good at educating kids, is it enough?
Our world is changing rapidly. The world is changing much faster than education. Our students do not learn in the same way that has been done in the past. Douglas Thomas (2012) mentioned that teachers used to be the sole source of content. Teachers would stand at the front of the room and give students the information that they needed to understand for the test that needed to be taken. This model worked for a long time, then the internet entered the picture. The internet quickly became easily accessible to everyone and because of this, so did content. Instead of teachers being the sole source of content, now there are multiple sources that come from different perspectives. With all of this information, we now know that the model of the teacher providing all of the knowledge for students to memorize is not true learning. For example, a student may remember that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, but can they actually explain that mitochondria is the driving organelle behind cellular respiration and is what converts nutrients and oxygen into energy? Can they make predictions about what would happen if the nutrients changed? Can they relate that to the function of chloroplasts in plant cells and how the two work together?
Creating a significant learning environment is just that, significant learning. It requires some type of lasting change to the learner’s life that is important (Fink, 2003, p. 3). Douglas Thomas stated that there are three parts that will demonstrate what learning looks like. The first two are engaging passion and imagination. When you take these two things and when constraint takes the form of obstacles in the learner’s way, this will harness the power of passion and imagination.
Passion is the fuel that feeds the fire. As a teacher, I can tell when a certain part of the curriculum sparks my passion. I can also see that passion be passed on to my students. Instilling passion in the learning environment can set the stage for significant learning to take place. There is no better feeling as a teacher than when a student shows up at your door with a spark in their eyes to tell you about some interesting fact that they learned on their own and the excitement they exude when they have taught their teacher something new. Engaging this passion is one of the pieces to creating a significant learning environment. Coupling that passion with the questions of “what if” is powerful and engages the imagination. Talk to a kindergartener for 5 minutes and you will definitely experience the imagination of a child, but as that child grows older, those imaginations start to diminish. They are taught that questions have specific answers that need to be memorized. “Our educational system is built upon a structure that poses questions in order to find answers” (Thomas and Brown, 2011, p. 81). Thomas and Brown went on to say how memorizing facts does not create inspiration and can make learning a tiresome burden. Making room for imagination in your learning environment will allow students to take their learning to a new level that will stick with them for years to come.
Passion and Imagination
The third part of the puzzle is constraint. Douglas Thomas describes this as “creating in the face of obstacles” (Thomas, 2012). While this part may seem counterintuitive, it really does make sense. Putting obstacles in a student's way can help them harness their passion and creativity to overcome that obstacle. This is what makes play work. Take the sport of basketball for example. You have a ball that you have to get into a hoop. Seems easy enough, but you can’t pick it up and run with it, and there are people standing in your way to try and take it from you. These are the obstacles. Because of these obstacles, creative strategies have been created to try and get the ball into the hoop and some people are so passionate about it that they dedicate their entire lives to just this sport. Obstacles can inspire creativity and passion.
Constraint is also important to a student’s learning to help guide them. If you ask a student to follow their passion and give them a tool like the internet, “they will probably meander around finding bits and pieces of information that move them from topic to topic and produce a very haphazard result” (Thomas and Brown, 2011, p. 81). These boundaries that are produced from constraint can help keep students on the right path without hindering their learning.
Constraint
The most difficult challenge as a teacher is time. Learning should be fun and easy and should come naturally. In my classroom, I am expected to teach the standards that my students will be tested on when they move on to 8th grade. So many times I have had to cut discussions, assignments, or projects short because there was not enough time to continue and still be able to cover the other standards before I had to move on to the next unit. It often feels like you are running in sand. Due to standardized testing, I will not be able to alter too much of what is being taught in my class but I can impact how it is being taught. Making the shift from a teacher-centered classroom to a more student-centered classroom can help nurture the significant learning environment that I strive to have. Research shows how blended learning can lead to more student engagement and improvement. It is something that I will bring into my learning environment to help cultivate passion and imagination and also give the opportunity to place constraints to help guide a student's learning.
Challenges and Impact
My Philosophy
After completing Thomas and Brown’s book, I can connect how our current model of education is to have a teacher deliver the content to their students and provide them with questions that have a specific answer so it can be measured through standardized testing. I want to approach this from a different angle. I feel as a teacher I should not only help them discover how to learn but also model what learning looks like. I should now just become another context for the information they are receiving. I have always believed that we should be lifelong learners and that learning should not stop when you leave the walls of the classroom. Teachers are on the front lines of this opportunity. I strive to show my students how I am continually learning new things. I also try to model how failing is only an opportunity to grow and learn more. I believe that combining this philosophy with the pieces of creating a significant learning environment, such as engaging passion, imagination, and constraint, can help my students learn to also be lifelong learners. This will not only help them in my classroom but carry over into other classes and hopefully into adulthood. Cultivating significant learning environments is essential to creating lifelong learners.
References
Fink, L. D. (2003). What is “significant learning”? Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/32341334/WHAT_IS_SIGNIFICANT_LEARNING_
Thomas, D. [TEDx Talks]. (2012, September 12). A new culture of learning, Douglas Thomas at TEDxUFM [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM80GXlyX0U&feature=youtu.be
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, KY: CreateSpace.