Reflection on The Design of Learning Environment

The word Learning Environments initially gave me a feel that it was mainly about the physical aspect of the classroom. However, after reading, How People Learn: The Design of Learning Environment, I've been enlightened. The 4 perspectives, Learner-centered, Knowledge-centered, Assessment-centered and Community-centered environments may seem like new terms. However, in retrospect, we as educators have been practising these theories all along.

Lessons designed for lower primary children are mostly centered around the experiences and culturally setting they tend to come from as these are the areas whereby pupils will have prior knowledge on. This will enable children to build on their existing knowledge and construct new understandings. Such an approach can be viewed as learner-centered.

All of us are aware of the 3 step approach in Mathematics; Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract. Children are first exposed to a concept through the use of concrete examples which is later progressed to pictorial representation and finally to abstract. Through this approach, we hope to organize the learning process for pupils according to their developmental age and learning ability.

As of late, we see the trend of providing platforms for pupils and teachers to provide feedback in different manners apart from the usual formative and summative assessments. Projects whereby feedback is given in the form of written comments instead of just numbers or grades are no longer a taboo. Even pupils give teachers feedback in their reflections and blogs.

Community-centered environments have also been around and its gaining importance as schools are gearing towards partnerships with communities in CIP programmes and learning journeys. Hence, creating opportunities for pupils to interact within the class and bond as a community and also to interact with the community outside school.