Classroom Environments Conducive to Learning & Responding to Misbehavior in the Classroom

When creating a classroom environment conducive to learning, my first goal will be to help my children feel welcome and have a sense of belonging. Anderman (2002) expresses, "Creating a sense of community engenders feelings of belongingness. Students see themselves as important and valued members of the classroom" (cited in Ormrod, 2011, p. 463). Several strategies I could use in an early childhood setting include displaying photographs of children's families to provide comfort and setting up cozy, homelike spaces for children to relax and feel at ease, either alone or with peers, teachers, or family members.

Another strategy I could use to help my classroom become an optimal learning environment would be to arrange the furniture, provide materials, and set up activities that encourage collaboration and communication among my children.
     

For example, in this photograph, children were given open ended materials to build with; this sparked their curiosities and invited children to work together to achieve a common goal-building a fort (Curtis & Carter, 2003, p. 55).

Thirdly, I would take my student's interests into account when planning activities and lessons for children, as these will help to engage and motivate students to learn. Further, Curtis and Carter (2003) state, "When children are offered flexible furnishings and open-ended materials, they engage in the range of activities that foster their development and learning-moving, manipulating, investigating, building, representing, creating, communicating, and problem solving" (p. 57). I want my classroom environment to support and facilitate these skills and abilities for children!

An e-portfolio I found, Creating a Positive Classroom Environment, provides real examples of ways in which a student teacher fostered an effective learning environment during her student teaching experience. I think it is important to see the ideas and perspectives of teachers currently working out in the classroom setting!

Early Childhood Education Case Study

It has been one month since the school year began and most of your 25 kindergarten students know class procedures, such as the schedule of learning activities, where they are supposed to be for each learning activity, where they are supposed to keep their personal items, and how they are expected to move about the room and the school building in order to ensure a productive learning environment.  But then there is Willard.  He must ask 20 or more times a day, “Teacher, when can we go outside to play?”  In addition, he often does not stay where he should to work on a given learning activity.  Instead, you find him wandering around the room and getting into other children’s personal things.  Three times this past week you looked up just in time to see Willard walking out of the classroom without permission.  Some of the other children in your classroom community have started making fun of Willard.  Others are beginning to become less engaged in their learning.

In this situation, I feel that Willard needs more guidance and redirection. The first step I would take to help Willard would be to set up the environment in a way that would be supportive to this child. For example, providing a visual schedule of the day to remind Willard of what he should be doing and a picture chart with the classroom rules and procedures. These reminders may be drawn to Willard's attention during a morning meeting or group time. During this time, I would also address the topic of bullying and making fun of others with the whole class, perhaps through role playing with puppets or finding a quality children's book that discusses the importance of respecting your peers. 

If Willard's behavior continues, I would begin to give him cues. For instance, if I notice he is wandering around the classroom, I may give him a stern look that demonstrates his action is not acceptable or give him a verbal directive, "Return to your table." Ormrod (2011) describes this response, "Effective classroom managers handle such minor behavior problems as unobtrusively as possible: They don't stop the lesson, distract other students, or call unnecessary attention to the inappropriate behavior" (p. 486). 

If his behaviors continue to persist and are interfering with other student's learning processes, I would sit down and have a one-on-one conversation with the child about the class procedures and explicitly state to him my expectations; for example, "I expect you to stay at the table when working on an activity" or "It is not appropriate to walk out of the classroom without permission." It is expressed by Ormrod (2011), "Private conversations with individual students give us, as teachers, a chance to explain why certain behaviors must stop. They also give students a chance to explain why they behave as they do" (p. 487). 

After all three of these strategies have been implemented and there is no change in behavior, I may reach out to the parents and discuss his routines at home. Is he able to follow a routine at home consistently? If so, I can seek out ideas from his parents about what takes place at home and incorporate these ideas at school for Willard.

References: 

Curtis, D. & Carter, M. (2003). Designs for Living and Learning: Transforming Early

            Childhood Environments. St Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

McLaughlin, J. Creating a positive classroom learning environment.
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/mclaughlin_portfolio/creating_a_positive_classroom_environment

Ormrod, J.E. (2011). Educational Psychology: Developing Learners. Boston, MA: Pearson.