Significant Learning Environments

Significant Learning

You can't create a significant learning environment without first understanding what significant learning is. Significant learning is learning that is student centered. It has a significance to the student. It makes them want to learn, and can make learning a natural process. This type of learning "takes place without books, without teachers, and without classrooms, and it requires environments that are bounded yet provide complete freedom of action within those boundaries." (Thomas & Brown, 2011, pg 55)

To create a significant learning environment, teachers have to know what learning looks like. Things like rote memorization might help a student get a question on a test correct, but did they learn anything? No. They memorized a definition. Can they take that definition and answer a question that requires them to analyze a situation? For example, a student might know that the definition of a transform boundary is two tectonic plates that slide past each other meet. Can the student then know that as they slide past each other an earthquake happens? Can they predict what would happen when an oceanic crust and continental crust meet? Learning happens when students explore and imagine. This does not happen by just answering questions on a worksheet. It happens by doing activities and asking the higher order thinking questions and not letting students just answer with one word.

Douglas Thomas said that there are three things that we need to do to mirror what learning really looks like. They are: engage passion, imagination, and constraint.

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Engage Passion

Douglas Thomas said, "If somebody has a passion for something, try to stop them from learning - you can't do it!" As a teacher, it can be hard to get students excited about a topic. Some students are just not interested in what you have to say. In a training recently, we were told to use phenomena to introduce a topic, to get the students interested in the topic we were about to teach. If they are interested in figuring out what happened and why, they are more likely to learn what we have to teach them about the topic and how it relates to the phenomena.

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Imagination

The power of "what if". Imagination is a crucial element to learning. However, for so long, students have been told to not use their imaginations. They have been told that there is only one correct answer. I recently had my students look at a card and describe what they saw. Depending on how you picked up the card, it could be a 6, 9, g, a, or an e. This allowed me to segue into perspectives. Each student has a background that gives them a unique perspective on things. If they can bring that perspective into class and use their imagination, their "what ifs" will explode in a wonderful sense of learning that is natural and fun for them - because there can be more than one correct answer.

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Constraint

Douglas Thomas described constraint as "creating in the face of obstacles". The Greek philosopher Plato said, "Necessity is the mother of invention. A need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem." Students need constraints in order to learn. If I were to tell my student to build me a model of a cell, they could find an example online and build it pretty quickly - but they didn't learn anything. If I tell them to build me a model of a cell and there were certain constraints on it, they would learn from building the cell.

Challenges and Impact

Learning should be natural, easy, and fun. However, most times it isn't. Why is that? It is because teachers' performance is based on how well their student's take a test. Some teachers have to 'teach to the test'. Even in 6th and 7th grade science, I have to teach towards a test, the 8th grade STAAR. My students will not take a test this year, but they will in 8th grade, and for science, it covers material from 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. Due to this, I fully believe that the learning should be student centered. If they truly learn it in 6th or 7th grade, then it is just a review for them in 8th. Using the idea that we need to mirror what learning really looks like, I want to find ways to get my students passionate, get their imaginations going, and give them constraints. We are using phenomena more to get students engaged. An example of this is asking why the fish are dying in Africa. Scientists were able to figure out that it was hippo poop. By not telling students the full story, they have to figure it out on their own looking at biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem. They have to ask questions and look at the whole picture. They want to know what happened and will start inquiring.

By creating a significant learning environment, students will be doing science, not just learning it. As this happens, they will learn science and make memories. With this environment, they will learn how to learn. They can learn from other students perspectives, interactions, and their own imaginations. This will eventually bleed over to their other classes.

Philosophy

Students have been taught for years that there is one answer to the question. This is the answer that the teacher wants to hear and the student will give if they want to get it right. This is rote memorization, not learning. Students need to learn that there might be more than one correct answer. They need to understand that even if they haven't made it to the end, they might be on the right track and to not give up. My philosophy is to do things differently. Learning never ends. As a teacher, I will show my students that I am still learning. I talk about my college courses in my classroom. I don't tell a student they are wrong, I just help them get onto a different track. Learning happens in many forms. Sometimes it comes from other students, sometimes from a video on the internet. The goal is to keep learning. I learn from my students.

References

Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, KY: CreateSpace.

Significant Learning Environments