End of Semester Examination

(Take Home Mode)

Principles of Teaching
(EDC5392)

Prepared By

Nahdi Samae

G0921795

Instructor:

Dr Mohyani Razikin

28 October 2010
The learning environment within a particular school is the interplay of three important

variables namely (i) teacher-student relationship (ii) leadership styles and teaching methods,

and (iii) the physical environment.

From one perspective the concept of learning environment has been influence by

―constructivist‖ theories whereby in education it is consistent with curricula and instruction

that encourage students to make decisions about what to study and how.

Answer ( I )

Constructivist theory

Constructivism is a learning theory based on the notion that students actively ―construct‖

knowledge, this view of learning calls for a dramatic lessening of dependence on an

instructive, textbook-based, ―transmission‖ of knowledge approach to the teaching and

learning in the classroom. The theory also suggests the participation and interactions of

students in their social environment are vital importance to the knowledge construction

(Salkind, 2008). It can be traced back to the theories developed by philosophers, curriculum

designers, psychologists, and educators such as Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, the Gestalt

psychologists, Frederic Barlett, David Ausubel and Jerome Bruner as well as the work of

John Dewey, to name a few.

It also challenges popular views about the nature of knowledge. The fact that constructivism

rejects commonplace views about knowledge, however, does not mean that it embraces an

everything-is-acceptable approach. What is also clear is that constructivists who endorse

views that oppose the mainstream view who argue, that worthwhile knowledge tends to be

complex rather than simple, open to question rather than certain—are more likely than

acknowledged to promote disagreement among experts about how best to conceptualize

knowledge.
As mentioned earlier, Constructivism views learning the active and personal construction of

knowledge, the cognitive science can be seen as a partner supporting this idea. The cognitive

theories assume individuals construct their cognitive structures as they interpret their

experience in particular.

Despite sharing common understanding toward students’ knowledge construction, those

constructivists can be categorized to two forms of views: psychology and social construction.

The first group is concerned with how individuals build up certain elements of their cognitive

or emotional apparatus. These constructivists are called psychological and social

constructivist, the former build up certain element of their cognitive or emotional apparatus.

These constructivists are interested in individual knowledge, beliefs, self-concept or identity

so they are called individual or cognitive constructivist; they all focus on the inner

psychological life of people. For instance, Piaget’s psychological perspective presents four

cognitive stages to all humans pass through. Thinking at each stage incorporates previous

stages as it becomes more organized and adaptive, that is the knowledge is self-constructed

and comes from reflection on our own cognition, not link directly from environment.

In the meantime, second group represents social constructivist is concerned with social

interaction, cultural tools and activities shape individual development and learning. The

student or learner internalizes the outcomes produced by working together; these outcomes

could include both new strategies and knowledge. Vygotsky is pioneer psychologist who

introduced this concept, he gives us a way to consider both psychological and social. For

example, the Zone of Proximal Development explain an area where children can solve

problem with the scaffolding of adult or more able peer that area is the place where culture

and cognition create each other. One way to look at what Vygotsky’s view is to think of

knowledge as individually constructed and socially mediated.

 Answer (II)

Factors affect Learning Environment

A positive and effective learning environment is paramount to students’ achievement and it

must be established and maintained throughout the year. To address the second question, I

strongly agree that a school is required at least three critical variables aforementioned in the

first paragraph.

Relationships between teachers and students have been a focus of educators’ concerns for

decades although this attention had taken different forms and had been expressed using a

wide range of constructs and paradigms. Over many years, diverse literatures attended to

teachers’ and students’ expectations of one another, discipline and class management,

teaching and learning as socially mediated, teachers’ own self- and efficacy-related feelings

and beliefs, school belonging and caring, teacher-student interactions.

Relationships involve many component entities and processes integrated within a dynamic

system. Components include expectations, beliefs about the self or other, affects, and

interactions, to identify a few. In a school or classroom setting, each of these components has

its own extensive literature, for example, on teacher expectations or the role of social

processes as mediators of instruction. Therefore, the study of teacher-student relationships

traces its roots to many sources in psychology and education.

Educational psychology, curriculum and instruction, and teacher education each provide rich

sources of intellectual nourishment for the study of relationships between teachers and

children. From a historical perspective, early in Dewey’s writing and in texts by Vygotsky,

there are frequent references to relationships between teachers and student. Social relations,

particularly a sense of being cared for, were considered an important component in Dewey’s
conceptualization of the school as a context, and certainly Vygotsky’s emphasis on support

provided to the child in the context of performing and learning challenging tasks was a

central feature of his concept of the zone of proximal development.

Somewhat similar to the focus of many researches on classroom interactions was the

emergence of the broad literatures on interpersonal perception that took form in research on

attribution and expectation, notably studies by Rosenthal on the influence of expectations on

student performance. These studies strongly indicated that instruction is something more than

simply demonstration, modeling, and reinforcement, but instead a complex, socially and

psychologically mediated process. Work on student motivation, self-perceptions, and goal

attainment has documented strong associations between these child outcomes and school

contexts, including teachers’ attitudes and behaviors toward the child. Actively addresses the

integration of emotions, perceptions, and motivations in the context of instructional

interactions, pointing again to the importance of the relational context created for the student.

These literatures are thus significant evident to the importance of establishing and

maintaining relationship between teacher and student.

According to many literatures, the school leadership is a key in shaping school environment.

He communicates core values, behaviors, and expectations in their everyday work with staff.

Their actions, words, memos, and even non verbal behavior send message and over time

shape culture. Either they encourage and or reward effective teachers and accomplished

students, or they ignore them and bury themselves in micromanagement or politics.

The effective leader recognizes his or her personality and how operation factors or daily tasks

affect his or her relationship with others. The effective leader is able to comprehend how

other people differ in temperament and expectations and how they may best be motivated.

With regards to Shepard (1996) it was suggested that school leadership is critical for
improving student achievement. They conclude, based on their research findings, that

leadership has significant effect on student learning, secondly to the effects of the

―curriculum‖ and ―teacher instruction‖. They added to the discussion, suggesting that

principal leadership, when mediated by school level factors has a significant effect on student

achievement. Based on these findings the survival of schools, in times of turbulence enhances

concern for student learning, will depend on strong, effective leadership that can guide

schools through the challenges of improving student achievement.

Lastly, it has been established that favorable physical characteristics of a school are positively

linked to student achievement. Poston Jr. et al., (1992) told that one of the factors which

promote school effectiveness is s safe, clean and adequate physical facilities. This means

learning will be likely to occur when the environment is conducive to teaching and learning.

In order to achieve this, the design of school facilities must be according to the context of

educational concepts. As Robore (1985), stated that:

―Ideally, a school campus should be a harmonized environment that allows for maximum

efficiency in learning and operational processes while maintaining a pleasant, attractive

atmosphere in which pupils, personnel, and patron can achieve success and satisfaction.‖

Therefore, the school administration must well plan and design for school facilities.

Moreover, as searching were also supported by Bartky (1956) stated that:

―a poor physical facilities is a source of undesirable behavior. For instance, narrow, poorly

designed exist encourage pushing and shoving, crowded corridors invite noisy passing

periods; poorly designed toilet facilities promote all manners of unfortunate behavior, and

small play areas make for fighting and arguing‖.

Answer (III)

Learning Environment of Secondary School Classroom

The constructivist approach to teaching and learning can be seen such an extreme version is

discovery learning (Ausubel 1961), which entails placing children in environments and

situations that are rich in discovery opportunities—that is, rather than explaining to students

what they should do, they are left to discover both what to do and how to do it, consistent

with theories such as Piaget’s that assert learning is best and most complete (i.e.,

understanding is most certain) when children discover concepts for themselves (Piaget,

1970). Teacher input often boils down to answering questions that students might pose as

they attempt to do a task.

In recent years, such guided discovery teaching has come to be known as scaffolding like the

scaffolding of a building, the teacher provides support when needed, with the scaffolding

reduced as the child’s mind, which is under construction, is increasingly able to handle the

task. The teacher provides enough support (hints and prompts) for the child to continue to

make progress understanding a situation but does not provide the student with answers or

complete explanations about how to find answers. Such guided discovery takes more time

than more direct teaching, however. Moreover, it requires teachers who know the concepts

being taught so well that they can make up questions in response to student attempts and

errors as they attempt tasks (Collins & Stevens, 1982).

Secondary education is viewed as an important place whereby psychological stage of children

will be fully developed to the last stage of ―adult‖. The environmental context of secondary

school classroom is somehow similar to that of primary or elementary education. Similar

strategies can be applied according to the Constructivist theories as mentioned earlier.

With the factors stated in the first paragraph, social interaction and participation of student

and teacher are to be encouraged. In micro scope such as classroom, teachers can implement

as mentioned of discovery learning, problem based learning, cooperative learning and so on.

In wider and macro environment, school management is responsible to facilitate and

accommodate learning environment within the school premise; proper classroom facilities,

resourceful staff and library and so forth.

Islamic Perspective

The Quran makes it clear that everyone is responsible because Allah has honored him by the

faculty of the intellect. Therefore, man is accountable for his deeds. Allah says: ―Then guard

yourselves against a day when one soul shall not avail another‖ (Qur’an 2:123). On this basis

the school leader should not think that special favors would exempt him from the personal

responsibility he/she is entrusted with. He or she then has to examine school appropriateness

and ensure all teachers are acquainting with suitable teaching material and methodologies for

a specific example. Teachers by their own effort are encouraged to observe – apart from his

teaching duties and materials, how to handle students’ relationship as the theories proven that

effective learning is relatively essential to interaction of students and surroundings. This

tradition of the prophet shows importance of social interaction and inquiry as parallel to the

Quranic verse (16:43) ―… ask the followers of Remembrance if ye know not‖. To conclude

this essay, the leadership of Islam is fundamental important to the revival of Islamic

education, hence each and every Muslim should play their role in quest of right Muslim

leadership.
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