Written Assignment Unit 1

University of the People

EDUC 5280: INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES FOR THE SECONDARY CLASSROOM

Dr. Kevin Green (Instructor)

June 22, 2022

 The Features of Learning Environments and How They Influence Instructional Design

Choices

For students to learn, they must feel safe, engaged, connected, and supported in their

classrooms and schools (Waldman, C., 2016). Other features of learning environment that make

teaching/learning activities inclusive include respect, students’ participation, students’

motivation, equity, students’ differentiation, students’ recognition, and positive teacher-student

relationship (PrepWorks, 2022).

In order for learning to take place, all students must feel safe in an inclusive class. Nothing good

comes out of fear. If a student is afraid of a particular teacher for whatever reason, the student

cannot excel in the subject, until a drastic step is taken to eradicate the fear. That is why, in every

school, especially in this era of kidnapping, banditry, and unlawful invasion of schools in some

countries of the world, the security of lives and properties has to be taken seriously. In a school

where students are in class and they afraid that, at any point in time they can be kidnapped and

be out of school, they will lose interest in schooling, and they will count it as a waste of effort

putting all of their beings into teaching/learning activities. In such an environment learning

cannot take place.

Despites the age range of our students, whoever they are, wherever they come from, their

opinions and personalities have to be respected by the teacher and the students also have to

respect one another. A learning environment that lacks respect or that do not reciprocate respect

for one another will exude chaos, and learning will never take place in a chaotic environment.

Whatever a student says during class discussions, no room should be allowed for jeering. If you

jeer at a person, it is a sign of disrespect. Even, if the contribution makes no sense to some
students, the teacher can move the contribution around, and using it as a basis for questioning

can result into a sensible impact at the end of the day. A learning environment that is full of

reciprocated respect impacts both teachers and students positively.

Gone are those days when teachers are seen as gods! Gone are those days when a teacher is an

‘Alpha and Omega’ of his/her subject! Time is changing! Students come with something to class,

only a-day-old baby can be said to have an empty brain. The teacher has to allow students to

fully participate in class discussions. The teacher must be willing to share his/her power and

prowess with the students. In fact, ‘Questioning’ has been found to be one of the best methods

that work in secondary school classrooms. Little can be put to use of lecture method and some

other related methods. A learning environment that will be conducive for students must be the

one that will give room for maximum participation from the side of the students.

Classrooms of nowadays are extremely diverse. Notwithstanding the diversity, it has to be made

inclusive. Hence, there is need to motivate some students more than the other based on their

traits and needs so that all and sundry can succeed. A teacher has to give a push here and there to

his/her students towards the direction of excellent academic achievement. An unmotivated

student no matter how brilliant s/he is cannot give her/his best. Everyone, all students inclusive,

needs motivation. Even a teacher needs to be self-motivated in order to charge the learning

environment with motivation, thereby transferring it to all students so they can learn.

Moreover, in a student where learning is going to be effective, all students have to be treated

equally and fairly. There should be no segregation of any sort. There should be no gender

discrimination. There should be no consideration for whether s/he is a child from a wealthy

home. In fact, it is even better the children of the poor are supported a little bit, so that they can
be confidently learn. Most of the children of the rich are already over-confident and over-

pampered, theirs are to be curbed. This is fairness in operation if this suggestion can be followed.

One other characteristic of learning environments is that a teacher needs to welcome different

form and level of success. Every little improvement has to be recognized and applauded.

Celebrations should not be limited to the best students only. The students at the bottom, when

they make a slight improvement and progress, need to be celebrated in order to encourage them

to give a better performance. Improvement is always gradual, and if it goes unnoticed, it will

dive in the opposite direction.

Furthermore, a teacher must know all his/her students. Their weakness, strength and their ways

of learning have to be known by the teacher with whatever means – by questioning, the use of

technology, or by observation or research. In a learning environment where everyone is a

stranger, there can never be harmony or teamwork. Learning can never take place in a tense

place. Knowing one another beforehand eases tension, and allows learners to open up.

Finally in this direction, there must be a positive teacher-student relationship in a good learning

environment. Even before the first contact, a teacher should start building a good rapport by

knowing his/her students. Their names, their parents, where they come from, and so on so forth.

S/he should also try to figure out the level of intelligence of the students. S/he should by all

means know as much as possible about the students.

All these features of learning environments listed above influence the instructional design

choices. How? Since the main goal of an instructional design model or process is to construct a

learning environment that provide the learners with the conditions that support the desired

learning processes (Montes, B., 2013). Meanwhile, the absence or presence of all these
characteristics of a learning environment will determine whether the teacher will stick to Plan A

or Plan B of the lesson plan. If there is any show-up of pieces of information of some of the

students the teacher do not know before during lesson, it is going to affect the learning

environment and the teacher must be ready to be up and doing and face the challenge in order to

make learning to take place (Seel, N. M., Lchmann, T., Blumschien, P., & Podolskiy, O. A.,

2017).

REFERENCES

Montes, B. (2013, October 12). Instructional design-unit 1: An introduction [Video].

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC1SeMVuICM (10:00)

PrepWorks (2022). 8 Features of a Positive Learning Environment. Retrieved June 21, 2022
from https://blog.prep.works/blog/8-features-of-a-positive-learning-environment

Seel, N. M., Lchmann, T., Blumschien, P., & Podolskiy, O. A. (2017). Instructional design for
learning: Theoretical foundations, 1 - 17.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Instructional_Design_for_Learning/UmCwDgAAQBAJ?
hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

Waldman, C. (2016). Four Elements for Creating a Positive Learning Environment. All4Ed.
Retrieved June 21, 2022 from https://all4ed.org/blog/four-elements-for-creating-a-positive-
learning-environment