Educational Sciences - Ideal Classroom

Each person will share their ideal classroom with the others
(8 min. max. for each person to present and 2 min. max. for questions =80 min. total).

1. Describe your classroom using the image.

2. Explain why you choose that environment focusing on the following:

a. The types of students
b. The types of materials and spaces you would need
c. The types of activities you would be doing in that space

This is the classroom I could work with the year 9 students. I had the inspiration for the design from Martela Inspiring spaces: http://martela.com/inspiring-school/learning-environment-inspiration

As I am teaching photography and video this could be a nice space that is in between the classroom and a studio. The furniture is easy to re-arrange for any group and task requirements. Movable dividers allow different space and group creation, for example.

Things like sofas and bean-bag chairs make for a space that is more than a classroom. It is a space that is more relaxed and enjoyable.Making learning spaces enjoyable improves user health and minimizes absences. The furniture should be ergonomic, space clean and well lit.



Some reflections on the online session from the 23.04.2014

Key discussion question: how has learning about educational theory in this course impacted the way you now teach?

The discussion about different images that students had for their ideal classroom was very interesting and there was a lot of creativity and linking with the educational theories and teaching methods that we have discussed. 

This came through very much in our second exercise which was related to guessing the theorists from the drawings that were made by other teacher students in the past,  where  they were asked to draw the classroom of a particular educational theorist.

The hardest one to guess was the Jean Piaget classroom. The four stages of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development: Sensorimotor stage, Preoperational stage, Concrete Operational stage and Formal Operational stage were represented in a rather abstract way through math symbols. So first there were symbols for  adding and subtraction which later progressed into multiplication and division,  thus symbolically saying that the child's reasoning progresses from concrete to more abstract, idealistic and logical ways. Personally I though later that this was done in a very clever way and really challenged most of us.

Another interesting image of the classroom was for Burrhus Frederic Skinner. We could see the references to the  operant conditioning and positive and negative reinforcement such as candy and a corner where a punished student was standing, thus emphasizing the behaviorist theory.

Albert Bandura's classroom was not so difficult to guess because of the puppet theatre and the association with the Bobo doll experiment. This experiment demonstrates the Bandura's social learning theory. It is interesting to note that one of the groups also made associations with Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences since there were many areas in this room that could represent a multisensory  learning environment.

Maria Montessori classroom was also quite obvious but were all a little bit confused by the huge rabbit toy which I guess referred to fact that Montessori promotes mixed age classrooms and a 'discovery' model where children learn concepts from working with materials; hence the reference to the nature and the garden in the image.

I have been using different references to educational theories in my teaching practice, one of them in particular is Paulo Freire and the emphasis on critical pedagogy and critical consciousness were I tried to encourage students to be aware  and take responsibility for their actions and take  more active part in their learning,  where our roles are more equal and homogenised.

I would also like to study more Emile Durkheim, French sociologist with concept related to collective consciousness:  "Function of education is to maintain and transmit integrative social values through the socialization of individuals".

I believe that we are living in a society where the social nature of our being is being challenged by technology and we must emphasise the need to maintain social contacts in real life and promote collaborative learning. 

  References

Palmer J. A., Bresler L., Cooper D. E. 2001. Fifty Modern Thinkers On Education. Routledge