The Teaching Learning Process It's not what is poured into a student that counts, but what is planted.

-Linda Conway I believe that education is the key to success for young students. As a teacher, I hope to motivate students in ascertaining their inner strengths and abilities and discovering what truly inspires them. I aim to provide a stimulating learning environment that encourages students to trust their own opinions, while fostering confidence to realize their full potential. Ernst von Glasersfeld, the "father" of constructivism, believes that education has two main purposes: to empower learners to think for themselves, and to promote in the next generation ways of thinking and acting that are deemed important by the present generation. Empowering the learner means that teachers should relinquish some of their power and hand it over to the learner. I always emphasize the importance of the learner being actively involved in the learning process. I do agree with Dimitrios Thanasoulas who says, Knowledge does not belong to a teacher who is supposed to deliver it ad placitum; it is rather the result of social interaction and the meanings the teacher and the students construct together. This process is not a linear sequence of events but a dynamic phenomenon, whereby the teacher, who is more knowledgeable, is called upon to act, among other things, as a mediator, influencing and being influenced by the students, who happen to lack this knowledge. Teachers in the real world come in all shapes and sizes, exhibiting a wide range of different personalities, beliefs and ways of thinking and working. Thus, we cannot hold that someone who uses methods and models of teaching that differ from the ones informed by research is necessarily a "bad teacher." Teachers are no longer seen as competent or incompetent because they are simply unique. They do not act as gateways to knowledge because they themselves embody the curriculum, conveying not just what they know, but also their position towards it, as well as the personal ramification which it may have for them. Teaching is not indivisible from learning. We can be good teachers only if we know what we mean by learning because only then can we know what we expect our learners to achieve. My favourite quotation that I strongly believe as a teacher is, Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.

The Learning Environment

First of all, a word of caution and hope: renewing environmental elements may require additional costs most schools cannot afford at present. But creative solutions can be developed in the meanwhile. The environmental preferential elements are sound, light, temperature, and design. SOUND The element of sound is a curious thing. Since time immemorial, Filipino students have had to content themselves with only one sound inside the classroom: that of the teachers voice - explaining the lesson, giving out instructions or assignments, scolding one student or the entire class. However, research shows that many students prefer to listen to a lecture, or to study on their own, with some background music on. Hence, the Walkman phenomenon: students plugging away at their assignments while nodding their heads to the rhythm of the music piping into their ears through a headphone or two. Furthermore, research shows that certain types of music elicit specific emotional states. Specifically, some types of music trigger the release of the brains natural opiates and hormones, which in turn relaxes the listener and helps in his or her concentration. This goes into the priming stage of the learning process: preparing students and making them more receptive to learning. Researchers have gone so far as to make a list of musical pieces for specific working and learning purposes. Thus, for example: baroque music to induce an alert, low-stress state during. tests; Disneys Fantasia and Bachs Suites for Orchestra when introducing new ideas or subjects: Chopins Etudes, DeBussys Claire de Lune and Beethovens Piano Concerto No. 5 for brainstorming and creative problem solving. Music is part of our everyday life. Instead of exiling it outside the classroom or, even worse, looking at it as an enemy of learning, we would do well to harness its potential as a learning aid. One way of doing this is, quite simply, to allow students to listen to music on their headphones during class. Of course, silence areas should be set aside for those who prefer quiet while studying. Even wind chimes, hung in strategic sites, might work unexpected wonders.

LIGHT Light is another environmental element. While some children concentrate better in well-illuminated rooms, there are others who think better in soft light. This is especially true for young children. Of course, teachers might prefer ample light: the better to see who is cheating or who is not listening to the lesson. Schools do not have to redo their electrical and lighting setups. A costless remedy is readily available: seat soft-light learners in spaces under indirect or subdued light (if there are any) or at least away from windows, or use plants or other dividers to block off or to diffuse light; and seat bright-light learners near the window or immediately under a light source. Students with eye defects must be given special attention in this light (pun intended). TEMPERATURE Temperature may be a bit more difficult to provide for than sound and light. Some students may be indifferent, or may have learned to be indifferent, to varying degrees of warmth. However, some (if not most) students do learn better under cooler conditions. Considering the state of our economy, air-conditioners are probably out of the question, except in a very few private schools. If schools cannot afford even electric fans with which to overcome heat, perhaps they can keep it away through decorative screens. Better yet, school uniforms (for students as much as for teachers!) may be redesigned to be lighter and more heat repellant. DESIGN Last but not least, design should be seriously reconsidered. At present, classrooms and classroom furniture lean heavily towards the formal: hard and straight-backed desks in wood, plastic or steel, and similar tables. A softer, more informal design may help some students learn better: cushions, throw pillows, carpeted floor. At the very least, students should be allowed to sit on the floor, with or without their backs on the wall, or in any way more comfortable to them. Curiously, even some teachers might themselves prefer or benefit from a more comfortable chair. Another aspect of design would be the seat arrangements. In place of the standard theater-type arrangement, a semi circular or even a random arrangement might be better not just for personal comfort but also for a more free-flowing interpersonal or social environment.

Designing Learning Environments

"Learners in supportive environments have high levels of self efficacy and self-motivation and use learning as a primary transformative force" (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1989). To be effective, instructional multimedia should address the unique sources for learning differences that influence success. More specifically, it should emulate the instructor's experienced, intuitive ability to recognize and respond to how individuals learn differently and creatively foster interest, value, and more successful, independent learning. (Martinez, 1999).

An efficient way to accomplish this challenging task is to determine common learning-difference profiles and match individualized solutions to audiences differentiated by these profiles. This is actually simpler than it seems. Research helps us broadly describe four learning orientation profiles. Below are descriptions for mass customized learning environments that fit each of the learning orientations: Transforming Learners prefer loosely structured, flexible mentoring environments that promote challenging goals, discovery, strategies, problem solving, and self-managed learning. Performing Learners prefer semi-structured environments that stimulate personal value and provide details, tasks, processes, and creative interaction (hands-on) not exploration and great effort. Conforming Learners prefer simple, safe, lowlearner control, structured environments that help learners achieve comfortable, low-risk learning goals in a linear fashion.