The Design of Learning

Environments

By :Intan Krisna Juliati

Nim : 17018046
1. Changes in Education

We already knew that education has been changing during the past
century. Especially, in 21st century, education goals are very different from
before.
For example: Writing skill
In early 1800s, students were forced to write as instructor’s notation.
Until 1930s, students could express themselves in writing.
1. Changes in Education (contd’)
Similar, the challenges and expectation have undergone major
changes in
each history period.
For example:
Early 1900s, expectation and challenge was education coverage. They applied
“factory model” to education.

Nowadays, expectation and challenge is to educate quality students.

Therefore, to design a good learning environment, we need to take an
overall objective view.
2. Types of Learning Environments
2. Types of Learning Environments
(contd’)
2.1. Learner-centered environments
As the name refer, these environments focus on knowledge, skills,
attitudes, and beliefs of the learners.
This term fits the concept of “diagnostic
teaching”. Diagnostic teaching:
Discover the way students think about the problems.
Show them their misconceptions.
Provoke them to readjust their idea.
2. Types of Learning Environments
(contd’)
Key strategy for diagnostic teaching:
Ask students to make predictions about various situations and
explain thereasons for their predictions.
Select tasks that well represent known misconceptions to show
students howand why various ideas might need to change.
For example:
The story of half-black and half-white ball.
2. Types of Learning Environments
(contd’)
Teachers’ sensitivity to the students’ culture and beliefs plays an
important rolein learner-centered environments.
For example: My old English teacher used to be very successful in Vietnam
because he had unique teaching style. He then decided to move to UAE because
he thought he could earn a lot of money there, but he failed horribly.
In a multi-culture education environments like US. There is one standard
way oftalking in both school and professional science is “impersonal and
expository, without any reference to personal or social intentions or
experiences.”
However, everyday communication cannot avoid social things such as
culture, beliefs, character, etc. The responses of other students and the
teacher to these are the key to assist students’ scientific understanding.
2. Types of Learning Environments
(contd’)
2.2. Knowledge-centered environments
In Chapter 2, we already knew that thinking and solving problems is not
simply due to “thinking skills” or strategies, but requires well-
organized bodies of knowledge that support planning and strategic
thinking.
These environments seeks the balance of the understanding
and theautomaticity of skills necessary to function effectively
Without carefully considering the knowledge that students’, it is
difficult to
predict what they will understand about new information.
For example: Fish is Fish.
2. Types of Learning Environments
(contd’)
Knowledge-centered environments also focus on the kinds of
information andactivities that help students develop an understanding of
disciplines.
For example: Verrocchio asked Da Vinci to keep drawing an egg.
Knowledge-centered environments also include an emphasis on sense-
making.
Student need to have the metacognitive by expecting new information to
make sense and asking for clarification when it doesn’t.
For example: Sense of drawing an egg.
There are some new approaches sense-making. One is “progressive
formalization.”
Progressive formalization: gradually formalize an informal idea.
For example: Define the term “density” for primary students.
2. Types of Learning Environments
(contd’)
Progressive formalization
Some people claim that children are incapable of thinking and
reasoning sophisticatedly.
A research shows that the early access has potential benefit to
important conceptual ideas.
For example: Applying “cognitively guided” instruction in geometry
for second-grade children. Amazingly, the result showed their skills for
representing and visualizing three-dimensional forms are better then some
undergraduate students at a leading university.
One of the important thing is to organize knowledge and skills into
coherent
wholes.
2. Types of Learning Environments
(contd’)
There is a curriculum called “learning the landscape” that match
progressive
formalization pretty well.
Learning the landscape:
Learning your way around,
Learning what resources are available,
Learning how to use those resources.
2. Types of Learning Environments
(contd’)
2.3. Assessment-centered environments
These environments provide opportunities for feedback and revision.
There are two major uses of assessment:
Formative: use feedback to improve teaching and learning.
Summative: measures what students have learned at the end, from that design
the
next lessons properly.
2. Types of Learning Environments
(contd’)
2.3.1. Formative
Many researches show that feedback is very important. Therefore
students’ thinking must be made visible.
After finishing a lesson, most students move on and work on new things.
Effective teachers also help students build skills of self-assessment.
For example: Students learn to assess their own work, as well as the
work oftheir peers.
2. Types of Learning Environments
(contd’)
2.3.2. Summative
This is very effective way to test students’ understanding. This could
be viatests, homework, exams, etc.
However, to design a good summative assessment is not an easy task.
For example: Some students learn like a parrot to deal with some
exams. They could not answer questions that required the true
understanding. And you can call these exams bad assessments.
2. Types of Learning Environments
(contd’)
4. Community-centered environments
Community-centered focus on the interaction to around environment.
Community centered should be understood broadly. It could be
classroom, school, or degree to which students, teachers, and administers
feel connected to the larger community of homes, businesses, states, the
nation, and even the world.
1. Small communities
The norms and expectations play an important role in classrooms and
schools communities.
For example: Why we divide ECE department and CS department?
Norms increase people’s opportunities to interact, receive
feedback, andlearn.
2. Types of Learning Environments
(contd’)
2.4.2. Connect to broader communities
To function effectively in life, students need more than in
classroom andschool.
Family is a great learning environment, especially for young
children.
Society teach us many things about life.
For example: Nice guys finish last.
2. Types of Learning Environments
(contd’)

Important role of Television: Nowadays, children keep watching TV

everyday.
Experiment show that educational programs have positive benefits and can
help children perform better. This could be considered as an effective
educational method.
For example: Children who watched episodes of Sesame Street
featuring handicapped children had more positive feelings toward children
with disabilities.
3. Conclusion
1. Learner-centered environments
Pros:
Provide students un-biased views.
Help students to realize their misconceptions.
Help building bridges between students - teachers, and students –
students
(mutual understanding).
Cons:
Learner-centered environments would not necessarily help students
acquire
the knowledge and skills necessary to function effectively in society.
2.Knowledge-centered environments
Pros:
Promote the true knowledge understanding and necessary skills to
function
effectively in society.
Cons:
3. Conclusion (contd’)
3. Assessment-centered environments
Pros:
Help increasing the quality of both teaching and learning.
Cons:
Assessment is only a part of education. Therefore, these environments
do not
help students in developing other aspects and skills.
4.Community-centered environments
Pros:
Help students to connect knowledge from around communities, apply
what
they learn in school to life.
Cons:
Only focus on the wideness of knowledge, not the depth.
3. Conclusion (contd’)

They all have the potential to overlap and mutually influence one
another.
The disadvantages of this environments can be fulfilled by
other environments.
Therefore, it is very important to have alignment among the four
perspectives of learning environments. It helps accelerating learning both
within and outside of schools.
Thankyou 