14 Mar 2017
climate (noun)
prevailing conditions over a long period
Article Engaging students. Creating classrooms that improve learning (February 2017) by Peter Goss and Julie Sonnemann was published by the Grattan Institute. It puts forward, quite obviously and understandably, that when children are engaged in class they learn more. It says that engaging students is about creating an optimum classroom climate for learning where students feel comfortable, are confident in their own abilities, are willing to participate and make mistakes, and are keen to challenge themselves.
The publication describes conditions that are associated with sustaining an optimum classroom climate for student engagement. One condition is a high quality teacher/student relationship. Teachers must know their students and draw on their deep understanding of the individual to give strong guidance. Mutual respect is important and teachers must understand students' rights to learn, to feel emotionally and physically safe, and to be treated fairly.
Another condition is having high expectations that every child will to achieve appropriate growth relative to their ability. High expectations are typically self-fulfilling causing students to put in more effort and the school to devote more resources to ensure the students are successful. When students achieve the expected success their self-esteem lifts and they be-come more engaged, which leads to even better performance.
Encouragement and praise is also a condition for creating an optimum classroom climate. This where the classroom environment is proactively managed so that every child is aware of the teacher expectations regarding the desired learning intention, behaviour or attitude. The ensuing encouragement and praise from the teacher regarding meeting these expectations is timely, genuine, and specific and therefore purposeful and meaningful.
Another condition for an optimum classroom climate is maximising student participation through active learning. This has many factors such as providing many opportunities for students communicate, problem-solve and work with others. Student work must be regularly marked by the teacher and stored in a way so that progress across the year can be easily tracked and understood by all stakeholders. The teacher must well-prepared including having researched content and curated that content in a meaningful way that challenges and informs students.
Ashfield Public School is committed to providing all teachers with practical support on how to sustain and improve an optimum classroom climate for learning. For example, a fortnightly Stage Meeting provides a time for collaboration with colleagues including giving and receiving feedback on what works best. Support includes how to seek and receive feedback from students and parents.
Together at Ashfield Public School we create the educational conditions where all students are included, productive and make progress. Getting the optimum classroom climate to maximise engagement and learning success is our priority.
Damien Moran
Principal