Chapter 1 Blog (b): Creating a student and teacher friendly classroom!

In any educational setting there is always two roles, there is the teacher and the students, who work together to educate the students about the subject matter being taught. This way of teaching is designed to modify the students' behavior, experience, understanding, and knowledge. This refers to chapter ones discussion in regards to active learning, which indicates helping students take control of their own learning.

Past educational system structures are perceived to be a process of learning, memorization, association, and practice. Students' intellect growth coincides with their development through different phases: coordination, symbolization and visual recognition, language, logical thought, and eventually formal structure and explanation. The process of educating a child intellectually must take into account these characteristics. But cannot only focus on one type of process such as memorization, they must explore the different process so the student will have a boarder view in regards to different world views and facts.

Education must pace development, not ignore it or follow it. You can not teach students new information if they are not developmentally ready. For example; a student may be in the 9th grade but the teacher can not assume that the student reads at the 9th grade level. Teachers must take the time to assess student’s level of performance.

The teacher's role involves sharing knowledge and experience with the students at an appropriate times. But not forgetting to take into consideration students pre-existing knowledge and preconceptions, and using them to develop a more effective lesson plan. By doing this teacher’s lead the students through different learning situations to encourage independent thought, critical analysis, realization, and problem-solving.

I believe that if teachers must take the time to set up their classroom to be a “student and teacher friendly environment” as a call it, so that students may feel a sense of belonging and have an ownership in contributing to their educational needs.