Creating a positive learning environment is crucial to a child’s academic, emotional and social success (Loveless). Positive learning environments don’t just happen spontaneously, teachers need to create + nurture them. Merrill & Sheehan (2018) suggest the first step to creating a positive learning environment is to build caring and responsive relationships; children need to know their physical and emotional needs will be met. Once children feel completely secure in the classroom, then true feelings of joy, wonder and intrigue can take place in their young minds, and wonderful learning ensues.
Building a positive classroom environment is something close to my heart as a teacher, and I always make sure to keep this in mind in everything I do; from decorating my classroom, to managing transitions, as well as planning and conducting lessons. In today’s blog, I’ve compiled a list of strategies from various experts, on how to create and maintain a positive classroom environment. I have also dug a little further, and looked into some prominent theorists opinions and suggestions on the matter. I hope you enjoy the read.
Tips for Creating a Positive Learning Environment
Make a Collaborative + Aesthetic Space
Make sure your classroom is a visually pleasing, and well decorated space (Merrill & Sheehan 2015). Children take pride in knowing they have contributed to their classroom environment, Edutopia (2015) recommends allowing students to help in decorating the classroom.
I enjoy sticking up my students completed artwork in designated areas of the classroom; the students absolutely love seeing this and it really brightens up the space.
Create Consistency & Order
Consistency in the classroom is key, especially in early years education. This consistency needs to cover multiple areas; from following through with rules and emotional cues (Merrill & Sheehan 2015) to having set routines and transitions. Children require structure, as well as knowledge of what is expected of them throughout the day (Erwin 2016).
Provide Positive Reinforcement
Hancock & Carter (2016) recommends a principle of “acknowledging appropriate behaviour and responding to challenging behaviour”. They emphasize the importance of providing not only positive feedback on appropriate behaviour, but also specific feedback, so children know exactly what is being complemented, and helping them learn what appropriate behaviour looks like.
Tailor Learning to Students
The more relevant the learning content is to students, the more engaged and intrigued in the lesson they will be. Loveless suggests teachers should tailor learning to the students by learning more about their interests and hobbies, and then finding ways to adapt lessons to suit these interests.
Create a Predictable Environment
Consistent, well known classroom environments and routines are particularly helpful in improving students’ independence, ability to anticipate and manage change, as well as overall behaviour (Hancock & Carter 2016). Setting up streamlined transitions and establishing set routines creates significant order in the classroom, which is instrumental in fostering a more positive learning environment.
Get to Know Your Students
Take time in the beginning of the school year to get to know your students; Edutopia (2018) and Loveless recommends asking parents to write letters explaining just who their child is. These can be used in the beginning of the school year, as well as throughout the year when teachers may be needing a friendly reminder about who their most trying student is at heart. Merrill & Sheehan (2015) also stress the importance of getting to know your students, not only their likes and dislikes, but also their strengths and areas requiring additional support. Erwin (2019) recommends getting to know your students’ cultures, interests, hobbies, personalities and learning styles in order to be better equipped in meeting their educational needs.
Provide Emotional Support
Merrill & Sheehan (2015) emphasise the importance of creating a space that is both safe and comfortable, yet still allowing for and encouraging risk-taking. Erwin (2019) reminds teachers that students don’t only have physical needs, but also psychological needs for security, order, love, belonging, power, freedom and fun, and that they require all of these needs to be met, all of the time. If teachers can purposefully set out to address these needs in the classroom, students will not only feel seen and heard, but also happier, more engaged in class, and have higher learning outcomes.
Build Positive Parent Relationships
Establishing and maintaining positive parent relationships goes a long way in developing a positive learning environment. Edutopia (2018) emphasises the importance of doing this as early into the year as possible. Loveless (n.d.) suggests teachers should reach out to parents at the beginning of the year to introduce yourself as well as explain what your learning goals are. Responsive Classroom (n.d.) recommends partnering with families and getting to know them and the value/contributions they can add to the classroom.
Foster Inclusion + Equal Opportunities
Help each student to feel like a valued part of the class (Edutopia 2018). It is important to treat all students with fairness. Children are very quick to pick up on favouritism, or unfair treatment, which will lead to students losing trust in you as well as hurt feelings.
I enjoy incorporating a name jar in my classroom, it's a useful method to ensure equal opportunities are given to all students. I make use of it whenever needing to call on a student, whether it is to volunteer, answer a question or have a turn in completing a task.
Be Enthusiastic
Bring your excitement to the classroom – it will rub off on your students. Smile, laugh + have fun – let your students know just how happy you are to be there teaching them, and this will definitely contribute to a happier more positive learning environment (Loveless, n.d. & Edutopia, 2018).
Harbour Intrinsic Motivation
Half a century of research is strongly showing the importance of harbouring intrinsic motivation and steering clear of incentive based rewards. Stickers, tokens, and prizes could potentially be very detrimental in causing students to not want to do a task without a promised reward. When children succeed at a task, endorphins are released which results in a natural high without the glittery sticker. Create a space where you can talk with your students about the wonderful feeling felt within when success is achieved, and help them to make this their motivator (Erwin 2019).
Maintain a Positive Mindset
This is something that often has a "full cup" in the beginning of the year, and as the days and months tick by, slowly begins to taper off. Teachers should strive to maintain this positivity, and find what “fills their cup”. Edutopia (2018) stresses the importance of teachers maintaining a positive mindset in order to continue fostering a positive classroom environment. They recommend simple tasks like starting your morning with at least 5 min of calming “me time” or talking with your colleagues.
Two Interesting Schools of Thought
Two, highly influential theorists, Jean Piaget and Loris Malaguzzi have both played pioneering roles in early childhood education, helping many teachers around the world establish positive learning environments within their classrooms. In many ways their theories can be viewed as similar, however they do have fundamental differences. Malaguzzi, who challenges teachers to see their students as both competent and capable learners, differs from Piaget, who views child development as being internal, and occurring in stages (Biermeier 2015). They both believe that children construct their ideas for themselves, however Piaget believes this to take place largely in isolation, whereas Malaguzzi believes it is together with a child's community, i.e., their peers and adults (Kashin 2015).
Piaget is known to be a “Developmental theorist”; he is renowned for his Theory of Cognitive Development where he suggests intelligence changes as children grow, and that children pass through a series of defined stages from birth into adulthood, with each stage characterized by qualitatively distinct ways of thinking (Nolan & Raban 2015, & Mcleod 2020). This theory has helped many educators in creating positive learning environments, as it guides teachers in knowing a child's requirements at each developmental stage. Piaget believed children’s intelligence to be different to adult’s, mainly because of quality of knowledge (not quantity). He believed children and adults don't view the world in the same light, and the best way to gain a better understanding of children is to view the world through their eyes (Mcleod 2020).
Malaguzzi is known to be a “Socio-Cultural theorist”; he viewed the child as being “beautiful, powerful, competent, creative, curious and full of potential and ambitious desires” (Nolan & Raban 2015). He emphasised the importance of respecting a child’s thoughts, taking their work seriously and truly listening to the child (Hewett 2001). He was greatly influenced by Piaget, particularly his writings on constructivism, however he expanded on and overturned many aspects. The most significant difference between these two theorists is how they proposed children construct knowledge. Piaget believed it took place from within, in isolation, whereas Malaguzzi strongly believed it was within the context of collaboration, dialogue, conflict, negotiation, and cooperation with peers and adults (Hewett, V.M. 2001).
Learning More From Malaguzzi
Harold Gardner referred to Malaguzzi’s Reggio Emilia schools, as being “schools in which the minds, bodies and spirits of young children are treated with utmost seriousness and respect”, while experiencing “pleasure, fun, beauty and extensive learning” (Pound 2020). To me, this description of the classroom epitomizes what I believe to be a wonderfully positive learning environment, which I strive to achieve. Let’s take an in-depth look into Malaguzzi’s theories, and how these theories contribute to a positive learning environment.
Loris Malaguzzi was born in 1920 in Correggio, Italy. He first began training as a teacher in 1939, in 1945 he developed his philosophy and approach to early childhood education, and in 1950 he qualified as an educational psychologist. He started his first school in Italy during the post-war reconstruction, by joining forces with women, families and the community. Together, their goal was to fight against fascism by raising children who could think for themselves as opposed to blindly obeying (Hewett 2001 & Pound 2020). Fast forward 50 years, and Malaguzzi’s schools, Reggio Emilia, are renowned, with a total of 78 centres around the world, catering for students from birth to 6 years old (Pound 2020).
Malaguzzi built on many educational theories, including those of Piaget, Vygotsky, Erikson and Dewey. Many say he challenged some of their long-standing beliefs about young children, forcing educators around the world to reflect on their own view of the child and improve their understanding of the child’s perspective (Pound 2020). He developed what is known as the Reggio Approach as well as the 100 Languages of the Child. In these theories he emphasized the importance of the environment and its significant role in making learning meaningful. The environment was so important to Malaguzzi that he referred to it as being the “third teacher”. He states that teachers can foster a positive learning environment by learning to go deeper than what is merely seen at eye level, developing an in-depth understanding of underlying principles, how children think as well as what their curiosities are (Biermeier 2015).
So what key concepts of Malaguzzi's theory contribute to a positive learning environment, and how can we take these recommendations and apply them to the classroom to create a positive learning environment?
Create a Flexible Environment & Learning Content
Malaguzzi stresses the importance of creating an environment that isn’t too rigid, stating our environment and learning should be flexible, and responsive to the interests of the children. Children aren’t at all predictable, but yet we as teachers often allow school to function in a manner that says they are (Malaguzzi 1993). He also believed our role as the teacher should be ones of researches who can produce a curriculum based off of the children’s ideas and curiosities, claiming in doing so learning is made that much more meaningful and thus successful (Malaguzzi 1993 & Biermeier 2015).
Create a Relationship Driven Environment
Relationships are at the core of Malaguzzi’s Reggio Emilia approach. He claimed there to be three teachers in a child’s life; the first teacher, their parents, the second teacher, their classroom teacher, and lastly the third teacher, the classroom environment. He strongly believed in creating strong, meaningful relations in each of these areas. To establish strong alliances with a child’s family, Malaguzzi states that teachers should “wow” parents; make big positive impressions and convince parents of the importance our teaching has for their children as well as for them (Malaguzzi 1993 & Biermeier 2015).
Foster Creativity
Children are inherently curious and inventive little people. According to Malaguzzi, a child’s desire to express themselves is at the very heart of creativity. In response to his interest in this area, he developed his 100 Languages theory, which refers to the symbolic languages children use to express their knowledge and desires through creative outlets. He strongly acknowledged the need for the classroom environment to support creative thinking and invention, saying teachers should use materials and activities that will provoke investigation and group learning (Biermeier 2015).
Consider Each Child’s Reality
When a child walks through your doors and into your classroom, Malaguzzi reminds us that they do not do so in isolation, they bring with them their own reality of the world, their relationships and experiences. He states that you cannot, and should not, separate a child from this reality. He goes on to say the same is true for teachers, we too bring pieces of our life into the classroom; our hopes, desires, pleasures and stresses. Just how we never arrive in complete isolation, we need to acknowledge the same is true for children, and we should consider each of their potential realities, to harbour a more welcoming and positive environment for them (Malaguzzi 1993).
Become Totally Immersed and Involved
Malaguzzi reminds us that children place incredible value on an adults uninterrupted and meaningful attention. As busy as our classrooms can get, he stresses the importance of trying to incorporate some meaningful interactions with each child, and avoid distractions during this time. As much importance as he places on immersing ourselves into the activities of the children, he also emphasizes the importance of taking a step back and just observing. Teachers can learn so much from watching children simply being with children, and children can equally gain so much from watching other children (often things they cannot learn from interacting with an adult) (Malaguzzi 1993).
Practice Patience
I believe patience to be one of the most important traits to have as an Early Childhood educator.
Malaguzzi too believed in the importance of learning to wait for the child, he also believed this to be something teachers can learn, and that often it is not automatic. In order to do so he stated that a teacher should work on their presence, striving for it to be visible and warm, and to try get inside the child’s mind and understand what he/she is doing. He emphasizes that teachers should not be teaching children things they can learn by themselves, or be giving them thoughts they can come up with on their own. Instead, we should be activating a child’s inherent desire and pleasure to be the “authors of their own learning” (Malaguzzi 1993).
Build Strong Images
Malaguzzi’s views on children were very defined; the child is intelligent, capable, strong and ambitious. If we have a view that a child is fragile, incomplete and weak we will not be doing any favours to our children. Instead of always defaulting to protection, Malaguzzi states that teachers need to practice holding children to this stronger image, and giving them recognition of their rights and strengths (Malaguzzi 1993).
Include Values
Malaguzzi believed that the classroom environment should reflect the values teachers wish to communicate with their children. So often we get caught up on how to meet our learning goals, in terms of literacy and numeracy, that we don’t think about what sort culture we want our children to experience in class. Biermeier (2015) suggests drawing up some simple values that you want to communicate to your children, and factor in ways to adapt these into your classroom.
To sum up today's blog post I would like to end off with a touching quote from the wonderful Loris Malaguzzi.
"We value space, to create a positive environment and its potential to inspire social, affective and cognitive learning. The space is an aquarium that mirrors the ideas and values of the people who live in it."
I hope this blog post has sparked your imagination, and given you many ideas to create and foster this desired "aquarium" in your classroom.
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