As an early childhood teacher, some of the children you will meet in your classroom may be experiencing such an environment for the first time. Children spend around twelve years in compulsory education, therefore their early experiences are key to establishing a positive attitude towards education and learning. This makes it essential as early childhood teachers to ensure that we provide a positive classroom environment as this can help improve attention, reduce anxiety, and also support emotional and behavioural regulation. Also, when we are able to foster a positive learning environment, the children we teach are more likely to become more highly motivated which in turn leads to better learning outcomes.
So this leads to the question...how do we create a positive learning environment in the early childhood classroom? Let's take a look at some of the key elements necessary to foster a positive learning environment for young children.
Establish good relationships with both the children and the parents early on - Take time at the beginning of the year getting to know the students and allow them time to get to know each other (and you!) By taking the time early on to get to know each child's likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses, you will be better able to cater to each child's individual needs and learning styles. You could even send a letter home to parents introducing yourself and telling them a little about what their children will be doing in class that year.
Be positive - If you want to foster a positive learning environment, then the positivity must start from you! This means not only interacting with students in a positive manner but also exhibiting positive behaviours and maintaining a positive attitude (even on bad days) are essential to foster a positive classroom environment. Try to show enthusiasm and stay optimistic as if the teacher doesn't appear interested in what they are teaching in the classroom, this will also impact how the students are feeling about what they are learning.
Foster trust - Trust the students to make decisions and help to create a fun, collaborative learning environment. Seek the students' input when setting class rules and expectations. Also, ensure your students feel they can trust you as their teacher. Help them to feel more secure by ensuring their needs are met, being consistent, and responding to social and emotional cues.
Establish predictable routines - Try not to make assumptions about what the students will already know in regards to appropriate classroom behaviour. Ensure that this is made clear early on and create a 'Code of Conduct' with the students based on ideas they came up with themselves about how they would like to be treated and how they should treat others. By providing consistent and predictable schedules and routines, students can gain a better sense of independence, will be better able to anticipate change, and will be more likely to follow appropriate behaviour in the classroom.
Make learning relevant - The more relevant a topic is to children, the more engaged they will be and the more they will get out of it. This is why it is essential early on to spend time getting to know your students so that you are better able to cater your lessons to their individual tastes.
Reinforce positive behaviours - By recognizing and reinforcing positive behaviours we are better able to produce positive actions in students, strengthen their intrinsic motivation, and create both a productive and positive learning environment. Providing stickers and other such rewards has its use in the classroom, but even just simple praise and encouragement can go a long way to make a child feel intrinsically motivated to continue the positive behaviour.
Within the field of early childhood education there are a number of theories or schools of thought that could be said to contribute in some way to creating a positive early childhood learning environment. Two key theorists are Lev Vygotsky (Social Constructivism) and B.F. Skinner (Behaviourism). Both have had a significant impact on the field of early childhood education and could be seen to contribute to creating a positive learning environment in differing ways.
Lev Vygotsky:
Lev Vygotsky (1962) was a Russian teacher and psychologist who wanted to know how our social environments influence the learning process. He posited that children learn through social interactions with not only their teachers, but also their peers (More Knowledgeable Others). He believed that learning takes place in the Zone of Proximal Development as students are provided with material that is challenging enough for them to learn, but also the teachers should scaffold the tasks to ensure they are still manageable.
How does the application of this theory help to create a positive learning environment?
To facilitate learning through social interactions with other students, the classroom would need to be set up in a way that would allow students to take part in discussion, collaboration, and feedback. Such activities allow students to form stronger relationships with their peers, foster trust in each other, and help to create a collaborative community of learners.
Following this school of thought, teachers must select meaningful and challenging tasks for the students. For learning to take place, students must be not only engaged in social interactions but they must also be completing tasks that provide enough of a challenge that they stimulate learning, but not so challenging that they become impossible for the students. This relates to the point above that in order to create a positive learning environment it is essential that learning is made relevant and that lesson materials are catered to individual students' needs. It is therefore important that the teacher explores each child’s interests and abilities so that they can provide the most suitable lesson materials that meet the learners' needs.
Teachers need to scaffold tasks to ensure that they are providing students with opportunities to learn that are attainable. This could take the form of modelling a task for students first to ensure they are clear about what they need to do. This helps to create a positive learning environment as it helps children to understand what is expected of them when completing class tasks, which leads to greater success and increased intrinsic motivation.
B.F. Skinner:
B.F. Skinner (1948) further developed the school of behaviourism through his work on ‘Operant Conditioning’. He believed that behaviour is motivated by the consequences that an individual receives for that particular behaviour, i.e. reinforcement or punishment. Behaviours that are followed by satisfying consequences (reinforcement) are more likely to be repeated, whereas those that are followed by unpleasant consequences (punishment) are less likely to be repeated. The reinforcing consequences could be divided into two categories; intrinsic/primary reinforcers and secondary reinforcers. Intrinsic or primary reinforcers are those that are naturally reinforcing because they directly satisfy a need, whereas secondary reinforcers are those that are rewarding because although they do not directly satisfy a need, they can be exchanged for something that the child really wants (such as stickers received to later exchange for a reward or prize).
How does the application of this theory help to create a positive learning environment?
This school of thought relates strongly to point six above. Reinforcing positive behaviour is key to creating a positive learning environment. It encourages desirable classroom behaviour and allows for learning to take place due to the students being in a calm, well-managed atmosphere. A lack of this can lead to chaos which is a major distraction to learning in the early childhood classroom. Consistent praise for positive behaviour and contributing in class will lead to greater intrinsic motivation in learners and an overall happier classroom.
The idea of reinforcing behaviours and consequences for inappropriate behaviour relates to the point above about establishing predictable routines. It is important for a positive learning environment that students are aware of their responsibilities and they know what they should or should not be doing at any point in the day. This gives them a sense of security as they have clear expectations about what will happen at certain stages throughout the day. And how are these routines first established? Most likely through the use of reinforcing positive behaviour and, when necessary, establishing consequences when expectations are not met.
It seems that both of these schools of thought could be seen as contributing to the creation of a positive learning environment for the early childhood classroom, however in seemingly different ways. By applying Vygotsky’s theory, it would seem that the effect on a positive learning environment would focus mostly on the relationships between students as he highly emphasised the need for social interaction among peers for learning to take place. It would also influence a positive learning environment in regards to the teaching material. The material must be relevant for learners to ensure a positive classroom environment and Vygotsky believed that the selection of material was important as it must provide an appropriate level of challenge.
In contrast with this, Skinner’s contribution to the development of a positive classroom environment seems to focus mostly on the behavioural aspect (which would make sense as he helped further develop the school of behaviourism!) Rather than an emphasis on social interaction, Skinner’s contributions can be seen as helping to create a positive learning environment through the use of positive reinforcement for good behaviour and academic achievement. The more intrinsically motivated students become to learn, the more positive the learning environment will be.
When considering the importance of creating a positive learning environment in the early childhood classroom, it seems impossible to not consider the significance of Skinner’s contribution to this area. Skinner acknowledged that informal learning which occurs naturally is not dependent on the teacher, however in regards to formal education it is up to the teacher to create optimal patterns of stimulus and response (rewards and punishment) to ensure an effective learning environment.
Skinner’s theory of ‘operant conditioning’ is easily applicable to the classroom environment. Teachers arrange the classroom environment in order to expedite learning and encourage the development of behaviours that otherwise may be acquired more slowly or not at all. Behaviour modification is a set of techniques that are based on operant conditioning and involve changing environmental events that are related to an individual’s behaviour. An example of behaviour modification is ‘token economy’. Token economy is a system that is used in many classrooms to help manage and reinforce positive behaviours. Targeted behaviours are reinforced by the use of ‘tokens’ (e.g. stickers) which can be regarded as secondary reinforcers, and these can then later be exchanged for rewards (e.g. privileges) which act as primary reinforcers.
Reinforcement can be defined as an immediately subsequent event that strengthens or increases the frequency of a particular behaviour. Skinner divides these into ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ reinforcers. The former are favourable outcomes, such as praise or a reward, that are presented after a desired behaviour which then help to strengthen that particular behaviour. Whereas the latter is the removal of an unpleasant outcome as a direct consequence of a particular behaviour. Both types of reinforcement lead to an increase in that particular behaviour. Punishment can also be separated into both positive and negative categories, however this leads to a decrease in a specified behaviour. Positive punishment is when an unfavourable outcome is introduced in order to weaken a particular behavioural response, whereas negative punishment is when a favourable outcome is removed after the occurrence of an undesirable behaviour.
Skinner highlighted the importance of providing immediate reinforcement after desired behaviours to enable students to repeat such behaviour more frequently. Although punishment is acknowledged as a tool to manage behaviour, Skinner did in fact favour merely ignoring undesirable behaviour as a way of extinguishing it due to the fact that punishment, rather than terminating such behaviour, can in fact simply temporarily suppress it, meaning once the punishment has been removed the inappropriate behaviour may reappear.
Based on the principles of Skinner and behaviourism in general, it is the duty of the teacher to create a favourable learning environment for children through the appropriate use of behavioural reinforcement techniques. Not only this, but Skinner also believed that teachers must first decide exactly what it is they want to teach so that they are able to provide the appropriate learning materials and know what responses to look for. If teachers know what to look for, they are then better able to give reinforcement that will help to shape behaviour.
A criticism of Skinner’s theory is that the use of external rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation and can lead students to lose interest in learning if they do not receive such rewards. Some also argue that the concept of behaviour modification only seeks to change behaviour, rather than find out the cause of such behaviour. However it cannot be denied that Skinner’s contribution to educational theory, and in particular to the area of classroom management and creating a positive learning environment, have been significant. Skinner believed that the goal of psychology was to find ways to make education not only more effective but also more enjoyable for students. His entire theory is based around the assumption that the best way to modify behaviour is to modify the learning environment. In schools around the world behaviour management systems are in place that are directly influenced by Skinner’s work. Positive reinforcement, often in the form of sticker charts and rewards of special privileges, are used consistently in schools to manage classroom behaviour and enhance the learning experience of children. This is the essence of Skinner’s theory and it is easy to see how influential his work has been in the establishment of positive learning environments in the early childhood classroom.
References:
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