Summary
One of the most essential aspects of an effective classroom is the feeling of safety. Technology and Engineering classes allow students to express themselves through creation and design, but students must first feel safe in order to express themselves. Therefore creating a Safe Learning Environment is an essential element of the CAP program in which candidates must show proficiency.
Proficiency Criteria
Uses rituals, routines, and appropriate responses that create and maintain a safe physical and intellectual environment where students take academic risks and most behaviors that interfere with learning are prevented. (1)
Evidence
Class Participation
The expectation of class participation can decrease the classroom's safe learning environment, so measures must be taken to make students feel safe participating. In order for students to feel safe expressing themselves, I always: assure all voices are heard equally, appeal to multiple learning styles, and offer necessary modifications and accommodations needed for students to learn to the same standard as the rest of the class. When cold calling participants I keep track of who I call on every day so by the end of the week, every student has been called on once and only a few have been called on twice. This first set the expectation that all students are expected to participate, but it also makes sure all voices are heard in my class. No student should feel unheard during class, and if they do, it can severely damage the safe learning environment. Also, it is incredibly important to appeal to multiple learning styles and use appropriate modifications and accommodations. It conveys to the students that you care about them and will take the time to tend to their learning needs.
Teacher Feedback
While consistent teacher feedback on assignments is a great way to maintain high expectations, it also helps create a safe learning environment by allowing students to take risks knowing they will receive feedback in case they fall off-topic, or as an affirmation that their work meets my expectations. Students will less likely have a fear of doing something wrong inhibiting their work ethic when each student knows I am here to constantly assure they have good work.
Rituals and Routines
Using rituals and routines are major ways a teacher can create a safe learning environment. I utilized routines and rituals in my online classrooms as well. I will tell students what I expect from them when asking a question. For instance, if I would like volunteers I will say "Could I please have volunteers answer this question?". If I want to call on people I will specifically say "I am going to call on three of you randomly to answer this next question. Everybody can take a few seconds to form a response." By clearly communicating my expectation, and establishing this routine of always doing so, students can trust that they will know what is expected of them each class. This also ensures the belief in students that I am intentionally guiding them down the right path. This reduces anxiety in class and allows students to focus on the material and expressing themselves instead of worrying about doing something incorrectly or not knowing what is expected of them. I will also clearly state after each class what students are expected to do before the next class and what the next class will entail. Lastly, I always open each class by being the first to say "Hello" in order to dissipate anticipation and anxiety of any perceived social obligations in class. In all, these rituals and routines have proved greatly effective in creating a safe and somewhat predictable environment where students feel safe taking academic risks.
Student Wellness
In a classroom, the students' wellbeing is most important, learning content comes second. Mental health is often brushed over in very focused classrooms but it can make or break a student's performance and presence during class. This is why I emphasize to every class that my mentor and I sincerely care about their wellbeing and are here to help in any way we can. I offer support in multiple ways including being an adult to talk to after class, making accommodations to reduce stress in their life while maintaining learning goals, and even incorporating into class opportunities for students to discuss their personal lives. I sent out weekly prompts discussing either personal or moral dilemmas in an open formed fashion allowing students to express their honest selves. Students come from a variety of stressful, emotionally consuming situations we teachers may never even know about and students will bring these troubles into the classroom. It is only necessary for a teacher to address these in any way possible in order to enable a safe space for students to learn and take risks.
An example prompt given to my Makerspace class.
Virtual Learning
With the consequences of COVID turning all classrooms virtual, different methods had to be used to utilize the same pedagogical tactics used in a traditional classroom. In my class, we use easy communication methods for online learning like a thumbs up, sideways, or thumbs down. We use this after lessons to gauge comprehension, after projects to gauge enjoyment, and to gauge some general emotions of every student. Depending on the question, I can gain insight into students' comfort by their response. This allows me to adjust my practices or attend to certain students or areas of my class. To supplement personal or one-on-one conversations, I utilized virtual breakout rooms. This enabled the personal conversations needed for students to engaged with myself without being heard by the whole class. Breakout rooms innately add a new aspect of the classroom in creating a safe learning environment, but breakout rooms had to be carried out in a safe manner. Students may sometimes feel breakout rooms are too personal, unlike a classroom where other students were still in the room. To counteract this I always made sure there was at least one other teacher or student in the breakout room to reduce the anxiety and increase the safety of breakout rooms. I also demonstrated and allowed the use of the direct chat feature encouraging students to chat privately with me during class without having to halt a lesson to make a breakout room. This is one of many features that came as a benefit to the virtual learning situation.
Results
One outstanding response I received from my classes was the student feedback survey, which contained multiple questions regarding the safe learning environment of our classroom. This was a completely anonymous survey with little bias which effectively conveys the results of my efforts in making a safe learning environment. You can read more about these results divided for each specific classroom by clicking on these three links: Engineering Principles MakerSpace CADD I
Mistakes are an integral part of learning. So, students must feel comfortable making mistakes in a classroom in order to take academic risks. By using all of my techniques list above I was able to create an environment in all my classrooms that felt safe to take academic risks to 99%, 93 of 94 students, of the class.
As stated above, breakout rooms and one-on-one discussions were held in order to connect and give more personalized feedback to students. While doing so I always made sure to speak as supportive and motivating as possible to encourage questions effort and risk-taking. This proved to be 100% effective.
Another essential aspect of a safe learning environment is respect. I do my best to exhibit respect to my students any time possible and in turn, I have the expectation for students to respect each other and I. This is facilitated in the form of group discussion where different opinions are never wrong.
Resources
- Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. (n.d.). CAP Guidelines. Retrieved January 06, 2021, from https://www.doe.mass.edu/edprep/cap/guidelines.html