The Learning Environment

"Classroom climates supporting autonomy, providing high structure, and conveying relatedness and inclusion foster personal well-being and feelings of connection to one's school and community"

(Ryan & Deci, 2017, p18)

There is overwhelming literature supporting the necessity of classroom environments and school cultures that are respectful, safe, consistent, and nurturing for students to safely explore limits and take risks associated with growth, learning and well-being. This is even more important in our current cultural context and the prevalence of junior high school students with ACE scores of three or more, and the effects of post-pandemic social isolation that are currently being studied.

This page suggests the "must have" elements of the junior high learning envioronment.

For strategies to create a positive learning environment in your classroom, click here.

1. Clarity and Consistency.

Clear and consistent expectations, boundaries, and consequences are essential. Expectations must be established collectively, boundaries must be clear, and consequences must be "natural" rather than punitive.

In his book, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, Dr. Bruce Perry suggests, "To become resilient children need environments where they feel safe and comfortable and know what to expect, so their sensitized, over-reactive stress systems can gradually become calmer and more smoothly regulated".

The poster on the left provides an example of classroom expectations. If students are having difficulty meeting these expectations, further investigation may be required. For more information of how to support students in meeting expectations, click here.

2. Respectful Relationships & Trust

The adolescent brain is wired for attachment and uniquely sensitive to status and respect. Positive relationships can buffer the effects of stress, and create healthy, connected communities. However, it is important to note that in the school environment, many relationships are contingency based which can erode trust. Students must know that they are respected and valued regardless of behaviour or academic success.

3. Appreciation for Diversity

In order for students to feel safe and respected, consistent celebrations of diversity must be modeled. The adolescent brain is wired for social survival and there is comfort and safety in conformity. It is therefore, particularly essential that differences are celebrated and extolled. Individual strengths and challenges, learning preferences, tastes, and attitudes must be appreciated by the teacher before students can be expected to feel safe in their own differences and respect the differences of others. Modelling the ability to agree to disagree and focus on similarities rather than differences can have a huge impact in the classroom culture. For more information or practical strategies, click here.

4. Failure as Feedback

Re-framing your relationship with failure is essential for creating a classroom community in which risk taking is encouraged.

The video on the left is a one way to introduce students to the idea that all successful people fail. For more fantastic fails click the links below:

Famous Failures

FAILURE - Best Motivational Video Speeches Compilation for Success, Students

Recomended Resources

(for more information about positive learning environments)

In this resource, Jennifer Katz “presents a universally designed framework for creating schools that engender mental, spiritual, and emotional health while developing intellectual thought and critical analysis”. She promotes healthy school culture through the use of the Three Block Model of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) within which, 4 important threads emerge: spirit & soul in education; Neurology, Trauma, Well-Being, and Mental Health in our Schools; Truth, Reconciliation and Indigenous Worldviews of Education for Well-Being; and Leadership for inclusion and UDL. Relying on her experience as a teacher in Manitoba and research, she provides an alternative lens through which to view education, invites educators to make a shift in pedagogical practices, and offers specific, ready to use, lesson plans for teachers. She incorporates the Circle of Courage and Maslow’s (mis)interpretation of the Siksika hierarchy of needs.

Before there was SDT, there was the Circle of Courage. Based on traditional child rearing philosophy of whole child education and the development of self-worth (positive self identity), the 4 facets of the circle of courage include Belonging, Mastery, Independence and Generosity. These align with the three foundations of SDT. Belonging - Relatedness; Mastery - Competence; Independence - Autonomy. The fourth facet of the circle of courage, generosity, represents the feeling of worthiness and spiritual fulfilment and can be interpreted as a virtue resulting from the integration of belonging, mastery and autonomy. This aligns with SDT in that social development and wellness emerge from the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs of relatedness, competence, and autonomy.

Susan Craig effectively distils the neurobiology of trauma and toxic stress and its effects on learning and engagement, specifically in the adolescent brain. She correlates adverse childhood experiences with academic achievement and challenges educators to reframe their view of the academic and social difficulties demonstrated by many adolescents struggling in the current school system. Craig suggests that secondary schools may be ideally situated to mitigate the long-term developmental effects of trauma due to the unique stage of adolescent brain plasticity (second window of opportunity) and give youth an opportunity to develop academic and social skills that will equip them for success in adulthood. Craig challenges educators to step beyond good intentions, towards a commitment to improving academic and social mastery by “integrating knowledge of the effects of trauma on adolescent development into efforts at educational reform” (p.2) and provides administrators and teachers specific strategies on how to do this at the school and classroom levels.

The goal of this resource is to equip educators with the knowledge, the strategies, and the will to create thriving learning environments that authentically meet the needs of students and teachers through the development of a positive school culture.

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