Creating an Ideal Classroom: A Teacher's Challenge - Essay Sample

Introduction

Good teachers and school staff endeavor to attain perfection, even though it is often elusive. Majority of teaching and learning activities take place in the classroom. All the invaluable interactions between teachers and their learners take place within the confines of the classroom walls throughout the year. Therefore, each classroom assumes the personality of the tutor. Although classrooms typically share many similarities, no one classroom is the same as another. An ideal classroom in an ideal school is a learning environment that precisely meets the needs of both students and their teachers. It is a culture of diligence can be created in any school that through hard work. However, what makes an ideal classroom in an ideal school is relative because different learners have different ideal classrooms or schools, depending on their needs and expectations. A good learning environment is one that rightly matches the personality and needs of the learner (James 2012). Besides, ideal schools come in diverse sizes, shapes, and levels. In this discussion, the ideal classroom in an ideal school is characterized by motivated students learning in an environment with unlimited support and resources. Although students are the ones often expected to adapt to their learning environments, ideal classrooms and schools instead adapt to the needs of each student.

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Motivated Students

When the class is motivated, its students have a positive attitude towards learning. It is important for students to have a positive perception and attitude towards classroom learning activities for effective learning and development. The success of the learning process depends largely on students' attitude towards classroom tasks and the learning climate (Lee and Kim 2002). The classroom climate is a crucial factor in the process of learning. It is understood as factors such as acceptance by teachers, physical environment, as well as the quality and quantity of the available resources. Similarly, classroom tasks also influence the attitude of learners towards learning. According to Gainer and Lapp (2010). The beliefs of students about the attributes and outcomes of doing a task, especially that involves evaluation, determines his/her attitude to learning.

According to Anjomshoa and Sadighi (2015), the learning process is emotional, and it requires that teachers and students engage in various activities. The attitude of learners enables them to express the elements they like or dislike in every learning situation. The inner feelings and emotions determine a person's attitude. Learning is related to the attitude that students have towards the process. According to Mahadi and Jafari (2012), when students have a positive attitude, they develop a positive orientation towards learning. In a class where students have developed a negative attitude towards learning, the teacher's effort to simplify the subject does not make the learners understand concepts better. Moreover, it argues that if a student only has a positive attitude about learning but lacks the motivation to learn, he/she will not be successful in learning. At the same time, a student will not learn if she/he only has the motivation but lacks a favorable attitude towards learning.

Moreover, education is important because it affects the outcome of personal, social and economic aspects of one's life. Educated people provide better futures for themselves, their communities and countries. High-quality education positively changes many areas in life, giving people the power to change the world and make it a better place. Knowledgeable and learned individuals live happier, fuller and longer lives. Besides, they are more actively involved in activities of the society such as interpersonal trust, political interest, volunteering, and voting. Education is also related to economic stability and growth. A thriving education system makes a thriving country. Economists argue that effective national economic reforms begin with school reforms to improve the education system, which promotes the economic competitiveness of a nation (Wehner, Gump and Downey 2011).

According to Wehner, Gump, and Downey (2011), psychologists suggest that learning and using a second or foreign language improves the executive functions of the brain. In other words, it helps attention processes that help in carrying out mentally demanding tasks such as solving problems and planning. Also, the bilingual experience puts a student miles ahead of his/her peers in job competition (Khany & Amiri 2018). Learning a foreign language also widens our world views and thinking patterns by giving us the experience of other cultures.

Effective learning in school occurs when students show interest and are actively engaged. Active student engagement requires that they be highly interested and motivated to do classwork. Students are expected to have authentic engagement and intrinsic motivation during the learning process (Lucas et al. 2010). It is necessary to identify the motivation levels of students and plan activities to enhance their active engagement. Therefore, teachers need to know the motivation levels of their students and use motivation strategies to ensure that they are engaged authentically in class.

Although it cannot be observed directly, student engagement facilitates learning and increases academic achievement (Nayir 2017). Besides, engagement predicts success. Education research shows that increasing student engagement leads to increased success in academic activities. Engaged students tend to focus more on subjects and assignments, and that indicates success on the part of the teacher. Since engaged students attach value to the learning process, they dedicate themselves to it and perform all learning activities with care and enthusiasm. Engaged students do not despair when they meet challenges in the course of learning. Rather, they continue to work hard to find a personal solution to the challenge. Student engagement is also increased chances of success because it gives the student a need to learn, making him/her voluntarily engage in the learning process.

When students are motivated to learn, they put in much effort making it easier for them to learn new concepts. Therefore, classes flow at a fast pace. On the other hand, if students are not motivated to learn, even teacher's efforts to simplify concepts do not increase chances of success (Nayir 2017). As a result, the learning process progresses slowly. Also, when students lack motivation, they may exhibit negative behaviors such as withholding efforts, absenteeism and dropping out of school.

Also, Sullo (2009) argues that motivated students feel drawn to the classroom learning activity and are more likely to do better in the subject. In making the learning process motivating, teachers include interesting topics when preparing course content and material. At the same time, they need to include new concepts that challenge the students and make them discover and learn. Once the students are motivated and have a favorable attitude towards the subject, they demonstrate curiosity and willingness to go in-depth. With time, motivated students will readily face subjects or content that is not immediately appealing to them. Indeed, when students like learning a subject, they take challenges as the necessary motivation required to learn it to a greater depth.

Notably, both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation positively impact task performance in the classroom. Research suggests that when trait motivational orientation is kept consistent, it leads to significantly influences behaviors and experiences (Arshavskaya 2015). For instance, in research that investigated the styles of psychological behavior that impact the academic achievement of students, it was found that there was a positive correlation between work motivation of students and the time spent studying. Arshavskaya (2015) argues that psychologists positively associate work motivation in general with achievement motivation and negatively with impulsivity and play. Moreover, interpersonal, controlled, and autonomy orientations considerably impact motivation in different situations. The relative value that an individual assigns to a task has a more significant influence on its performance than contextual behaviors.

If a learner is curious or interested in what goes on in the classroom, he/she is more likely to retain more of the knowledge acquired in the process of learning (Borko 2004). In school, teachers use extrinsic motivations such as rewards and grades to promote retention of academic knowledge which leads to better performance (Chambers1999). When students remember the topics covered in class, they can apply the concepts in real life, and that is the ultimate goal of education.

Unlimited Support and Resources

To begin with, an ideal classroom and ideal school will provide support for special education needs for individual help. A good learning environment does not isolate students with special education needs from the mainstream class but rather integrates with others. Lately, schools have been moving towards the trend of teaching students with special needs in the mainstream education system. Although this move is applauded for increasing inclusivity, it is challenging because it makes classrooms more diverse with more students who have specific needs (Ingvarson, Meiers & Beavis 2005). It takes unlimited support and resources for a school to overcome the challenges that come with accommodating learners with special needs in their mainstream systems.

Support of SEN in classrooms requires additional resources to what is needed in a normal classroom. For example, the teachers are supposed to have special training and understanding of how to adjust teaching and learning methods as well as content to increase inclusivity in the classroom (Arshavskaya 2015). At the same time, teachers may need to get additional support from parents and other professionals on the best way to support an SEN student. For example, before admitting a student with special needs to a mainstream classroom, it is necessary for the teacher or the school to engage an educational psychologist, an occupational therapist, and a speech therapist to evaluate his/her abilities and recommend all the support and modifications they will need. It is only based on the recommendation of these assessments that the school will appropriately integrate a special needs student to a class.

Secondly, in schools with unlimited support and resources, teachers and administrators meet regularly as teams to share information (Salaberry & Lafford 2006). For example, teachers who participate in student support programs may share their experiences and knowledge with their colleagues to build a qualified network of peers for individual student needs. Moreover, apart from getting the right training to support all students, the school principal needs to provide teachers with information about each learner as they get registered into the school, to ensure they are in a good position to offer the right help. Thus, through regular meetings, the management takes time to prepare their entire school team to maintain a positive environment that benefits all their students.

Moreover, with unlimited support and resources, teachers have the freedom to purchase resources that they deem necessary to tailor their teaching-learning activities to the abilities of their students (Brown & Thompson 2018). Using the right resources promotes discovery, creativity, and thought in students. Engaged students attach...