Optimal Educational Environment - Research Paper Example

Optimal Educational Environment Introduction Learning refers to the processes by which a person acquires skills, values, wisdom, knowledge, and general understanding of the environment either consciously or unconsciously. While activities such as breathing are learnt unconsciously, other types of activities such as reading and writing are learnt in formal settings such as classrooms. For the conscious type of learning to be effective, a favorable learning environment must prevail not only within classrooms but also in entire school/learning setting. One of the most debatable issues in the education system is how the various stakeholders may design an ideal learning environment for optimal student and teacher performance. The main reason for the continued raging debate on the design of a perfect learning environment is the fact that different learning institutions and environments are based on specific learning theories and processes. Unfortunately, most of the theories upon which learning is based never take the physical conditions of learning environments into consideration. In addition, the material conditions and the special needs of students and teachers are never considered when learning theories upon which education systems are based are formulated (Kauchak & Eggen, 2010). Consequently, most institutions define their learning systems on the basis of pedagogical philosophies, social settings, and curriculum designs. An approach to education/learning that heaps the responsibility of knowledge transfer to the teacher while ensuring the student remains passive has been the main undoing as far as the availing of an enabling learning environment is concerned (Bergin & Bergin, 2011). This paper explores the concept of optimal learning environment in which both teachers and students achieve peak performance. In particular, the paper explores the best practices for ensuring student safety, the strategies for meeting the needs of disabled students, and the possible challenges in meeting these needs. In addition, the paper discusses the techniques by which school districts and students may be protected from liability issues and the challenges in the protection processes. Best Practices for Student Safety A learning environment does not only entail the availing of classrooms and other learning materials and facilities; it also encompasses the processes and activities that ensure student and entire institution’s safety. Nevertheless, student safety is a central ingredient not only in the provision of an optimal learning environment but also for the prevention of student exposure to health hazards. The main pillars or principles upon which safety in a learning environment is anchored are common sense, knowledge, and preparation. It should be noted that both teachers and students must be knowledgeable and well prepared to apply common sense while reacting to safety situations. The first role of school administrators and teachers in ensuring student safety is to formulate, plan, implement, and evaluate safety strategies, policies, and disseminate instructions or information to students and staff. In addition, thorough investigations must be conducted on any safety issues/accidents that may occur in learning institutions. Among the strategies and policies implemented by a learning institution must be those that ensure that safety equipment are serviceable and accessible to students and the entire school community at all times. The other important strategy towards ensuring student safety relates to safety rules and regulations. To this effect, it is imperative that school administrators and teachers ensure that the safety policies and strategies are compliant with the safety rules and regulations set by the relevant government authorities. To ascertain this compliance with government safety rules and regulations, it would force school administrators and teachers to supervise the implementation of its safety policies by students, teachers, and the staff mandated to ensure student safety such as school security team and health care provider. Furthermore, all the safety rules of a learning institution must be obeyed by the entire school community. Of equal importance in ensuring student safety is proper and adequate instruction to students in handling safety equipment and situations. Such instructions must not only be provided periodically; rather, the dissemination of safety instructions should be continuous throughout an academic year so that students to not forget certain safety concepts. The success of safety instruction programs however depends on the emphasis that school administrators and teachers place on safety being an integral part of the learning system. The need to ensure student safety should however not compromise college/school accessibility by the community. Instead, strategies should be adopted that foster caring institutions in which students, the local community, and teachers/administrators connect while at the same time remaining vigilant, therefore ensuring a safe learning environment. In fact, it should be the concern of all stakeholders to make student safety the school community’s key responsibility with every individual playing his/her role in ensuring school/college safety. Emphasis should therefore be laid on the need to communicate so that safety awareness is created among the school community. Additionally, safety awareness could be improved by training and safety orientation programs for new and old students and staff. During these training sessions and orientations, the entire college/school community should be made conversant with the institution’s crisis and emergency response plans, which should always be updated with the changing trends in safety needs and hazards. High-tech as well as low-tech solutions to safety emergencies should both be considered when responding to emergencies. Importantly, there should be mutual partnerships between learning institutions and the local community, police department, and other government agencies such as health facilities and fire departments. Although every individual in a learning institution has a right to an optimal learning environment, the most vulnerable group to safety hazards is students with disabilities who need special treatment and safety equipment. The special needs of students with disabilities do not only related to safety; for them to access education at equal levels with their able-bodied counterparts, their special educational needs must also be met by school administrators and teachers. Meeting the Needs of Students with Disabilities The two main categories into which students’ disabilities may be grouped are visible and invisible disabilities. Mobility-impairments or disabilities, which would require a student to use wheelchairs and crutches and visual impairments, are examples of visible disabilities. On the other hand, chronic conditions (lupus and cancer), psychological impairments, and learning disabilities are examples of invisible disabilities, which school administrators and teachers should address to ensure optimal learning environment for disabled students (Callard-Szulgit, 2008). Numerous tips have been developed for teachers, parents, government authorities, and students (disabled and able-bodied) to assist in meeting the needs of disabled students. First, learning institutions should endeavor to use universal designs for learning such as in presenting information, engaging all students, and allowing student participation by the multiple ways in which they are able to contribute to the learning process. Besides using an assortment of formats/techniques to instruct inside and outside classrooms, teachers should structure their classes so that learning objectives are achieved through the various techniques. Alternative accommodations and assignments may be considered long before lessons begin so that students with special needs are not left out. Importantly, teachers should be flexible about punctuality since students with physical and visible impairments may lag behind, for instance, while moving from one learning venue to another (Callard-Szulgit, 2008). Moreover, there are certain personal needs to which physically impaired students may attend to between two lessons, which may be time-consuming. In addition, the flexibility on the part of the teacher helps students with hardships in concentrating due to physical or emotional instability to adjust accordingly. Teachers are thus required to know and understand all students with disabilities, always seeking their comments and questions to encourage and ensure their participation. Knowing each disabled student individually also helps teachers to know their diverse interests and needs since different disabled students have varying needs and interests (Callard-Szulgit, 2008). Protecting Teachers and School Districts from Liability Issues To protect its staff (teachers) and administration teams, schools and school districts must develop and implement elaborate plans, policies, and strategies that would ensure the safety and other optimal conditions of the learning environments are in place. In this regard therefore, school districts and teachers must adhere to the legal and the practical aspects of school safety policies and practices to avoid liabilities due to negligence and non-practice of these policies. In other words, a school’s safety policies and practices must be compliant with the standards and regulations set in the Constitution, federal and state constitutions, statutes, and regulations (Davis, 2002). Among the statues and Amendments with which school districts and teachers should comply include those providing for due process, equal protection/opportunities, and protection against search/seizure on unreasonable grounds, freedom of religion and expression, and those providing protection against self-incrimination (Davis, 2002). To avoid liabilities, school districts and teachers must develop a due process to be followed by the entire learning institution on disciplinary actions. Establishing Due Process Due process in this context refers to the disciplinary code of conducts within which all students and other members of a learning institution must adhere to. Besides setting a school’s expectations on student behavior, the disciplinary code explains the various penalties that are meted out on those who breach any requirements of the code. Among the forms of disciplinary actions that a school district or teacher may met out on an errant student include simple rebuke, detention, alternative educational program, or isolation (Nadeen, 1996). Nevertheless, the disciplinary action opted for must uphold the constitutional and statutory rights of every student. In addition, the action taken against a student must be connected to the interests of a school in maintaining order and protecting students. Through the establishment of a due process, school districts will have absolved themselves from any liabilities for meting out the right disciplinary action on those who breach their disciplinary codes. All that is required is for school districts to adopt policies that uphold students’ privacy interests, access to education, autonomy, safe school environment, and maintain law and order (Nadeen, 1996). Nondiscrimination Nondiscrimination should be the other core component of a district school’s policies or practices aimed at protecting it and teachers from liabilities related to the provision of optimal learning environment. According to this policy of nondiscrimination, all the actions that a teacher or a school district takes on a student or a group of students must be equal for similar situations. That is, students’ rights and privileges must apply equally whenever disciplinary actions are taken against an identified segment of student population. However, different levels or severity of actions must be taken on different levels of judicial reviews. The differences in judicial reviews may stem from the suspect categories of the students that triggered the discrimination concerns. Such nondiscrimination should be in line with the Individual with Disabilities Act, which protects disabled students from discrimination. Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) Compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) is the other policy by which teachers and district schools may protect themselves from liabilities related to the provision of optimal learning environment. District schools and teachers must recognize and realize that disciplinary actions that may be meted on students with disabilities are also subject to protection by certain constitutional provisions, statutory laws, and regulations (Palomares & Schilling, 2010). For equal access to appropriate education, the IDEA provides for special Individualized Education Program (IEP) for students with qualifying disabilities. To avoid being held liable for infringing on such constitutional rights of such students, school districts and teachers should ensures that such programs are available for students not favored by the public education/learning programs appropriate for the other able-bodied students (Palomares & Schilling, 2010). The main purpose of placing a disabled student on an IEP would be to place a disabled student in the appropriate learning environment. The IDEA also places certain disciplinary actions such as suspension on students who violate such placements on appropriate learning environment. However, if the conduct for which a judicial review is required is caused by a student’s disability or is a direct or substantial relation to a student’s disability, teachers and school districts must be careful while handling such cases to avoid liabilities. In addition, great caution should be taken if a disabled student’s actions that are considered a contravention of placement regulations are a result of a school’s failure to implement a student’s IEP. Challenges are however bound to derail the success of teachers and school districts from protecting themselves from liabilities by the above strategies. Challenges to Protection Despite the formulation and implementation of the above policies and strategies on how teachers and school districts may protect themselves against liabilities, cases of teachers and school districts being held liable abound. There are numerous challenges that have ensured that teachers and school districts are never quite safe from being held liable for their actions against students. For instance, while a school’s disciplinary code may prohibit discrimination in protecting and disciplining students, some teachers cannot just avoid erring and implementing discriminatory actions on students, more so students with disabilities (Palomares & Schilling, 2010). In addition, lack of community and parental support to school districts’ and teachers’ efforts to offer optimal and equal learning opportunities and environment implies that parents fail to support and protect teachers from liability claims. Instead, parents often portray teachers as not mindful of students’ needs and impairments. The third challenge that teachers and school districts face in protecting themselves from liabilities stem from the inconsistencies in the adoption, application, and enforcement of optimal learning environment policies and strategies by the relevant authorities. In most cases disciplinary actions are never directed at identified and legitimate disciplinary and safety issues that target education objectives and well-being (Humboldt State University, 2003). Worse still, most learning institutions are not consistent or conversant with federal and state constitutional and statutory regulations and standards on the provision of optimal and equal learning opportunities. This ignorance on the part of teachers and school districts implies that their policies do not incorporate best practices such as communication with teachers, students, and parents on disciplinary and safety issues at school. Importantly, failure by school districts and teachers to consider all the available options when making decisions on disciplinary or educational situations and issues is also a challenge in the protection of teachers and school districts against liabilities (Humboldt State University, 2003). Conclusion The provision of optimal education environment is the right of every student, disabled or able-bodied. It is therefore imperative that teachers and school districts strategize and implement policies and practices that uphold student safety and optimal learning environments. By complying with government laws and regulations, teachers and school districts may protect themselves from liabilities relating to breaches of optimal education environment. Nevertheless, teachers and school districts are bound to encounter certain challenges while seeking to protect themselves from liabilities. References Bergin, C., and Bergin, D. (2011). Child and adolescent development in your classroom, first edition. Wadsworth Publishing. Callard-Szulgit, R. (2008). Twice-exceptional kids: a guide for assisting students who are both academically gifted and learning disabled. R&L Education. Davis, B. G. (2002). Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities. Retrieved on November 8, 2011 from http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/disabilities.html. Humboldt State University. (2003). Discipline-Specific Accommodation Suggestions: Chemistry. Retrieved November 8, 2011 from http://www.humboldt.edu/disability/faculty/discipline_specific_accommodations.htm Kauchak, D. P., and Eggen, P. (2010). Introduction to teaching: becoming a professional, fourth edition. Prentice Hall. Nadeen, T. R. (1996). The OLE curriculum guide: creating optimal learning environments for students from diverse backgrounds in special and general education. Department of Education. Palomares, S., and Schilling, D. (2010). Less student stress, more school success: strategies and activities for creating optimal learning environments: grades k-12. Pro Education. Read More