Creating the Environment for Learning
A good school affords the best teachers. A great school offers a committed faculty team and a well-built infrastructure. Children's learning and development also depends on their study environment or classrooms. They must feel safe, communicate freely with teachers and friends, and experience and understand the value of equality and diversity at their schools.
The learning environment influences children in every aspect. It covers different aspects like education, care, health, nutrition and safety. That’s why a contemporary early childhood curriculum is very important. It should foster good behaviour, better communication skills, build positive relationships and responsible citizenship.
This blog aims to let you know how a school's environment and curriculum can affect children, especially of lower primary classes, until adulthood.
What is a learning environment?
Learning environments include classrooms, play areas, outdoor activities and caregiving spaces for children's overall progression. It's a place that supports the physical, mental and social aspects of children. A good learning environment must have structures that assist in developing all these qualities in kids.
How can teachers create an effective learning environment?
Learning environments can be made better to contribute to the overall development of a child.
Physical Environment – The areas must be furnished so children can move around quickly with better access to toys with an expansive outdoor play area and other materials available. It must also comply with the 'Universal Design for Learning' concept so that everyone gets to learn and use it. This aspect also has proper placement of materials, well-lit and airy areas and aesthetic display of things attractive enough for kids.
Social Environment – An excellent social environment should facilitate conversations with teachers and caregivers and foster friendships, so they can quickly achieve social goals within their school or centre. The activities at this level are teacher-student interactions and group assignments.
Temporal Environment – The temporal aspect includes the class duration, type of classes and programmes children attend, and their emotional behaviour in these environments.
A proper learning environment must afford all the qualities mentioned above and possess a curriculum that shapes the entire evolution of a child to an adult. Let's move to the curriculum which these centres have.
Components of early childhood curriculum
The curriculum for children of age 0 to 6 or 8 leans on children's personal growth to discover and nurture their interests. It is skill-based so that they acquire a foundation to meet the 21st-century challenges. An effective curriculum and skillful guidance from caregivers must instigate a child's curiosity. The expected results of this syllabus are the development of critical thinking and problem-solving tendencies. Creativity, another substantial and inherent asset that inspires innovation, is also one of the focal points in this programme.
The following primary focus in the early childhood curriculum is emotional development, self-observation and risk management. Since the early childhood years are influenced by negative and positive experiences, listening to them is extremely important. Self-observation includes knowledge of their bodies, eating habits and healthy lifestyles. Children are taught risk management by giving them various situations where they have to involve themselves with others to learn how to react in a crowd. Teaching them Maths, digital and technological skills is also a part of this syllabus in the kindergarten grades.
Benefits of early childhood curriculum
The curriculum followed in schools will help children develop the ability to
Interact with others and the world
Use the possible and available resources during adversities
Learn skills for livelihood
The curriculum, learning spaces, environment, and benefits show the importance of early childhood programmes. Amity Dubai has classrooms beaming with bright colours and sunlight. They are spacious and equipped with smart boards to provide interactive and engaging lessons to students. There are indoor and outdoor sport and activity areas with recreational facilities. Music rooms, libraries and labs provide students with plenty of resources to empower them. Its world-class infrastructure is committed to taking learning to the next level.