Learning Episode 6: Enhancing face-to-face Learning Environment

PARTICIPATE AND ASSIST

Given the concepts and the infographic, how can you participate and assist in a face-to-face learning
environment?

- Based on the assistantship we are doing now; our resource or cooperating teacher usually
makes us do facilitating in the class every time they have a performance activity. In this way,
students would be eager to do their work better with us student teachers roaming around. Also,
our cooperating teacher has given me and my fellow student teacher, a task, which is to create a
PowerPoint presentation for a certain lesson. One time, Ma’am Grace made us choose the order
of groups to perform in their performance task.

NOTICE

Having been exposed to the traditional classrooms in your basic education, it seems that everything
is familiar. However, as teaching-learning theories evolve over time, there are changes taking place.

What have you noticed in the face-to-face classroom spaces?

CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT BEFORE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT NOW

- Tables used to be long enough for eight - Students have individual plastic chairs
people to fit in the chairs surrounding with an arm table.
it.
- Maximum usage of visual aids - Projector and television is where the
lessons are projected.
- Brainstorming is the key to creating - Using the gadgets, ideas are found
new ideas. easily.
- Assessments are needed to be done - Online sheets, various apps for
face-to-face. answering an exam like Edmodo,
assessments can now be done online.

ANALYZE

What do you think brought changes in the face-to-face learning environment now?

- The very main suspect is probably the word ‘change’ itself. You know, change is the only
constant thing in the world and as time goes on, we progress with it, hence, the birth of
advanced technology that we have today. It has made changes to everything and education is
not an exception. It has made the tasks of both students and teachers easier and convenient;
the teaching-learning process has been made simpler as well. Before, a lot of visual aids need to
be pasted on the board, now we have television to project the things needed to be discussed.
Before, we used to copy important details on our notebooks, now we can just take pictures.
 From the changes that you identified, choose one that you can do. How will you do it?

- I don’t really understand the question itself, but if basing on my own understanding of this, it’s
asking for how I can balance them. I’d say the change on the visual aids. If I were to become a
teacher, a full-pledged teacher, I would have activities that would require them to copy from the
visual aids. Manually writing on the notebook can also help students retain important terms,
which can be used in the future.

REFLECT

Do you think making the learning environment conducive for a face-to-face classroom will enable
learners to achieve better learning outcomes? Explain your answer.

- Making a learning environment conducive for face-to-face learning does give learners a better
learning outcome because it elevates their desire to learn. To have classmates that share ideas, to
having a teacher that guides you, all of them physically, to see the classroom buildings, the learning
corners, all of them can serve as a motivation to learn.

WRITE ACTION RESEARCH PROMPTS

OBSERVE

What common problem have I noticed in a face-to-face learning environment? Can I translate this
problem into a question?

- Looking back in my past student life years, face to face always have these unforeseen
distractions from outside and inside the classroom. Probably because it’s a public school, not to
stereotype all public schools, but from the schools I’ve been before, that has always been a
problem. There are times when the classes next to your classroom are having a performance
task, they tend to make a lot if noise which is a distraction to the other classes. Students passing
by the windows, friends who are finished with their classes tend to stay outside waiting, are
among the common ones I have noticed. In terms of inside distractions, it usually are the mobile
phones. Some students tend to have their phones in their hands, below the table, during
discussions in which they often look down on it time to time.

- If I were to translate this into a question, it would be, “Why is distraction the enemy of learning?
REFLECT

How would I solve the problem? Will it improve my teaching? How?

- By doing an in-depth observation of the causes of such problem. Giving it a few days’ time and
seeing how often it happens in a day, then in a week. And yes, doing this would definitely
improve my teaching. Successful eradication of such problems would improve the focus of the
students during my discussions.

PLAN

What will I do to solve the problem? Describe briefly how will you do it.

- Placing curtains on windows, closing the doors during classes, organize classroom setting,
confiscating phones during class hours by putting them in a box where they can see it from afar,
only allowing the use of such when the lesson requires it.

CHECK FOR MASTERY

Choose the best answer from the options given.

1. In the face-to-face learning environment, the most critical elements is/are the_.
- B. physical, psychological and social considerations
2. The traditional classroom spaces are still considered valid and effective for as long as these
conditions exist. What are these conditions?
- D. lll and lV (lll. The presence of the teacher is needed in a given time to guide learning; lV. All
students should be heard in class discussion)
3. The best instructional material in the traditional classroom is the_.
- D. Bulletin Board
4. Outdoor activities like group games, scavenger hunt and the like, provide a positive_.
- B. Social Environment
5. It is observed that different classrooms have different arrangements of chairs, tables and
benches because of_.
- B. different purposes
WORK ON MY ARTIFACTS

PORTFOLIO ENTRY

Title: The Face-To-Face Learning Environment

Describe the physical environment:

- The classroom I am observing right now have enough space for all the learners to move about,
which is thanks to the arrangement of it. The chairs are facing front to the whiteboard. There is
a space in between of all the chairs so the teacher can roam around and facilitate the learners.
The visual displays are properly placed in the back of the classroom to avoid distractions during
discussions. The classroom and the school as a whole is very meticulous in keeping the students
safe from any hazards. The very dominant example is they have guards waiting in the entrance,
one needs school ID to enter, to prevent unknown strangers from going in the school. The light
and ventilation is properly paid attention to. Students have aircons in their rooms, enough light
to see the surroundings, and technological learning materials as well!

Describe the psychological environment:

- Certain rules are set by the teacher to keep the class at ease and to maintain peace in the
classroom. These rules are; respect one another, do not talk when the other person is talking,
raise your hands when you want to say something, when the teacher counts one to ten, the
class should start settling down. The resource teacher allows freedom of speech. She welcomes
opinions from all students. Ma’am Grace does not tolerate bullying. She makes sure students
are comfortable before she starts the discussion. During long weekends, she asks the students
how their vacation was, to which students are very enthusiastic to answer as well.

Describe the social environment:

- The students are made to interact with each other especially during group activities. Ma’am
Grace makes the students converse ideas, and encourages them to speak their thoughts in a
respectful manner. We have a student who is Autistic. Every time the students’ tantrums occur;
she makes sure to go to her and does her best to calm the student down through reassuring
words. She also encourages the class to engage with the student with special needs.