CREATING A POSITIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Creating a Positive Learning Environment
(Aug 2003)

All of us can remember sitting in a classroom listening to lectures and trying to stay awake. The effective trainer is one who can create a positive learning climate. In order to create a positive learning climate, you first need to understand the characteristics of adult learners.

Adult learners:

- Require learning to be relevant 
- Are highly motivated if they believe learning is relevant 
- Need participation and active involvement in the learning process 
- Desire a variety of learning experiences 
- Desire positive feedback 
- Have personal concerns and need an atmosphere of safety 
- Need to be recognized as individuals with unique backgrounds, experiences and learning      needs 
- Must maintain their self-esteem 
- Have high expectations for themselves and their trainer 
- Have personal needs that must be taken into consideration 

Creating a positive learning climate requires the involvement of learners. To involve learners:

- Allow participants to provide input regarding schedules, activities and other events
- Ask questions and solicit feedback 
- Brainstorm and encourage discussions 
- Plan hands-on work, group and individual projects, and classroom activities
 
A positive learning climate is created through the use of a variety of learning methods including:

- Audiovisual aids 
- Illustrated lectures 
- Demonstrations 
- Brainstorming 
- Small group activities 
- Group discussions 
- Role plays and case studies 
- Guest speakers 

The effective trainer helps to create the positive learning climate by using a variety of techniques for providing positive feedback. To provide positive feedback:

- Give verbal praise either in front of other participants or in private 
- Use positive responses during questioning 
- Recognize appropriate skills while coaching 
- Let the participants know how they are progressing toward achieving learning objectives 

Be sure to treat the participants as individuals. To do this you can:

- Use participant names as often as possible 
- Involve all participants as often as possible 
- Treat participants with respect 
- Allow participants to share information with others 

To maintain the self-esteem of your learners, you can:

- Reinforce those practices and beliefs embodied in the course content 
- Provide corrective feedback in an appropriate manner 
- Provide training that adds to their sense of competence and self-esteem 
- Recognize participants' own career accomplishments 

Creating a positive learning climate requires planning and work on the part of the trainer. Using these suggestions you can help build a positive learning climate that will make your training more fun and effective.

In my opinion, this is an important and useful article for people that want to be teachers. If you want to create a positive learning environment, it can help you a lot. In my case, I want to be an English teacher, so this article could help me because it gives me many tips about how to create a positive atmosphere. There are many that called my attention. For instance, being sure to treat the participants as individuals was a really good advice. In conclusion, if I became a teacher, I would use many of these advices because I know that they will work.