Query: Creating respectful learning environment

title: Classroom Community: Creating a Respectful and Accepting Learning Environment to Inspire Student Participation and Achievement

title: Creating Respectful Classroom Environments
abstract: Creating respectful classroom environments Respect is a critical variable in education. It is critical to each individual child in the classroom environment as well as to the teaching and learning that takes place in the classroom. Children learn by example. Where do they get their examples? This article explores the parameters of teaching and encouraging respect in classrooms for young children. Emphasis is placed on the creation of respectful classroom environments taught by teachers who have themselves been prepared to nurture this kind of environment.

title: Exploring the Complexity of Classroom Management: 8 Components of Managing a Highly Productive, Safe, and Respectful Urban Environment.
abstract: Creating a learning environment where all students can thrive academically requires an understanding of the complexities of classroom management. The notions of "discipline," "conformity" and "obedience" that have littered discussions of classroom management in the past are no longer sufficient to describe the diverse urban classroom. Thus, this piece explores classroom management in an honest, relevant way, rich in context and relationships. Through a scenario showing one teacher's decision making process, eight components of classroom management are considered: student teacher relationships, high expectations for students, non verbal cues and redirection, teacher consistency, teacher perseverance and assertiveness, capitalizing on human resources, restorative justice, and school wide consistency for student behavior. The research support for these eight components is also shared.

title: Best Practices for Creating Social Presence and Caring Behaviors Online
abstract: To identify best practices and evidence based strategies for creating an online learning environment that encompasses caring behaviors and promotes social presence.  Faculty who teach online classes are challenged to create a sense of social presence and caring behaviors in a virtual world in which students feel connected and part of the learning environment.  To extrapolate evidence to support best practices, a review of literature was conducted focused on social presence and caring online.  Faculty messages that are respectful, positive, encouraging, timely, and frequent foster social presence and caring behaviors while also allowing for caring interactions, mutual respect, and finding meaning in relationships.  A variety of measures to emulate caring online intertwine with social presence to promote a sense of caring and belonging. More research is needed to support the evidence for these strategies.

title: Trauma and learning in America's classrooms
abstract: Whether they work in a rural, urban, or suburban district, all teachers should expect to confront children who have had adverse childhood experiences involving trauma. All teachers should understand how trauma affects students' social, emotional, and academic growth. The more that teachers understand how traumatic experiences affect student competencies, the more proactive they can be in creating trauma sensitive learning environments. Trauma sensitive schools provide a safe and respectful environment that enables students to build caring relationships with adults and peers, self regulate their emotions and behaviors, and succeed academically, while supporting their physical health and well being.

title: Creating Safe and Welcoming Schools for LGBT Students: Ethical and Legal Issues
abstract: This article addresses ethical and legal issues associated with creating safe and welcoming schools for lesbian, gay, biattractional, and transgender (LGBT) youth and for students who simply do not conform to gender role stereotypes. Ethical principles and standards that create a responsibility for educators to foster a learning environment respectful of the worth and dignity of all students are discussed first. Law related to discrimination against and harassment of LGBT students is then summarized. Special attention is given to the controversy ignited by the U.S. Department of Education's 2010 interpretation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 that requires schools receiving federal funds to take steps to prevent bullying of students on the basis of sex, including harassment based on a student's nonconformity to gender role expectations. Finally, implications of ethical principles and law for school district practices regarding LGBT students are identified.

title: Improved Student Engagement through Project Based Learning in Freshman Engineering Design
abstract: The implementation and assessment of Project Based Learning (PBL) in a one credit hour freshman undergraduate course on Engineering Design is described. The project selected consisted of a magnetically levitated, wirelessly powered desk lamp. The overall objective of the instructional modality selected was to improve student engagement and retention at the freshman level by exposing students to a hands on engineering design experience. In contrast to design courses taken in the final year of study, this course was taken prior to the accumulation of detailed technical knowledge in the student's engineering discipline. Instructional scaffolding was implemented in course delivery, and included: 1) creating a safe, respectful, collaborative environment for instructor and students; 2) crafting learning goals with the flexibility to ensure they overlapped with the variegated "zones of proximal development" of the freshman student cohort; and 3) gradually tapering instructor involvement from lecturer and frequent collaborator to infrequent guide and troubleshooter as students mastered and applied the skills needed to complete their projects. To minimize "social loafing," inter student collaborations were encouraged through ad hoc rather than formal groups, and a unique prototype desk lamp was required of every student. Access to an in house 3D printer facility to print the prototype hardware was provided in order to give students exposure to mechanical design software, acclimate students to 3D printed product quality, and to facilitate the timely delivery of components at a reasonable cost. Access to a 3D printer facility enabled the completion of approximately 100 unique student projects at the end of the 15 week semester; although use of the 3D printers was not mandatory, almost half of the finished prototypes incorporated 3D printed components. The instructor's selection of the project was guided by the need to stimulate the interest of students pursuing a variety of engineering disciplines, provide design constraints while encouraging individual creative content in the completed prototype, enable students to complete hardware component designs with easily learned design tools, and allow successful hardware demonstration against a set of design requirements within the time, space, and resource constraints of a one credit hour class. The course deliverables included: submission of a quad chart containing design objectives, design details, bill of materials and a Gantt chart; completion and demonstration of a working prototype; and an original data sheet describing the features of each unique design. The deliverables were assessed based on completed prototype quality (including an end of semester contest to select the top designs by an independent panel of judges) compliance with a subset of the design specifications, total number of prototypes completed, and course evaluations provided by enrolled students. Surprisingly, many students invested considerable time outside of class to complete what were arguably very ambitious lamp designs. The level of personal pride in student prototypes led to a friendly competition to achieve the highest value for one performance metric, with one prototype exceeding the design target by more than a factor of 300. The conditions that led to the students' self imposed workload and the exceptional overall student engagement will be presented.

title: Rethinking the Beginning French Class: Strategies for Transforming Teaching Challenges into Opportunities
abstract: Engaging the French Language Student Adult learners tend to be self directed learners who prefer active learning approaches, according to Malcolm Knowles's concept of andragogy (see also: ]creating a flipped classroom, where students study concepts and lessons before class sessions permits instructors to focus on our proficiency oriented goals, rather than the simple introduction of grammar Mine contains my Teaching Philosophy (which emphasizes student success, collaboration, student centered active learning approach, safe climate, etc Student Learning Objectives (shared by all course sections) Transferable Skills (10 skills that transfer to the work world) Teaching Methods, Study Tips for Success in Learning French, Classroom Environment, a list of student expectations and of instructor expectations ]as French teachers we are uniquely positioned to assure respectful discourse, and sensitivity to issues of race, equity, and diversity ]assessment should focus on the values we teach

title: Creating a safe space to learn: The significant role of graduate students in fostering educational engagement and aspirations among urban youth.
abstract: Studies show that when students have the opportunity to develop important social skills such as self awareness, social awareness, self management, relationship skills, and responsible decision making, educational engagement and academic performance is increased (Zins, Payton, Weissberg, O'Brien, 2007) Research in social emotional learning further suggests that creating more caring and safe classroom environments enhances student development of social and emotional skills. In these supportive environments, students feel more comfortable approaching and interacting with teachers, participating in classroom activities and discussions, and making meaningful connections to their peers where these skills are reinforced continuously (Payton et al, 2008; Ward, 2006) In addition, Murdock, Hale, and Weber (2001) found that students who characterize their classroom environment as caring and report that teachers and students are respectful of one another, demonstrate increased class participation and are more likely to complete homework. Despite the aforementioned value of social development programs in improving educational outcomes for youth, quality implementation of social development programs in schools is often hampered by pressure placed on teachers to improve student performance on standardized assessments (Ravitch, 2000) Graduate students, however, present an under utilized yet valuable resource in the implementation of school based preventive interventions. With ongoing support and supervision, graduate students can be an effective means of creating meaningful relationships with youth and establishing safe and responsive classroom environments that facilitate learning. In this paper we present a program description and initial evaluation findings of a school based intervention delivered by graduate students within a supportive classroom environment that is designed to enhance social competencies, increase educational engagement and heighten the educational aspirations of urban middle school youth.

title: The Synthesising Mind
abstract: Over the years, increased attention has been paid to preparing students for the future and this has resulted in educators and practitioners seeking innovative pedagogies for teaching and learning. At the same time, employers are expecting graduates to possess skills, knowledge and mindsets that will be valuable in the unknown future environment. One promising approach is Gardner's framework, 'the five minds for the future' which include disciplined, synthesising, creating, respectful and ethical minds. The literature shows that Gardner's framework has been mostly used in schools and not much yet in tertiary education. To address this gap, a qualitative study was conducted with post graduate accounting students in a New Zealand university. The findings show that there is positive indication in the development of respectful and ethical minds and some awareness of the significance of developing the remaining minds for the future workplace. Implications for educators and researchers are outlined in the paper.