essay about good school environment

The Effects of a Positive School Environment

by Camara, our Summer 2019 intern

School Environment is not something we talk about often. However, it is critical to consider because, when school environment is positive and supportive, it promotes students’ academic, emotional, and spiritual growth.

Prior to interning at Council, I knew very little about school environment and its effects. For the very little that I knew, I relied heavily on prior experiences as a public school student. Although there were metal detectors, security guards, and numerous security cameras around the school, I still received great support from staff to mitigate the effects of fortification. However, there are school environments that appear more like prisons, fraught with racial tensions and biases, and lack supportive staff, which negatively affect students’ perceptions and futures. Therefore, for those interested in child, family, and education policy, understanding school environment is imperative because of its influence on student academic achievement and character development. This week I’ll use my blog to briefly summarize school environment and provide a few recommendations for schools to enhance their environments for their students’ and staff’s benefit.

In December 2018,  Community In Schools  (CIS) prepared an  Overview of School Environment  report which discusses school environment in depth. School environment is defined as “a category of concepts that reflect key attributes of the surroundings or conditions in which people operate in school.” In other words, school environment refers to the overlap of school culture and school climate. School culture is what the school does as a collective in terms of traditions, values, beliefs, and expectations. School climate , on the other hand, reflects the cumulative perspectives of students and staff. Research shows that a positive school climate increases attendance rates and academic achievement, promotes student mental and physical wellbeing and teacher retention, and reduces violence (1) . A positive school culture combined with a positive school climate results in a positive school environment. Therefore, the overall school environment receives a multitude of short- and long-term benefits.

In CIS’ overview, they conceptualize school environment into five domains that are consistently identified in the research on both school culture and school climate: 1. Shared Vision, 2. Safety, 3. Community, 4. Academics, and 5. Physical Environment   (2) .  Shared Vision  is what a school hopes to accomplish and is reflected by the school’s culture, such as its mission, ceremonies, and values.  Safety   includes physical and social-emotional safety and behavior management (e.g., conflict resolution).  Community   refers to the quality of in-school interactions and interpersonal relationships among students and teaching personnel.  Academics   refer to a school’s educational climate and its effect on students’ academic success and achievement.  Physical Environment   includes the tangible elements of a school such as its available and accessible resources that aid students’ academic success. When the five domains are positively and consistently established, schools are better able to support and encourage students to reach their full potentials.

A school environment is negatively impacted when one or more of the domains are lacking, negative, or harmful. For example, if a school’s  community  is burdened with racial tensions and biases among students and teaching personnel, students and teachers may lose their sense of belonging in their own school environment. The feeling of not belonging or being welcomed into their school can negatively impact attendance and graduation rates. School environment can also be negatively impacted through increased fortifying practices in schools (e.g., armed security, metal detectors). In a time when schools are targeted in attempts of mass violence, school boards and administrators have altered and expanded their security measures in an attempt to make schools ‘ safer’ . However, the expansion of digital surveillance, metal detectors, access controlled doors, and armed security alters students’ perceptions regarding school disorder, safety, and themselves. Further, previous research revealed the expansion of fortification security protocols had the opposite impact of its intentions, resulting in increased violence and disorder (3) .

A social environment that lacks inclusivity can foster racial, socioeconomic, and gender disparities. The accumulation of negative interactions, such as acts of violence, stereotypes, and biases from teachers due to identity differences, primarily affects perceptions and experiences of students of color, males, students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and students with disabilities or emotional/behavioral disorders  (4) . For a school environment to cater to all of its students, teachers and administrators need to acknowledge the historical setbacks, marginalization, and systemic or tangible barriers that students of various identities face. In addition, staff must provide support for students to be comfortable in and express their marginalized identities and must act in ways that do not further oppress those identities.

Example Interventions to Improve School Environment

If schools are truly interested in improving their environment, there are various interventions that can promote mental wellbeing, improve school safety while ingraining school order, and help mitigate any divides or tensions that exist among students and staff. Below are some examples of interventions to improve school environment:

Intervention 1: Culturally Responsive School Leadership Training

Training for school administrators and teachers should be interminable as they are dealing with children who are still growing and developing. Cultural responsivity and competency training is essential because not all children derive from the same environments and backgrounds. As leaders, role models, and mentors, teachers and administrators play critical roles in improving school environment. To properly address disparity and diversity issues, administrators and teachers participate in professional development courses online or the district could host these opportunities. From these courses, they receive multicultural training and are given time to reflect on interactions with students. Courses include material on properly addressing disparities and tensions among students and how to be more supportive of students who systemically lack support. These courses can foster more effective classroom and school management, which is linked to reduced suspension rates.

Of the five domains of school environment, cultural responsivity and competency training addresses  Shared Vision ,  Safety ,  and Community . With teachers and school administrators becoming more culturally aware and competent, a share vision to reduce disparities and properly support all students may emerge. The school’s culture, therefore, reflects those aspirations, which will foster equity and an overall positive school environment.  The training can also enhance students’ and staff’s sense of community. As tensions and biases lessen, interactions and interpersonal relationships can strengthen. Consequently, the overall school’s safety (especially emotional safety) can be enhanced because of increased support, inclusivity, and sense of belonging from both students and staff.

To learn more about Culturally Responsive School Leadership Training, check out this research article:  click here.

Intervention 2: Promoting School Attachment/Sense of Belonging

Schools can offer activities and programs to promote student-school connectedness, including sports teams, interest-based clubs, societies, and school-wide events that firmly establish a school’s culture. Promoting connectedness through school-based activities provides students with the opportunity to gain a better sense of self, leadership skills, physical activity, and healthier habits. Research has shown that students who participated in extracurricular or school-based activities had higher grades, more positive attitudes and perceptions toward their schools, and higher academic aspirations  (5) . In addition, school-based activities promote stronger interpersonal relationships with peers, coaches/mentors, and teachers. In sum, when students form a connectedness with their school environment, it relates to academic and personal success.

Promoting school attachment fosters the  Community, Safety, Academics, and Shared Vision  domains. As students become more involved in school-based activities, they gain a stronger sense of self and community alongside their peers and staff mentors that can contribute to a sense of shared vision. Increased participation also increases school pride and skill building. Students learn more about their academic and non-academic capabilities and push themselves toward success in life. Simultaneously, their mental and physical health improves, which can result in a more positive and safer school environment.

To learn more about Promoting School Attachment as an Intervention:  click here.

Intervention 3: Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS)

Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) is another program that can be used to help establish a strong, positive school culture, promote school connectedness, and successfully reduce violence and misbehavior. PBIS is a method that teaches and encourages students to meet a school’s expectations and engage in preferred behavior. To reduce misbehavior and promote a positive school environment, a support-focused plan is created and implemented by school personnel, family and community members to encourage positive expected social skills and character developing behaviors from students. The team determines their desired behaviors for the school setting and encourages students to engage in these behaviors with altered mission statements, school discipline policies, lessons, etc. North Carolina schools that use PBIS had lower out-of-school suspension rates and higher academic performance than schools that do not use PBIS.

PBIS touches on all of the dimensions of school environment, especially  Shared Vision  and  Physical Environment.  Since PBIS encourages positive behavior as a component of its core curriculum, PBIS schools may have more tangible and accessible resources for students than non-PBIS schools. Also, PBIS successfully reduces aggressive behavior, improves academic engagement and achievement, reduces teacher turnover, and improves students’ and staff’s perceptions of school climate. With these reductions and improvements, the school environment enhances.

To learn more about PBIS:  click here.

There are many other interventions that can be used to enhance a school’s climate and environment. Performing these interventions, when necessary, can help a school become more of a primary or secondary environment with in which youth develop character, and grow academically, emotionally, and spiritually. Children need to feel safe and enriched with care from their teachers, mentors, and peers. A positive school environment is, therefore, essential to promoting wellbeing and safety for our children and within our community.

The Importance of Positive School Environments

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• Amelia Harper explains the benefits of positive school cultures: teachers report less stress and students take more ownership of their work.
• What role can you play in supporting efforts to improve school culture?
• Learn about  social and emotional learning .

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Tracey Smith, principal of Brookwood Elementary School in Georgia, shared with eSchool News her strategies for helping teachers take ownership of their work and helping students take control of their learning by creating a more positive learning culture.

Working to create a more positive school culture may seem like a waste of time to some school administrators who face a host of more pressing issues at school. However, creating a happier place for people to work and learn can help prevent some of the more pressing issues from occurring in the first place. In fact, some states see school climate as such an important matter that they have included school climate surveys in their ESSA plans.

A positive school atmosphere encourages student attendance, a factor that helps cure many school woes. It also helps reduce stress in teachers and students and boosts a more positive mindset in everyone involved. Some studies even suggest that school climate is a key factor in student achievement and teacher retention.

Read the full article about the importance of school environments by Amelia Harper at Education Dive.

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Improvements in school culture can address student absenteeism, education dive, apr 29, 2023, student-led school culture change, sep 2, 2022.

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Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

How to Create a Positive School Climate

If you’re a school leader, you have problems to solve: bullying, teacher burnout, disengaged students, casual vandalism and litter, and cultural and socio-economic differences, among others. Big issues that affect a lot of people.

Researchers have found that a positive school climate can help solve a lot of those problems. Studies find that it decreases absenteeism, suspensions, substance abuse, and bullying, and increases students’ academic achievement, motivation to learn, and psychological well-being. It can even mitigate the negative effects of self-criticism and socioeconomic status on academic success. In addition, working in this kind of climate lessens teacher burnout while increasing retention. All really good stuff!

But here’s the catch: Creating a positive school climate is really, really hard to do, as any principal will tell you. People have minds of their own, and you can’t make them feel peppy and optimistic on command. It takes elbow grease and much care to implement, simply because human motivations and needs are so complex. Here are some research-tested tips to get you started.

What does it look like?

Let’s take a moment to paint a picture of positive school climate. When you walk onto a school campus, you can immediately get a sense of the school climate by watching the interactions between people and noticing the school’s physical environment. 

Do the teachers, students, and school leaders seem happy to be there and are they treating each other with respect? Is the school clean and orderly? Are the bulletin board displays sending out positive messages? Are students engaged in their learning?

In 2007, the National School Climate Council spelled out specific criteria for what defines a positive school climate, including:

• Norms, values, and expectations that support social, emotional, and physical safety.
• People are engaged and respected.
• Students, families, and educators work together to develop and live a shared school vision.
• Educators model and nurture attitudes that emphasize the benefits gained from learning.
• Each person contributes to the operations of the school and the care of the physical environment.

So while creating a positive school climate is not easy, it’s also not impossible.

Three steps to a positive climate

When building a positive school climate, it’s important to remember that there is no magic formula—much will depend on the leaders’ values and vision and how much everyone else gets on board with those things.

It starts with trust , which researchers say is an essential prerequisite to a more positive climate. The following steps are in part designed to build trust, mainly by giving teachers, staff, and students some say in the process—and leaders who guide the process must never miss an opportunity to prove themselves trustworthy and to facilitate trust-building between stakeholders.

Here are some research-based suggestions for school leaders on how to start cultivating a positive school climate:

1) Assess the current climate. You have to know where you’re starting from in order to know where to go. And for those on your staff who might be less-than-enthusiastic about creating a positive school climate, asking them about their current experience will help get them on board because they’ll feel like their voice is being heard. Also be sure to include everyone’s voices: teachers, other school staff, students, parents—and your own.

There are a number of ways to assess your school climate. The Safe and Supportive Schools website provides a list of validated survey instruments —some of which are free. However, I would caution against relying on just a survey.

According to Edgar Schein , one of the foremost organizational psychology experts, a survey will not reveal people’s underlying assumptions and beliefs which have a profound effect on the school climate—and those are what you need to understand in order to effect real change. On surveys, people can interpret the questions differently. For example, the statement, “I believe this school is headed in the right direction” could be interpreted in a myriad of ways. Also, it is very difficult to know which questions to ask on a survey and how deeply a person feels about a particular area.

Schein suggests meeting in small groups to examine together the school’s climate. He outlines a simple method in his book The Corporate Culture Survival Guide that is easily adaptable to schools. (Note: researchers consider climate and culture to be two different constructs. However, the National School Climate Council’s definition above combines the two.)

Individual interviews are also another way to get a sense of the school climate, and should be conducted by someone outside the school to ensure honesty and impartiality, e.g., a consultant or local grad student in organizational psychology.

2) Create a shared vision—but start with personal visions. Research suggests that bringing everyone together to create a shared vision of the kind of climate they want increases the likelihood that the vision will actually be carried out. But according to Peter Senge , director of the Society for Organizational Learning that originated at MIT, a shared vision must emerge from our personal visions—otherwise people won’t be committed to the shared vision.

Senge defines personal vision as “a specific destination, a picture of a desired future” that is rooted in a person’s values, concerns, and aspirations. For example, part of my personal vision is wanting schools to be socially and emotionally healthy places for everyone which comes from my deeply held belief that human beings thrive in positive environments.

So before creating a shared vision together, ask everyone to write down their personal vision. You might even have them read the section on personal vision in Senge’s book, The Fifth Discipline . To ensure student participation, have teachers guide students through this process.

When you’re ready to create a shared vision, it’s important to create a safe space where people feel comfortable sharing their ideas. I highly recommend using a positive approach to discussion such as World Café or Appreciative Inquiry . That way, positive emotions are generated, which will help to cultivate trust amongst group members and also make everyone’s thinking more creative and flexible. Be sure to include the students in whatever way possible.

3) Work together to carry out the shared vision—and make it fun! Creating a positive school climate is an ongoing process that never really ends, but it’s a joyful one. However, if you find your school off to a slow start, you might try one of these simple motivating ideas that will give a quick boost of positive emotions:

• “ Behind Your Back .” This is a fun twist on gossiping that can easily be done at the start of class or before a staff meeting. One participant at the Greater Good Summer Institute for Educators told us that when her school did it at a staff meeting, some long-held grudges between staff members were healed.
• Gratitude Board. Provide places in the hallways and the teachers’ lounge where people can post notes expressing their gratitude for each others’ actions. Gratitude has the wonderful effect of helping us feel more connected to one another and also gives us a boost in our own self-worth—both important aspects of a positive school climate.

While it may seem like a lot of work, the tremendous benefits of a positive school climate far out-weigh the time and effort required. And, while researchers haven’t measured it yet, I would guess that a positive school climate can also bring the joy and fun back into teaching and learning. Who wouldn’t want to be part of a school like that?

Throughout this next school year, watch for articles on more specific, research-based ideas for building a positive school climate.

About the Author

Vicki Zakrzewski

Vicki Zakrzewski, Ph.D. , is the education director of the Greater Good Science Center.

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Making the School Environment Safe Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

In order to make the school environment safe, it is essential to take into account many criteria, indicators, and features of the situation in the institution, region, and country. For example, Çalık et al. (2018) suggest appealing to family education following legislative acts in some instances. In contrast, Taylor (2020) focuses on implementing restorative practices and social-emotional learning programs in the educational systems. Moreover, considering the unfavorable environment, it is possible to appeal to bullying detection technologies to eradicate oppression at the initial levels (Kim et al., 2020). Indeed, disrespectful treatment, violence, and bullying of a child at home can be considered as one of the dominant causes of terrible phenomena at school (Gupta, 2022). In addition, various factors of deviant behavior within the walls of an educational institution include mental health, the hyperactive side of a student’s personality, poor academic performance, lousy company, and much more (Gupta, 2022). Hence, to avoid school violence, schools can use such methods as special staff training to work with “difficult children,” scheduling special events for classes, and organizing lessons, mainly aimed at team building and group activities.

The issues that families have to face due to the opioid crisis include concern, stress, and worries about the child’s condition and the expected consequences. It is no secret that a widespread problem in the country can threaten everyone, especially teenagers, especially those in need of love and care due to a crisis in personal development. Social and economic conditions in specific regions of the country are the main determinants affecting schoolchildren’s desires, aspirations, and interests (Monnat, 2018). This situation has affected our families and left its mark, forcing many households to consider the consequences and take specific measures. In this case, it is essential to understand that parental love, care, and support will help protect a child from harmful habits. Nevertheless, the policy of the state, states, and individual regions also play an equally important role in this case.

Çalık, T., Tabak, H., & Tabak, B. Y. (2018). School violence: School administrators’ perspectives and ways of solution in Turkey. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 10 (5), 611-620. Web.

Gupta, S. (2022). What is school violence? . Verywell Mind. Web.

Kim, J., Ho, T. D., Kim, J., Lee, Y., & Seo, J. (2020). Can bullying detection systems help in school violence scenarios?: A teachers’ perspective. Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 1-7. Web.

Monnat, S. M. (2018). Drug overdose rates are highest in places with the most economic and family distress. Carsey School of Public Policy, 134 , 1-4. Web.

Taylor, J. N. (2020). School violence prevention: Examining the impact of social emotional learning programs [A thesis, Georgetown University]. ProQuest.

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• Separate and Unequal Education for White and Black
• Coral Springs High School Guidance Counselor Interview
• Education in the 21st Century: Key Innovations
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Healthy and Supportive School Environments

Time spent at school allows children to engage with peers and adults and develop skills to enhance their relationship experiences. Schools that have a clean and pleasant physical environment helps set the stage for positive, respectful relationships.

To create schools that support student health and learning, school leaders can work towards a healthy and supportive school environment. 1

A healthy and supportive school environment helps children and adolescents develop the skills they need to recognize and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, appreciate the perspectives of others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

When school staff and families communicate, student health and learning can improve. Students can learn better in multiple settings as a result of these relationships—at home, in school, in out-of-school programs, and in the community.

• Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). What is SEL? website.  https://casel.org/what-is-sel/external icon . Accessed March 17, 2020.

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Four Elements for Creating a Positive Learning Environment

For students to learn, they must feel safe, engaged, connected, and supported in their classrooms and schools. These “conditions for learning” are the elements of a school’s climate that students experience personally. They contribute to students’ academic achievement and success and are associated with improved grades and test scores; strong attendance; positive relationships between students, adults, and their peers; and minimal engagement in risky behaviors, according to  The School Discipline Consensus Report  (SDCR)  developed by  The Council of State Governments Justice Center .  New research  also shows that a positive school climate, of which the conditions for learning are a critical part, can narrow achievement gaps.

But external factors—such as the fatal shootings from this summer and fall—and internal factors—such as exclusionary discipline practices, which disproportionately affect students of color, students with disabilities, and English language learners (ELLs)—can undermine efforts by teachers and school staff to create the learning conditions necessary for students to thrive.  Exposure to violence , in particular, affects more than the family and friends of those involved and ripples through communities, ultimately impacting individual students.

With this context in mind, it is critical to explore what educators, parents, and communities can do to support students, especially students of color and students from low-income families who traditionally are underserved, to help them achieve academic and personal success. The need to establish positive conditions for learning is clear, but what exactly does it take for schools to get there?

Before students can succeed academically, they must feel safe, both physically and mentally. Although schools  use a variety of measures to ensure students’ physical safety , certain efforts sometimes have negative effects on students, particularly those who are traditionally underserved. While  data  shows that the rates that teens experience violent crimes in their schools has declined, issues such as racial bias prevail and impact the effectiveness of school safety measures.

Safety extends beyond the physical well-being of students. To have a safe learning environment, students must feel welcomed, supported, and respected. However, school discipline policies and codes of conduct do not always support a positive school climate. For example, exclusionary discipline practices, like removing students from the classroom, suspensions, and expulsions, negatively impact students’ academic performance and their likelihood of graduating from high school. Even more concerning,  data  shows that schools discipline traditionally underserved students at much higher rates than their peers even though  research  does not show that these students misbehave more frequently. Building a positive school climate and ensuring students are ready to learn requires school district codes of conduct that promote positive adult and student relationships and work to keep more students in the classroom.

2. Engagement

Recent Gallup data shows a troubling trend—as students move through the K–12 education system, they become increasingly less engaged. By the time students reach eleventh and twelfth grades,  only one-third of students report feeling engaged . In a  survey  of parents of students from low-income communities, the Alliance for Excellent Education (Alliance) finds the majority expressed concern that students’ individual learning needs are not being met and that students are not learning the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the real world.

Personalized learning  is one instructional approach that could reverse these trends. This student-centered approach to learning tailors instruction to students’ unique strengths and needs and engages them in challenging, standards-based academic content. Personalizing learning helps students develop skills including thinking critically, using knowledge and information to solve complex problems, working collaboratively, communicating effectively, learning how to learn, and developing academic mindsets. These skills, known as the  deeper learning competencies , are not only the skills students need to succeed in school, but the ones that will enable them to succeed in careers and life.

Personalized learning is greatly  increasing student engagement  in one school district in North Carolina. In the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district, currently in its third year of a personalized learning initiative, 81 percent of personalized learning students report feeling engaged in class, compared to only 47 percent of other students in the district.

3. Connectedness

Students must feel connected to teachers, staff, and other students. Schools can nurture these connections by focusing on students’ social and emotional learning (SEL). SEL helps students understand and manage their emotions and interactions with others and build the skills necessary to communicate and resolve conflicts. “SEL programs have been shown to improve students’ social competence, self-awareness, connection to school, positive interactions with others, and academic performance,” according to the  SDCR .  There are specific  practices  that educators can adopt to embrace SEL in the classroom, which also create a positive school climate and environment that supports students’  deeper learning .

Teachers are an essential part of fostering the type of learning environment in the classroom that supports student success. And yet many students, particularly students of color and students from low-income families,  do not have access to prepared and effective teachers . Educators and administrators need professional development opportunities and training to meet the academic, social, and emotional needs of students to create a positive school climate.

Students must feel supported by all those connected to their learning experience. This includes teachers, classmates, administrators, family, and community members. These parties should share an understanding of what positive school climate at the school and classroom looks like so they can work together toward this common goal. School leaders can engage community members, teachers, students, and parents in school climate improvement work through conversations, meetings, surveys, and creating school-community partnerships. School leaders should gather and incorporate the feedback of all of these groups in any school climate improvement work. A quick guide for district and school leaders, teachers, and other members of the school community on how to initiate, implement, and sustain school climate improvements is available  here .

How can parents help create a positive learning environment in their children’s schools?

• Encourage your school leaders to  take this survey  to measure the current climate at your child’s school and help to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Learn more about school safety efforts and how they can impact students by reading this  blog post . Then follow the action steps outlined in the post to help your child’s school provide a safe environment for students.
• Check out  these actions  you can take to learn more about your school or district’s discipline policies and find out how you can advocate for equitable practices.
• Learn more about  personalized learning  and advocate for it and other innovative instructional approaches that engage students.
• Ask your school leaders about the training and professional development opportunities in place for teachers that focus on the social and emotional needs of students.
• Communicate to your school leaders about the need to incorporate parent, student, and community voice and feedback in any on-going or future school climate improvement work.
• Check out the All4Ed’s Climate Change  series to learn more about the conditions that support a positive school climate.

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A Safe, Caring School Environment

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According to the National School Climate Center, a safe and caring school environment is one in which students feel positively connected to others, respected, that their work is meaningful, and that they are good at what they do.

We know these words describe the kind of inclusive school climate we want for our children—an environment where students, parents and staff feel safe, comfortable, and accepted.  It’s a climate where students are encouraged to be leaders and positive role models speaking up about issues such as bullying.  It’s an environment with a culture of high expectations for students, but there is also a culture of high expectations for adults—staff, parents and community members.

And whose job is this to promote such a positive inclusive school climate?

EVERYONE’S JOB!

Everyone has a role to play in building a positive school climate since it begins with healthy, respectful relationships throughout the school community.  We know this requires an ongoing, long-term collaborative effort.  Let’s look at the important aspects of promoting a positive school climate.

Promoting a Positive Climate

Collaborative, Supportive Teams

The same factors that influence a student’s motivation and performance in the classroom also influence the success of collaborative teams—belonging, trusting, and valuing each other. Collaboration takes time and trust, and the student is always the focus.

Shared Information  and Shared Responsibility

Does your school have a Code of Civility ?  Civility is the affirmation of what is best about each of us individually and collectively, not just an absence of harm.  In my school district our Code of Civility guided communication and collaboration and was respected by staff, parents, and all members of the community.  It read as follows:

1. Treat each other with courtesy and respect at all times:

• Listen carefully to each other, even when opinions differ.
• Loud or offensive language
• Gestures or profanity
• Threats (physical or verbal)
• Causing bodily harm
• Causing property damage

2. Take responsibility for your actions:

• Share accurate information.
• Manage anger appropriately.
• Do not disrupt or interfere with classroom/school operations.
• Notify each other when we have information that affects student safety and/or success.
• Respond when asked for assistance.
• Understand that compromise is key.

3. Cooperate with one another:

• Obey school rules
• Respect each other’s time.

Focus on what is important – the child!

There has been too much emphasis on the adult issues of inclusion.  Inclusion is about what works best for children and embedding the principles of equity and inclusive education in all aspects of the learning environment.

Connect : “Put away the gadgets and find activities that build face-to-face social connections,” said Abadesco.  Students are looking for authentic connection and a place where they can feel safe. As parents, we must ask ourselves how does our home and school rate? Make your home or school that safe place by providing activities that build “togetherness.” At school this might be participating in community service projects or daily “check-ins.” At home this could be volunteering for a cause everyone believes in or spending the evening sharing a meal and sharing what you appreciate about one another.

Share Feelings : Young people are constantly confronted with situations that can cause them fear, worry, shame, sadness, anger and confusion. “Most young people don’t know how to talk about these experiences and to be honest, most adults don’t either,” Abedesco said. “If you want to help your student, then talk about feelings.” Share experiences you’ve had when you were feeling afraid, angry or confused. If a young person hears a personal challenge you experienced and how you got through it, he or she will be more likely to come to you when faced with a challenge.

Teamwork : Abadesco believes this is the key to creating safety. “As adults, it is our job to create safe and nurturing environments for our youth,” she said. One of the ways to do that is by teachers and parents working together to support student needs. Have appropriate contact information and communicate the best ways to stay connected. Parents, find time to have regular check-ins with your child’s teacher. Teachers, consider sending a weekly email with updates on how your classes are doing. This is an important relationship, so honor the relationship and take the time to get to know one another.  The key to creating a bully-free school is getting everyone on the same page about how to care for students, and that begins with a strong, caring community.

Cathy Giardina, Stetson & Associates, Inc.

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The Five Attributes of Successful Schools

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Students across the globe need effective schools. While the American school system as a whole may be falling behind international standards, there are still some schools that stand out.

Sure, the context of schooling will impact attributes that contribute to effectiveness in specific schools. But at the same time, there are attributes that contribute to effectiveness across schooling contexts. If we understand the attributes of effectiveness, we can observe which attributes exist at successful schools.

There are five common attributes that make up an effective school.

1. Leadership

The first attribute is quality leadership. Students perform better when the principal and school board members provide strong leadership. Effective leaders are visible, can successfully convey the school’s goals and visions, collaborate with teachers to enhance their skills , and are involved in the discovery of and solutions to problems.

2. High Expectations

The second attribute is having high expectations of students as well as teachers. High expectations of students have repeatedly been shown to have a positive impact on student performance. Students are somewhat dependent on the expectations placed on them during this period of their lives, as they are still shaping their personal sense of ability and esteem. Teachers who are expected to teach at high levels of effectiveness can reach the level of expectations, particularly when teacher evaluations and professional development are geared toward improving instructional quality.

3. Ongoing Evaluation

The third attribute of a successful school is the ongoing screening of student performance and development. Schools should use assessment data to compare their students with others from across the country. Effective use of assessment data allows schools to identify problematic areas of learning at the classroom and school levels, so that teachers can generate solutions to address the problems.

4. Goals and Direction

The fourth attribute of a successful school is the existence of goals and direction, According to research, the successful school principal actively constructs goals and then effectively communicates them to appropriate individuals (e.g., students, teachers, and the community at large). School principals must also be open and willing to incorporate innovation into goals for school processes and practices. So it’s important to invite input from all stakeholders in the process of developing school goals. Student performance has been shown to improve in schools where the entire school community works toward goals that are communicated and shared among all in the learning environment.

5. Secure and Organized

The fifth and final attribute of a successful school is the extent to which the school is secure and organized. For maximum learning to occur, students need to feel secure. Respect is a quality that is promoted and is a fundamental aspect of an effective and safe school. Successful schools also have a number of trained staff and programs, such as social workers, who work with difficult or troubled students before situations get out of hand.

Apart from the five attributes of a successful school already mentioned, the size of the school seems to be an attribute in the school’s effectiveness. Research has found that the smaller the school, the better students perform, especially in the case of older students. This is the rationale behind the concept of schools-within-schools. Students in smaller learning environments feel more connected to their peers and teachers, pass classes more often, and are more likely to go to college. Schools-within-schools involve creative use of the same teaching workforce to provide additional opportunities for learning for smaller groups of students or specialized teaching to students who require extra attention.

This environment could be created in the form of divided streams for mathematics education. Students who want to pursue studies in the humanities would need a mathematical education grounded in statistics and graphical representation, because this focus will be more relevant and prevalent during their postsecondary education career.

Students who intend to pursue a career in engineering or applied physics, for example, would have completely different needs, such as a greater focus on calculus and highly theoretical mathematical concepts like number theory. Creating schools-within-schools for these students would have lasting and measurable benefits for them, as well as benefits for the teacher, who could teach smaller groups of students and offer greater individual attention to student queries and difficulties.

A number of school districts view preschool education as an attribute that will influence overall effectiveness across all schools located within the district. Evidence suggests that children with preschool experiences fare better academically and socially as they enter kindergarten and beyond. Experiences in literacy and numeracy among early learners not only prepare preschoolers for a kindergarten curriculum that has heightened expectations of prior knowledge, but also help identify early learners who need additional support to ensure they have positive learning experiences later.

Additional attributes that influence effective schools include time to learn, teacher quality, and parental trust. Research supports the view that the more time a student spends learning, and the more efficiently that time is used, the higher their achievement. Schools that find creative ways to extend learning time will likely be more effective. Furthermore, schools with high-quality teachers also tend to be more effective.

Schools able to hire teachers from high-quality teacher education programs are more likely to be effective. But school effectiveness can also be influenced by the frequency, relevancy, and quality of the teacher professional development offered by the school or school district. Teachers who haven’t had the opportunity to attend prestigious teacher education colleges still have several opportunities to develop after embarking on their professional career. Support for these initiatives at a school or school district level tends to improve overall teacher quality, regardless of their college of origin.

Trust and parental participation are also features of a successful school. Trust between all parties of the school community is vital for enhancing the school’s effectiveness because it supports the prospect that parents and teachers believe in each other’s motives and actions. Parental participation is also important because it sends the message to students that the adults in their lives--both teachers and parents--believe in the importance of education and are willing to make time to support students’ educational experiences and efforts.

How well does your school embody the five attributes of a successful school?

The opinions expressed in Education Futures: Emerging Trends in K-12 are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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Characteristics Of A Good School

A good school decenters itself–makes its curriculum, policies, and other ‘pieces’ less visible than students and hope and growth.

What Are The Characteristics Of A Good School?

by Terry Heick

When a society changes, so then must its tools.

Definitions of purpose and quality must also be revised continuously. What should a school ‘do’? Be? How can we tell a good school from a bad one?

This really starts at the human level but that’s a broader issue. For now, let’s consider that schools are simply pieces of larger ecologies. The most immediate ecologies they participate in are human and cultural. As pieces in (human) ecologies, when one thing changes, everything else does as well. When it rains, the streams flood, the meadows are damp, the clovers bloom, and the bees bustle. When there’s drought, things are dry, and stale, and still.

When technology changes, it impacts the kinds of things we want and need. Updates to technology change what we desire; as we desire new things, technology changes to seek to provide them. The same goes for–or should go for–education. Consider a few of the key ideas in progressive education. Mobile learning, examples of digital citizenship , design thinking, collaboration, creativity, and on a larger scale, digital literacy,1:1, and more are skills and content bits that every student would benefit from exposure to and mastery of. As these force their way into schools and classrooms and assignments and the design thinking of teachers, this is at the cost of ‘the way things were.’

When these ‘things’ are forced in with little adjustment elsewhere, the authenticity of everything dies. The ecology itself is at risk.

The Purpose Of School In An Era Of Change

What should schools teach, and how? And how do we know if we’re doing it well? These are astoundingly important questions–ones that must be answered with social needs, teacher gifts, and technology access in mind. Now, we take the opposite approach. Here’s what all students should know, now let’s figure out how we can use what we have to teach it. If we don’t see the issue in its full context, we’re settling for glimpses.

How schools are designed and what students learn–and why–must be reviewed, scrutinized, and refined as closely and with as much enthusiasm as we do the gas mileage of our cars, the downloads speeds of our phones and tablets, or the operating systems of our watches.  Most modern academic standards take a body-of-knowledge approach to education. This, to me, seems to be a dated approach to learning that continues to hamper our attempts to innovate.

Why can’t education, as a system, refashion itself as aggressively as the digital technology that is causing it so much angst? The fluidity of a given curriculum should at least match the fluidity of relevant modern knowledge demands. Maybe the first step in pursuit of an innovative and modern approach to teaching and learning might be to rethink the idea of curriculum as the core of learning models?

Less is more is one way to look at it, but that’s not new–power standards have been around for years. In fact, in this era of information access, smart clouds, and worsening socioeconomic disparity, we may want to consider whether we should be teaching content at all, or rather  teaching students to think , design their own learning pathways, and create and do extraordinary things that are valuable to them in their place?

Previously we’ve assumed that would be the effect–that if students could read and write and do arithmetic and compose arguments and extract the main idea and otherwise master a (now nationalized) body of knowledge, that they’d learn to think and play with complex ideas and create incredible things and understand themselves in the process. That the more sound and full their knowledge background was, the greater the likelihood that they’ll create healthy self-identities and be tolerant of divergent thinking and do good work and act locally and think globally and create a better world.

A curriculum-first school design is based on the underlying assumption that if they know this and can do this , that this will be the result. Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way. Worse, we tend to celebrate school success instead of human success . We create ‘good schools’ that graduate scores of students with very little hope for the future. How crazy is that?

How can a school call itself ‘good’ when it produces students that don’t know themselves, the world, or their place in it?

So then, here’s one take on a new definition for a ‘good school.’

• A good school visibly and substantively improves the community it is embedded within.
• A good school adapts quickly to social change.
• A good school uses every resource, advantage, gift, and opportunity it has to grow students and tends to see more resources, advantages, gifts, and opportunities than lower-performing schools.
• A good school has students who get along with and support one another towards a common goal–and they know what that goal is.
• A good school produces students that read and write because they want to.
• A good school admits its failures and limitations while working together with a ‘global community’ to grow.
• A good school has diverse and compelling measures of success–measures that families and communities understand and value.
• A good school is full of students who know what’s worth understanding.
• A good school speaks the language of the children, families, and community it serves.
• A good school improves other schools and cultural organizations it’s connected with.
• A good school understands the relationship between curiosity, inquiry, and lasting human change.
• A good school makes certain that every single student and family feels welcome and understood on equal terms.
• A good school is full of students that not only ask great questions but do so with great frequency and ferocity.
• A good school changes students; students change great schools.
• A good school understands the difference between a bad idea and the bad implementation of a good idea.
• A good school uses professional development designed to improve teacher capacity over time.
• A good school doesn’t make empty promises, create misleading mission statements, or mislead parents and community-members with edu-jargon. It is authentic and transparent.
• A good school values its teachers and administrators and parents as agents of student success.
• A good school is willing to ‘change its mind’ in the face of relevant trends, data, challenges, and opportunities.
• A good school teaches thought, not content.
• A good school decenters itself–makes technology, curriculum, policies, and its other ‘pieces’ less visible than students and hope and growth.
• A good school is disruptive of bad cultural practices. These include intolerance based on race, income, faith, and sexual preference, aliteracy, and apathy toward the environment.
• A good school produces students that see and know themselves in their own context rather than merely as ‘good students.’ These contexts should include geographical, cultural, community-based, language-driven, and professional factors and ideas.
• A good school produces students that have personal and specific hope for the future that they can articulate and believe in and share with others.
• A good school produces students that can empathize, critique, protect, love, inspire, make, design, restore, and understand almost anything–and then do so as a matter of habit.
• A good school will connect with other good schools–and connect students, too.
• A good school is more concerned with cultural practices than pedagogical practices–students and families than other schools or the educational status quo.
• A good school helps students understand the nature of knowledge–its types, fluidity, uses/abuses, applications, opportunities for transfer, etc.
• A good school will experience disruption in its own patterns and practices and values because its students are creative, empowered, and connected, and cause unpredictable change themselves .
• A good school will produce students that can think critically–about issues of human interest, curiosity, artistry, craft, legacy, husbandry, agriculture, and more–and then do so.
• A good school will help students see themselves in terms of their historical framing, familial legacy, social context, and global connectivity.
• A good school wants all students ‘on grade level’
• A good school has a great library and a librarian who loves students and who loves books and who wants the two to make meaningful connections.
• A good school may have maker spaces and 3D printers and wonderful arts and humanities programs, but more importantly, these kinds of learning spaces are characterized by students and their ideas rather than the ‘programs’ and technology itself.
• A good school is full of joy, curiosity, hope, knowledge, and constant change.
• A good school admits when it has a problem rather than hiding or ‘reframing it as an opportunity.’ (Sometimes, too much growth mindset can be a bad thing.)
• A good school doesn’t have unnecessary meetings.
• A good school doesn’t spend money just because it’s there.
• A good school may love project-based learning but loves the projects more and the students doing the projects even more.
• A good school explains test results honestly and in-context.
• A good school never gives up on a student and depends on creative thinking and solutions for the students who ‘challenge’ them.
• A good school isn’t afraid to ask for help.
• A good school sees the future of learning and merges it with the potential of the present.
• A good school doesn’t graduate students with little to no hope for the future.
• A good school separates knowledge, understanding, skills, and competencies–and helps students do the same.
• A good school ‘moves’ gifted students as ‘far’ as they move struggling students.
• A good school benefits from the gifts and resources of its students and their families–and then bolsters those gifts and resources in return.
• A good school doesn’t exhaust teachers and administrators.
• A good school feels good for all visitors to learn within, teach within, visit, and otherwise experience.
• A good school seeks to grow great teachers who seek to grow all students to shape and change their world.

The Characteristics Of A Good School

Founder & Director of TeachThought

13 Ways to Create a Positive Learning Environment in Your Classroom

Written by Joshua Prieur, Ed.D.

• Teaching Strategies

• What is a positive learning environment
• Why is a positive learning environment important?
• 13 Ways to create a positive learning environment in your classroom
• Create a positive learning environment to help students love learning

Consider for a moment where you work or learn best. 

Where are you? What does the room you’re in look like? What are the things you do to set yourself up for success? 

All of the things you surround yourself with — a great cup of coffee or an up-tempo Spotify playlist — play a part in how you work or learn. They’re all tied to the environment you choose to best prime yourself for success.

As an educator, the same thing applies in a school or a classroom. Your goal is to create a positive classroom and school environment that will set your learners up for success.  

But there are a few challenges. How can you help students to feel safe, valued, and respected? What can you do to help set the framework for positive relationships to flourish?

Read on to find out 13 strategies that’ll help you build a positive learning environment that students and fellow staff members alike are excited to be a part of.

What is a positive learning environment?

Having a positive learning environment takes much more than having a classroom with positive posters on the wall ( although that’s one of the many strategies that can be used! ). It means truly understanding and supporting the needs of students and colleagues in multiple ways.

For example, having clearly established classroom rules will help set the tone for a healthy learning environment where students know what is expected of them. Having that structure in place will help students feel safe, allow you to really understand their needs, and promote positive well-being. This applies to students at all levels — elementary, middle, and high school, too!

One thing to keep in mind is that creating a positive learning environment isn’t something you create once and leave as-is . It requires renewed attention every school year. 

What is the difference between a positive and negative learning environment?

To really dig into the differences of a positive and negative learning environment, let’s start with some positive learning environment examples:

• Students feel safe to come to school without feeling like they have to act like someone else for acceptance
• When students feel safe in their environment, they’re more willing to take risks in their learning without fear of failing– sometimes we learn best when we fail!
• A true community exists. Students and staff members alike are more engaged and excited to interact with one another under positive circumstances.

In a negative learning environment, you’re going to see more undesirable behaviors such as:

• High levels of student frustration , likely leading to increased disciplinary rates. This could be mitigated by clear classroom management strategies .
• A disconnect between members of the community (ie. staff, students, and parents/guardians), leading to tension and less involvement from parents/guardians in the school environment. High levels of parent involvement have a direct impact on positive learning environments.
• High levels of stress for teachers leading to burnout and anxiety, which research has shown can even cause a physiological anti-stress hormone response in students. Practicing self-care techniques can be a great way to de-stress.

Read on to find out even more about why having a positive learning environment is crucial!

Having a positive learning environment in place takes a great deal of thought and consideration, but there are major benefits that’ll pay off for the hard work that goes into it. For example:

• Research has shown that academic performance is likely to increase
• Students will be more likely to support other students with disabilities
• There will be an increase in positive interactions between students, staff, and parents/guardians
• Stakeholders will appreciate that you take mental health just as seriously as you take student achievement
• Students are more likely to take ownership of their learning experience (also known as self-regulated learning)
• You’ll set the tone for a great school year from the very first week as you build an environment conducive to student development

What can you do to help jumpstart your work in this area? 

Keep reading to learn some strategies that you can easily implement to create an environment that’ll build a tightly-knit school community with a positive learning environment at the center of it all.

As an educator, you’ve likely already taken several steps to build a positive environment in your classroom and your school. Read on for 13 steps that can help take that work one step further!

1. Build positive relationships with students and parents

Building positive relationships with students and parents is critical, and it starts on the first moment of the first day of school each year. 

This means getting to know each of your students’ unique personalities including their likes, dislikes, strengths, and areas of opportunity. Putting the time in early will help you support students both individually and as a whole group.

One strategy to build rapport with students is to greet them as they arrive in the classroom each day. While it takes a bit of extra work on the front end to make sure the lesson is ready-to-go (including an activity for them to start up on the board!) greeting students as they arrive shows that you care and helps you to read their body language from the moment they arrive each day.

To help build a strong relationship with parents, take the time to communicate with them about the good and the bad that you see in the classroom. There are tons of awesome apps for teachers that you can use, like Remind to easily share information. 

Sending a quick note about the success that a child had in class that day can go a long way to let the child know that you see the great things they’re doing and also help parents/guardians feel like they’re in the loop for their child’s life at school.

2. Foster student connections

There are lots of great ways for you to help foster positive student connections as a way of helping improve students’ sense of belonging, increase engagement , and establish a caring classroom culture.

 Here are two quick strategies that you can implement with relative ease:

• Listen to the chatter going on between students before class . They’ll often talk with one another about things they’re passionate about. That information can help you learn things to ask them about that will help you forge a really strong bond. If by listening you learn that a student does ballet, you can ask the student more about it the next time you see them.
• Implement highly-personalized lessons to help students feel special. For example, if you’re creating a sample response to a writing prompt, you could opt to include a student’s name and the hobby you know they like. This strategy works really well as a way to highlight and motivate and engage learners who are often reluctant to participate!

3. Outline classroom rules for positive behavior

Having high expectations for your students is so important as you shape the norms for student behavior and lay the foundation for student success. To do this, you’ll need to have clear classroom rules and techniques at-the-ready from the first moment of the first day.

One pro tip is to frame your classroom rules in a positive manner. For example, instead of saying “don’t disrespect other students” you instead say, “All students in class will be respected at all times.” This positive framing, while small, can make a huge difference as you are showing that the expectation is tied to positive behavior.

4. Use positive reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is a great way to build intrinsic motivation and help promote positive student work habits. 

There are two great strategies that you can use here:

• Recognize when students put forth a ton of effort, even if they don’t show 100% mastery. Sometimes failing is when we learn best, so praising students’ effort to persevere can go a long way to help them build the muscle not to give up in the face of a challenge and implement problem-solving strategies.
• Take the time to celebrate even the smallest of wins for learners who are sometimes reluctant to participate in class. Providing praise for a job that’s well done goes a long way towards building trust and helping students feel seen. This, in turn, will increase the likelihood that they’ll do it again.

5. Ensure content is culturally relevant

Every class is unique thanks to the cultural diversity that each student brings to the group.

Since each student has a different lived experience and cultural background, teachers can honor those differences by implementing culturally responsive teaching strategies . These include: integrating relevant word problems, using media that positively depict a range of cultures, and bringing in guest speakers from different backgrounds.

A recent research study found that when teachers implement contextual learning strategies test scores can improve by more than 44%.

6. Keep a positive mindset

Anyone who has been a teacher knows just how exhausting the job can be. 

Taking time for yourself can be a real challenge with the demands that exist both inside and outside of school. That said, it’s highly recommended that you work to find some time, even just a few minutes to implement some self-care techniques as a means of helping you maintain a positive mindset.

Finding time each day, even just a few minutes when you first arrive at school, can make a huge difference and prepare you to face any challenges that come your way head-on and with a positive mindset.

7. Create a comfortable physical environment

Having a positive classroom environment for your students to learn in (and for you to teach in!) goes a long way towards helping build an awesome classroom climate. The physical environment includes everything from the way things are organized to what is on the walls.

Add a splash of color to your classroom with posters that include positive messages that can both motivate students and encourage positive behavior. For example, a poster that reads, “Expect to be accepted for who you are” reinforces the notion that all students belong in the classroom community you’ve created. It’s also a great reference point to draw students’ attention to if the behaviors you’re seeing aren’t aligned to that principle.

Are you a teacher who travels from classroom to classroom with a cart? Many teachers who travel opt to cover the front or sides of their cart with a poster that includes positive messaging. That gives you the opportunity to add a personal touch to any classroom you share and reinforce the beliefs you want to prioritize.

8. Stay informed on educational research

As a scholarly practitioner, it’s great to keep up-to-speed with research that could help to inform your practice and provide insights you can use to create a positive learning environment.

  For example, researchers recently outlined findings that show that the level of parent participation had a direct impact on positive learning environments. One strategy to implement would be to strategize with colleagues or school administration about additional ways to get the parent and guardian community engaged with activities at school. 

You may even consider participating in events like PTA meetings or events if you aren’t already as a way to contribute to a positive and collaborative school climate (which also has an impact on student motivation and achievement! ).

Doing this can also help you to stay in the know with emerging areas of best practice for you to take advantage of as you build your yearly professional growth plan . A recent study shows the link between professional development, teachers’ practices in class, and student achievement. 

An easy way to stay updated on education research outcomes that could help shape your learning environment is to sign up for Edutopia’s newsletter called " The Research Is In" .

9. Prioritize social emotional learning 

The well-being of students and teachers alike has been pushed to the forefront recently– and for good reason. While perhaps easier said than done, having positive mental health is critical. 

Social emotional learning (or SEL for short) can help students understand emotions and navigate an uncertain world.

There are some wonderful resources available for teachers to implement SEL strategies in their classroom. For example, building mindfulness activities into the classroom is just one of 25 different SEL strategies that can be implemented without a ton of lift — but with huge benefits for students in class.  

Helping students learn and navigate new emotions will help them to bring their best self to the classroom and contribute positively to the learning environment.

10. Plan lessons with motivation in mind

Building lesson and unit plans with student motivation in mind helps spark excitement and joy into the learning environment. That’s why Prodigy believes so firmly in our philosophy of education, “Motivation First!” . 

Weave topics that students are passionate about, or finding ways to make topics that aren’t the most exciting much more fun and interactive.

Integrating game-based learning activities like Prodigy Math can be a great way to help have fun and engage with you and their peers in class while they learn how to multiply fractions. Leverage students’ natural inclination for games and integrate learning right into it!

11. Provide personalized feedback on assignments

Going that extra mile to show students that you truly care about their performance and effort can help to motivate students and foster a positive connection. Personalizing feedback for students is a great way to take a moment and highlight some of the great work students do and the areas for improvement.

Let’s say for example students have completed a short writing assignment for you. You’ve spent some time correcting the spelling and grammar of the work, and left some great notes in the margin. To take it one step further, write a personalized note in the top corner of the assignment by using their name, “Dear Jack, …” and highlighting some of the great things they did and some areas for improvement. Leaving a personalized note instead of a plain grade increases the likelihood that they’ll look at what you said and internalize the feedback you’ve given.

12. Share the love

There are lots of incredible things happening in your classroom each and every day. But unless you’re in the room, it’s tough to know what’s happening (ever asked a kid, “what did you do in school today?” when they come home? They seem to always have a tough time remembering …).

To help keep parents/guardians updated, you can take to social media or your classroom website to help share the amazing things that you’re doing with your students. Be sure to keep in mind your school/district’s policies and permission from parents/guardians to use their child’s photo online. As long as you’re aligned with those policies and know which students have permission, you’re a-ok to share snapshots of the cool things you’re doing to help parents/guardians see what’s going on in class.

Bonus tip! Want to foster a positive environment among your colleagues? Leave a handwritten note for personnel on staff at your school (ie. other teachers, administrative assistants, administrators, custodians, etc.) and place it in their mailbox. Who doesn’t love getting mail with a little kudos? 

The two minutes you’ll take to write the note will help others feel so appreciated. Perhaps they’ll even start doing it for others!

13. Find time for fun!

Sometimes, the pressure to focus solely on purely academic material can mount (here’s looking at you, testing season …) and it can lead to burnout.  

Find some time to use some games in your classrooms that include learning and naturally weave in some fun in a way that your students will definitely appreciate. There are few things more fulfilling than hearing students laughing while they’re having fun and working together while learning at the same time.

Having a positive learning environment in your classroom and at your school will set your students up to thrive. In fact, you’ll be setting the stage to help every student to love learning– which is our mission here at Prodigy Education. 

Taking a few steps to expand the great things you’re already doing to create a positive learning environment (including leveraging game-based learning tools like Prodigy Math ) could go a really long way to help build a learning community that’ll transcend the walls of your school.

Prodigy Math helps make learning an adventure for students with game-based skill practice for grades 1 to 5. Plus, your free teacher account comes with tools that help you differentiate for every student and find more ways to support their learning. 

Make learning fun, adaptive and insightful

There's no cost to you or your students and Prodigy is fully aligned with state standards for grades 1-8 math and grades 1-6 English.

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Shaping a Positive Learning Environment

Several years ago, American surgeon, author, and public health researcher Atul Gawande experimented with using a two-minute checklist in operating rooms in eight different hospitals. One unexpected result was that a round of team-member introductions before surgery lowered the average number of surgical complications by 35%. Learning names and building a positive environment at the outset of this short-term medical community experience made huge impacts on their ability to function effectively together. How might we apply this and other community-building principles to establish positive learning environments that facilitate student learning?

Learning is an emotional process—we feel excitement when learning a new skill, embarrassment about mistakes, and fear of being misunderstood. Fostering positive emotions in your classroom will motivate students to learn, while negative emotions such as stress and alienation will inhibit their learning.

Research tells us students learn better when they are part of a supportive community of learners. When you create a positive learning environment where students feel accepted, seen, and valued, they are more likely to persist in your course, in their majors, and at the university.

In How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching , Susan Ambrose et al. address the many and complex factors that influence learning environments, including intellectual, social, emotional, and physical (2010).

They offer a few key takeaways for educators:

• Learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Your classroom community is made up of individuals with diverse identities, backgrounds, and experiences; the act of learning is intertwined with a variety of socioemotional influences.
• Classroom climate is determined by both intentional and unintentional actions, and by both explicit and implicit messages. And their impact on students is not always obvious. Seemingly well-meaning or unimportant choices and remarks can have unintended effects on student learning.
• The good news: You have more control over the learning environment in your courses than you might guess. If you know how learning environments influence student learning, you can employ a variety of strategies to consciously shape a welcoming and inclusive classroom.

Sense of Belonging in College

In a welcoming and inclusive classroom, students are more likely to feel a sense of belonging . A sense of belonging is a basic human need. That is,  everyone  needs to belong. In the college context, sense of belonging refers to whether or not students feel respected, accepted, valued, included, cared for, and that they matter—in your classroom, at the university, or in their chosen career path (Strayhorn, 2012).

Although everyone needs to belong, students’ feelings of comfort in your class largely depends on their identities and experiences (Strayhorn, 2012; Walton & Cohen, 2007). Being the only student, or one of a few, of a particular identity group can lead students to feel detached, apathetic, or reluctant to participate. They may feel marginalized by the course content or by other students’ comments.

Indeed, research shows that minoritized students tend to report a lower sense of belonging than their peers (Johnson et al., 2007; Strayhorn, 2008a). Academic performance or preparation can also raise or lower students’ perceived sense of belonging (Hoops, Green, Baker, & Hensley, 2016; Strayhorn, 2008b; Zumbrunn, McKim, Buhs, & Hawley, 2014). Particularly for minoritized students, academic struggle can be internalized as a sign that they do not belong (Walton & Cohen, 2007).

Research by DeSurra and Church in 1994 provides a spectrum for understanding learning environments that ranges from explicitly marginalizing, where the course climate is openly hostile and cold, to explicitly centralizing, where multiple perspectives are validated and integrated into the course. While this particular research was based on sexual orientation, the earliest research on learning environments—the “chilly climate studies”—focused on gender and had similar findings (Hall, 1982; Hall & Sandler, 1984; and Sandler & Hall, 1986). These early studies demonstrated that marginalization of students does not require an openly hostile environment. Rather, the accumulation of microaggressions alone can adversely impact learning. Later studies showed similar effects based on the race and ethnicity of students (Hurtado et al., 1999; Watson et al., 2002).

Diversity and Inclusion 

Students, like all of us, are complex human beings—they have a gender, race, class, nationality, sexual orientation, and other axes of identity. These overlapping identities mean that an individual may face multiple barriers at once to feeling welcome in your class. Rather than thinking your course should support “a” student of color or “a” student with a disability, craft a learning environment that is welcoming to as many students—and their complexities—as possible. 

Students struggling with sense of belonging are less engaged. They may sit in the back of class, be inattentive during lecture, or avoid participation in discussion or group activities. They may even skip class or show up late more often than others. However, sense of belonging is not static but dynamic, and it can fluctuate with transitions from class to class, year to year, or situation to situation. For example, a student who feels they belong in your course today may suddenly doubt they belong if they score poorly on an exam tomorrow. Therefore, it is important to continually observe students’ behavior and support their belonging throughout the term.

Sense of belonging affects students’ academic engagement and motivation, as well as their emotional wellbeing. The bottom line is this: Students who feel they belong are more likely to succeed.

For more insight into college students’ sense of belonging, watch this engaging TEDx talk by Ohio State professor Dr. Terrell Strayhorn.

In Practice

You want all students to feel they belong in your course. What concrete strategies can you use to shape a positive learning environment?

Set a positive tone from the start

Simple efforts to establish a welcoming atmosphere in the early days and weeks of class can help students feel more comfortable, included, and confident.

• Use positive language in your syllabus . Your syllabus is the first impression students have of your course. Framing policies and expectations in friendly and constructive language, rather than with strong directives or punitive warnings, can increase students’ comfort.
• Get to know students and help them get to know each other . On the first day, ask students their preferred names and pronouns and facilitate icebreaker activities to build community. Use Namecoach in CarmenCanvas to have students record the pronunciation of their names and set their pronouns. Surveys and polling, such as through Top Hat , are great ways to informally assess students’ motivations, learning goals, and prior knowledge early in the course.
• Be warm, friendly, and present . Greet students when they enter the class, make yourself available before and after class, and set up office hours. Share your enthusiasm about the course and relevant personal experience—this can humanize you and increase students’ connection to the material.
• Share positive messages about student success . Show students you believe in their capacity to succeed. Avoid negative statements such as, “Only 1 in 4 of you will pass this class.” Instead, normalize academic struggle and assure students they can master difficult content with effort.

Online Instructor Presence

Strong instructor presence in online courses has been shown to increase participation, facilitate knowledge acquisition, and foster a healthy learning community. When teaching online, you can make meaningful connections to students through video introductions, online office hours, and regular and planned communication. Read more about online instructor presence .

Foster open discourse and communication

Meaningful class discourse requires more than a friendly demeanor. Be prepared to address complex issues, difficult questions, and conflict in collaborative ways.

• Develop a classroom agreement . Involve students explicitly in shaping the learning environment. Help them craft a (potentially living) document that outlines community norms and ground rules for respect, civil discourse, and communication.
• Resist “right” answers . Encourage discussion that promotes critical thinking rather than simple consensus. Invite students to offer their perspectives before sharing your own, and guide them to consider multiple viewpoints and avenues to solving problems.
• Respond to classroom conflict . Consider how you will frame controversial content or “hot topics” in your course. Rather than avoiding these conversations, plan in advance how to facilitate a productive and civil discussion. Refer students back to the ground rules they laid out in the classroom agreement. See Calling in Classroom Conflict for more information. 
• Get feedback from students . Provide opportunities for students to give frequent anonymous feedback on your course—and show you value their input by acting on it. Surveys or exit slips, in addition to conventional midterm feedback, can bring to light issues that affect students’ sense of belonging or inhibit their learning.

Create an inclusive environment

Embrace multiple perspectives, ways of learning, and modes of expression so all students feel included and supported.

• Choose inclusive course content . Do the authors of your course materials represent the spectrum of identities of people in your field? Of students in your class? Who is depicted in the readings and videos you assign? Include course material representing diverse identities, perspectives, and experiences to help all students connect to your content.
• Use a variety of teaching methods . Incorporate multiple strategies that appeal to various abilities and preferences: lecture, whole-group and small-group discussion, think-pair-share, in-class writing exercises, case studies, role-playing, games, technology tools, and more. And don’t limit yourself to conventional “texts”—film and video, podcasts, and guest lectures are all engaging ways to present content.
• Provide assignment options . Support student success by offering multiple modes to complete assignments. Options range from traditional, such as papers, presentations, and posters, to creative, such as websites, blogs, infographics, games, videos, and podcasts. Allow both individual and group work options, when feasible.
• Make space for differing participation . Fear of being called on can hinder students’ comfort and motivation. Encourage, but don’t force, participation during in-class discussions, and acknowledge introverted students when they contribute. Consider alternate ways students can share ideas, such as via written reflections, online discussion posts, and lower-pressure think-pair-shares. Giving students time to reflect on “big questions” before discussion can also increase their confidence to speak up.

Organize your course to support students

The structure and content of your course, in addition to how you deliver it, are key to creating a supportive course climate.

• Communicate learning outcomes . Being explicit about what you want students to do—and why it matters—can increase their motivation. Discuss the purpose of your course and its relevance to their lives, tell them what you will cover at the beginning of each class, and share a rationale for all assignments.
• Be transparent and efficient with grading . Create student-friendly rubrics that lay out clear expectations for all assignments. Grade and return student work in a timely manner, with actionable feedback that helps them understand their progress and areas for improvement.
• Ensure course materials are accessible . When content is accessible , students with vision, auditory, motor, and cognitive disabilities can successfully navigate, use, and benefit from it. Using heading structures in documents, providing alternate text for images, and captioning videos are a few practices that make your course material accessible, as well as more clear and user-friendly for everyone.
• Share resources . In addition to extended material on your course subject, link students to helpful resources for mental health, stress, and learning assistance.

Carmen Common Sense

Consult Carmen Common Sense , a student-authored list of ten solutions to a student-friendly course, to learn how to build a supportive learning environment in Carmen.

Icebreaker Activities

Tips for learning student names, addressing offensive comments in class.

Students are more likely to succeed in positive learning environments where they feel a sense of belonging.

There is no singular or perfect learning environment. Every class you teach is a unique community made up of individuals with diverse identities, backgrounds, and experiences. A number of strategies can help you foster a classroom climate that is welcoming, inclusive, and responsive to their needs.

• Set a positive tone from the start through your syllabus, community-building activities, a warm demeanor, and constructive messages about student success.
• Foster open discourse and communication through classroom agreements, addressing complex issues and conflict productively, and collecting regular feedback from students.
• Create an inclusive environment by choosing diverse and representative course material, using a variety of teaching methods, and providing options for assignments and participation.
• Organize your course to support students by making your goals, rationale, and expectations for the course and assignments clear, ensuring materials are accessible, and providing resources to support students’ wellbeing.
• Office of Diversity and Inclusion (website)
• Teaching for Racial Justice (website)
• Classroom Climate: Creating a Supportive Learning Environment (website)
• Encouraging a Sense of Belonging (video)
• Namecoach for Instructors (guide)

Learning Opportunities

Ambrose, S. A., & Mayer, R. E. (2010).  How learning works: seven research-based principles for smart teaching . Jossey-Bass.

DeSurra, C. J., & Church, K. A. (1994). Unlocking the Classroom Closet Privileging the Marginalized Voices of Gay/Lesbian College Students . Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association, New Orleans, LA. Distributed by ERIC. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED379697

Hall, R. (1982). A classroom climate: A chilly one for women?. Association of American Colleges. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED215628

Hall, R., & Sandler, B. (1984). Out of the classroom: A chilly campus climate for women?. Association of American Colleges. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED254125

Hoops, L. D., Green, M., Baker, A., & Hensley, L. C. (2016, February). Success in terms of belonging: An exploration of college student success stories. The Ohio State University Hayes Research Forum, Columbus, OH.

Hurtado, S., Milem, J., Clayton-Pedersen, A., & Allen, W. (1999). Enacting diverse learning environments: Improving the climate for racial/ethnic diversity in higher education. ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education in cooperation with Association for the Study of Higher Education. The George Washington University. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED430514

Johnson, D. R., Soldner, M., Leonard, J. B., Alvarez, P., Inkelas, K. K., Rowan-Kenyon, H. T., & Longerbeam, S. D. (2007). Examining Sense of Belonging Among First-Year Undergraduates From Different Racial/Ethnic Groups.  Journal of College Student Development ,  48 (5), 525–542. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2007.0054

Sandler, B., & Hall, R. (1986). The campus climate revisited: Chilly for women faculty, administrators, and graduate students. Association of American Colleges. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED282462

Strayhorn, T. L. (2008). Sentido de Pertenencia: A hierarchical analysis predicting sense of belonging among Latino college students.  Journal of Hispanic Higher Education ,  7 (4), 301–320. https://doi.org/10.1177/1538192708320474

Strayhorn, T. L. (2009). Fittin' In: Do Diverse Interactions with Peers Affect Sense of Belonging for Black Men at Predominantly White Institutions?  NASPA Journal ,  45 (4).  https://doi.org/10.2202/0027-6014.2009

Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2007). A question of belonging: Race, social fit, and achievement.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ,  92 (1), 82–96. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.82

Watson, L. W., Person, D. R., Rudy, D. E., Gold, J. A., Cuyjet, M. J., Bonner, F. A. I., … Terrell, M. C. (2002).  How Minority Students Experience College: Implications for Planning and Policy . Stylus Publishing.

Whitt, E. J., Edison, M. I., Pascarella, E. T., Nora, A., & Terenzini, P. T. (1999). Women's perceptions of a "chilly climate" and cognitive outcomes in college: Additional evidence.  Journal of College Student Development, 40 (2), 163–177. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ590847

Zumbrunn, S., Mckim, C., Buhs, E., & Hawley, L. R. (2014). Support, belonging, motivation, and engagement in the college classroom: a mixed method study.  Instructional Science ,  42 (5), 661–684. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-014-9310-0

Related Teaching Topics

Creating an inclusive environment in carmenzoom, supporting student learning and metacognition, search for resources.

Essay on Environment for Students and Children

500+ words essay on environment.

Essay on Environment – All living things that live on this earth comes under the environment. Whether they live on land or water they are part of the environment. The environment also includes air, water, sunlight, plants, animals, etc.

Moreover, the earth is considered the only planet in the universe that supports life. The environment can be understood as a blanket that keeps life on the planet sage and sound.

Importance of Environment

We truly cannot understand the real worth of the environment. But we can estimate some of its importance that can help us understand its importance. It plays a vital role in keeping living things healthy in the environment.

Likewise, it maintains the ecological balance that will keep check of life on earth. It provides food, shelter, air, and fulfills all the human needs whether big or small.

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Most importantly, our environment is the source of natural beauty and is necessary for maintaining physical and mental health.

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Benefits of the Environment

The environment gives us countless benefits that we can’t repay our entire life. As they are connected with the forest, trees, animals, water, and air. The forest and trees filter the air and absorb harmful gases. Plants purify water, reduce the chances of flood maintain natural balance and many others.

Moreover, the environment keeps a close check on the environment and its functioning, It regulates the vital systems that are essential for the ecosystem. Besides, it maintains the culture and quality of life on earth.

The environment regulates various natural cycles that happen daily. These cycles help in maintaining the natural balance between living things and the environment. Disturbance of these things can ultimately affect the life cycle of humans and other living beings.

The environment has helped us and other living beings to flourish and grow from thousands of years. The environment provides us fertile land, water, air, livestock and many essential things for survival.

Cause of Environmental Degradation

Human activities are the major cause of environmental degradation because most of the activities humans do harm the environment in some way. The activities of humans that causes environmental degradation is pollution, defective environmental policies, chemicals, greenhouse gases, global warming, ozone depletion, etc.

All these affect the environment badly. Besides, these the overuse of natural resources will create a situation in the future there will be no resources for consumption. And the most basic necessity of living air will get so polluted that humans have to use bottled oxygen for breathing.

Above all, increasing human activity is exerting more pressure on the surface of the earth which is causing many disasters in an unnatural form. Also, we are using the natural resources at a pace that within a few years they will vanish from the earth. To conclude, we can say that it is the environment that is keeping us alive. Without the blanket of environment, we won’t be able to survive.

Moreover, the environment’s contribution to life cannot be repaid. Besides, still what the environment has done for us, in return we only have damaged and degraded it.

FAQs about Essay on Environment

Q.1 What is the true meaning of the environment?

A.1 The ecosystem that includes all the plants, animals, birds, reptiles, insects, water bodies, fishes, human beings, trees, microorganisms and many more are part of the environment. Besides, all these constitute the environment.

Q.2 What is the three types of the environment?

A.2 The three types of environment includes the physical, social, and cultural environment. Besides, various scientists have defined different types and numbers of environment.

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Essay on Importance Of Caring For Environment

Students are often asked to write an essay on Importance Of Caring For Environment in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

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100 Words Essay on Importance Of Caring For Environment

Why the environment matters.

The environment is our home. It gives us air, water, food, and everything we need to live. Keeping it clean and safe is important for our health and for animals and plants too. If we don’t take care of it, the air can become dirty, the water poisoned, and the land filled with trash.

Our Role in Protecting Nature

Every person can help the environment. Simple acts like recycling, saving water, and planting trees make a big difference. When we protect nature, we make sure that we have a beautiful world to live in, now and in the future.

What Happens if We Don’t Care

If we ignore the environment, many bad things can happen. Animals could die out, forests might disappear, and the weather can get very extreme. This would make life hard for everyone. So, it’s really important to act now to keep our planet healthy.

250 Words Essay on Importance Of Caring For Environment

Our environment is like our home. Just like we keep our houses clean, we need to keep our environment clean too. When we take care of the environment, we make sure the air is fresh, the water is clean, and the land is free from too much trash. This is important because we need clean air to breathe, water to drink, and safe places to live and play.

Animals and Plants Need a Healthy Environment

What happens if we don’t care.

If we don’t look after the environment, bad things can happen. The air can become dirty, making it hard for us to breathe. Our rivers and oceans can get filled with trash, hurting the fish and other creatures that live there. Also, if we use too many resources, like cutting down too many trees, there might not be enough left for future kids.

How We Can Help

We can do simple things to help the environment. Turning off lights when we leave a room saves energy. Walking or biking instead of asking for a car ride reduces pollution. Recycling things like paper and plastic means less trash hurting the Earth. When we do these things, we show that we care about our planet.

Caring for the environment is very important. It keeps our world safe and clean for us, animals, and plants. It’s up to us to make sure our Earth stays a happy and healthy place for everyone.

500 Words Essay on Importance Of Caring For Environment

The world we live in is full of wonderful things: tall mountains, deep oceans, and forests full of animals and plants. But did you know that taking care of our planet is important for us and all living things? Just like we keep our rooms clean, we need to keep our environment clean too.

Our Health Depends on a Clean Environment

Breathing fresh air, drinking clean water, and eating healthy food all come from our environment. If we pollute the air with smoke or the water with chemicals, it can make us sick. Plants and animals also need a clean place to live. If we take care of the Earth, it takes care of us by giving us what we need to stay healthy.

Protecting Our Friends in Nature

Keeping the earth beautiful for everyone.

Parks, beaches, and forests are places where we can play and relax. If we leave trash everywhere or harm plants and trees, these places won’t be nice to visit. By keeping them clean, we make sure that everyone can enjoy them, even people who will be born many years from now.

Using Resources Wisely

The Earth gives us many things like water, wood, and oil. But if we use too much, there might not be enough left for other people or for us when we get older. By saving these resources and using them carefully, we make sure there’s enough for the future. For example, turning off the lights when we leave a room saves electricity, and recycling paper means we don’t have to cut down as many trees.

Taking care of the environment is important for our health, for the animals and plants, for beautiful places, and for using Earth’s gifts wisely. Even small actions can make a big difference. So let’s all do our part to keep the Earth a happy and healthy home for everyone.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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