Wed's meeting ended at 1900H. Thurs' ended 2100H and finally today ended early, at 1800H - only an hour more than usual. Re-org is tough. Tougher still when there are so many things to put in place. But the toughest is handling the human issues. Hardware is easy... Heartware is difficult, yah? :-)

A mini attempt?

It's been a few days since I last logged in. As I sit in front of my computer, a thought struck me... What if it actually can work? Will it last? Let's give it a try and see what happens. It's better to have tried and lost then never to have tried at all....

So here's my mini attempt to keep this blog going further than just for the Learning Environment module...

Today is another crazy day of meetings. Meeting 1 - 0915 - 1020, Meeting 2 - 1030 - 1315, Meeting 3 - 1430 - 1930. Totally wept out of energy by then. Tomorrow two more meetings. Guess they will never end...

As such, I had to skip BSF and the fellowship tonight. 2nd miss of the year... or was it the third? sigh.

Session 5: Day of Consolidation

In a few hours, we will conclude this chapter on Assessing and Improving the Learning Environment. By no means does this indicate the end of the learning. The journey has just begun, except that I will have to walk the next lap on my own with the help of friends along the way, of course!

This morning started with a short lecture on Improving the LE, which is crucial if we want to ensure a conducive LE for students to learn. Dr Quek brought us back to the overview that she shared on the first day of course, stressing on the different components and influences each component has on the learning environment. After conducting a detailed research to assess the LE, it is important to make recommendations to improve the situation.

Wisdom is knowledge applied! If one goes away and do nothing after knowing the short-comings of the LE, the knowledge amounts to nothing! However, if we take the pain to implement changes, the knowledge will then bear fruit and learning increases, if not for the present cohort then for future cohorts. What we sow now will reap a rich harvest in time to come.

Session 4: Conducting a Research on Learning Environment

It has been a mind boggling day! After a detailed recap on the use of the WIHIC instrument, we launched into research report writing after consolidating the class data from the WIHIC forms that we prepared yesterday. As simple as it may sound, we had to thank technology for deciphering all the raw data and churning out results that we can use. The team had to analysis the results and see where the deficiency was (if there is) in the learning environment and make recommendations to bridge the gap and improve the LE.

Using and Excel and SPSS programs were not too difficult to master although care must be taken to ensure the data are accurately captured. I was glad to have some "hands on" experience on the program even though I know we do not have such a program at my workplace.

Looking at the results, I am happy to observe that we have a very healthy LE in this module. The results showed that the students' perceptions on the actual conduct of the course is in congruence with their expected/preferred learning environment. On the light side, I would have already known that judging by what I have seen during the course. I do not need to do a detailed research to know that! Of course, I must quickly add, the research's empirical results serves as concrete evidence of the conducive learning atmosphere that we enjoy this week. :-)

A thought that struck me was that in the not too distant future, educational activity will no longer be constricted to or confined to the classroom. We will be challenged to develop appropriate strategies to deal with new ways of teaching and learning. It appears evident those features explored in learning environment research, the perceptions of students and teachers of the environment, the social and psychological factors, will be as equally important to research in digital environments. By then, we will have to use online learning environment instruments to conduct our research.

As I was reading through the report on University Students' Perceptions of the Learning Environment and Academic Outcomes: implications for theory and practice, a food for thought was when they commented that their interactive process appears to be
greatly enhanced when they made their motives transparent for students, and where they (the students) have had time to reflect on the stimulus questions beforehand. I found this not surprising as we too were better prepared by Dr Quek before she administered the questionnaire. This allows us to take the questionnaire seriously and I'm sure the results are a better reflection of the actual situation than if we were hurried along in the conduct of the questionnaire and not being primed for the task.

One thing I am impressed with is the ability of the group to work as a team. Each member was eager to contribute and enthusiastic to lend a helping hand when needed. The research project open up an avenue for us to work as a TEAM - Together, Each Achieve More.

Session 3: Assessing the Learning Environment II

Today breezes by so ever quickly! We started out with a lecture by Dr Quek on assessing the Learning environment. She stresses on the need to modify the LE instruments at times to suit our target group. For example, when sampling a group of children, having a list of 60 -90 items in the questionnaire is not practical. In such a case, each classification category should have no more than 3-5 items. For me, in the military context, the terminology used in the survey will differ from that of the "civilian" world. I will have to use a language that the servicemen can understand. Another important pointer is that each question should be short and precise and must contain only one idea. One comment that I raised in class was that in some questionnaires, the Likert scales are ambiguous and often open for interpretation. For example, the Likert scale "Almost never", "Seldom", "Often" and "Always" the degree would differ for each individual. As such, this type of scale rating should be administered only when the population sampled is huge; where any effects of the differences can be cushioned off. I preferred the more conventional “Strongly agree”, “Agree” type of five-point Likert scales where it is less ambiguous.

The highlight of the day was the case study we did on the findings by a researcher on three local schools in Singapore in her report to improve the school learning environment. From her research methodology, it was interesting to see how she uses the School Learning Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ) to collect qualitative information from the teachers and principals on the real life school learning environment in Singapore. Studying the SLEQ and their classification according to Moo’s Three Schemes, we were able to relate her findings on the positives and negatives of each school. This gave me a useful overview of how a research can be done. However, I observed and pointed out that the research was done largely based on the teachers’ perspective and as a result, the findings may be skewed. It would have been more comprehensive if the students’ perspectives were also sought.

On the technology front, we had the privilege of Mr. James Peh who shared with us great tips on how to improve our blog and how podcasts can be easily incorporated in to our blog to make learning fun and enjoyable. We were also exposed to other e-learning platforms like Wetpaint, Wordpress etc.

Session 2: Assessing the Learning Environment

It will be a disaster for a trainer to walk into a class, teach and then expect his trainees to absorb all the learning without first scanning through the class environment to access whether the conditions of the class is suitable for lesson delivery to take place. Apart from assessing the physical environment such as lighting of the classroom, ventilation, space for movement etc, it is also important to assess the students' concentration, behavior towards each other and even the trainer's mode of delivery and the types of activities conducted. From today's lesson, I'm exposed to the different tools available in assessing LE. I also understand the need to assess the learning environment, to address any gaps, so as to maximise pupils' learning.

I was introduced to the trail blazers in the field of LE who includes Rudolf Moo, Henry Murray, Barry Fraser and Kurt Lewin amongst others.

• Moo proposed that LE can be described in three dimensions namely, the relationship, the personal development and the system maintenance and change dimensions which can be further broken down into 10 different aspects of LE which are used to analyze students evaluation of LE.

• Murray developed a theory based on a need-press model that shows the representation of a person and environment. He argued that environmental forces may exerts a force on us that forces us to act. The real environment forces are referred to as "alpha press" and the perceived ones are "beta press"

• Lewin's formula states that a person’s behavior is related both to his characteristics and to the social situation in which he finds himself. Therefore, Behaviour is defined as a function of person and environment (B-f{P, E}).

• Fraser suggest that congruence between actual and preferred environment is assessed and related to student.

Today, we learned an array of instruments that may be used to assess LE. These include:

• Learning Environment Inventory - LEI (Fraser, Anderson & Walberg)
• Classroom Environment Scale - CES (Rudolf Moos)
• Individualised Classroom Environment Questionnaire (ICEQ) (Fraser)
• My Class Inventory (MCI)
• College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI)
• Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI)
• Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI)
• Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES)
• What Is Happening In This Class (WIHIC) Questionnaire

The instrument that caught my attention was the "WIHIC". It has a "Preferred form" - used for assessing a student’s personal perceptions of his role in the classroom and "Actual" form - used for assessing students' perceptions of the class as a whole. I commented that some questions has "foregone" answers and wondered aloud why they should be asked? For example, a statement like "I would cooperate with other students in the course" would solicit a positive reply, so why ask? I was told however that these questions are still applicable as they reflects what the student's preference was and it would be measured against the "actual" conditions in the class. The variance would be something that trainers ought to focus on to improve the LE.

Another thing I learned on the technology front was how documents can be easily shared on the google shared document site. This is interesting as it means one do no need to physically meet and yet still can work on files together. Wow!

Session 1: Assessing & Improving Learning Environment

Today has been a day of unlearning, learning and relearning. I started the day thinking that Learning Environment (LE) is basically nothing more than classroom layouts, enhancing the physical environment around the learner, making sure it is conducive for learning. As such, just before I came, I wondered why it takes a week to learn all these!

As the day continued, i realised how much I need to unlearn what I thought I knew about the learning environment. LE encompasses not only the physical arena, it includes the e-world too! It is surprising to know that I need to assess, improve and manage the e-learning environment too. The classroom has gone global! I never saw blogging as a platform through which learning can take place. To me, it's simply a place where people share their personal journals in lieu of their dairy or PDA. So, today I learned to blog and start my very own personal blog on the web!

Going deeper, LE affects the Person, Personal Needs and Human behaviour. The challenge for instructors is to do the best we can to influence the learning environment so that learning can take place. To fully engage a learner, the instructor must take new initiatives to meet new learning demands. Learning takes place when the environment is Learning-centred, Knowledge-centred and Assessment-centred. I discover that we cannot have assessment for everything. We need to know the objectives: assessment "for learning" (improve) or "of learning" (proof).

New vocabs that I learned today:

• Paired Verbal Fluency
• Think Pair Share
• Think Pair Square

The above are methods that I can use in my training sessions. While I may have employed some of these methods during my own training sessions, I didn't know they had such fanciful names ;-p

A self discovery moment was when I was doing the Management profile in the learning environment. I was profiled as having a Commanding style and prefers to be in control when it comes to the learning environment. I need to learn how to develop strategies that would help me approach potential problems that may emerge as a result of my management profile.

Looking ahead, it is obvious there is so much that I do not know about LE. Today's overview had given me a foretaste of what's to come in the days ahead. I am excited. Let the learning begin!