Learning Environment Design
We decided to choose 6-8 years old children as a target audience for our project. It is of an utmost importance today to be able to build a learning environment that will positively influence a group of children there. First of all, it should be safe. Secondly, it should foster the will to study. Thirdly, if we take into consideration the age of the children it should also be relaxing. That is why you can see that we divided our classroom area into so-called two parts. On the right side, we situated our learning area. Here we have Student tables, TV-set, and blackboard. On the left side, we have a space for playing and relax. There is some furniture, such as beanbag chairs, sofa, and rugs. Also, we have an easel, shelves with different board games and a book stand here. It is situated here in order to avoid learning atmosphere for a little time. For example, children can spend their break here, as well as a teacher can hold a lesson there.
While designing learning environment we have to take into consideration Benjamin Bloom’s learning domains division. Benjamin Bloom is an educational psychologist who distinguished three main learning domains. Those are cognitive (it deals with the mental development of a child), affective (it deals with emotions, values, and attitude), and psychomotor (deals with coordination, movements, and generally physical skills) ("Learning Domains or Bloom's Taxonomy", 2016).
Physical domain
We will start off with describing the realization of physical domain in our learning environment. It is presented by our area for game and relax. Children can play various board games and an easel. Children will be able to develop their speed, perception, and the ability to differentiate different tasks and execution of different techniques. With the help of an easel, children will be able to develop fine motor skill. Physical activity is really important in an education process. Children need to have a break otherwise they will lose focus and the result of learning won’t be satisfying (Estes, L.S., & Krogh, S. L., 2012).
Cognitive domain
In order to develop cognitive domain, we supply our classroom with learning area where the main learning process can be conducted. The teacher will develop deferent categories of cognitive activity here such as, understanding, remembering, and creating (Krathwohl 215). In order to accomplish this teacher can use a blackboard, TV-set, and computer. The usage of the modern technologies is really important in order to provide children with all the possibly needed information. A TV-set and a computer will give access to the opportunities for all the children and what is more important they can share this experience together (Estes, L.S., & Krogh, S. L., 2012).
Affective domain
As we’ve already mentioned affective domain deals with emotions, attitude, and motivation. In order to develop this domain, first of all, we provided our learning area with student tables instead of desks. This was made with the idea to foster a pair work. In this young age, it is very important to teach children how to work together. For the same purpose, we have circle rug and kidney table. Here, a teacher can talk to children and discuss some important questions in the less formal atmosphere.
As we have already mentioned we used Bloom’s learning domains as a pattern for our learning environment. He carefully developed his scheme of objectives which should be acquired during the learning process. He divided these objectives into tree main groups:
1) Cognitive – for developing of mental skills;
2) Psychomotor for physical skills;
3) Affective for attitude ("Learning Domains or Bloom's Taxonomy", 2016).
In a nutshell, we developed a learning environment for the children of 6-8 years old. We provided them with all the needed equipment in order to secure a successful development of all the Bloom’s learning domains.
References
Krathwohl, David R. (2002). A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: An Overview. College of Education. The Ohio State University. Vol. 41, Number 4. 212-218. http://www.unco.edu/cetl/sir/stating_outcome/documents/Krathwohl.pdf
Estes, L.S., & Krogh, S. L. (2012). Pathways to teaching young children: An introduction to early childhood education. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Learning Domains or Bloom's Taxonomy. (2016). Academic.udayton.edu. Retrieved 18 July 2016, from https://academic.udayton.edu/health/syllabi/health/Unit01/lesson01b.htm
