Alternative Environments

I know that I cannot teach anyone anything: I can only provide the environment in which they can learn. (Rogers, 1965: 389)

The educational arena nurtures and helps form pupils’ learning values, attitudes and ways of thinking (Claxton & Carr, 2004) through the learning environments in which the pupils are immersed and the experiences therein. Bruner (1986) once expressed that education should,

…create in the young an appreciation of the fact that many worlds are possible, that meaning and reality are created and not discovered, that negotiation is the art of constructing new meanings by which individuals can regulate their relations with each other. (p. 149)

Aspiring towards a natural expansion of qualities that develop sustained learning and learner responsibility, the learning environment should set a scene that enables the teacher to assist the pupil in becoming ‘ready, willing and able to engage profitably with learning’ (Claxton & Carr, 2004: 87). Flexibility within educational settings allows the pupil to be responsive to context, individual preference and competence (Claxton et al., 2011).

Which environments entice pupils to become more actively engaged in learning? Claxton and Carr (2004: 91) put forward four learning environments commonly found in education. Prohibiting environments normally provide activities that involve little more than completing short tasks in quick succession. These environments make it easier for teachers to offer correction, but dilute the possibility for deeper exploration and diminish opportunities for pupils to voice or discuss their opinions. Affording environments are not entirely void of value, but often just involve a set of predetermined general instructions to follow. While these may seem to provide opportunities for engaging a wider variety of learning elements, they often demand more effort than the individual deems worthy, thus they might not attract pupils’ full participation. Carr and Claxton (2004) refer to an inviting environment, one that encourages, provokes and stresses the value of questioning and collaborating with others; this is more conducive to expanding learning capacities and encourages exploration. Lastly, Claxton and Carr hold the view that it is the potentiating environment that is the most empowering of learning environments: ‘those that not only invite the expression of certain dispositions, but ‘actively ‘stretch’ them, and thus develop them’ (p. 92). These environments allow pupils freedom to direct their own involvement in activities while remaining free to collaborate with the teacher at any time. There is a sharing of ‘power,’ thus a change in ‘the learning trajectory’ (p. 92), towards one that supports the foundations of learner autonomy.

Inviting and potentiating environments are student-centred. They allow the teacher to step into a more facilitatory role in order to provide freedom for the learner to select, frame, and investigate ideas for themselves. As such, each learning environment of this enquiry is based on the principles of student-centred learning. Brandes & Ginnis (1986) have described the characteristics of student-centred environments as follows:

• the learner has full responsibility for her own learning • the subject matter has relevance and meaning for the learner • involvement and participation are necessary for learning • the relationship between learners [is one of quality] • the teacher becomes a facilitator and resource person

• the learner sees himself different as a result of the learning experience • the learner experiences confluence in his education (pp. 12-17).

Claxton conceptualises these principles as an ‘Exploratorium’ (pp. 132-136) and ‘gymnasium’ (Claxton, 2008: 127-132) for learning. In a gymnasium style environment learners have the option to build new skill sets, alongside stretching or increasing the endurance of their existing skills. He suggests that frequent visits to this gym confront pupils with different learning pathways, ones that ignite and develop virtues that successful learners use repeatedly, such as ‘curiosity, courage, exploration, experimentation, imagination, reasoning, sociability and reflection’ (Claxton, 2008: 128). The intention of this environment is to develop dispositions specific to learning how to learn by equipping the learner with a variety of learning tools for immediate and/or future use. The ‘Exploratorium’, is similar to the gymnasium in terms of the attributes it nurtures, but in this student-centred environment the pupils are allowed to choose more freely what to learn, having been exposed to a variety of topics. Such environments increase general levels of engagement and encourage each pupil to be aware that they alone are responsible ‘for creating their own explorations’ (Claxton, 2008: 133). Such environments encourage pupils to investigate all responses, both positive and negative, in an atmosphere that is free from fear. In environments free of negativity, errors can be defined, scrutinised and explored from different standpoints, confirming or revealing new meaning that may excite further exploration (Claxton, 2004: 3-4).

Claxton’s concepts of the ‘gymnasium’ and the ‘Exploratorium’ have inspired me to investigate changes to both the teaching studio and the home practice environment, since they instigate increasing ‘reflectiveness, resilience, resourcefulness, and reciprocity’ (Claxton, 2002: 17). The one-to-one instrumental lesson is a privileged and ideal environment for the young musician to explore these four attributes. Though the

rationale behind positioning reflection as the primary focus has been thoroughly discussed, resilience, reciprocity, and resourcefulness are also attributes that pupils will have the opportunity to engage during this enquiry. I attempt to nurture all four of these attributes as an embodied way of being, a concept crucial to this study, but more importantly as they are perhaps necessary for functioning successfully in a continually changing society (Claxton, 2008, 2006b, 2002,). While not elaborating here on resilience, resourcefulness, and reciprocity to the same degree as reflection, the reader will see that these three attributes inherently thread themselves throughout the remaining topics discussed in this chapter. Once again, Claxton describes these learning attributes as:

Resilience – being ready, willing and able to lock on to learning • Absorption – Flow: the pleasure of being rapt in learning • Managing distractions – recognising and reducing interruptions • Noticing –really sensing what is out there

• Perseverance –stickability; tolerating the feelings of learning Resourcefulness – being ready, willing and able to learn in different ways

• Questioning – getting below the surface; playing with situations • Making links – seeking coherence, relevance and meaning • Imaging – using the mind’s eye as a learning theatre • Reasoning – thinking rigorously and methodically • Capitalising – making good use of resources

Reciprocity – being ready, willing and able to learn alone and with others • Interdependence – balancing self-reliance and sociability

• Collaboration – the skills of learning with others • Empathy and listening – getting inside other’s minds • Imitation- picking up others’ habits and values

Reflectiveness – being ready, willing and able to become more strategic about learning

• Planning – working learning out in advance • Revising – monitory and adapting along the way • Distilling – drawing out the lessons from experience

• Meta-learning – understanding learning, and yourself as a learner (Claxton, 2002: 17)