Support Student Learning Research

Creating supportive and effective learning environments for students, is of paramount concern for all teachers. A warm, safe and caring environment provides students the ability meet their universal needs and provides an orderly classroom as a conduit for student learning. Classroom environments can enhance student’s sense of belonging, further social and emotional development, increase student participation and academic competencies, whilst reducing the incidents of misbehaviour (Hickey & Schafer, 2005). Where classrooms are not conducive to learning, issues can ensue. Simply put, students cannot learn and teachers cannot teach when environments are characterised by disruptions, chaos, or frequent behavioural interruptions (Skiba & Rausch, 2006). Research suggests that student learning is largely a direct result of the amount of quality of instructions a student receives (Skiba & Rausch, 2006). As such, for effective and supportive environments to be created teachers must adopt clear classroom management systems or strategies to effectively support student’s needs, not only …show more content…
Edwards (2008) posits that the family home and children’s previous experiences can impact greatly on their behaviours. Additionally, students with learning difficulties often have had poor experiences throughout their schooling which may cause then to participate in off task behaviours to alleviate anxieties, draw attention away from their difficulties or may be a coping mechanism to aid avoidance. When considering the impact of the school environment, some school discipline practices may in fact exacerbate or contribute to student’s patterns of challenging behavior. Increased rates of antisocial behavior can often be concomitant with punitive disciplinary strategies, deficiency of clarity about rules, expectations, or consequences, and failure to consider and accommodate individual differences (Clunies‐Ross, Little & Kienhuis,