The Importance of an Innovative Learning Environment

The word innovative means creativity. Creativity can be in any form like the introduction of new ideas, new technology, original and creative thinking.

Before we step forward and know about the innovative learning environment, we first need to understand the learning environment.

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Learning Environment

It basically refers to the environment in which the students learn in different aspects. The learning environment aims to provide all the basic requirements in which the students can enhance their ability to learn in different ways. It includes the physical, mental, social, and cultural aspects in which students learn.

Innovative Learning Environment

As suggested by the name itself, an innovative learning environment is the introduction of new, creative, and interesting teaching strategies that aim to provide students a better platform to learn and enhance their capabilities.

Students now find just reading school books and mugging up the stuff boring. This leads to the lack of student’s capabilities of thinking and learning as well. They need something interesting, which attracts their interest in learning new things.

Importance of Innovative Learning Environment

The learning environment is one of the most vital factors in students’ learning. The learning environment should bring a positive and supportive impact on students. They can only showcase their interest in learning when they found the learning environment safe, comfortable, and secure. There are numerous points on the importance of an innovative learning environment.

When students find the environment around them safe and comfortable, they will feel free to ask questions to enhance their learning capabilities.
Visual learning helps the students to learn new concepts more easily as compared to learning from school textbooks.
Learning with fun brings out the best in the students.
An innovative learning environment helps the students in developing their interests in the subjects of their choice.

Reasons for the need for Innovative Learning Environment

During this pandemic, we have come out with different ideas in the context of students’ learning. We have seen students attending their schools, colleges, and tuitions online for the first time in our life.

Nowadays, parents want the overall growth of their children. They do not want their kids to only excel in academics, but also they want them to excel in co-curricular activities as well. Parents indulge their children in activities like dancing, singing, playing instruments, painting, sketching, gymnastics, and sports, for instance, basketball, cricket, football, badminton, etc., at a younger age. These activities help children in developing gross motor skills.

With innovative and creative thinking, today’s students are transformed into collaborators, creators, and innovators who can easily solve problems in the future. To achieve this, they should have all the necessary tools and resources to encourage their active learning.

Also, read: Difference Between Growth And Development

Features of an innovative learning environment

Students can develop and grow more efficiently if they find a suitable learning environment. The innovative learning environment should possess some features:

Flexible and easy to adapt to any learning.
Encourage the students.
Giving them spaces to explore, create, and gain knowledge about the practical world.
Introduce them to the technological world.
Students should feel free to ask any doubt or question.
Enhance social integration.
Maintaining dignity and giving respect to peers.

How to create an innovative learning environment for beginners?

Handling small kids is one of the most difficult tasks for teachers. They are very playful and do not stick to one place. Teaching them or make them learn something is very difficult.

Younger kids enjoy stories, dancing, painting, and playing, so teachers have to learn through these activities. For example, if a teacher wants to teach counting or alphabets, he/ she can make them learn through singing a song, or poem, or with the aid of an abacus, in case of counting.
A teacher should not get peeved. Instead, he/ she should often smile as this helps the children to trust easily. If a teacher stays in a bad or mood, children will be scared to say something.
Staying friendly and showing interest in listening to all their stuff makes them feel confident and safe.
Display all the things that students make, whether it’s a drawing or they had written something, as this makes them feel happy and boost their self-esteem.

These minute things help children to learn various aspects of life at a younger age.

How to create an innovative learning environment for schools?

School is the first step in achieving dreams and exploration of the practical world around us. Schooling is essential as it helps in exploring the new world.

Smartboards help in the better understanding of the concepts as it gives a visual explanation of the topic, which helps in easy understanding of the concepts/ topic and compared to reading. Visualization has a greater impact on the mind, and we can memorize the concepts/ topic with more ease.
The mindset of the teacher is very important for the innovative learning environment. The mood and classroom vibes begin with a teacher. If the teacher is excited about his/ her subject, the students also tend to match that excitement. Teachers must show their passion for their subjects. The tone of the teacher should be polite, as it makes the students converse with him/ her more comfortable.
Some concepts are hard to accept for the students. Teachers should try to give a visual explanation for those particular concepts. For instance, displacement reactions in chemistry. Students can’t understand and visualize these reactions by just reading. Teachers should try to show these reactions by actually performing them. Students find this interesting, and this helps them to memorize it with more ease.
Open-ended questions help the students in realizing their potential, which they may not have found within themselves. Open-ended questions are basically those questions that have no definite answers. The answers may not be found in the textbooks. When students try to find the answers on their own, they all came up with different stories or explanations, which leads to new ideas and interesting facts as well.
Group activities should be organized every week. Co-curricular activities must be a part of schooling. Art and Craft classes, music or dance classes, sports classes, library classes must be taken seriously.

These few points, when kept in mind, make the students more indulge in learning new things.

How to create an innovative learning environment for colleges?

Colleges are the platforms that provide the overall personality development of the students. For the ever-changing technological, social, and economical environments, a futuristic approach is a must for students.

The learning environments keep on changing with the advancement of the world around us. New technologies, changes in the social and economical environments, and different working models should be subsumed in the new teaching models. A teacher should be up to date with his/ her knowledge; otherwise, students would see the faded of the teachers who have outdated knowledge base.
A teacher should sound confident in his/ her subject. He/ She should focus more on the questions rather than the answers. Thinking about the questions leads to the enhancement of the creative thinking and problem-solving capabilities of the students.
Every student does not have the same level of knowledge and thinking ability. It is a teacher’s duty to acknowledge each students’ viewpoint and information.
With the advancement of the technological world, learning is not confined to textbooks and classrooms. Teachers can provide the students, mobile learning, e-learning, video learning facilities, which helps the students in gaining knowledge not only about what is written in the textbooks but also about what is happening around in the world.
Flexibility in the tests schedules, attendance, use of mobile phones helps the students to indulge more in the learning process.
Societies play a vital role in inculcating self-confidence in the students. Debating society helps in strengthening communication skills, self-esteem, and presentation of the topic. Dance and music society helps the students in specializing their passion/ hobby. They help in the personality development of the students.

These points help in creating an innovative learning environment for college students.

Examples of innovative teaching strategies

With the advancement of technology, teaching methods are also improved, and teachers have a wide variety of tools to advance their teaching methods. Some of the teaching methods have been discussed below:

Few teaching methods do not involve the use of technology. Learning can also be done in informal ways such as field trips, museum trips, exhibitions, night camps, or after school learning clubs. Then discussing the trip notes in the classroom increases the curiosity as well as the learning ability of the students.
Using Smartboards are an interesting way to interact with the students’ minds. Visualization, as I said earlier in this article, has a greater impact on the mind, and the students can memorize the concepts/ topic with more ease. Smartboards make the teaching more interactive and give a deeper understanding of the subject or concepts, or topic.

In science, few concepts cannot be easily understandable by the students. They need practical knowledge or the visual presentation of that concept or topic. Teachers can take the students to the practical labs. In biology, students can see the cells of the layers of the onion, Spyro Gyra using the microscope, and see the parts of a flower, and easily understand and memorize the process of pollination. In chemistry, displacement reactions and the formation of new compounds can be understood by the students with more ease.
During this pandemic, students had experienced the innovative learning environment in their homes. Groups were created on a digital platform known as Google Classroom, where the class notes, practice notes, audio lessons, video recordings, class schedules, assignments, tests, almost everything had been covered. Students can access learning materials anytime and anywhere.
3-D teaching is gaining immense popularity all over the globe. With the advent of this technology, students are now not bound to read the boring history lectures or just read the space in their science textbooks; instead, teachers can now use this 3-D technology and take the students to the ancient civilization or can travel to different countries and explore everything about the people, food, climate, or clothing of that particular country. Students can also travel to space and have the unbelievable experience which they usually just read and fantasize about them.
Teaching through collaboration is another innovative method. Students can be assigned in groups and provide with a task or homework. This develops the leadership qualities among them. In addition to this, their listening skills will improve as well as it will boost their confidence level while presenting their views between the peers.

Types of innovative teaching methods

The innovative teaching methods encourage the students to explore and study with curiosity. The education sector has evolved drastically over a period. Innovations somehow are necessary with the changing and advancing world. There are various types of innovative teaching methods. Let’s know about them:

Learning in collaboration – Students feel pressure when they have to learn or revise the topics or the entire subject alone at home. But now, there is an innovative teaching method in which students do not have to study alone. Teachers assigned students into groups where they can debate over the topic, clear the doubts of each other, listen to each others’ points, solve problems together. This helps them to develop the qualities of brotherhood, and their social and listening skills will also improve.
Spaced learning – In this method, teachers try to repeat the syllabus or lesson or topic multiple times until the students are thorough with that. Teachers take a few minutes break between the two lectures so that the students relax and refresh their minds.
Promoting self-learning – Curiosity leads to the invention of new ideas. Teachers give some topics and asked students to research them. This makes the students self-dependent, and they will have a deeper understanding of the topics. This is a good method in the context of an innovative learning environment.
Crossover learning – This innovative teaching method which includes both formal and informal ways of teaching. The formal way is the education provided in the classrooms. The informal way includes field trips, museum trips, exhibitions, monuments, historical places, etc. After exploring the new places, teachers and students discuss the trip notes in the classroom, which increases the curiosity as well as the learning ability of the students.

Conclusion

The innovative learning environment is vital in the process of learning for students. In the advancing and changing world, an innovative learning environment plays an important role in the students’ life. Students of different age groups need different types of innovative learning environment which helps them to grow and learn efficiently. Every teacher should try to make their classroom interesting, playful, and friendly. Students should feel free to express themselves and as many questions as they want. A care-free environment helps the students to showcase their inner abilities, which helps them in fulfilling their dreams.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1 What does a positive and innovative learning environment means?

Ans A positive and innovative learning environment is an environment where students feel safe, secure, and comfortable in expressing themselves. The learning environment should give the students a positive impact so that they can grow and learn efficiently.

Q2 What do you mean by flexible learning space?

Ans Flexible learning spaces are an example of an innovative learning environment where students have the freedom about what, why, how, and where they learn. They are free to learn anything they want, either through the internet or by exploring the physical spaces.

Q3 What is open learning?

Ans Open learning is another innovative learning environment which gives the students freedom and flexibility to choose from a variety of locations, time, methods, and mode of access.

– by Bhavika Lamba