Upon scrolling through twitter using the hashtag #edchat I came across an article posted by a verified education account discussing an article written by Katrina Schwartz. Schwartz’s article is, “Why Focusing On Adult Learning Builds A School Culture Where Students Thrive” and I thought this was suitable, yet an interesting topic for a first blog post!
The title of this article initially peaked my interest because of my obvious relation to the title, being an adult learner in college. This article stresses the importance of developing a trustworthy and comfortable work environment for the staff and faculty of the school, as it’s been found that “when adults continue to learn at their jobs they are better at creating that experience for other people”. Schools are places for students to be consistently pushed toward learning and embracing new knowledge, testing new theories and learning from mistakes. In order for an educator to facilitate a healthy and functioning work environment, they must have experienced it on their own!
In order to build an optimistically growing culture, the article discusses specific schools that would collaborate their ideas to see which they could benefit from the most. These schools also utilized student’s feedback to implement their feelings about improvement, as the students took a survey which resulted in students expressing lack of connection to their teachers and lack of expectations from their teachers. These schools took the time to assess their teaching staff and students in order to properly evaluate how they could maximize their learning environment.
In conclusion, this article discusses the impact teachers can have on students and the diversity of the school. It stresses the importance of having an environment available to teachers where they can collaborate with their peers and acknowledge their own perception from others. Allowing yourself to accept and and thoroughly consider constructive criticism, helps with not only bettering your own experience, but to those around you.