Conversely, environments that elicit positive emotional responses may lead not only to enhanced learning but also to a powerful, emotional attachment to that space. Although emotional reactions to environmental stimuli have been shown to vary widely across individuals and activities, most students would probably find learning difficult in a classroom that is stiflingly warm. Third, the physical characteristics of learning environments can affect learners emotionally, with important cognitive and behavioral consequences. In any learning environment, students manage their limited cognitive resources by actively selecting environmental information for further consideration and by using existing knowledge structures to interpret this information in ways that have worked previously. For others, it may be the silvery crystal ball on the shelf. For some, it might be the instructor's engaging chemistry demonstration. Students may direct their attention to particular targets in the learning environment that they find more interesting, important, or unfamiliar than others.
A classroom with circular tables and comfortable armchairs may look strange because it deviates from expectations formed through prior experience.
They try to understand what they are sensing by piecing bits of information together from the bottom up and by applying existing thoughts and preconceptions from the top down. Through automatic and controlled processes, students select information for consideration. Students cannot attend to all the environmental information bombarding them at any given time their ability to gather and understand incoming information is limited. Second, students do not touch, see, or hear passively they feel, look, and listen actively. In any learning environment students are awash in environmental information, only a small fraction of which constitutes the sights and sounds of instruction. Specific targets within the environment draw the students' attention, such as armchairs, scarves, and teacups, and they continuously monitor the ambient properties such as the light of the lamps, the smell of the kettle, and the warmth of the fire. Whether sitting in a large lecture hall, underneath a tree, or in front of a computer screen, students are engulfed by environmental information. First, all learning takes place in a physical environment with quantifiable and perceptible physical characteristics. This enchanting description of a classroom at the fictitious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry captures three fundamental ideas from the environmental psychology of teaching and learning. 1 The Environmental Psychology of Teaching and Learning The shelves running around the circular walls were crammed with dusty-looking feathers, stubs of candles, many packs of tattered playing cards, countless silvery crystal balls, and a huge array of teacups. It was stiflingly warm, and the fire that was burning under the crowded mantelpiece was giving off a heavy, sickly sort of perfume as it heated a large copper kettle.
#LEARNING AND BEHAVIOR 7TH CHANCE CHAPTER 4 TEST WINDOWS#
Everything was lit with a dim, crimson light the curtains at the windows were all closed, and the many lamps were draped with red scarves. At least twenty small, circular tables were crammed inside it, all surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little poufs. In fact, it didn't look like a classroom at all, more like a cross between someone's attic and an old-fashioned tea shop.
He emerged into the strangest-looking classroom he had ever seen.