“It gave me a tremendous amount of self-confidence that through exploration and learning one could comprehend seemingly very complicated things in one’s environment.” Steve Jobs
Ever wonder what a learning environment should look like? Perhaps you have an idea of what a learning environment looks like, or maybe you have one in your head. It could be a large room with sufficient lighting and ventilation, private space that isn’t disturbed by too much noise, or a zone where instructors and learners can be approachable and friendly. There are many learning environments available, but it is important to know what to look out for. You don’t want your money and time wasted on something that isn’t worthy.
What is LEARNING ENVIRONMENT?
Wikipedia defines learning environment as “an educational approach, a cultural context, or a physical setting in which teaching, learning, and other activities occur.”
You might be wrong to think that your learning environment won’t impact your studies. Many educators and curriculum specialists agree that the learning environment is an important factor in knowledge and skill acquisition. The learning environment is a key factor in a learner’s ability to retain information, solve analytical problems, and develop new ideas.
Dr. Ken A. Graetz, Director of Teaching, Learning and Technology Services at Winona State University, wrote that students form a cognitive impression about a learning environment and experience an emotional response. For example, students who were exposed to motivating and active environments produced high quality outputs. Students may not perform well if there are many distractions in the learning environment.
Educause, a non-profit association in the United States, stated that learning happens in a physical environment that has quantifiable physical characteristics. As normal children, developers and even developers need a learning environment that encourages them to succeed.
But what about the effects of the learning environment on developers? How do they impact the development of developers?
FOUR ELEMENTS OF THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
These are the four components that make up the learning environment. How do they impact the student’s learning?
1. PEOPLE
It refers to people who directly or indirectly affect students (e.g. mentor-mentee, teacher student, peer support system), which can help students’ career success and growth.
Before you begin your journey to becoming a web developer, it is important that you find the right place where your skills can be honed and your reputation built. A coding bootcamp can help you get ahead in your career. Brendan Stanton is a full-stack web developer and instructor at Coding Dojo East Bay Campus. He said, “Whether your goal is to get into programming or if you are returning to the industry, it’s important that you find the course that suits you best.”
But, a course is only one thing to add to your checklist. To stay on track, you need strong support. It will help you to set clear goals and prioritize your priorities to achieve your dreams. It will be easier and more fun to have friends to share your crazy ideas and jokes, problems, and drama.
Collaboration is also good because it opens up the doors to creativity and communication. When people code and think together, it brings out new ideas. You will be motivated to learn more by working with other developers who are aspiring. It also offers other benefits such as new peer connections and the expansion of your professional network. These are great for those who want to change careers or look for new job opportunities.
Our bootcamp encourages students to work in pairs to solve complex algorithm problems, group projects, or logic-based exercises. Jessica Capo, Coding Dojo’s program success manager, stated, “To help our online student, we’ve been trying out something new recently (hoping that it works!). We have created groups for our students, just like in the onsite program. This gives them a network of peers to help them, even though they are all remote and online. They can schedule Zoom video sessions and work together on their assignments. We want to make the online experience more collaborative for students so they realize that they are not alone.