Maximizing the Student Learning Environment: A Positive Learning Environment for Evening and Weekend Students

This paper is not about the physical classroom, but about adult students approaching the difficult work that is learning. It is not about the classroom conditions schools provide, but about the actions teachers take that define the classroom learning environment. Where there was once only the traditional classroom with chalkboards, tables and chairs, there are now two new learning environments: the upgraded classroom environment and the distance learning environment. The paper is primarily concerned with teaching in the modern classroom and creating a proper learning environment for students who come to class for long evening sessions or all-day weekend sessions, and who come from the ongoing postmodern culture in which entertainment seems to be omnipresent In searching for the proper classroom learning environment, teachers usually find that the challenges lie not so much in optimizing the physical learning environment, but in how to shape the emotional learning environment that determines how students feel and think, or more importantly, how well teachers influence how students feel and think. Creating a proper learning environment hinges on how teachers develop relationships that make students want to come to class, pay attention, participate and seek to understand the knowledge that is available. There are many obstacles to this endeavor. The paper demonstrates that competent leadership is the primary process teachers must implement to effect an environment for adult learning. Virtually all of the challenges to successful classroom teaching can be approached effectively using leadership skills that most teachers already possess but have underutilized because of various conditions involving the physical classroom and academic administration matters. By focusing on the cultural and attitudinal commonalities among students, a teacher who exercises sensible leadership methods will be able to bring the vast majority of students into a teamwork-based learning experience. A checklist of fourteen proven straightforward actions for teachers culminates the paper, concluding that the key ingredient to an effective learning environment in the modern classroom is a good teacher who employs a leadership process that motivates students to learn despite long sessions, the distractions of the ongoing culture and numerous outside contentions for students' time.