
Thaddeus Ryan Komorowski
Significant Learning Environments
A New Culture of Learning
To create a significant learning environment within a new learning culture, the focus should be on student-centered learning and emphasize the core elements of passion, imagination, and discovery built with “play” in mind. Thomas and Brown, in their book “A New Culture of Learning” (2012), describe play as the tension between the rules of the game and the freedom to act within those rules. But when play happens within a medium for learning—much like a culture in a petri dish—it creates a context in which information, ideas, and passions grow”(p. 7). For children, passion comes from their view of the world and their curiosity as they grow and evolve. As educators, it is essential that we create environments that give students the chance to explore and cultivate their passions through developing environments that encourage “play” instead of being penalized for incorrect answers or ideas.
“Furthermore, while imagination and play are prominent in children, teacher-centered and test-focused classrooms have forced students to become motivated by grades instead of pursuing and expanding upon those curiosities that create their passion and take their learning further than any current educational setting will allow. This view of creating a different environment is outlined clearly in the formula discussed by Thomas and Brown (2011), who claim that “play becomes a strategy for embracing change, rather than a way for growing out of it” (p. 48). Embracing the new learning culture requires looking at the dimensions on which learning is based on, knowing, making, and playing (Thomas & Brown, 2011). A student-centered classroom is a classroom where passion and imagination, within the learning and safety guidelines, are embraced through the dimensions of knowing, making, and playing. This creates a significant learning environment and allows students to develop the 21st-century skills necessary to succeed.
References
Thomas, Douglas; Seely Brown, John. (2012): A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change
(p. 7, 48). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Learning Philosophy - Intro
Learning is an enduring change in behavior, or in the capacity to behave in a given fashion, which results from practice or other forms of experience.”
-Dale H. Schunk
I have chosen a quote from Dale H. Schunk as my definition because it brings together much of what I have read thus far. Just as there is no one accepted definition of learning, there are several learning theories that speak to how students learn, and each has its own recommendation on how to create the best learning environment.
My leaning Philosophy can be summed up in an old adage that states: “Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand.” But now, seeing through a comprehensive student-centered learning lens, I would like to take this a step further by adding, “challenge me, and I learn.”

text
text
text
text