Productive Classroom Community

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Learning is a highly personal and social endeavor. In classrooms, student-student and student-teacher interactions influence each student’s learning and growth. Effective educators are reflective practitioners who examine their role and identity as educators and co-create productive learning communities with and among learners. In these learning communities, educators focus on whole person learning and powerfully cultivate classrooms where each person is respected and invested. Effective educators engage students in the learning process, connect content to students’ lives outside of school, build upon students’ strengths, and address areas where student growth is needed. They effectively and efficiently utilize time, space, energy, and resources to support student learning. Effective educators attend to the context, structures, procedures, and tone of the classroom in ways that support student autonomy and self-efficacy and recognize students’ identities and interests. They also partner with members of the broader community that supports students (families, other educators, etc.) and see these partnerships as essential extensions of the classroom community while keeping the end in mind: student learning, growth, and development.