What Makes an Ideal Classroom in an Ideal School? (Research Paper Sample)

An Ideal Classroom within an Ideal School
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Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc7010125 \h 2Personal Philosophy on Ideal School and Classroom PAGEREF _Toc7010126 \h 3Curriculum PAGEREF _Toc7010127 \h 5Ideal Classroom PAGEREF _Toc7010128 \h 6Ideal Physical Environment PAGEREF _Toc7010129 \h 6Ideal Classroom Layout PAGEREF _Toc7010130 \h 7Learning Environment PAGEREF _Toc7010131 \h 8An Ideal School PAGEREF _Toc7010132 \h 9Leadership PAGEREF _Toc7010133 \h 9High Expectations PAGEREF _Toc7010134 \h 10On-going Evaluation, Assessment, and Training PAGEREF _Toc7010135 \h 10Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc7010136 \h 11
Introduction
The question as to what constitutes an ideal classroom in an ideal school has dominated educational discourses for a long time. Ranging from early thinkers and philosophers in Greek and Rome to later days and contemporary educators everyone has had something to say about the topic. Some thinkers have opined that education should be geared towards making the learner a critical and moral thinker while others have argued for a hybrid orientation that equips the learner with relevant values and skills to solve human problems and advance civilisation. This paper is a critical reflection of the author’s thoughts on what constitute an ideal classroom and school. The paper argues that an ideal school should be secure and adequately equipped while an ideal classroom should be tailored to facilitate engaging and meaningful activities that would make achievement of learning objectives easy.
Personal Philosophy on Ideal School and Classroom
Throughout my years of schooling, training and practice, I have thought about and formulated a philosophy that is grounded on the need to make education most effective, meaningful, and relevant to students. An effective and ideal school should be able to address all the domains of learning namely cognitive, psychomotor, and affective development. The cognitive domain deals with the acquisition of perceptual and intellectual skills that would enable learners think critically for themselves. The psychomotor aspect entails the development of physical competence that would enable learners move with dexterity and acquire good posture and excellent manual skills. Lastly, the affective domain encompasses the inculcation of values, attitudes, and norms that would enable the learners live with self-confidence and co-exist peacefully with others. With globalisation and ease of connectivity, the affective domain should address the acquisition of cultural competence that would enable learners fit and thrive in a global context.
To address the three domains highlighted above effectively, I believe the school should have the appropriate hardware and software. The hardware part deals with the physical attributes such as secure, well-constructed, and adequate classrooms and relevant facilities such playground and games equipment, laboratory, lavatories, books, teachers, and other physical learning aids. The software part refers to the intangible materials such as quality of teachers, leadership, learning methods, and curriculum. When the right software runs inside the right hardware, an ideal school is achieved.
The school should be designed in such a way that no learner is left behind. So often, schools only cater for the top students. With the imperative to pass high stakes examinations taking centre stage, the so called slow learners are left on their own. In my ideal school, learning would be individualised. This means that the school and the teacher would design learning such that at the end of the lesson, every learner would have achieved the general objectives as well as the learner-specific objectives. If it is a mathematics class for instance, the gifted and talented learner should be facilitated to achieve his learning objectives. The same should also apply to the learner with certain learning disabilities that mean that he cannot achieve the same learning objectives at the same pace. I am aware that such an approach may be unpopular because of the teacher-student ratio in many public schools and the need to make the school attractive to parents by passing exams. However, I strongly believe that learning should be equal to the ability of the learner and no one should be left behind because they are not as fast as the other learners.
I believe that an ideal school should focus more on literacy and numeracy. This does not mean that other subjects should be downgraded. In fact, an emphasis on the ability to read and count will translate to improved performance in the other subjects. At the pre-school and early stages of schooling, more emphasis should be placed to ensure that learners learn how to read and speak well. Moreover, schools should provide learners with the opportunity to acquire foreign languages. As the world becomes a global society and demography continues to change it is vital that students are exposed to other languages to make them competitive in the global market.
Lastly, I believe that an ideal school should incorporate information technology. Presently, many aspects of life depend on technology. Robots have become an integral part of the labour force and practically all spheres of life run on technology. Countries that have invested heavily in IT are reaping the dividends. I believe