Ways to Maintain a Safe and Supportive Learning Environment

Understand ways to maintain a safe and supportive learning environment
Description
2.1       Explain ways to maintain a safe and supportive learning environment
2.2       Explain why it is important to promote appropriate behaviour and respect for others
2.1    
It is important to create a learning environment in which students feel safe, relaxed, and willing to take risks, especially for learners who may have had negative experiences in traditional classroom environments. Students often describe supportive learning environments as enhancing their self-esteem, which, when combined with increased literacy skills, help students take more chances in pursuing their goals.
Ways to create a supportive learning environment for learners:
Build a strong classroom community
The classroom can play an important role in helping learners build stronger and larger networks. Classrooms provide learners and staff with friendship, skills, and contacts beyond their immediate communities. Intentionally building networks in the classroom can create meaningful, supportive relationships among learners and teachers.
Use pair work, as well as small-group and whole-class activities, beginning the first day of class to help learners get acquainted, and provide ongoing opportunities for students to form connections with students they don’t interact with as frequently in the classroom. Provide students with opportunities to share about their backgrounds and cultures.
Build self-esteem and self-efficacy
Learners’ determination and belief that they can achieve their goals are important factors in their ongoing learning. Adult learners may have negative feelings about themselves due to failure experienced in their lives, due to dropping out of school, losing a job, or not being able to read or write well enough to complete a job application or read to their children.

Ensure that learners experience success at their first meeting so the first experience is a positive one. It may be...