Introduction
Education denotes the practice of enhancing learning or the acquisition of proficiencies, knowledge, beliefs, morals, and behavior (Dewey 34-36). With respect to a school setting, success in education has to focus on the rights of the learners to survival, safety, development, and involvement while engaging all the stakeholders and creating a favorable environment. Therefore, a successful education could be defined as a learning process that reinforces the abilities of learners and imparts pertinent knowledge, practical skills, and suitable behavior while creating and assisting students in generating a safe, secure, and healthy environment. In the current society, successful education is vitally important for skill improvement, which facilitates social as well as economic functioning. Besides affecting the attitudes of learners, a successful education allows individuals to acquire knowledge, skills, and competencies that they require for effective operation. It is widely agreed that success in education can only take place in an ideal environment, incorporates effective programs, upholds the well-being of learners, and uses supportive teaching practices for quality learning.
Favorable Environment
For a successful education process, an ideal environment is crucial and constitutes distinctive physical, social, and economic features; they need to be splendid in order for both instructors and students to benefit optimally from the process of learning. As a sphere of knowledge, the study of the importance of school environment on student performance dates back to the twentieth century since, as early as 1908 researchers had already begun acknowledging its significance (Dewey 34-36). This underscores that an ideal environment plays an instrumental role in supporting the education system and student development. As it has been revealed continually in research, an ideal school environment plays a key role in determining and strengthening students’ abilities. A favorable school environment consists of four spheres of performance that encompass physical security, connections of all stakeholders such as educators, students, and parents, quality learning techniques, and positive social and psychological aspects.
A favorable school environment has been established to promote commitment to learning and constructive feedback from instructors, which in turn influences learners’ self-confidence and achievement (Bosworth and Judkins 300-304). Fundamentally, a constructive and sustainable school environment contributes significantly to the development of positive behaviors; these are elemental for contributive, productive, and satisfying learning. Besides improving behavior, it promotes an assumption of positive self-concept and the development of high aspirations of students. An ideal school atmosphere has expectations, values, and norms that ensure persons within the learning institution feel physical, socially, and emotionally fit. The instructors, students, and parents engage in the learning process and cooperate to achieve the set goals. The contributions of each stakeholder in such an atmosphere emphasize satisfaction and support the interests of learners. In addition, it encourages increased attendance, thereby preventing incidents of school dropouts. All of these aspects contribute directly to improved performance and intellectual accomplishment.
A caring and safe learning environment provide a strong foundation for academic, interpersonal, and psychological welfare. This enhances the overall health of learners and prevents various risks that undermine effective learning. Furthermore, a favorable school environment influences the meaning that students derive from the learning experience in different ways. Contrary to the assertion by Bosworth and Judkins, in his review, Locke asserts that an ideal school environment motivates students to learn and gain from the resources that the institution provides (53-55). For instance, learning activities like debates and community services provide students with the opportunities of participating actively and enhancing their individual knowledge regarding educational and social systems. This way, they can participate in vital activities within the society. This also enables them to benefit from each other’s ideas and build trust as well as group cohesion.
A wide pool of studies indicates that a favorable school environment is a significant aspect connected to efficient risk preclusion and health promotion attempts, in addition to successful training and learning (Locke 57). A constructive school environment promotes students’ improvement and facilitates education needed for beneficial and productive lives of the learners. Such an environment comprises standards, principles, and beliefs that sustain the learners and educators feeling physically and psychologically stimulated to enhance learning. In a bid to address the ethical, social, emotional, and academic needs of learners, schools should formulate and implement valuable programs.
Effective Programs
Effective programs, such as the CARE (Children’s Activities in a Responsible Environment) program, should be implemented to enable students at all levels to develop and sustain social responsibility, as well as positive relationships at all times. The main objective of the CARE program is to ensure that students become productive and responsible adults who can perform well in the United States and across the globe. It recognizes the need for schools to focus on the ethical, social, and emotional development, in addition to students’ intellectual needs. The regular class meetings necessitated by the program are important in promoting team spirit and encouraging both learners and educators to resolve emergent issues amicably, reflect on the process of learning, and implement informed decisions jointly.
Most importantly, the program incorporates various activities that seek to build a feeling of satisfaction while at school (Bosworth and Judkins 300-304). It focuses on enhancing relationships between teachers, students, parents, and other personnel within the school community. In particular, it encourages all stakeholders to appreciate their differences, help each other, act responsibly, and cooperate with one another to achieve the intended objectives. According to Bosworth and Judkins, these components facilitate educators to identify various opportunities that can enable students to embrace independence without undermining their ability to establish and sustain viable relationships at all levels (303). It is worth noting that a high percentage of students are in their adolescence thus need guidance and direction, especially in decision-making. Teachers should use programs like CARE to help such students to navigate the challenges of adolescence and ultimately attain academic success.
By facilitating support from peers and other stakeholders, the program culminates in a more accurate and objective perception of the available opportunities (Locke 58-60). Furthermore, it allows timely assumption of positive behaviors that encourage effective performance in social and academic settings. Generally, the CARE program endeavors to promote an ideal learning environment; such a setting is essential for overall success in education. CARE implants practical social and psychological learning techniques that can be incorporated in all the educational classes. Various research groups should be encouraged to undertake comprehensive surveys at least once a year to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs in use with respect to stakeholders’ contentment, school customs, performance, and students’ commitment to learning.
Upholding the Welfare of Learners
Grooming school instructors who are acquitted with the imperative role of a school atmosphere that fosters partnership and learning communities and who value the significance of such an environment goes a long way to making education successful. Constructive atmosphere enhances academic accomplishment, achievement of objectives, and health improvement while boosting successful risk deterrence, encouraging student development initiatives, and ensuring instructor satisfaction and retention. Student achievement refers to a situation where a student excels academically, receives life proficiencies, and gives back to the community. It includes intellectual excellence and effective social and civic performance (Crawford 23-25). The main components required for the well-being of learners are staff, safety, effective teaching and learning techniques, and suitable interpersonal relationships. Every one of the components contributes to the success of education in different ways. Moreover, the components share intricate relationships and are all essential to the attainment of a desirable school environment.
According to Lockheed and Levin, the welfare of students comprises of three subcomponents including physical security, psychological wellbeing, and schools’ norms and rules (5-7). With respect to physical security, an ideal climate ensures that both teachers and students within the school environment have a sense of protection from all forms of possible dangers. From a psychological point of view, safety increases concentration and ultimately boosts performance. Regarding emotional wellbeing, it is vitally imperative for students to learn in an environment that promotes social inclusion and discourages teasing and verbal abuse as such malpractices are socially distressing and go a long way to undermining performance. Learners who face insecurity from bullying and other forms of physical and mental abuse are more prone to miss school or perform poorly.
Bosworth and Judkins affirmed that the norms and rules that guide behavior and conduct in the school atmosphere are worth appreciating for their contribution to a successful education experience (300-304). They seek to address pertinent issues relating to harassment, teasing, and physical violence. Relevant authorities should reinforce them consistently and effectively. In a school environment, rules should facilitate adult intervention promptly. This protects students from all forms of harm and ensures that they work in a supportive and comfortable environment. A safe environment teaches both students and teachers about the importance of sustainable conflict resolution strategies. It also allows them to participate actively in the identification of conflicts and gives them a chance to resolve them accordingly. Similar to the affirmation by Bosworth and Judkins, Locke asserted that educators and learners should have confidence in the school rules and norms to promote and sustain emotional, social, and physical safety (60-63).
Contrary to the issue of norms and rules, Dewey established that effective interpersonal relationships in an ideal school environment encourage all persons to respect diversity. This is because modern school environments are complex and diverse (34-36). Persons in an ideal school environment should have mutual respect for cultural, racial, and gender differences. Usually, successful schools have norms and regulations that guide behavior in terms of behavioral standards in place for individuals that do not obey the school’s provisions. For enhanced welfare of the learners, schools should allow educators to initiate and sustain supportive relationships with their students. These are aimed at ensuring that students overcome challenges that can compromise their academic performance. The teachers should show genuine concern about the problems students encounter and be always willing to help them accordingly. In addition, learners in schools ought to maintain reciprocally benefiting relationships with their fellow learners. The socialization practice enables them to share their challenging experiences and problems in an effort of assisting one another. In addition, such a socially supportive system ensures that new students get the necessary help. Arguably, strong social networks enable students to deal with the arising problems effectively.
Teaching and Learning
A successful education system advocates for the use of supportive teaching practices that ensure that students and educators benefit the most from the learning environment (Lockheed and Levin 1-15). To attain this, it encourages effective communication and constant feedback from students. Quality learning also provides students with opportunities to demonstrate their skills, as well as knowledge, in different fields of specification. Certainly, students have abilities to explore various spheres of knowledge without involving their teachers. An ideal climate stimulates creative and critical thinking in the students and allows them to put into practice their theoretical knowhow. Through suitable platforms and programs, a successful education system allows students to share useful insights and knowledge in different disciplines.
For success in education, teachers should give students individualized attention (Lockheed and Levin 1-15). This is beneficial because it enables teachers to understand each student’s capabilities with respect to learning. This way, teachers can devise effective interventional measures with which they can improve the academic achievement of students by addressing their problems effectively. Usually, the educational challenges that students struggle with differ considerably. In their article, Lockheed and Levin suggest that triumph over challenges in education sector requires educators to embark on quality instruction and ensure high student achievement (5-10).
The role of the educators is to use all types of effective instructional methods and make sure that students understand the course content. Besides providing help when the need arises, instructors who understand the importance of quality instruction always aim at linking learning to practical life scenarios. In this regard, they offer students the opportunity to participate actively in the process of learning. A successful education approach ensures that students receive social and civic knowledge and skills. These differ and range from disagreement solving abilities, efficient listening, proper decision-making, and individual accountability to mention a few. Using them, the learners establish, initiate, sustain, and nurture lasting success in all spheres of life.
Effective communication allows all stakeholders to evaluate the performance of the school at all times and make credible contributions to its wellbeing. Apart from effective communication, a successful education process embraces social inclusion (McBrayer par. 4). Inherent interconnectedness boosts the morale of all the stakeholders and encourages them to concentrate their efforts on meeting the goals and objectives of the school. The physical surroundings of the school are also an imperative component of success. Schools that value the process of learning also provide sufficient facilities and opportunities for extracurricular activities. This culminates in holistic growth and strengthens the mind, inculcates time management skills, and allows students to explore other interests outside the academic framework.
Conclusion
Education signifies the practice of facilitating learning or gaining expertise, understanding, morals, and behavior. For enhanced success, education has to focus on the rights of the students to survival, wellbeing, development, and engagement while involving every stakeholder and generating an ideal environment. A successful education is a learning progression that strengthens the abilities of students and imparts significant knowledge, skills, and positive behavior while generating a favorable environment. Success in education necessitates an ideal environment, incorporation of effective programs, supporting the wellbeing of students, and application of supportive teaching practices. A successful education process gives students a chance to succeed academically and explore their capabilities outside the classroom through such things as extracurricular activities.
Works Cited
Bosworth, Kris, and Maryann Judkins. “Tapping into the Power of School Climate to Prevent Bullying: One Application of Schoolwide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports.” Theory into Practice, vol. 53, no. 4, 2014, pp. 300-307.
Crawford, Matthew. Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. Penguin, 2010.
Dewey, John. The school and Society, and the Child and the Curriculum. Dover Publications, 2001.
Locke, John. Some Thoughts Concerning Education. Hackett Publishing, 1996.
Lockheed, Marlaine, and Henry Levin. “Creating Effective Schools.” Effective Schools in Developing Countries, vol. 1, no. 1, 2012, pp. 1-18.
McBrayer, Justin. “Why Our Children don’t think there are Moral Facts.” The New York Times, 2015, Web.