Creating a Learning Environment or Managing a Classroom?

_I have changed the language I use when referring to the task of ensuring that students are productive in learning. This effort is often called "classroom management," but I now call it "creating a learning environment."

My shift is not superficial. Rather, I know that language influences the way we frame a situation, duty, or role. Classroom management supports the perspective that the components of the classroom, including the students, are to be controlled and manipulated, however kindly this task is approached by a teacher.

On the other hand, creating a learning environment is about paying attention to aspects of the classroom that support learning and augmenting them with further efforts. The focus is on the goal--learning--and what leads to it, rather than on a teacher's behavior in managing the class.

When teachers focus upon creating a learning environment, they are likely to look at the entire classroom and evaluate myriad components of a learning-supportive space, rather than thinking about managing students and their behaviors. The task is more complex, more holistic, and more realistic in seeing all the factors that lead to learning, or not.

Sometimes a simple shift in phrasing can be the first step in engaging in Learnership, which is leadership for learning.