Last Lecture of the Summer

We had our last lecture of the session today. It was about learning environments and the impact they can have on students. There haven’t really been many significant research studies on this topic, so we got most of our information from videos produced by the architects of these spaces as well as self-reported data from students and teachers. A lot of the rooms we saw that were targeted for younger children had couches and lofts and pillows all over the place so the students could pretty much sit wherever. Honestly, it looked really messy and I think that I would find it hard to learn in that type of situation. However, several students self-reported saying that they felt like they learned more easily lounging on the couch with their friends. To me, it seemed like they liked it more on the couch, so they felt like they were learning better, when they might not have been. The whole thing feels like a “learning style” situation; students prefer to be taught in a certain way, and sometimes that way is best for a certain topic, but that doesn’t mean it should be used for everything. When students are collaborating, then maybe having a room with soft furniture all over the place would be beneficial, but there are so many things that could potentially distract kids in that kind of setup that I can’t see it being helpful for standard learning. There is a lack of strong data for this topic, so I could be wrong, but that’s just how I see these environments.

Tomorrow is our final presentation, and our final papers are also due, so we didn’t have class after lunch. Instead, we worked on our presentations within our groups. As usual, my group went down to the A level of the library. We had started assigning roles and lines for the presentation yesterday, so there wasn’t much for us to do but practice and finalize the information. We finished at around 2:00 PM, and I spent the time from 2:00 PM until around 6:00 PM finishing up the discussion section of my research paper; everything else was already completed. At around 6:00 PM, I went to go play soccer to give my brain a break, and consequently I almost missed dinner.

Before I started cleaning.

I didn’t do much after dinner but proofread my paper, do laundry, and pack my stuff up. While I was packing, I remember going through the same motions before the trip, and it reminded of how much I’ve changed as a person over these three weeks. This is the longest I’ve spent away from my family, and also my first time living with a roommate for an extended period of time. I’ve had to adopt new habits, such as coming into the room quietly late at night in case George is sleeping, as well as remembering to take my laundry out of the washing machine and put it into the dryer. There are people from all across the country and world that I’ve met, and I’ve experienced so many different perspectives on the same topics. It’s reminded me that the political and social climate where I live isn’t the same as it is in other countries, states, or even cities.