While involving oneself in a facilitative learning environment for a child, one should, in essence, create a learning environment which would facilitate both the child and the teacher in growing in it. If learning is a valuable commodity, then the environment or setting through which one goes through, it or it happens in, is also a refuge or a haven. In instucko, the ratio between the student and the teacher is 3:1 in order to create a bond between the child and the teacher in the process. But why a bond between the child and the teacher, or teaching, a necessity in a child’s environment, you may ask? Researchers have found it a necessity in making the environment healthy or positive through which a child goes, which directly helps in improved proficiency levels in academics, along with mastery or control in the social area.
Since each child is different from others, and different constructs and strategies are to be used accordingly, it becomes difficult for the teacher to change themselves as per the demands of the child in a class where there are many children. Rather, they have no other option but to adopt one universal strategy, which can prove to be quite beneficial for some or maybe many children. This is left to chance. At instrucko, we realize that impermanency lies in leaving the development of the child in terms of chance. The attention of the teacher or environment must play an important part.
The Minister of Education in Ontario has made 20 students the maximum number allowed in a classroom after consultations with the council, which involves the representative of the members of the directors of education in Ontario. Teachers have come on several occasions to address the issue and put across how significantly students feel in a small classroom environment. However, the teachers have accepted that it is not very easy for them to devote enough time to the students and, in the process, give them their rightful time in return. The teachers’ union in Ontario has refused to accept classroom teaching with students in surplus numbers. This, as it happens, is not very easy for maintaining a connection with students, as well as making them realize their importance in the room and in the whole setting, no matter how small their number is in the classroom might be. However, the teachers have accepted that when students are more in the classroom, the education in the classroom goes from bad to worse as well.
In a small-class setting, the teacher and children are able to really bond, which is extremely helpful for the development of the child not only on an academic level but on a personal level as well. This is an opportunity for the teacher and children to spend time together, targeted on areas where they specifically need to be improved, thus enabling an increased development for the teacher and children. In fact, it has been proved by studies that children feel liberated and confident, empowered to take risks, make mistakes, and learn when they feel secure and confident around their educators. This is a bond that is not easy to breach, since it is founded on something positive, caring, and respectful. It is only when the teacher is able to think about the child’s ability, strength, and needs that the curriculum is imparted to the child in a way that is best suited to the child and the manner in which he or she learns. At instrucko, we don’t believe in factory producing education for children; rather, we give it the human touch to make the learning environment richer for the child to foster social-emotional development.