Do MLE actually raise the academic achievement of students?

Edchatnz is a great Thursday night twitter conversation that is fast paced and really gets you thinking. Last week’s conversation was no different - MLE Modern Learning Environments.

Lately I have distanced myself from this term as since beginning my journey into this area, I have realised how much my opinion and ideas have changed. I have realized and seen that although some schools use the term MLE they still teaching like a single cell classroom just in a bigger space.

I began to question what was really changing. Had we misinterpreted what MLE were supposed to be? Should we have never introduced the ‘bean bag’ catch phrase? Had we run with one idea and forgotten to look at all the other parts of a MLE? Is ‘modern’ the best word to use at all?

A lot of educators have been throwing out the term MLP- Modern Learning Practices. To sum it up teachers are creating a personalised, collaborative and reflective classroom. This is where I am. I teach in a single cell classroom in a school where the buildings are older than me! But I am changing the way I teach and think students should learn. My pedagogy is changing and becoming more in line with what students of today need.

One of the questions raised by the devil’s advocate aka @BeccaSweeney was Do MLE actually raise the academic achievement of students? This is what others thought.

I have been questioning this as a parent and a teacher. To be honest, I don’t think they do. It’s more about the MLP that is happening inside these buildings rather than the building itself. And this can happen in a brand new  building or  a 40 year old prefabs. The only bonus of a MLE is that you can easily fit more than 30 students into a room and it allows for more collaboration among teachers.

I made a hard decision last term to pull my son out of a MLE. I began to realize some MLE schools believed that by letting students move from class to class to be taught by different they were  ‘modern’. Yet they were still streaming their reading, writing and maths groups.  I wrote about this and my own personal battle about how we were trying to develop a more MLP and what I felt wasn’t working. The more I reflected on my own teaching and learning practices with my own class the more I became aware this was not happening in my sons own school. Therefore I made the decision to move him. I realized by putting him into a school that worked more on MLP rather than focused on the MLE his own mindset about school and learning had completely changed. I suddenly had a child who was learning and wanted to learn!

So no, MLE don’t raise the academic achievements of students it is more about the teaching and learning and how inline it is with MLP’s. This is only my own personal experience and I also think a lot also come down to the teacher/ student relationship as well as how dedicated a teacher is to wanting her students to succeed. But then if they’re dedicated, they are probably a teacher who is always reflecting, changing and looking at ways to improve themselves to meet the needs of their students.

This has got me thinking a lot about where I want to head with my journey. So far we still stream for maths and reading. This is something I want to try and change next term but and still unsure how. Mainly because this term we had two new teachers start with us and next term I will have another new teacher starting. I have to think about what is best for my students but also what is best for a teaching coming in half way through the year.

With 112 students and five classrooms where 3 are still single cell it does face me with a lot of challenges. I know where I want to head, but it is the getting there that is causing me headaches!

Part of me still feels I am only halfway there with my MLP’s and I have areas I still need to work on and change.  Where we are focusing more on MLP I can see the benefits. In those areas I can see that students have succeeded and are enjoying their learning. My job now is to work out how to continue and develop my MLP’s so that the whole day is like this.