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Classroom environment effects on learning

by Gene Van Tassell

The answer to why certain memories are passed onto long term memory (LTM) rather than being lost in short term memory (STM) is certainly of interest to educators. Information which is simply memorized can be passed on to LTM. Information passed on to LTM by frequent rehearsing can be memorized and stored in LTM, but has significant drawbacks. Information which memorized is often poorly labeled and stored in isolated areas of the brain where it can be difficult to locate at a later time. The pathways to these storage areas are narrow and singular. These storage systems are often called taxon memory. Taxon memory systems are relatively isolated and resistant to change.

People who are motivated by extrinsic motivation generally show less long term interesting the activity than those who are intrinsically motivated. Amabile (1985) suggests that "people who engage in an intrinsically interesting activity in the presence of salient extrinsic constraints will show less subsequent interest in that activity than people who do not work under such constraints" (p. 393). Students who receive extrinsic rewards for their work are less likely to be interested in their work than students who do not receive such rewards. "In fact there are numerous studies that show that when people expect to receive a reward for achievement, they perform less well than those who expect nothing" (Edwards, 1994, p. 342).

Creativity is an important aspect of education which is often overlooked in an attempt by educators to emphasize subject matter over problem solving skills. Creativity is stifled by external rewards and extrinsic motivation. Rewards can lead to increased pressure and stress for those receiving the rewards to perform well. Rewarding people for the same efforts that would be undertaken otherwise tends to decrease risk taking. This increase of pressure results in a decrease of exploration of new ideas. Creativity can take on many characteristics and attributes. Daniels (1996) details twelve characteristics of creativity. They are awareness, independence, risk taking, energetic, sense of humor/playfulness, curious, attracted to complexity, open-minded, artistic, privacy, perceptive, and original. Maintaining that creativity requires instruction strategies and dealing with classroom challenges which arise from increased creativity of students.

The positive affective outcomes from interdisciplinary education can positively affect creativity. Sampling, browsing, open-ended, varied topic ,and thematic education are key words for interdisciplinary education. These outcomes are the educational strategies required for increasing creativity in the classroom. This lack of creativity is particularly important considering the compartmentalization of subjects by modern school systems. Not only is creativity stifled by the rewards, but the connection of one subject to another is harmed by the increased pressure on students by reward systems.

Educators often spend classroom time emphasizing facts rather than skills. An emphasis on a subject without reference to other subjects leaves long taxon systems in the brain which remain unrelated to each other. It should not be surprising that students have difficulty relating one subject to another subject when taxon memory is emphasized in education. Too often teaching methods are mainly a lecture, with follow-up tests that require memorization of data rather than stimulating higher levels of thinking. If knowledge is to reside in long term memory, then it is important to increase the number of pathways by which information can be retrieved. The factory method of education with an emphasis on memorization has been unsuccessful.