By Don Holtz, Lansing Community College, MI, student of Glenn Rand

10
The Environment

“The best learning takes place on a log, with the teacher on one end and the student on the other.”

Socrates

There are two important parts of the environment within the classroom. Though it is easy to define the classroom environment as its physical realities, the psychological aspects of the environment are also very important. The classroom environment is made up of people and things. Thus we must deal with both the physical and human limits of the classroom setting.

When we look at the people in the classroom, we must be other-directed in our discussion. While there are as many types of personalities, attitudes, and attributes for the teachers in the classroom, as teachers we are looking at how we can best utilize the classroom environment to affect learning. Thus our view must be toward the variations in the student cohort rather than toward differences in teacher personalities. Though both students and teachers inhabit the classroom environment, because of the nature of the single-teacher-to-many-students format of most classroom situations, the best advancement of our topic comes from discussing student variations.

Relationships

The classroom is part of an environment in which interactions take place between students and teacher and among students. A healthful social environment encourages learning; a defective one interferes with learning.

“Mental facts cannot be properly studied apart from the physical environment in which they take cognizance.”

William James

Unless the students' previous educational experiences have been wholly bad, they come to a new class with at least the hope something good will happen. We see this feeling especially when students enter college—after the trauma associated with “Will I be accepted at the college of my choice?”—but also when students move from grade to grade, to high school, etc. Particularly within photography, where students have selected the program or the course because of the desire to pursue a personal interest, the hope for a positive outcome is most pronounced.

Students in elective courses, curricula, and higher levels of education often have a romantic view of what the new educational process will involve. They expect to find their teachers to be inspirational, possessing greatness and being magnificent, but they do not always find these characteristics.

Students will sometimes, because of unfortunate experiences, have come to look at the educational process as a kind of contest. Even the usual classroom physical arrangement encourages the concept of a group of students set against a teacher. The teacher is looked on as an adversary who should be at least resisted, and sometimes attacked.

Both of these notions of education—the romanticism and the battle-ground concept—must be abandoned in favor of a cooperative attitude, which is possible only if students and teachers agree on the goals of education, and only if a rapport is gradually developed; ideally a rapport will develop with every student, but unfortunately in practice this happens only with some students.

Students as People

Students come to us from widely different backgrounds and bring remarkably different abilities and needs. Although we know that it is wrong to categorize human beings, even students, it is hard not to do so, and to describe, as we do, “kinds” of students, however superficial this description may be.

Some students have experienced permissiveness in their families and in their schools. Some students have experienced only authoritarianism. Most teachers adopt perhaps the middle ground, but we can hardly satisfy every student's need in this respect. We must let the students know our sets of educational values, and expect them to respect those values. Above all, we must not vacillate; this kind of action puts students in the uncomfortable and wasteful position of having to guess what kind of action is right at the moment.

“We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die.”

Albert Camus

Other students are argumentative or antagonistic without knowing why. To such students, teachers represent authority, and some of these students rebel against all authority. In the classroom, a discussion between a teacher and the students may conceivably contribute to the learning of many students, but an argument is usually fruitless. Teachers must recognize when a discussion turns into an argument and terminate it politely, with a request to the arguing students to arrange for a meeting later. Often this ends the matter. Personal conference permits communication between a teacher and a student whereas in the classroom both of the participants find the presence of an audience distracting.

Some students need continual attention. They ask superficial questions in class, they swarm about the teacher after class, sometimes follow him to his office, and often seem to be a nuisance. Usually, such students are seeking reassurance, and we need to be understanding and patient until they can become more self-sufficient. Above all, never tease or ridicule these students, or any others. Their needs are real.

“Must a teacher be objective, impartial, and capable of seeing the world from every viewpoint? It seems to me that a teacher functions best when he operates from his own emotional base, using whatever self-control has been granted him and whatever degree of poise he has achieved to work from his own base with integrity and passion. In this environment, the student will be more in harmony with what he knows and recognizes of his own reality.”

Henry Holms Smith

Indiana University, IN

After assigning a few grades, we can identify the students who are aggressive about their grades, who will try to persuade us to raise their score few points. Teachers should always be willing to review the test and to review all the questions on it. Perhaps on rescoring, we will find that we have scored a question a little too liberally, and conversely some too strictly. Plain errors should, of course, always be admitted and promptly corrected. But where there are matters of judgment, students should realize, and they seldom do, that their test responses may well be overrated as well as underrated. When they understand this, they usually become less demanding. For the perpetual malcontents, who insist that they feel they should have received a higher grade, end the argument by recognizing their feeling, agreeing that they are entitled to their feelings, but being firm in your considered judgment. Discussions with students about grades offer an opportunity to help students understand what grading is about, what your attitude is toward grading, and thus to further the students' comprehension of the educational process. Thus the teacher should by no means avoid confrontation, but should welcome it. Naturally, the teacher should have previously thought through carefully what the grading process implies, and should obviously have scored the test, projects, and other papers with care and good judgment.

Students who have not yet learned that education is a cooperative process delight in catching the teacher in a mistake. Since teachers are as fallible as the rest of humankind, we will surely make errors. An appropriate response is to admit the error and to thank the student for detecting it, without embarrassment or trying to cover up. For teachers to insist that they are still learning is a sign to the students of professional honesty and sincerity, and students generally will approve. Note also that if teachers do not attach much importance to minor blunders on their part, they must not be overly critical of similar blunders made by the students. If, on the contrary, teachers are excessively fussy about details of student work, they must be similarly fussy about what they say and do; in this case small teacher errors may take on an undue importance.

“Thinking you know when in fact you don't is a fatal mistake, to which we are all prone.”

Bertrand Russell

Improvisation vs. Rigidity

Many students and teachers are comfortable only in a tightly structured learning situation. This is especially true for beginning, or insecure, students and teachers, for whom relatively fixed patterns ensure no surprises: everyone knows what he is expected to do.

Subject-oriented teachers tend to think of the course content as unalterable. It is unfortunate if the teacher must say, “we have no time for this subject,” regardless of the appropriateness of the material at that moment. A student-oriented teacher, on the other hand, is continually aware of the students' behavior and engagement in the learning, or the contrary. In the very best learning situations, the teacher has been so expert in the course content that he or she can almost forget about the content to be presented. The teacher can concentrate instead on the students and what is happening to them. Such a teacher can improvise creatively; trying two, three, or four methods of explaining a difficult topic can open up opportunities to find new ways to teach a process or an idea.

We must attend to the quality as well as to the quantity of learning. It is better for the students to “make” five prints in the darkroom or on an inkjet printer, if these are well executed and well understood, than to make twenty hastily and poorly produced pictures. However, time must be available for renewed tries at learning when the first or second tries have clearly been insufficient. To leave the subject only “half-learned” or incorrectly understood is damaging to the student.

Anxiety

Many students spend 16 or more years in formal educational pursuits. During much of the time they are assigned tasks that they find meaningless or oppressive, too easy, or too hard. Furthermore, students are almost continually being examined and criticized, and their mistakes are pointed out. Under this long-time, intense scrutiny, in such a demanding situation, it is not unreasonable that students feel stressed. They often develop a continuing anxiety. The most secure of adults could hardly avoid the same feelings in the same situation.

Anxiety is most obvious during the most stressful situations, especially examinations. Students chew pencils and fingernails, frown, and mutter. They blank out mentally and make ridiculous blunders. They get sick.

“A good classroom environment is where the students feel safe to be able to make mistakes and grow. Where they do not have to be perfect.”

Roxanne Frith

Lansing Community College, MI

Teachers, if they care about their students, should do what they can to reduce anxiety. Five ideas can be used to reduce the anxiety in the learning environment. First, the physical environment should be pleasant and free of discomfort and ugliness. This is especially important when the outcome of the education, as in photography, is to be visual and creative. Second, within the limits of human capacity, remain calm under stress as a model for the students. Next, avoid unrelenting pressure on the students. Provide periods of relaxation; maintaining a sense of humor is invaluable. Fourth, reduce as far as possible sources of anxiety in tests. Do not constantly remind students of the time remaining or of how well they're doing. Steer clear of staring over the backs of students as they are taking a test. Last and above all, plan the learning situation so that success for the students is normal, to be expected. When failure occurs, make it a reason for new attempts to learn, not for punishment.

“Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.”

Plato

It needs to be mentioned that the physical environment can increase anxiety if the environment is unfamiliar. For example, if an examination is moved from the normal classroom to a large and unfamiliar space, such as a new lecture hall or gymnasium, the likelihood that anxiety will increase and have a detrimental effect on test performance is increased.

Caveats about Teaching Methods

Some teachers take pleasure in insult and sarcasm. Students properly resent being treated this way. Correcting student behavior is often necessary, but it should be done with the intent of helping students rather than putting them down. The teacher, by definition within the educational and institutional structure, is in a superior role, and need not reinforce this role at the expense of the students.

“If I could pass along just one thought to current photography and would-be photography teachers, it would be this: Don't underestimate the influence you have on students. They are in your class because they are passionate about photography. They want to learn from…that's right…you! The students value your opinion. Tremendously. So, choose your words carefully. Remember that you can break someone's spirit (or heart) with a single word, such as ‘pedestrian.’”

Rick Sammon

Conversely, some teachers want to be popular with their students, and may avoid confronting them with necessary and perhaps unpleasant obligations. It hurts, rather than helps, students to let them get away with something important. For example, once a due date has been set for a photographic project, with suitable attention to the appropriate timing, this date should be strictly adhered to. Learning to meet reasonable deadlines is an important part of education. Allowing students to practice poor standards undermines both the educational purposes and the teacher.

Teachers who are overly authoritarian and dogmatic fail to realize that their students' personalities represent the broad spectrum of human behavior. The teacher must structure the learning process and environment in terms of timing and emphasis, but also must provide room and time for students to try to express their own capacities, even at the risk of making mistakes. On the other hand, teachers who are excessively permissive, for whom anything goes, are ducking the real issues of education, and avoiding the tough aspects of their job. Realistic goals must be set for students to aim at and the teacher should expect progress toward those goals.

“Intolerance of ambiguity is the mark of an authoritarian personality.”

Theodor Adorno

An Equality of Rights

In enlightened schools and universities, the question of academic freedom for teachers has been settled in principle, if not in detail. Students also have rights, we suppose, but they are as yet not as well defined nor even as widely accepted. However, student rights are major portion of the environment that assists in the learning process. Both sets of rights have a major effect on the learning environment.

The doctrines that the administration and faculty of a school know what is best for the students, and that the students should take what they are offered, are being seriously examined. Matters of appearance, language, and behavior are considered by some schools to be properly regulated by the school or administration. Many students believe otherwise, and are urging that school administrators leave these matters to the students. Some students even demand a voice in, if not control over, such concerns as course content, curriculum planning, teaching methods, and faculty appointments. The appropriateness of a student-run or student-demanded curriculum ebbs and flows within educational philosophy and will continue through the life of institutions and programs.

Regardless of the merits of the case for more and more student influence over the educational environment, perhaps the following precepts express the minimum that most students expect: Students have the right to be taught well. Their teachers should be competent and worthy of respect. Elementary courses require the most effective teachers, since it is in these courses that the right start must be made in the educational process. Less competent teachers may handle upper level courses, since by that stage of their education students should be on the way to becoming self-educatable.

Students, at every level, have the right to ask questions about educational policies and programs, and to express their opinion about curriculum and course objectives, teaching methods, course and curriculum requirements, grading policies and procedures, etc. School officials should welcome rather than resist such questioning. For students to inquire about these matters is a sign that the educational process is really functioning and that the students are deeply involved in their learning. Furthermore, embarrassing questions may well serve as a stimulus for school officials to reexamine their policies and practices, and perhaps change them for the better.

Perception and Proxemics

In photographic education today we are between an older technology, with its unique spatial (environmental) demands, and a newer one, with a different set of requirements for educational space. However, the requirements for several areas—the lecture and critique spaces— are common to both old and new imaging technologies. Regardless of the technologies taught in the educational environment, the physical, psychological, and sociological complements of the educational space impact learning.

When we speak of an educational space we most often concern ourselves with the physical realities of the environment. To understand the physical function of educational spaces we must delve into the perceptions and proxemics of the spaces that we use as classrooms and laboratories. Proxemics is the study of social and behavioral aspects among individuals within spatial environments; proxemics has a great effect within the educational space and therefore on teaching and learning.

Limits of Educational Spaces

It is easy to see the physical reality of walls as defining a classroom or laboratory. While the limits created by the physicality of the educational environment are apparent, we must be concerned with how the environment controls the perceptions that we will need to help us teach photography, and how the perceptions control the limits that will allow students to learn.

From the perceptual point of view, we can see the physical, environmental limits as barriers to primarily the visual and aural senses and as constraining motor activity. We normally do not define spaces in terms of single sensory modes, but this is perhaps the easiest way to suggest the limits of space and how these go together to create a successful classroom or laboratory.

Vision

Vision is the most important part in learning photography. Whether it is learning to see and communicate or the ability to acquire information, it can be said that the learning process in photography is mostly dependent on visual aspects. Because of the specific and general roles of vision within photographic education, attention must be paid to the visual environment.

If we do not consider the visual extent of the environment, we may be inadvertently lessening learning. Within photographic education the visual environment not only defines the space for education, but also affects how the space will function to serve learning. To start, as obvious as it may seem, this can be critical for exhibition and critique spaces. If vision is restricted, then learning from looking at images will be limited. Our concentration on viewing images defines what we require when speaking of exhibition or critique space: an environment that accommodates images within the learning space augments the ideas we wish to present about photography. Therefore, to create a better photographic learning environment we need to create and maintain a visually stimulating environment.

“The national differences in perception of space during interpersonalencounters are not racially determined: they are expressions of socialinfluences rooted in history and experienced during early life. These influencesaffect also the perception of other aspects of the environment.”

René Dubos

Experience shows and studies recognize that when the visual environment is active, giving students visual stimulation, the environment will positively affect creativity. However, the visual environment can be too busy and then become a distraction. The environment can and often is a model for the visual and educational style of the photography produced within or in conjunction with the space.

Studies have also shown that brighter and more saturated colored walls increase student readiness to learn. Visual stimulation is used to raise awareness and increase readiness for learning. An interesting corollary to the concept of visually stimulating environments is the creation of a nonstimulatory environment for a critique area and for a computer laboratory. When instructing about or having students work with image creation software, where color correctness (color management) is important, the use of neutral, nonsaturated colors positively affects the learning and the image production.

Beyond the effective environment for photographic education, vision directly affects how we receive information and how we define the spaces we use for education. For this reason we must first state that limits to perception create spatial barriers. Most common is the use of a barrier placed in the line of sight to define a territory for a class or laboratory. For the space to be defined, the limiting aspect need not be a total visual block, though the denser the visual barrier, the more easily perceived the barrier becomes and the better is the definition of the educational space. The use of small dividers restricts light pollution in a darkroom and can establish a sense of territory in a computer laboratory. This is quite common in the office layout, as seen in the use of cubicles to provide partial visual barriers, without permanent walls. This layout is also used within professional and educational studios, where “go-bos,” light-blocking boards or portable walls, are employed to divide a studio for both territorial purposes and lighting control.

“Man actively though unconsciously structures his visual world. Few people realize that vision is not passive but active, in a transaction between man and his environment in which both participate.”

Edward Hall

The territorial concept is important for many courses. To assure that the high level of concentration needed for learning is possible, the class meeting environment and territory require definition, but sometimes creating physical, visual barriers to define a classroom environment is not practical. For example, in colder climates, it is not uncommon for classes to be moved outdoors when spring finally arrives. In this situation, the physical reality of holding class on an open, grassy mall, without the possibility of having the visible barriers that normally define the classroom, often invites distraction. In this case, the focus of the class can be directed by having the students form a closed, inward-looking circle, with the teacher and the demonstration at the center, and by the heightened sense of importance of the relationship between the setting and the lesson. Although teaching photography in the great outdoors may not produce as strong an educational experience as does being in a controlled visual environment, an outdoor environment is appropriate for demonstrations of things such as zone system measurements and adjustments on a view camera, which are commonly required of photographers in just such a setting.

Lighting

The lighting level allows for visual control and definition of space as well as for promoting attention within the learning process. As the light level decreases, there will be a noticeable decline in the sound level of persons within the environment. In the darkroom, it will not be uncommon to have students working in near silence. A brightly lit classroom will tend to promote louder conversation. However, there is need to provide sufficient light to allow note taking, reading, and/or other activities important to the learning tasks at hand.

“Creativity—like human life itself—begins in darkness.”

Julia Cameron

For a lecture using slides, PowerPoint, projected video, or video, a lower light level is more appropriate. For critique, particularly for single images in larger classes, a concentrated light source on the photograph, controlling for glare, promotes attention and proper viewing. From the traditional side of photographic technologies, a darkroom should be exactly that, dark, but lighting still is important. For a black and white darkroom where safelights can be employed, adjusting the safelights to the highest level that will not fog photographic materials is beneficial, since this level of lighting will allow students to take notes as well as work with their photographic papers. In the color darkroom we must avoid any light, direct or indirect. Things such as glow tape on the floor and emergency exits are appropriate for safety reasons. On the computer side of photographic technology, the lighting in workspaces needs to be moderate to avoid glare from surfaces near the workstations, while providing sufficient light for keyboard and other non-screen activities. The lighting must fit the educational purpose.

sound

The auditory aspects of classroom environments are often neglected unless there is a faulty system employed. It is said of a movie's sound that good sound or music goes unnoticed…bad ones cannot be missed. Many aspects of the physical environment affect the students' ability to gain the information being presented. The direction, strength, and tone of the presentation source as well as the physical environment are all involved in the auditory portion of successful teaching. The personal aspects of creating the proper educational auditory environment can simply be discussed as speaking clearly at a level that can be properly heard by the whole class.

“The most intelligible part of language is not the words, but the tone, force, modulation, tempo in which a group of words are spoken—that is, the music behind the words, the emotion behind the music; everything that cannot be written down.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

While seldom will the teacher be able to modify the physical space to control the auditory environment, realizing the deficiencies within the classroom that detrimentally affect learning allows the teacher to modify his or her activities to avoid creating hearing problems for the students. Certainly materials and configurations of the classroom are helpful in creating the proper auditory environment. Long spaces with hard surfaces can create echoing that may be difficult for individuals with hearing problems. In using electronic amplification, it is important to consider speaker locations to avoid feedback.

If the classroom is not well configured for audition, your voice, presentation level, or style will have a large impact on the learning in that classroom. Reorganizing student seating to shorten maximum distances to the students and to control echo potential can alleviate some hearing problems in the room. Just flattening the seating arrangement, bringing all students forward, thus affecting the signal-to-noise aspect of the classroom, is better as the distance between the speaker and the listeners decreases. Often this also means that the teacher must move toward a student who asks a question, both in order to clearly hear the question and to allow the learner to properly hear the answer. This is especially true for older students or teachers who may have hearing problems. Repeating a question or answer may be required in these situations.

Sonic territory

The concept of a sonic territory makes noticeable the effect of auditory control in spatial definition. Sonic territory represents limits on personal space when a person is engaged in verbal communication, is listening to important information, or is concentrating. For example, students will often wish to have personal music when working in darkrooms, computer laboratories, or studios. This may or may not be an issue depending upon whether the spaces are individual or group environments. This normally is an issue of policy rather than design.

“In my creative photography classes, I made it a principle to always begin with being still. This principle is a means and was never intended to be an absolute. However, what I said to my students was: ‘Being still in the field, in the darkroom, behind the camera with the picture before you, is needed. In the viewing of your proof prints and final prints it is likewise useful. Employ this approach when viewing another's prints, in beginning anything you engage in—it helps. One starts at that beginning, sounding a note of silence. At the very best, I can say that being still—being quiet for a few moments before study or a given task—will set the stage. After I become quiet I will perceive more clearly what it is I am about to engage in.’”

Nicholas Hlobeczy

Case Western Reserve University, OH

For personal discussion and/or instruction, the auditory territorial concept will enable ease of communication. When dealing with individual issues, the concepts that are detrimental to classroom presentation may become beneficial. Particularly speaking to an individual so that he or she is facing outward toward a group will provide a small amount of privacy. This body placement is dependent upon whether the teacher wishes to share information with interested individuals beyond the single student who may have raised the issue.

The success of certain facilities such as libraries, computer laboratories, and study areas depends greatly on auditory control. The higher the level of concentration required for a learning process, the more the need to consider the auditory environment. Though “silence is golden,” controlled sound may provide a better auditory environment than a silent one.

Complexity and Time

“What has once happened, will inevitably happen again, when the same circumstances which combined to produce it, shall again combine in the same way.”

Abraham Lincoln

Though we have dealt specifically only with vision and audition, it is clear that all stimuli interact within an environment to create a good, or poor, learning situation. Interactions between visual and auditory information compounded over time create high levels of complexity in educational environments. The complexity of multi-stimulus inputs over time has a marked effect on the parameters of space. Dependency on the integrity of space in relationship to time and human perceptions is unique. This goes far beyond the time-locked systems of the class schedule and transformations of stimulus inputs in the perceptual system, and also takes into account memory learning motivations as prime and changeable environmental limiters.

“The distinction between past, present and future is an illusion, although a persistent one.”

Albert Einstein

With the temporal limits of a class, we find that students will see the class space in different ways at different times. Considering this along with other factors of curricula (clock time and learning dynamics) gives us an impression of the complex state that is always changing with the passage of time and is not reproducible in any terms that do not use the time/location as a starting point. This indicates that regardless of how many times you teach Photo I, the outcome will never be repeated. Accepting this variability is assisted by flexibility in approach to the student cohort, to the curricular and environmental changes instituted by the teacher, to the technology, and to the variation in time requirements within and external to the course. This means that as time progresses, so should the course structure and the educational setting.

It has been said that “the mind can absorb only as much as the seat can stand.” Time impacts the learning environment in both restrictive and implemental ways. Without the provision of adequate time, learning and accomplishing certain concepts will be difficult. But within the learning environment, too much time-on-task focus can be detrimental. The amount of time spent concentrating on a lecture—vigilance—has its limits. Regardless of how comfortable the environment or engrossing the teacher, after an extended time, learning abilities start to diminish.

It is a prime role of the teacher to control external stimuli and time so that information and/or processes involved in photographic learning are attended to and absorbed.

The Psycho-Social Limits

“This is the best place I've ever worked. It is an intimate environment where everyone knows everyone else. It is a good creative place.”

John Martin

Salisbury College, United Kingdom

It can be strongly suggested that within classrooms and laboratories we maintain an active relationship with the environment, both personally and collectively, beyond the environmental stimulation. These relational activities, both psychological and social, which interact with stimuli, are processes that organize the stimuli and infer meaning from the educational setting. This means that the educational environment used within the process will have a marked impact on the effectiveness of the learning.

Though perceptual processes are primarily a result of personal evelopment, the psycho-social and physical nature of perception has great importance in understanding the function of educational spaces. The limits of sensory receptors have a great deal to do with the influence of environmental spaces. If a classroom system excludes specific stimuli, then no knowledge can be gained from such stimuli in that environment. If we assume that the classroom environment can influence education, then it is important how the environment presents its information and its organization for behavioral modeling. If the walls are covered with technical charts and examples, then it is likely that the classroom will influence a more technical approach, while if the classroom environment includes examples of photographic art, then image creation will be supported.

Social Limits

In the case of social development processes involving space, it is clear that interrelationships related to space are closely related to the way that a culture uses a particular space. The more important certain spaces are to a society, the more the members of that society will be in command of the names and descriptions of those spaces. The varied descriptions of classrooms found in Western society demonstrate the high value of this type of interior space within that society.

“The human being is immersed right from birth in a social environment, which affects him just as much as his physical environment.”

Jean Piaget

This consciousness amounts to the establishment of social expectancy about the readiness to accept certain stimuli, which will be required for learning to make and understand photographs, while reducing the effect of other nonsocialized stimuli. For example, we readily accept a slightly distorted room as being rectangular because we have been socialized to act in rectangular room settings. The fact that our culture holds constant the rectilinear nature of built structures to accommodate society's purpose prepares us to accept a distorted room as nondistorted.

Also, organizing individuals within an educational space, using certain configurations, tells those involved how to act. This same socialization process prepares students entering college to expect lectures in a structure with row seating. The arrangement of seating in a circle has been socialized to students to suggest interactions between many individuals across the circle. When individuals are put into an organization that has been socialized to suggest restriction, as in side-by-side seating, the arrangement reduces interaction. This spatial arrangement is common in lectures and waiting rooms. The opposite setting, one that encourages interactions, such as in a seminar or conference area, has people facing each other. While both of these situations seem physical, they deal with the socialization of students.

“I try to set my classroom up in a circle or horseshoe and the work being discussed will be brought around, up close to each person.”

J Seeley

Wesleyan University, CT

Psychological Limits

The psychological connotation of space and mental organization can be easily seen as the types of spatial definitions that can be used in the discussion of how to process space. Three types of spaces can be defined: objective (physically measurable), ego (adaptation of observed spaces), and imminent (the spaces of fantasies). This attitude about space also opens the consideration of the internalized nature of spaces, as psychological entities. The psychology of the environment accounts for memory, learning and effect of the environment. Through play, children internalize spatial concepts in the form of actions and merely substitute play for the actions that correlate to these internalized concepts.

“Spatial changes give a tone to a communication, accent it, and at times even override the spoken word. The flow and shift of distance between people as they interact with each other is part and parcel of the communication process.”

Edward Hall

One of the main effects of accepting space as a psychological concept is the ability to use spatial realities to explain behavior. Aspects from psychological literature allow use of the environment as input into behavior patterns for learners. Studies have shown that personality factors are less important than the physical environment in predicting behavior.

An environment provides certain cues as to how an individual's behavior is proper in any given situation. Physical environments and built structures create expectations of how all should act. Individuals select their response based on the stimuli presented by a structure and on the expectations for actions that have been learned in relation to ofthe environments.

Furthermore, behavior in a given situation will take on the shape of the environment. The “synamorphic” behavior leads to the position that an individual's behavior is determined by that individual's involvement with the environment. It is easy to see that certain activities are proper for the outdoors, such as running, while other activities fit better inside. This does not mean that all indoor activities only happen indoors, but that an open field invites active involvement and a library invites a passive involvement. It is clear that the behavior component of the environment is very important in terms of designing for spatial needs of educational systems.

Just as stairs create a “transit behavior” between floors of a building, consideration of the form of classrooms or laboratories will also create learning behaviors. As mentioned previously, designing seating that creates face-to-face situations creates open discussion. While this is a learned social interaction, its roots are strongly in the area of the psychology of the individual.

Changeability

Any given space can have different meanings for different people. This amounts to having spatial environments change in value as time progresses and as those who inhabit the environment change. Furthermore, the space can change with regard to any of the many components of the spatial milieu. We must consider that each student may see the same space differently.

The changes in perception of the environment have strong behavioral influences. As we change the definition of a territory, a studio, or classroom, we change the expectancy of behavior. The fact that spaces change, or that individuals in the environment change their perception of the spaces, can cause a change in individual learning behavior. In many cases this is shown in the acceptance of the spaces as being either secure or insecure by those involved in the environments—that is, as being either their own territory or someone else's. When the way the environment is perceived changes, the behavior in that space may change. for example, individuals may show an increase in anxiety when spaces are perceived as hostile.

A space can lessen anxiety levels through the conscious effort to control the Stressors that are built into the setting (noise, lighting, etc.). This type of design consideration is common on the college and university level. Many areas are designed to be restful in order to ease some of the tensions that go along with being a student. Noticeably, however, these spaces, which are normally designed this way on the college campuses, are not normally defined as learning spaces.

Personal

The last area for consideration as a limiter of the spatial environment is the concept of personal space. Although presented last, there is no attempt to play down this area of spatial awareness. Personal space is perhaps the most important concept that determines the individual's perception of the learning space.

Personal space is different from physical space. It is the psychological distance between two or more people or between a person and an object. It is the distance at which the individual feels at ease. Closing in on such a distance produces tension and discomfort.

The sense of personal space is linked to cultural background as well as to the psychological makeup of the individuals within an environment. While social and psychological limiters control perception and behavior in any given space, the fact that a space becomes personal indicates that individuals connect to environments, and this is an important consideration within educational spatial environments.

Comfort

It must be understood that the comfort of the learner will have major effects on the learning process. First, if the students are comfortable within the classroom environment there will be less anxiety, and that will promote learning. Second, particularly for long or highly intense presentations, the comfort of the students will affect their ability to stay vigilant and involved in the learning activity.

Class Size

Unfortunately, the issue of class size is both political and economic. Often it falls to a teacher to justify class size. While this is not a role that teachers see as part of their employment, understanding the political and economic pressures on the educational institution will help when you must provide information that will be needed to adjust class size. The pressures for larger student-to-teacher ratios normally come from those who are not directly involved in teaching the curriculum in question. It is common for these individuals to see instruction as information dissemination. With this in mind, they can easily assume that a lecture is appropriate in all situations.

The type of learning activity determines the optimal size of the class. Certain activities such as lectures can adequately present material to larger groups. However, as the amount of discussion, individualized instruction, and/or critique increases as part of the learning process for a class, the size of the class needs to decrease to remain effective. While there is no hard-and-fast rule for the size of a class, approximately 15 students is an appropriate break point when discussion is part of the course. This class size allows all students to be involved in meaningful discussion.

“Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”

Winston Churchill

Within laboratory situations, the number of workstations and the effective number of students who can be assigned to any given workstation become the limit for class size. This may be an issue of accreditation as well as an issue of effective teaching. Therefore, in the course syllabus or master outline that defines the class for the administration, it is important to define whether a laboratory situation is open or directed. An open laboratory situation will allow for more enrollment than will a directed laboratory situation. The more restricted directed laboratory has the students doing assignments or projects under the supervision of the instructor. This situation requires that each student be able to work within the scheduled laboratory at an appropriate workstation. This increases the need for workstations to match the number of students enrolled.

Considerations for Today's Education

Facing the educational environment are two issues that have developed within the past few years. These are special accommodations and the impact of communication technology on today's society.

As our societies and educational systems have matured, we have become more aware of and more willing to accept requirements for special accommodation to assist learning for those with needs outside

By James Young, Colorado Mountain College, CO, student of Buck Mills

the norm. In some cases these accommodations provide scheduling alternatives to meet the needs of groups representing religious concerns or advocates for people with certain disabilities. Other accommodations may be required to meet special needs brought to the class by individuals. In many cases these accommodations have been legislated or are regulated by governmental agencies. Regardless of the reason for special accommodations, these accommodations create an environment supportive of the concept that education is for all.

Beyond the accommodations that might be required, the pervasive nature of electronic communication has highly impacted education today. We find ourselves being asked to include in the educational environment electronic tools and access to electronic communication devices. This creates a conundrum. Do we allow all students to freely utilize any personal electronic tools that they may have, or do we restrict the educational environment so that all have the same access to tools, and thus equal access to information? The power of electronic tools, including computers, cell phones, WiFi, etc., can benefit learners within the classroom environment or it can provide ways to be distracted or work around the educational intent.

Going from Solo to Team

In teaching photography, programs often start as one-person operations. This is wonderful for the ego of the teacher but it can lead to its own problems when there is growth in class size. After a certain point, as program size increases, there will be a need to contemplate other instructional personnel for photography.

In singles tennis, each player is in total control of his or her decisions; in soccer (football), the goalie and the forwards have different roles within a team—the team works better if each person understands his or her role and acts accordingly. In teaching, you may build a program around yourself and, as it grows, eventually find that you need assistance in teaching. This changes what you will do.

You may be accustomed to being the only person the students could turn to, an awesome responsibility. With the addition of a new faculty colleague, the situation instantly changes to one where you are only one opinion, and depending on the selection process that gains you your colleague, there may be opposition to your convictions. The need to be a team player is not restricted to just curricula in imaging programs; most often, even when you are the sole individual teaching photography in an educational system, you will be teaching as part of a faculty, and that is a team situation where there are not only differing roles in the department or school, but also differing team functions.

“Individual commitment to a group effort—that is what makes a teamwork.”

Vince Lombardi

The First Class

The point in time when all concepts of the classroom environment can first be seen is in the first class meeting. Therefore, we will end this chapter with a look at how a first class can be prepared.

Take special pains to see that the first class meeting represents the best that you can offer in the way of organization, interest, challenge, and significance. It is too much to expect that teachers will be at their best during every class meeting in a long series. However, the first class sets the tone for the whole series, and much can be forgiven later if the start is strong.

Be prompt. Start this class, as is best for all classes, on time. Hardly any action is more corrupting for the students then a dilatory attitude on the part of the teacher. Tardiness of students plagues many teachers, and it should be pointed out that tardiness interferes seriously with the class' learning. However, modeling behavior is important in having students be prompt with their attendance. An example is found in the story of an Ivy League teacher who would lock the classroom door when the bell rang. Students who arrived late were excluded. One day the teacher was late for the class and the students locked him out. Thereafter, he became more tolerant of students who, on rare occasions, were a minute or so late. If teachers are prompt in meeting their obligations—beginning and ending classes on time, returning papers and tests in a prompt manner—the students are more likely to meet their obligations as well.

Take care of administrative procedures smoothly, in a well-organized fashion, and as briefly as possible. Avoid being apologetic about these requirements. Part of this type of organization is in knowing who is in the class. Be sure to introduce yourself, pronouncing your name distinctly and providing the students with the correct spelling and how to contact you. If you are calling roll, speak the students' names and ask them to respond if your pronunciations are correct, or to correct you if when wrong. This minimum of personal contact between the students and teacher is worth the time even with large classes.

Make a concise overview of the course. Include the textbook and reference materials that will be used. Especially, let the students know what the objectives are, and what they are expected to accomplish. One statement of the objectives will not be enough; plan to review this material periodically with the students. While the overview of the class may cover each topic and each objective that will be covered during the course, the class during which each topic is introduced and taught will be an opportunity to return to the objectives discussed in the first class meeting.

“Give the students something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”

John Dewey

Outline attendance regulations. Even if attendance is optional, as it may be in some situations, keep an attendance record and tell the students how and when attendance is taken. For some students, this attitude toward attendance on the part of the teacher encourages their coming to every class. Further, regulations, particularly those involving foreign students, may have legal ramifications if attendance is not taken and reported.

Discuss your grading procedure. You will need to do this several times during the course, since students will forget easily or will challenge their grades if their expected and earned grades are at odds. Since most students are seriously concerned about their grades, often overly concerned, at the outset you will need to let them know what they must do to earn a good grade. If class participation, for example, is included in your evaluation, tell the students and explain how you will apply this to your grading paradigm. If assignments are graded and included in the final grade, then let them know how this calculation is accomplished. Remind the students that they earn grades…you do not give grades.

Begin the course subject matter with a provocative statement, demonstration, audio-visual presentation, etc. The student should feel excitement that is special to your course. This will be hard to sustain but at least should be initially present.

Make assignments with special emphasis and special care. Students should understand that assignments are devices that will involve them and that only through their involvement can they learn. Thus the student should believe that assignment work is central to their learning, and that the teacher is serious about this portion of the class. Such beliefs are best encouraged by the teacher's attitude at the first class meeting. Making an assignment hurriedly and casually is destructive; it is better to skip giving an assignment if the time is too short to do a good job.

Allow time for students' questions, encourage them, and take them seriously. The question students ask let the teacher know whether or not their statements have been understood, and they also provide an opportunity for additional personal contact.

There is much to accomplish in the first session. The students should not be overwhelmed, but should be oriented to the course. Very careful planning is required on the part of the teacher if these objectives are to be met. Supply the class with a written statement of the essential items for their later review and reference. Finally, close the first class promptly and on a high note. While it is best to use all of the allotted time, it is better to end early than late.

“The students are alive, and the purpose of education is to stimulate and guide their self-development.”

Alfred North Whitehead

Expanding the Learning Environment

One of the opportunities for support of photographic education today is the envisioning of what are now called nontraditional opportunities. These include online extra-campus activities. These may be seen as an expansion away from the traditional classroom and academic structure to support learners who do not fit within the traditions of most curriculum-based photographic programs. This is not a new phenomenon. As interest in photography increased in the 1960s, courses began being offered outside the traditional academic setting, in what came to be called Photographic Workshops. As interest in these grew, some students sought longer involvements, which led to programs such as the early ones at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York and elsewhere.

Workshops

The workshop concept is applicable to both on-campus and off-campus offerings. The primary concern of a workshop is to present the material in a concise, time-constrained method. Most commonly, workshops are presented in short, one- or two-week time periods, and focus on one area of photography. This organization allows the learner to immerse himself in a specific area of interest in photography, such as digital photography, fashion photography, nature photography, nude photography, or portraiture, without concern for other academic pursuits.

Some of the most successful workshops take place in what can be considered vacation settings. In fact, research has shown that of the many reasons people have selected a workshop, the location and its relation to a planned vacation is the primary reason for selection. Workshops are given in a number of attractive places, such as California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Montana, and New Mexico. There are also Travel Workshops to such places as Australia, India, Ireland, Paris, Peru, and Turkey. This explains, in part, the success of many workshops. While the individuals taking workshops have an interest in the photographic offering, it is the relationship to a desired setting that promotes and sells the workshop. Hundreds of workshops offering various photographic experiences can be found on the Internet.

Even for locations with attractive settings, other parts of the vacation idea are major sales points. Travel and adventure photography are major selling points that create interest and ensure enough enrollment to support the educational offering within the photographic workshop. This allure tends to be true for the faculty as well as for the learners.

“A summer of anti-classroom workshops is refreshing after a winter of academic teaching. For one reason, ideas that must be developed piecemeal, one or two hours a week, can be seen whole in the span of a few days.”

Minor White

The second most important draw for a workshop is the name recognition of the workshop presenter. A “big-name” photographer will tend to have a greater draw. The third most important concept in developing and marketing a workshop is the subject matter to be taught. While there are several other reasons why people select workshops, the first three dominate the consideration for those who enroll. This is true for on- and off-campus workshop situations.

Regardless of the location, the faculty teaching a workshop, or the subject matter, in order to have a successful workshop the material presented will have to be adjusted away from a traditional classroom setting to the parameters presented in the environment of the workshop. This adjustment includes consideration of five major factors: the facilities and environment of the workshop, the scope of the material to be presented, the time available for the course, the variations in the learners' backgrounds, and the variation in the learners' expectations.

The facilities and environment of the workshop can be assessed as described in the previous discussion in this chapter concerning the limits of educational spaces. Environmental variables in workshops, however, relate mainly to the vacation-like settings or time constraints. while there may be specific environmental concerns, more commonly the issue becomes one of having enough specific equipment for the learners to accomplish their tasks within the limited time of the workshop. Also, the class environment may need to take on a non-vacation-life atmosphere to promote the intensity required within the workshop.

“Workshops provide a creative educational and social environment where new skills can be taught in the morning and readily applied in the afternoon and evening.''/

Fatima and Arthur Nejame

Palm Beach Photographic Centre, FL

Next, the scope of the material must be considered in developing the workshop to assure positive outcomes. The breadth and depth of the material to be presented must be matched to the environment and the equipment available. For a workshop dependent on computers, the environment must have available equipment and software ready and in working order. Not only are breadth and depth of the covered material important in the success of a workshop, but also the time provided for both learning and producing becomes critical. While attendees may wish to learn everything about a subject in a week, this may not be possible. It is up to the designer of the workshop to organize the flow of the workshop to present the attendees with the opportunity to successfully cover and learn the subject matter.

“A workshop is a completely different form of teaching. In a traditional semester or quarter you have time to build momentum…to allow it to peak and then bring it down and tie it together. In a workshop, in five and a half days you don't have time to build momentum, you have to hit the ground running. Your instruction needs to be absolutely crystal clear, you need to streamline what you are going to present and you need to know everybody's name right away. Everything happens quickly. You are not there on vacation.”

Craig Stevens

Savannah College of Art and Design, GA

Usually for workshop settings, the amount of material and its structure must be compressed to provide learners with a realistic expectation of accomplishing positive results within the allotted time. This would indicate that exceptional focus on the subject to be taught, and narrowing of objectives, must take place in the planning and presentations of the workshop.

Because of the nature of workshops, and the way they are marketed, there is often great diversity in the abilities, backgrounds, previous studies, and experiences for any cohort. Care must be taken in the marketing of the workshop to state clearly what expectations the attendees should have, and the development of the workshop should include a strategy to accommodate both the highest level of prepared individuals and those at the other end of the learning spectrum.

“The most difficult thing about teaching a workshop is getting everybody on the same page dealing with the egos based on differing experiences.”

Gerald Courvoisier

Santa Fe Workshops, NM

Last, the development of workshop has to be realistic in terms of what can be promised to an attendee. If the workshop is in a vacation setting, the expectation of an attendee may be having a good time rather than learning. Likewise, in the same workshop there may be individuals who were intent on attaining high levels of learning and have the expectation that the workshop will provide the needed learning and experience to enable them to produce specific photographic outputs. As much as the development of the workshop needs to address this disparity, the understanding of the faculty that attendees may have differing expectations is paramount to the success of the workshop.

One of the attractions in being in a workshop setting is the opportunity to meet a number of people from all walks of life and to experience an exchange of common interests. The workshop provides a setting for future networking. There is also the opportunity for a one-on-one portfolio review with one or more highly experienced photographers.

Online

In today's educational milieu the potential for never physically meeting a student is realistic. The World Wide Web has provided the opportunity to teach within a virtual classroom. The considerations of the virtual classroom are not at odds with traditional education; they simply expand the potential audience while defining more specificity in the way teaching happens.

The Web in its most basic form strips away personality from teaching and replaces it with consistency: this is not to say that an online presentation must be dry but that it is seen by many learners and must be considered as a one-way presentation rather than a dialogue. Though there can be interaction within the online environment, it is probable that an online presentation will be accessed without any subsequent (desirable) interactivity. This puts the onus on the development of the online educational product. The methods, projects, learning objectives, and interactions need to be carefully considered based on the ability of the technology to support learning by this method. Research has shown that a combination of online educational activities with personal contact gives the best results for the learner.

“The mode of delivery in education is definitely widening. This offers unique challenges and opportunities. Faculty teaching in these new modes will be stretched to create new methodologies, pedagogies to best address the mode of delivery. I believe that face-to-face instruction is very effective. The challenge in instruction over the Internet and distance learning is creating something that is as powerful without the face-to-face.”

David Litschel

Brooks Institute of Photography, CA