Examine Figure 6.1 Perspectives on Learning Environments (p. 134) of the Bransford text. The diagram illustrates the intersection of learner-centered, knowledge-centered, and assessment-centered learning environments embedded within a community setting.
* Describe a learning environment that demonstrates the point at which each of the three circles intersects. If you are working in a school, base your answer on the current curriculum. Use your content area, your student demographics, school program policies, etc. to illustrate your response. If you are not currently teaching, you can base your answer on a school in your community. Clearly, you are writing about a perfect situation which is unlikely to exist given the diversity of challenges classroom teachers encounter. Instead, you are writing towards a best case scenario. What would need to happen at your school in order to align each of the learning environments as depicted in Figure 6.1?
* As you formulate your response, consider how you define learning in each of the three learning environments. Do expectations for knowledge acquisition change?
* Finally, given the way in which you have aligned your school program with Figure 6.1 Perspectives on Learning Environments, discuss at least one implication for how you provide (or would provide if you were teaching) instruction in your classroom now. Consider how practices that balance learner-centered, knowledge-centered, and assessment-centered learning environments embedded within a community setting might inform your current pedagogy.
