Create and maintain a safe environment Essay

It is utmost importance for learners to feel physically and emotionally safe in order for learning to take place. Safe in terms of physical safety but emotional safety too in order for them to feel emotionally safe enough to engage in the classroom. It is important to understand that the learning establishing a safe learning environment provides the key to the success of the teaching/training process. This environment should be a place that puts learners at ease from anxiety, prejudice, and fear of criticism. The role of the teacher is to create an environment where everyone is accepted and learning can take place freely with mistakes happening as well. Although the trainer/teacher has the lead role it is accepted that there are no experts and good valid contributions can be made by participants. This creates a good learning environment where learning can take place. Laying down ground rules at the start of each session helps to establish expected behaviour from the participants and helps the m feel safe. Any adverse behaviour/ disruptive behaviour should be dealt with swiftly in a way that makes everyone feel safe and respected. The learning environment should be physically safe and health and safety procedures need to be adhered to. Trailing wires should be clipped appropriately and trailed appropriately avoiding trip hazards. If physical active exercise consists of the course then appropriate mats /flooring should be made available Assessment Criteria 1.2.2 – EXPLAIN why it is important to promote appropriate behaviour and respect for others. EXPLAIN 3 types of learner behaviour that may hinder learning and suggest ways of overcoming these. Learner Behaviour How I could overcome this A learner may have a strong opinion about a subject matter and this might start to affect others who may not agree with him/her I would thank the learner for taking time to bring this up. Validate their point by saying it was an issue that was very debatable and I would invite them on a 1 to one session to discuss the issue further in order for the rest of work we need to cover on the session to progress. A learner may become very chatty with others. This distracts other learners and they miss important parts of the session. A learner may use inappropriate language. Other learners may find this offensive. I would use an activity that would engage the leaner as it may be possible that they may start getting bored. In the process I may mix groups and shuffle people about so people get to share different ideas and try and see things from different points of view. It would be important to address this by saying â€Å"We agreed not to use inappropriate language in this session, let’s all be respectful of each other† If the behaviour persisted I would request to have a word with the offender in private and explain that his behaviour was disruptive and how it was affecting others. If this failed I may have to follow policy and procedure and ask them to leave the course to avoid further disruption. A learner has disrupted my lesson when we were doing a needs assessment where all the participants say what they would like to gain/learn on the day. He said he wasn’t here to learn anything and didn’t want to be on the course. He said he was only here because his manager had told him to. His tone was harsh and quite aggressive. I arrived on to the next person and called a  quick coffee break for 10 minutes. During the break I spoke to Tony who became very tearful and explained to me that he was agro phobic and did not like to be in large groups of people. He also explained that he suffered from depression and although it was currently under control with his medication he had relapsed. He also explained to me that he had been threatened with a disciplinary and had come on to the course under duress. I then explained that he was free to go home and I was going to have a meeting with his manager to try and rectify the situation. When I spoke to the manager we arranged to facilitate the same training for this individual in a smaller session where he felt more comfortable and at a time when he felt his mental state was better. I carried on with the rest of the learners and apologised for the disruption earlier in the session. Reference list Gravells, A (2013) The Award in Education and Training Exeter: Learning Matters