The Creation of English Classroom Teaching Environment from the Perspective of Educational Ecology ()
1. Introduction
As educational ecology has received more and more attention in the field of education, its conceptual construction has begun to widely influence the teaching environment, teaching concepts, teacher-student relationships, and curriculum construction in schools. Nevertheless, in the pursuit of constructing a good educational ecology, there are still many problems in English classroom teaching. On the one hand, the current English classroom teaching ignores the importance of classroom atmosphere and focuses too much on knowledge transfer, resulting in a dull and lack of vitality in the classroom atmosphere. Some teachers have outdated educational ideas, can’t keep up with the modern education and the trend of thinking, the phenomenon of “teachers speak above, students sit still and listen” has always existed. On the other hand, the phenomenon of classroom ecological imbalance is remarkable, for example, the teacher-student ratio is disproportionate, the classroom seating layout lacks scientific planning and other problems, which also hinders the effect of classroom teaching. How to stimulate the enthusiasm of teachers and students, adjust the unbalanced relationship between teaching and learning, and then create a harmonious teaching atmosphere has been a weak link in theoretical research. For a long time, people tend to regard English classroom teaching as a simple knowledge transfer process, and this conception limits the attention to the cultivation of students’ core literacy. Against the backdrop of the implementation of education reform, educators have begun to advocate a new view of classroom teaching—the classroom ecology view. This view emphasizes the promotion of students’ all-round development by optimizing the teaching structure and classroom ecological environment, and has played a key guiding role in curriculum and teaching reform.
At present, education has entered a period of transition and criticality from quantitative development to qualitative development. The improvement of education quality can no longer rely only on the massive investment of education resources, but also on the structural adjustment of education and the construction of a favorable education ecology. The traditional English classroom teaching has severed the connection between classroom teaching and its ecological environment, and neglected the interaction between individuals and the physical contexts in which they live. Therefore, it is necessary to re-examine classroom teaching from an ecological point of view and to promote reform in the implementation of the educational curriculum in order to promote the sustainable development of a good educational ecology in the English classroom.
2. Interpretation of the Meaning of Educational Ecology
In recent years, the field of ecology has been expanding, from the initial study of natural ecology to the cultural and spiritual dimensions, until it extends to the field of education [1]. Ecology elucidates the concept of a habitat or ecosystem, that is, the behavior of an individual in relation to the physical environment in which it is embedded, and examines the features and elements of it that are intertwined and interdependent [2]. Willard Waller, an American sociologist of education, first put forward the concept of “classroom ecology” and explored the ecological nature of classroom teaching. With the deepening of research, Chinese scholars have defined classroom ecology as “a complex ecosystem composed of teacher-student interaction, teaching activities and the classroom teaching environment”, emphasizing the dynamic generation of classroom ecology and the harmonious coexistence among the three [3]. Educational ecology is a discipline that studies the laws and mechanisms of interaction between education and its surroundings, including the natural, social, normative, and physiological and psychological environments [4]. Educational ecology is a disciplinary theory based on the principles of ecology, especially ecosystems, natural balance, coordination and evolution, to study various educational phenomena and causes, and then grasp and guide the development trend and direction of education.
The development of educational ecology has made the current development of education begin to pay attention to the ecological construction of school classroom teaching, focusing on the ecological balance, the environment and adaptation, the distribution and composition of the population, interpersonal relations and other issues, trying to establish a reasonable school inside and outside the educational ecological environment. The setting of curriculum objectives has also begun to focus on the overall development of students, and the teaching process emphasizes students’ participation in problematic situations to improve teaching efficiency and promote the healthy growth of the younger generation. The ecological view of education refers to the view of education that thinks about education according to the viewpoint of ecology, which is a new type of education concept developed after overcoming a series of defects and deficiencies of the previous indoctrination and gardening education. From the perspective of ecosystem, classroom is a microsystem composed of teachers, students and classroom environment, which mainly includes ecological subject, ecological information and ecological environment basic elements, of which, the ecological subject is teachers and students, which is the most active factor in the classroom, and the students are the main body of the learning activities, which is the direct consumer of knowledge and skills, and reconstruct knowledge and skills, realize new knowledge and existing knowledge. Under the action of classroom ecological information and ecological environment, students reconstruct knowledge and skills, and realize the assimilation and conformity of new knowledge and existing experience. The English ecological classroom is a classroom model based on ecological theory, ecological thinking, and methodology, combined with the concept of the new curriculum. Its essence is to regard the classroom as a complete ecological discipline.
The essence of ecology is diversity, integrity, openness and coexistence. Thinking about and analyzing the classroom from the perspective of ecology, the classroom should contain open-ended and multiple goals rather than single and pre-determined goals; the classroom should be more flexible and allow great diversity rather than narrowness and uniformity. The classroom should be equal, harmonious and energetic, not hegemonic, controlled and suppressed; the classroom should be a place for students to exchange ideas as the main body, not the dreadful “modern spiritual hell”; the classroom is a stage to stimulate the vitality of students, inspire students’ nature, and show students’ colorful selves, not a place of knowledge production that lacks diversity. The classroom is a stage to stimulate students’ vitality and nature and to show their colorful selves, not a place to manufacture knowledge without diversity [5]. Therefore, the purpose of the construction of the ecology of English education is to realize the harmonious interaction of students, teachers, and classrooms in the practice of English classrooms rather than the mechanized knowledge instillation.
3. The Dilemma of Implementing English Ecological
Classroom Teaching
3.1. Lack of Ecological Concepts in Classroom Teaching
The current practice of English education and teaching is characterized by a lack of ecological concepts and an educational ecological crisis in which examinationism and utilitarianism are supreme, which is mainly manifested in the following aspects: first, teaching is still mainly based on theoretical indoctrination by explaining knowledge points, and the teaching of English courses as a whole pays attention to examination-oriented thinking and neglects quality cultivation, which is highly utilitarian, and the design of the courses ignores the actual needs and interests of students, which leads to students’ poor performance in English communication. The curriculum design ignores students’ actual needs and interests, which leads to students’ poor performance in English communication [6]. Secondly, most teachers ignore the intrinsic interconnection between the ecology of teaching and learning of the subjects. English teachers only pay attention to the teaching of the English subject and teach for the sake of teaching, neglecting the function of moral education of the subject. Thirdly, in the evaluation of English teaching, the mission of teaching evaluation lies in the true value of teaching, which is rooted in the “teaching” of teachers and the “learning” of students. If the value of teachers and students is ignored or obscured, teaching evaluation will inevitably be alienated into the “teaching for evaluation” rather than the “evaluation for teaching”.Fourthly, the low level of informatization of teachers. Although most teachers use multimedia teaching methods in practice, they often use them superficially, without a full understanding of modern information technology, and some of them are even afraid of the use of information technology, which leads to a low acceptance of the mixed teaching mode in the context of informationization. The lack of information technology level leads teachers to favor traditional teaching in the English classroom teaching as a whole, which indirectly affects the degree of students’ reception of information technology, so that English teaching is only confined to the classroom, and there is no formation of network information technology teaching ecology.
3.2. Imbalance in the Classroom Teaching Ecosystem
The classroom environment, as a core element in the classroom teaching ecosystem, constitutes the educational context in which teachers and students interact. It includes not only the design and arrangement of the physical space, but also covers the creation of a cultural atmosphere. Specifically, the classroom environment can be divided into two main aspects: the first is the physical environment for teaching, which involves elements such as light, color, temperature, humidity, and sound in the classroom. These factors are influenced by the layout of the classroom, which mainly includes the space allocation of the classroom, hardware facilities (such as tables, chairs, podiums, doors and windows, electrical appliances as well as multimedia equipment, etc.), and class size. The second is the cultural environment of classroom teaching, which is related to the construction of classroom culture, teacher-student relationship, the formulation of classroom rules, as well as the conventional moral concepts and group consciousness, and so on. The classroom environment directly or indirectly affects the motivation and effectiveness of teaching and learning activities. In recent years, the expansion of school enrollment has led to an increase in the number of students, and schools have no choice but to use large class teaching to cope with the pressure of carrying. However, large class teaching will limit the development of students’ individuality and make it difficult to teach students according to their aptitude. As the subject of classroom ecology, students have their own “ecological niche” in the classroom, and “ecological niche” refers to the students’ seating, and the seating arrangement will have an impact on students’ learning. Generally speaking, students in the back row are farther away from the podium and interact less frequently with the teacher in the classroom. The teaching environment is crucial to students’ language learning, and English learning requires constant recitation, practice, output and consolidation, while large class teaching makes the development of classroom teaching activities complicated and difficult, which will have a certain negative impact on students’ motivation and classroom learning atmosphere, and even shackle the optimization and development of English classroom teaching.
3.3. The Ecological Subject of Classroom Teaching Is out of Place
The classroom teaching system has its own specific structure and function, and can rely on self-regulation to maintain this dynamic equilibrium. In the classroom system, teachers, students and the classroom environment interact with each other to form the basic structure of the classroom teaching system, and there are complex interactions and influences among them, which together form the infrastructure of classroom teaching. In this system, materials, information and emotions are constantly exchanged and circulated among them. The English ecological classroom pays special attention to the personal growth and development of students, aiming to cultivate their ability to communicate effectively and learn independently by utilizing what they have learned in English. In such an English ecological classroom, the role of the teacher is not only a guide, but also a learning partner of the students, and the real subject of learning is the students themselves. English teaching should respect the students’ main position and uphold the principle of student-centeredness. However, in the current teaching practice, there is a problem of imbalance in the relationship and status between the subjects of teaching ecology. The classroom as a microscopic educational ecological environment, due to the influence of the traditional teaching mode, the teacher usually occupies a dominant position, while the students are in a more passive position, which leads to the lack of students’ initiative. This imbalance in the subject of educational ecology is manifested in the singularity of the classroom teaching subject, that is, the over-emphasis on the role of the teacher as the main teaching subject and the neglect of the importance of the student as the main learning subject. Such a situation often puts students in a passive state when receiving knowledge, which in turn affects the improvement of the overall teaching effect as well as the maximization of educational ecological effectiveness.
4. Exploring the Path of Restoring the Ecology of English
Classroom Teaching
4.1. Improve the Ecological Environment of English Teaching
Classroom
The ecological environment of classroom teaching is one of the most important factors affecting the quality of classroom teaching, and classroom ecology involves a wider range of factors, which is the sum of the physical and spiritual environment [7]. To facilitate the effective implementation of classroom teaching, school management should provide the necessary support and assistance. For example, small-class teaching or tiered teaching based on students’ ability levels and individualized needs should be adopted to better meet the needs of different students. In the process of building an ecological classroom for English teaching, it is especially important to optimize the environment, and a comfortable and harmonious learning ecological environment can significantly improve the effect of English teaching. Therefore, first of all, a comfortable physical environment should be created. A good physical environment lays the foundation for the transfer of knowledge and skills, which requires a scientific and reasonable spatial layout and time arrangement. With the development of science and technology, schools should enhance the configuration of classroom informatization and fully utilize educational informatization means to visualize classroom teaching and enhance the effect of teaching.
It is equally important to build an open English classroom teaching environment. Openness is one of the characteristics of the ecosystem, breaking the dull atmosphere of traditional English classroom teaching and creating a harmonious and democratic classroom teaching atmosphere can encourage students to actively participate in classroom discussions and bravely express their opinions. The application of open teaching resources should not be neglected, which means that course materials should not be limited to textbooks, but should be expanded to extracurricular resources. Teachers should encourage students to explore on their own and let them enliven the classroom atmosphere by sharing their personal opinions. Language courses especially emphasize more reading and more practice as a way to motivate students to participate and change their attitudes towards English learning.
4.2. Building Student-Centered Classroom Instruction
To build a student-centered English classroom learning environment to better promote students’ independent development and all-round development. Teaching and learning that implements the concept of ecological education is a process of continuous development, communication and participation in dialog between teachers and students. The ecological classroom transcends the purpose of teaching that focuses only on the transmission of knowledge, and shifts to focus on the resonance of the field of teacher-student life existence and life development. Under the ecological perspective, the interaction between teachers and students is two-way, in English teaching teachers should strengthen their own dominance, pay more attention to students’ learning autonomy and creativity, take students as the subject, take the problem as the guide, and strengthen the teacher-student and student-student interaction [8]. In order to do this, teachers should have a clear understanding of the current goal of cultivating talents in English, on the one hand, and the core literacy-oriented teaching is centered on students’ dynamic and independent learning activities,which means that teachers need to further realize the learning-centered shift, and the overall characteristic of the teaching process is that it is aimed at learning, and that teaching serves the purpose of learning. In addition, it is necessary to “focus on the voice of the student” and to be able to “accommodate individual differences” in teaching [9]. As the main body of learning, students occupy an important position in the ecosystem of English classroom teaching. To give full play to students’ subjective initiative, students should first be made aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, have a certain understanding of their own learning ability as well as their English proficiency, and be able to take effective ways to monitor their own learning process. At the same time, teachers should consciously cultivate the strategy of metacognitive awareness for students, guide them to master the correct learning methods, really control their own learning actions and evaluate their own learning results.
The principle of tailoring teaching to the needs of the learner is crucial to improving the quality of teaching and learning. It is important to create learner-centered learning environments that emphasize the centrality of students in the curriculum; differentiated and tiered teaching based on students’ characteristics, providing elective courses and strengthening personalized instruction; integrating individual learning, cooperative group learning and whole-class collective learning for teaching reform; using modern technology to explore online and offline blended learning modes to enhance students’ autonomy and support the development of personalized learning paths. Through these efforts, we can not only optimize the teaching effect of the English classroom, but also stimulate the potential of each student and help their overall development.
4.3. Implement the Teaching Evaluation Guided by the Ecological
Concept
Under the guidance of the concept of educational ecology, teaching should adopt diversified assessment methods in order to realize the dynamic monitoring of students’ comprehensive English proficiency. By combining quantitative and qualitative analyses, students’ learning throughout the semester is evaluated in an all-round way, integrating process, multidimensional, open and developmental assessment methods. Teaching evaluation is not only a judgment of the real or potential value of teaching activities, but it also has multiple functions such as diagnosing students’ situation and collecting feedback. Effective teaching evaluation must be based on the curriculum standards, scientifically assessing students’ academic achievements and disciplinary literacy from the perspective of students’ learning performance, completion of assignments, practical and innovative abilities and other dimensions, and objectively reflecting the effectiveness of teachers’ teaching. Such an evaluation system can encourage teachers to follow the requirements of the curriculum standards, for all students, and implement personalized teaching for different students.
Educational evaluation is undergoing a process of transformation from emphasizing grades and scores to comprehensive parenting evaluation, and profound changes are taking place in the means and methods of evaluation as well as in the application of the results. In order to promote the healthy and sustainable development of English education and teaching, it is necessary to build a scientific and perfect quality evaluation system. Specifically in the evaluation of English classroom teaching, we should pay attention to the following points: firstly, return to the essence of education, and take students’ individual growth and comprehensive development as the core orientation of evaluation; secondly, pay attention to the process of evaluation, and motivate students to make progress through the evaluation, so as to make it a part of the learning process; thirdly, enrich the evaluation tools, and take advantage of intelligent technology to implement diversified and timely educational evaluation, so as to create a brand-new teaching evaluation “ecological environment”. Thirdly, enrich the evaluation tools, utilize the advantages of intelligent technology, implement diversified and timely educational evaluation, and create a new “ecological environment” for teaching evaluation.
4.4. Using the Internet to Build a New Ecology of English Teaching
In the era of rapid development of science and technology, the wide application of network resources has completely revolutionized the way of education and teaching, breaking the limitations of time and space in traditional curriculum teaching. Whether it is a completely web-based teaching mode or a blended teaching mode combining online and offline, it has put forward new challenges and requirements for English teachers’ information technology ability, who not only need to deepen their subject teaching knowledge, but also need to overcome the negative feelings of anxiety, intimidation, and rejection that online teaching may bring, and master the application skills of various teaching platforms, live broadcasting tools, and social media, in order to ensure the consistency and effectiveness of the quality of online and offline teaching.
English teaching under the development of the Internet has ushered in unprecedented opportunities for change. Teachers should follow the pace of the times, update their educational concepts in a timely manner, strengthen the learning of information technology, continue to improve their professionalism, keep an eye on the latest developments in the field, and commit themselves to creating a positive learning atmosphere. In the classroom, teachers should pay attention to the richness of the teaching content, skillfully integrate the knowledge of the textbook with online resources, and when dealing with key points or difficult points, enhance students’ understanding and memory through multi-dimensional and multi-level classroom activities, such as the use of online videos, educational applications and other means to increase the attractiveness and interest of the teaching session. In addition, the role of teachers in the online education environment is more focused on organizers and supporters. Given that many students show low autonomy and self-discipline in the online learning process, this often affects the effectiveness of online learning. Therefore, teachers need to strengthen supervision and guidance to help students develop good self-management habits, stimulate their enthusiasm for learning, and improve their self-awareness of learning.
5. Conclusions
In the contemporary educational ecosystem, education aims to promote the holistic growth of the individual, respecting the “natural rhythms” of the learner’s cognition and development. With the increasing depth and rapid development of ecological research, the path of constructing English classroom teaching in an ecological perspective needs to be student-oriented on the basis of complying with the objectives of the curriculum and the concept of teaching ecology.
This paper analyzes the problems and puts forward countermeasures, based on the analysis of the dilemma of the implementation of ecological teaching in the English classroom, and finds that the current problems are mainly embodied in the lack of ecological concepts in classroom teaching, the imbalance of the ecological environment as well as the dislocation of the ecological subject. It further proposes a path to restore the ecology of the English classroom, including the improvement of the ecological environment of English classroom teaching, the construction of learner-centered classroom teaching, the implementation of teaching evaluation oriented by ecological concepts, and the use of the Internet to build a new ecology of English teaching.
Ecologically oriented English classroom teaching views teachers, students and the classroom environment as a holistic system model that is interconnected and interacts with each other. Compared with the traditional classroom, the most prominent feature of this model is that it designs teaching according to the basic principles of educational ecology, applies ecological methods and theoretical research results, and emphasizes solving classroom problems from an ecological perspective. By analyzing the challenges in the classroom, the model focuses on playing the role of the student as the main body, and is committed to creating a harmonious and free learning atmosphere of solidarity and mutual assistance, thus improving the efficiency and effectiveness of teaching. In conclusion, in the face of the national policy of advocating ecological governance in education and the threat to the ecological balance in the field of education, deepening the study of “educational ecology” is of great theoretical value and practical significance in promoting the reform of English curriculum teaching to achieve high-quality development.
Although this paper is devoted to theoretically analyzing the problem of ecological imbalance in education and proposing corresponding countermeasures, there are certain shortcomings: first, this study is mainly based on China’s educational and cultural environment to analyze the ecological imbalance in English classroom teaching and propose corresponding countermeasures. In addition, this study is based on theoretical explorations, but it lacks the support of relevant research data, and further improvement is needed in the research methodology. Thus, it is hoped that future research can further make up for the shortcomings in this study on this basis and improve the generalizability of the findings.
Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest.