What is it? Domain 2 of the Danielson Framework focuses on the key aspects of classroom environment. What this means is that this domain emphasizes to teachers the importance of creating a respectful, learning-rich, organized, and safe classroom space. Educators need to ensure that these characteristics are a part of their classroom in order to maximize the learning process. Domain 2 makes it easy for teachers to know what expectations they should be holding themselves and their classrooms to.
Why do we need it? This domain is vital to a successful educational process because if students are not showing respect and behaving well then the potential for growth cannot be reached. Another way in which growth potential will not be met is if students do not feel safe in the classroom. If teachers are aware of and follow the components of Domain 2 and strive to implement them it eliminates a lot of potential distractions. Domain 2 puts the focus back on the learning and the student's needs by helping to eliminate things that can impede the growth of knowledge. It is important because if executed correctly it can benefit the classroom in endless ways.
The perspective of a working teacher: I reached out to an educator who is currently in their fifteenth year of teaching to see if she could share some insight. This teacher works in an oral deaf, preschool classroom where the students use cochlear implants and hearing aids to access sound. I learned from my discussion with her that in her classroom all of the students she works with have low communication skills and a very low vocabulary. Her belief is that kids learn through play which means that everything in her classroom environment must be purposeful and carefully planned out according to her objectives. They also must be developmentally appropriate. She stated that she pulls a lot from component B of Domain 1 when creating her classroom environment because knowing her students and what they are capable of doing as well as their learning styles is crucial to the way she designs her classroom. She creates different learning centers where the children have access to everything they need and can learn the objectives through play. Her particular classroom must be language rich, providing as many real-life experiences as possible for the children because they are sometimes years behind their peers in regards to communication/language development. This helps them to build their vocabulary in a purposeful, but playful way. She says that her goal is always to provide a learning environment that simulates real-life & incorporates as many real experiences, as possible. This way, the children can be exposed to language repeatedly and in as many ways as possible so that they can make the proper associations to the objects/action in life. In the end, she explained that she tries to set up each center like an area in a children’s museum. Every last detail in the classroom environment has to be as authentic as possible so that her students can be exposed to as much language as possible. Essentially Domain 2 is critical in this teachers classroom.
Sources: Classroom Environment | Center for Early Childhood Education | Eastern Connecticut State University. (2017). Easternct.edu. Retrieved 15 October 2017, from http://www.easternct.edu/cece/classroom-environment/
Danielson Group » The Framework. (2017). Danielsongroup.org. Retrieved 21 September 2017, from http://www.danielsongroup.org/framework/