Abstract
Learning environments are a significant determinant of student behaviour,
achievement and satisfaction. In this article we use students’ reflective essays to identify
key features of the learning environment that contributed to positive and transformative
learning experiences. We explore the relationships between these features, the students’
sense of safety in the learning environment (LE), the resulting learning challenge with
which they could cope and their positive reports of the experience itself. Our students
worked in a unique simulation of General Practice, the Safe and Effective Clinical Outcomes
clinic, where they consistently reported positive experiences of learning. We
analysed 77 essays from 2011 and 2012 using an immersion/crystallisation framework.
Half of the students referred to the safety of the learning environment spontaneously.
Students described deep learning experiences in their simulated consultations. Students
valued features of the LE which contributed to a psychologically safe environment. Together
with the provision of constructive support and immediate, individualised feedback
this feeling of safety assisted students to find their own way through clinical dilemmas.
These factors combine to make students feel relaxed and able to take on challenges that
otherwise would have been overwhelming. Errors became learning opportunities and
students could practice purposefully. We draw on literature from medical education,
educational psychology and sociology to interpret our findings. Our results demonstrate
relationships between safe learning environments, learning challenge and powerful
learning experiences, justifying close attention to the construction of learning environments
to promote student learning, confidence and motivation.