**6. Effect of contemporary teaching and learning environments on students with learning disability**

Generally, the accrued benefits of utilizing contemporary educational environment for teaching and learning cannot be overemphasized. As has been noted, contemporary teaching and learning environment if well used increases students' engagement and motivation, makes it possible for students to create stronger relationships with peers and teachers, enhances collaboration and an increased sense of belonging among students as it relates to their learning. Inasmuch as contemporary learning environment is a relatively new concept, available results have shown that a well designed classroom is a catalyst to effective teaching and learning thus has a notable impact on both the student's learning and health outcomes. Apart from acting as a catalyst, modern teaching and learning environment creates global awareness which in turn connects students with ease to other students of the world resulting to sharing of ideas by youths. This in fact breaks language, cultural and geographical barriers as well as the challenge posed by learning disability.

Frankly speaking, man by nature is so resistant to change. So, teachers who see themselves as the man-in-charge in the classroom are bound to resist any physical design of the classroom that will impede their full control of the classroom. in this case, a physical cum social environment that will promote student self-management and self-direction in learning will definitely pose a threat to these crop of teachers. The irony is that the above assertion is the expected responsibility of any teacher to learners today as era we are in requires are trained to be critical/logical thinkers and only an environment that is designed and enhanced in learning settings that inspire creativity, active investigation and self-expression in settings that invite self-direction and require self-management and in settings that connect students globally can satisfy this purpose. This learner and learning-centred settings are in contradiction with the standard industrial era classroom where teacher is driven by the sole aim of covering the curriculum and in full charge of controlling the learning process. A part from that, in a contemporary teaching and learning environment there is this hunger to knowing what the learning is all about, ascertain the knowledge of the teachers by their experiences as expressed in the course of teaching which heightens teachers' values and belief about learning. This on its own part, enhances epistemic awareness and gets teachers involved in intentional design of settings and spaces to support different types of learning activities which work in favor of students with learning disabilities.

Some two decades ago we were talking of fact-based learning and major skills required of students were those of memorization and organization but today, the story has changed, students now ask for creative and more sophisticated skills such as collaborative working, logical thinking, management, problem-solving among others. Teaching these skills in teacher-centred classroom no doubt will be like bridge too far as acquisition of such skills needs students' collaboration and working as a team. These kind of skills can only be acquired in an environment that is designed and equipped with contemporary technologies and state-of-the–art facilities which contemporary teaching and learning environment represents.

In life, one known fact is that there are individual differences even the so called identical twins in the real sense of it are not identical as there traits in them that expose their differences both in attitude and intelligence. In the educational world, every practicing teacher knows that no two students is the same. In the then teaching environment, students irrespective of the nature are tutored the same way not minding whether it was effective or not. On the other hand, the contemporary learning environment makes learning interactive, allows for group teaching as well as personalized teaching putting into consideration individual trait.

Experience they say is the best teacher that the 2020 pandemic caused by corona virus also known as Covid-19 became an awakening call to both students with learning disabilities and those with none. The situation actual brought an unprecedented transformation on the educational system. This was because the period brought to the forefront the importance of technology to teaching and learning as smartphones and other related devices were utilized as a result of self-distancing making possible for all students to study from their homes. To this end, the existence of contemporary teaching and learning environment which allows for the application and utilization of contemporary technologies including smartphones in teaching and learning is like a moral booster for those with learning disability who are now well informed on her to use the smartphones for learning.

As a follow-up to the above fact, with contemporary teaching and learning environment, students with learning disability are exposed to modern educational technologies and with them it will become easier to have students with learning disability better equipped with the skills of handling contemporary educational technologies. This is because as part of the learning tools, students both with disability or not will be trained on better ways to use these technologies for effective learning. This development, facilitates fast retention of information and aiding students commitment and active participation in learning having gained a significant level of understanding and knowledge [25]. For instance, In an annual survey conducted by Project Tomorrow (2018it was revealed that around half of the students use YouTube for self-directed learning. The same survey also revealed that half of the students using technology find collaborating with other students as a better way to learn. The implication is that students from tender ages become masters in the use of the internet with which they connect with friend and carryout assigned school projects. A replication of this technology driven environment is just one any student of the 21st century ask for and this can only be realized with the aid of a contemporary teaching and learning environment [30].

Furthermore, with contemporary teaching and learning environment, teachers are well positioned to teach differently and better as the environment is made to carry every student along regardless of the disability. The revelation by experts is that any significant transformation in the teaching and learning environment design is likely to unintentionally impact how teachers instruct the students. In another development, it was noticed that teachers lecture more in the traditional setting and promoted active discussion in the modern setting [31]. This indicates that a little transformation more so the inclusion of technology and space in a classroom design will pave way for student-centered learning. In other words, effective teaching is better carried out by teachers in a contemporary learning environment.

#### *Effect of Inclusiveness and Contemporary Teaching and Learning Environments on Students… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114104*

There is also evidence that contemporary teaching and learning environments impact positively the learning outcome of students with learning disability. Research has shown that students with lower overall ACT grades do perform as better as those with higher ACT scores when exposed and taught in an active and contemporary environment. This shows what great impact a contemporary learning environment could have on learners [32]. Come to think of it, a traditional teaching and learning environment could be said to be suitable for the students who prefer auditory to visual learning while contemporary learning environment is designed to meet both ends. The emphasis is that in contemporary teaching and learning environment, teachers are at liberty to use any of the following methods or even combine; experimentation, kinesthetic, collaboration, active discussion and even flexible classrooms with a view to satisfying every learner's need. This implies that contemporary teaching and learning environment suits all learning styles.

Another effect of contemporary teaching and learning environment on students with learning disability is that, it promotes natural and learning curiosity among them. For instance In the old learning environment, students mere listen to the teacher and do not ask questions as the teaching goes on but on it at the end, denying the students the opportunity of being active participants which may lead to poor retention and this situation makes it practically impossible for such students to recall all that was taught. In such scenario also, It is practically impossible for student to understand lesson two when, lesson one has not been understood On the other hand, with contemporary teaching and learning environments, reverse is the case as learning is made interactive and students are at liberty to ask questions at any point of the lesson and this enhances their curiosity to learn and to know more and teachers ever willing to explain in an interactive way using such contemporary learning technologies as; interactive whiteboards, audiovisual aids, to mention but a few.

Besides, since technology plays a crucial/essential role in modern learning. With the inclusion of things like; smart boards, projectors, interactive whiteboards, and tablets for each student in the class and accessing of the computer laboratory in the course teaching and learning, students with learning challenges are not left behind as they gain of the applications of technology is to give everyone that sense of belonging. The consideration in contemporary classroom environment is that, no two individuals are alike. Therefore there is need for unique learning methods such as adaptive learning which cater for the unique needs of every student and allow them to learn at their own pace. A situation as explained above encourages students to have the desire to learn and makes learning a thing of pleasure.

In furtherance, contemporary learning environment encourages adaptive learning. As earlier stated, no two individuals are alike and that being the case, adaptive learning method allows for every child to been seen as an entity distinct from other students thus should be taught based on his or her ability. With this learning method, instruction can be adjusted and learning experiences tailored towards meeting the individual needs of every student in the same classroom thereby allowing each of them to learn at their own pace. One good thing about this method is that with it, one can track students data in such areas as; student progress, engagement, and performance and with the data collected the teacher can utilize them to provide personalized learning experiences suitable for the particular student [33, 34].

These environments are as well designed in conformity with global best practices where digitalization is given its due place. The provided learning spaces make learning very flexible and create opportunities for collaboration, independent learning and students can connect to global resources. Indeed, learning is powered by contemporary technologies and students easily have access to these technologies. The approach is in line with emerging issues which relate individualized teaching and is in tandem with contemporary learning and teaching practice [4]. That is to say, that contemporary teaching and learning environment is personalized and provides anytime, anywhere access for students to portable technologies as students' learning activities both at home and at school and their lives in general are interwoven as they all use information and communication technologies and other related technologies. All these encourage collaboration.
