Within four walls; the Classroom and the School.
We spend 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 40 weeks of the year, for 7 years at primary, and perhaps another 6 years at high-school in the classroom. This adds up to at least 15, 600 hours, of prime awake time in our lives.
With a lot of our lives spent within educational walls, educators are changing the way we think about education. This article will briefly discuss how we might best arrange this environment to assist students to grow and learn.
Educators have shifted pedagogical approach to teaching, where collaboration and active engagement is encouraged (Miller, 2013). However, the design of classroom space has not kept pace with this change, and the exploration of how to change to align with this current school philosophy, and for the predicted changes of the future, is a consideration for implementation.
Read highlights certain elements for consideration: line, shape, pattern, texture, scale, light, colour, proportion… But what design is best? One consistent consideration is the element of flexibility of the learning space (Biddick, 2014; Miller, 2013). Whether we are considering, ergonomic furniture for comfort, balance of colours, or open plan classrooms, or not, the space that caters for change, where
desks can be altered from group formations, and use whiteboards to separate and write observations on,
to then change to rows for video viewing or student presentations,
to then change to computer research opportunities
produces a flexible environment that adapts readily to different learning situations and styles. Flexibility creates excitement and interest (Miller, 2013), in turn developing motivated, more interested, and engaged students.
While these changes may seem an elementary solution and implementation an automatic response, Biddick (2014) cautions this assumption and whether there will be follow through with staff, students and community. From the very beginning, it is crucial that all and any changes be a product of, and be practically committed to, through resources and support, by those who are invested in these four walls.
Biddick, N.(2014). Working in open plan learning spaces. Teacher Learning Network, 21(1), 23-25.
Read, M. (2010). Contemplating Design: Listening to Children’s Preferences about Classroom Design. Creative Education, 1, 75-80. doi: 10.4236/ce.2010.12012.
Miller, H. (2013). Rethinking the Classroom: Spaces Designed for Active and Engaged Learning and Teaching. Retrieved from http://www.hermanmiller.com/research/solution-essays/rethinking-the-classroom.html. Additional resource: https://t.co/re4SeBOkWo
