How to enhance learning through the classroom environment
Classroom environments and how to maximise them for learning: a thought process as old as time! Whether you are a brand new teacher, an experienced head or even a trainee, the way in which classrooms are organised will always be returned to as a critical point for improving outcomes. Plus, you are probably wondering how to maximise learning within your budget, considering how best to meet additional needs in your year group, or even how to minimise distractions for a lively class. Plenty of research is out there to help inform your choices.
Here, we’ve done some of the hard work for you - in this article, we’ll be outlining key findings from educational research on how best to organise a classroom environment to optimise wellbeing and learning. Get your notepads at the ready!
Classroom displays
Let’s talk displays. Whether you are in an older, large, Victorian classroom or a modern-built room, you can take many actions to maximise the impact of your classroom displays.
Firstly, think colour. Your memories of schooling may be of bright, loud displays, but research consistently tells us that excessively decorated rooms are not conducive to learning. While adding plenty of displays and working walls for all subjects to support recall and celebrate work may be tempting, minimal is best. In fact, Rodrigues and Paneirada (2018) (1) found that heavily decorated rooms actually reduce academic performance due to their distractive nature. Equally, early years body Early Excellence argue for limiting excessive colour as much as possible: ‘too much colour can provide sensory overload for our children…creating an environment where they are less likely to be highly involved [in learning] and more likely to be distracted (2).
What do we do in place of multiple bright displays, then? We argue your best bet is to go for neutral, tactile materials like hessian and brown paper, along with natural items like twigs and leaves (artificial works, too) to combine calming elements with visual interest without excessive stimulation.
Nature-themed colours and displays can be supplemented with resources such as our Learn About Nature range of soft seating. Items such as the tree stumps, logs and hay bales are neutral in colour, while our rainbow chair and floor mat could add a pop of colour to an area of the classroom that is otherwise full of neutral tones.
Alongside these pieces of evidence, we would advocate for displays to be purposeful and targeted to your current teaching (working walls rather than displays with excessive information which does not cover current learning). We also promote getting children involved - and eschew-ready printed signs for materials children have made. Finally, try to keep your displays at the eye level of your learners where you can, as opposed to high up and made for adults. Go for purpose-driven, child involvement, and eye level wherever you can.
The positive impact of natural light
The link between natural light and psychological wellbeing has also been proven through research. Studies show that natural light enhances brain activity, including learning, cognition (3), mood and attitude, and can relieve feelings of agitation and stress. Other studies provide evidence of how natural light affects circadian rhythm (4), which dictates memory and attention. When we are exposed to natural light, our sleep quality improves, which, as we know, has numerous benefits.
Letting natural light into the classroom is a great way to create a calm, neutral environment and can give the illusion of a larger space. Get rid of those old patchwork curtains from the 1990s and heavy blinds that don’t work anymore, and opt for getting your room light and airy.
Take the learning outside
Finding opportunities to learn in an outdoor environment offers many benefits, not least exposure to natural light. You can create an ‘outdoor classroom’ using temporary, portable seating such as our carry cushions. They are comfortable, durable and made from water-resistant fabric, making them perfect for learning anywhere!
Classroom layouts for effective learning
Next up, consider the layout of your classroom. This means the way areas of your classroom are used for different activities and where furniture is placed. It also refers to areas or zones you create in a classroom that are focused on specific types of learning, subjects, skills or topics.
While classrooms can be restrictive depending on the size and any built-in elements, plenty can be done to make the most of your space. Maximising open spaces wherever possible works in a similar way to avoiding excessive displays: less is more (conducive to learning!) Keep the classroom clutter-free by regularly clearing out unnecessary resources.
Create flexible learning zones
In terms of creating learning zones, something many primary teachers do, consider how learning areas can be used for more than one type of activity and visited by pupils in a way that supports their learning. For example, using clipboards and a form of portable seating, pupils can carry out an activity in the space at the front of the class, in the role-play corner, or even in the art area.
Clever storage solutions for classrooms
Clever storage solutions mean you may be able to have fewer large items of furniture that take up valuable space. Storage cupboards and trolleys on wheels mean they can be moved for certain activities.
Flexible classroom seating arrangements
Seating layout is a frequent contender for discussions and analysis throughout educational research. We’ve found the answer to this comes down to learning type and activity.
A review of studies from the publication Schools Week (5) suggested that students ask more questions and engage better with a teacher when seated in rows, facing the front (Marx, Fuhrer, Hartig, 1999) (6) but work better on collaborative group projects when seated in small groups (Bennett and Blundell, 2006 (7).
With contradicting options for seating here, our best advice is to go with seating that is flexible to the needs of learners and can adapt depending on the activity at hand. Sawers, Wicks, Mvududu and Copeland (2016, p. 268) stated that flexible seating (like portable cushions, mats or bean bags) ‘can influence creative thinking… and enhance teaching and learning experiences’.
Flexible seating arrangements can help pupils to become critical thinkers, with an ability to adapt to changes in the learning environment. It allows them to work collaboratively, explore their learning environment, expand their learning experiences and to develop independence.
Flexible, adaptable seating that meets the fluctuating needs of your cohort, supported by teaching around the skills needed to utilise it, will help your learners on many levels. If that seating is also designed to be engaging and comfortable, the learning experience is further enhanced. Think bean bag chairs and floor cushions in the reading corner of a primary classroom or posture wedges and support seats.
Organisation and storage of classroom resources
Finally, let’s look at resources - not which resources but rather how they are organised, stored and used in your classroom environment. The two key elements here are organisation and accessibility.
It’s incredibly easy to end up with one of two ways of organising your resources: keeping them out of children’s reach but organised, in a cupboard, or accessible but chaotic. How do we allow children to self-access the items they need while ensuring resource trolleys and shelves don’t end up in a messy array - which could easily lead to an overstimulating, distracting environment (and a greater teacher workload)?
Let pupils access resources
Whether you have a class of EYFS children through to secondary school students, accessing learner-directed resources is brilliant for independence and critical thinking. However, it’s all too easy to have a trolley full of resources left haphazardly by children who haven’t been taught how to use them appropriately.
Support pupils to access and store resources
The key here is teaching children exactly how to use each new resource, including how and where they should be stored and taken care of. This could include plenty of visual cues left with resources or on shelves, outlining which items go where, how many, and how to take care of the items.
An art station, for example, could have clearly labelled images for what goes in each tub, along with instructions on how to return items (younger children might need visual reminders to add glue lids back on glue sticks or to add lids back on pens each time they return them, for example).
Establish classroom routines early on
Forethought is needed here, particularly when new layouts or resources are introduced at the start of a topic or term. Cutler et al. (2022) (9) found that establishing clear routines and developmentally appropriate practices around organising the classroom is best done at the beginning of the year and then returned to throughout the school year.
Assign responsibility to pupils
Another popular approach to getting pupils involved in the organisation of a learning environment is to assign responsibilities to pupils. Pupils can sign up for specific roles or you can assign them these roles. This helps learners to develop a sense of responsibility and accountability, which are essential life skills.
Final thoughts on physical learning environments
We know all educators want the best for their students. Yet, amid busy school activities, it can be easy to forget that the physical environment is one of the child’s most important learning resources.
While many things are fixed in the classroom space, it’s always worth revisiting how you lay out and organise your classroom to see if any optimisations can be made. Consider how to change and adapt your indoor and outdoor learning spaces to fit with a range of activities and the specific needs of your pupils.
When the right changes are put in place, wellbeing and outcomes can significantly improve. We hope our guide helps, and wish you the best of luck!
References:
(1) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022096518300390
(2) https://earlyexcellence.com/latest-news/press-articles/riot-of-colour/
(3) https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/9/3219/htm
(4) https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(09)00168-5?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1364661309001685%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
(5) https://schoolsweek.co.uk/research-is-there-a-better-or-best-classroom-layout/
(6) https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2001-17242-002
(7) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0144341830030201
(8) Cited within Cole, Shroeder, Bataineh & Bataineh, 2021 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1304613
(9) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10409289.2022.2106766
Eden Learning Spaces offers a wide range of soft furnishings to support all learning environments. Click the link below to see the full range, or reach out to the team to discuss a bespoke solution for your space.
