Six out of every 10 teachers believe that changing the design of the classroom is key to improving learning

Cortez Deacetis

Six out of every 10 teachers believe that changing the design of the classroom is key to improving learning
Science tells us that we learn much better and extra by collaborating, and hence the room must favor this. Credit score: Smartclassroomproject.com

The impression of rows of chairs and desks going through a instructor at a blackboard has been a actuality for many years. Nevertheless, exploration reveals that this way of organizing the classroom household furniture in colleges is not the finest way for favoring the studying approach. Specially if the desires of 21st-century pupils are taken into account, who, in accordance to the OECD, demand a social ecosystem that fosters autonomy, versatility, final decision-creating potential and the relationship of knowledge by particular person college students or by teamwork.


It is also the impression of 6 out of every 10 lecturers that modifying the structure of the classroom is important to bettering mastering. This was the end result of a latest examine done by researchers of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Universitat de Vic (UVic) and Universidad Simón Bolívar (USB), in which 847 preschool, primary and secondary faculty instructors from 40 faculties participated. “We suppose which is what the spaces should really be like without the need of supplying it much thought or with no connecting what we’re innovating in conditions of methodology with the position in which we’re likely to set that into exercise,” explained Guillermo Bautista, member of the Clever Classroom Task research group of the UOC and principal investigator in this research. That is why we require to make the Wise Mastering House a truth: “a area that satisfies any understanding require or proposal, that is versatile and not zoned, in which bodily and psychological perfectly-remaining are prioritized as the foundations upon which the studying action can take put, in which the pupils enjoy a proactive and autonomous part,” mentioned Bautista.

Many research have currently acknowledged the benefits of a suitably-intended classroom. This was just one of the good reasons why the Consorci d’Educació de Barcelona started off changing the furniture in 487 classrooms a couple of weeks in the past, even though also reorganizing the spaces to acquire motivating environments that motivate discovery. And, as the authors of the UOC-led study level out, it truly is that the techniques and mastering requires of modern pupils not only oblige us to rethink our educating techniques or the inclusion of electronic sources, they also call for alterations in the discovering areas in common.

Guillermo Bautista demonstrates this with an case in point: as he explains, science tells us that we find out much better and more by collaborating, and therefore the place ought to favor this collaboration and interaction, also having into account what investigation tells us about collaborative discovering. If we organize the action with teams of four college students primarily based on a challenge or a venture, it would be sensible that the room need to be appropriate to permit the group to collaborate and also empower a specific volume of autonomy for using the resources it demands, for relocating, hunting close to, experimenting, and self-arranging, and so on. “This usually means that not all of the groups will be performing the exact thing at the exact time, and the exact same methods will not be needed for all people. The exercise in the classroom is assorted and the space will have to regularly reply to this organizational range of use, assets, movements,” he described.

Nonetheless, the solid assumption upheld for decades that the classroom is as it is, has resulted in us proposing number of adjustments. And when these are eventually being proposed, the way of these alterations is not quick to make a decision upon, “and that is why our analysis is necessary, to enable establish conditions so that the place is modified with ensures,” he mentioned.

Adjustments in the structure of secondary school lecture rooms also

Presently, most academics negatively amount the organization of the environment in their classroom. This is one of the findings of the research, whereby lower or moderate scores were obtained about the suitability of present-day lecture rooms to serve as comprehensive discovering spaces. But distinctions exist in between the distinctive stages of schooling, as the design and style of preschool and key schooling finding out areas is commonly more adaptable, collaborative and particular, affirm the authors of the analyze, who stage to a attainable cause for this scenario. “It is specifically in the toddler and major levels exactly where educating traits this kind of as all those applied since the early 20th century (in which the spaces, their structure, furnishings, and many others. were by now connected to clear instructional meanings) have been most current and commonly extra obvious,” mentioned Angelina Sánchez-Martí, researcher of the Good Classroom Job and Serra Húnter professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

On the other hand, the classic layout of the spaces is substantially far more founded between secondary faculty facilities and lecturers. That’s why the authors of the study positively price the reality that all through the analyze it was verified that there are instructors and centers from this phase of training who are conscious that their spaces do not correspond with the methodologies that they want to put into action. “The Good Areas that we have implemented as portion of the exploration are co-developed, implementing a thoroughness, rigorousness, and seeking to satisfy the highest targets and outcomes for studying proposed by every single middle. And these areas are needed in all of the stages,” stated Bautista.

An additional result to highlight is that the lecturers are specifically important when it will come to appraising the integration of technologies in the classrooms. But in the belief of the authors of the study, this data is not shocking as “it is exactly the new technologies that are threatening the common situations and areas, and thus need great adaptability and a constant adaptation to modify, as properly as a reformulation of the finding out spaces”, claimed Sánchez-Martí. She additional that the choices that technological integration presents in conditions of producing new strategies to relate and master “fully clashes with the quite standardized style and design derived from the idea that schools must be primarily based on school rooms for each se, when this does not necessarily have to be the scenario.”


Group tables, ottomans and gym balls: Children explained to us why flexible home furniture assists them find out

Far more info:
Guillermo Bautista Pérez et al, To clever finding out areas in Catalan colleges: teachers’ perceptions of adjust, Mastering Environments Study (2021). DOI: 10.1007/s10984-021-09357-y

Delivered by
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

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Six out of just about every 10 teachers think that modifying the style and design of the classroom is important to increasing finding out (2021, April 29)
retrieved 30 April 2021
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