Many teachers have this perception that classroom design is just a simple thing to do, albeit the number of activities involved. This thought leads teachers to overlook certain things that may affect the performance of their students. What teachers (and school administrators) need to understand is that classroom design has a direct effect on the way students study. It is a dimension or factor that needs to be addressed with utmost care and proper planning.
You may even find this quite challenging, but if you get things right, you and your students will reap great benefits. You may say right now that you do not have any idea how to get things right, but do not worry. This guide will show some pointers and useful tips to help you improve the look and function of your classroom.
First off, you need to involve your stakeholders, which include the parents, the students, and the school administrators.
Identify certain problems
You cannot formulate a great solution if you do not identify the problems that affect your classroom. What you should do is observe and see how things affect the learning process of your students.
While their grades may tell something about it, you should be careful when coming up with deductions. The problems should be carefully considered and when you have identified them, you should come up with a list of solutions to address those. Make sure that the solutions in your list are practical, easy to execute, and of course, realistic.
Find inspiration
The design of your classroom may be the problem, but you need to make sure that you involve your stakeholders at this stage. For one, you can ask students and parents about the design that may be executed for your classroom. You can ask them to find pegs and inspirations online and through magazines. After that, collate their suggestions and make a mood board. That way, you can easily decide if the proposals are actually practical. Do not forget to seek the approval of your school administrators.
Arrange the seats nicely
If the design is yet to be implemented, you can start by arranging the seats of the students. The first thing you should do is to make sure that the seats are not under the direct sunlight. If this cannot be helped, you should install window treatments. See to it that the arrangement of the seats will allow students to see what is on the board, and make sure that it facilitates easy flow.
Store what needs to be stored
Clutter is the number one enemy of great classroom design. What you should do is do away with them. It will make your classroom much roomier. What you should do to avoid clutter is to invest in an optimised classroom storage system. Do what you need to do to keep the space cleaner and more conducive to learning.
These are just some of the things you need to keep in mind if you want to optimise your classroom for learning. You can consult a professional to make things simpler.
