Key Elements of the Physical Classroom Environment
In the context of education and the classroom, the physical environment refers to the man-made aspects and surroundings in the classroom. The key aspects of the physical classroom environment include ambient conditions, such as temperature, acoustics, odor, and air quality; spatial layout and functionality, including seating arrangement, equipment, and furnishings; and signs, symbols, and decorations (Han et al., 2019).
A common criticism of the current public-school system is that it still too closely resembles the factory model of education. Most often, students are placed in grades according to age, they sit in organized rows of desks with dozens of other students, and they work their way through successive grades. Historically, educational settings have been “grounded on industrial assumptions. Children marched from place to place and sat in assigned stations… The most criticized features of education today are the regimentation, lack of individualization, the rigid systems of seating, grouping, grading and marking” (Toffler, 1970, p. 399). This structure is no longer the most beneficial system for learners and does not reflect the direction that education is moving in. How can we create environments that will engage our learners?
In a 2020-2021 student satisfaction survey in British Columbia where students were asked if they felt welcome at their schools, 64% of students answered, “many times” or “all of the time”, while 55% of Indigenous students answered, “many times” or “all of the time”. These numbers need to be higher, and the physical classroom environment is a good place to start making this change.
This section of the website has been broken down into pages based on the various elements of the physical classroom environment. For each aspect of the classroom environment, I have provided recommendations and key takeaways from my research that you can use to make your classroom for inclusive and engaging. If you click on the recommendation, you can see a summary of the study or studies that support it. Links to each page can be found below or from the main navigation bar.
