Having observed and coached in hundreds of K-12 classrooms since 1994, Ron Nash has come to a few conclusions about what makes teachers tick and classrooms click. The best teachers attend to those seemingly little things that cost nothing, even as they create classroom climates where students can't wait to walk through the door every day. The big…

A learning environment can either enhance or prevent access to information and social interaction for children and youth with deaf-blindness as well as impact their attention and engagement. The process of preparing learning spaces to optimize learning should consider: (1) How a child will navigate within those spaces; (2) How and where the child…

In addition to their pedagogical benefits, active learning classrooms constitute an important topic of research and have renewed debates on the impact of the built environment on education. However, this literature sometimes overlooks the experiences of learners by focusing on the design and practice of teaching in active learning classrooms. The…

As many higher education institutions in New England grapple with how to safely reopen in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the physical setting of campuses becomes paramount. The author, an associate professor of architecture at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I. and director of Wildish Design, a design and research practice…

We build on identity-based motivation theory to integrate research on in-person and virtual learning environments so that we can articulate which features of virtual learning environments are likely to support or impede learning and identity exploration. Although students experience their identities as stable anchors for meaning-making and action,…

Learning spaces in higher education are fraught with colonial barriers such as teacher-centered, front facing, stark, feelingless, and unwelcoming classrooms that diminish students' feelings of well-being. For pre-service teachers, these are also the types of classrooms that they often inherit as they foray into the profession. Three Bachelor of…

There is a national urgency in higher education to close the achievement gap and increase graduation rates for first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented minorities, and classroom environments are integral to the student learning experience. The authors propose shifting learningspace discussions away from building an historically small…

Color. Carpets. Configurations. The classroom can create a sense of safety, calm, and invitation to learn if designed correctly. Authors and educators Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, and Dominique Smith describe their journey to making their school's classrooms trauma-informed and safe, inviting spaces for students.

Postsecondary instructors routinely face novel and complex challenges in physical classrooms and informal learning spaces. Instructors often bring these challenges, along with creative and aspirational solutions, to the attention of centers for teaching and learning (CFTLs). Issues span a wide range of topics including blogs, clickers, immersive…

The emergence of active learning classrooms (ALCs) on university campuses introduces a need for university teachers to have knowledge of the pedagogical use of physical space. We consider expanding two well-known frameworks for teacher knowledge. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) describes teacher knowledge about teaching discipline-specific…

A student, and two professors collectively explored the unique nature of their graduate course entitled "Narrative Pedagogy as Social Justice." All of the authors experienced personal transformation through relationally engaging in difficult dialogue. They now wonder, how to create classroom spaces where dialog about difficult topics can…

We describe four design principles that guide the Mosaic Fellows Program at Indiana University, a program focused on supporting faculty pedagogy in active learning spaces. The design principles focus on exploring a variety of classrooms with faculty Fellows, engaging Fellows' individual goals, creating shared learning experiences, and encouraging…

The design of a classroom space can make a big difference in student behavior and learning. The use of color, sound, light, furniture arrangements and more can help foster community and culture and promote understanding. Dillon discusses some easy ways to transform the classroom space that can help with classroom management.

The purpose of this article is to persuade teachers of English at all levels to allow for more student movement, even if just a little. Kevin McCaughey calls this approach to a dynamic classroom space a Movable Class. The first part of this article looks at how lack of movement, especially prolonged sitting, has serious health consequences. The…

This article presents recommendations regarding how to create welcoming and productively challenging classrooms for a diversity of students. These recommendations emerged during the pilot phase of a student--faculty pedagogical partnership programme in 2007 and remain relevant in 2017. To situate the recommendations, we evoke definitions of…