The extent to which teachers make changes in classroom seating reflects, in part, the degree to which they value promoting positive peer relationships in the classroom. We assessed the frequency with which teachers made both minor (i.e., involving only 2-3 students) and major (involving half or more students in the class) changes in classroom…

Classrooms should be spaces where every child feels safe to bring their whole self to school. This book shows how to set up preK-grade 6 classrooms that support student agency, independence, and choice. The results of classrooms designed with these goals in mind include: (1) Greater student engagement with curriculum; (2) Students who know…

The purpose of this research is to explore prospective teachers' perspectives on the physical arrangement of an ideal classroom as a learning environment. A phenomenological design was used in this study to reveal the views of prospective teachers about the components and features of an ideal, desired classroom environment. Fifteen teacher…

The modeling of a modern preschool curriculum is contextually conditioned and represents a complex process. Each kindergarten has its "own identity," its "DNA," just as children, preschool teachers and other participants in the educational process have their "own individual equations." Contextual learning is at the…

Transforming learning spaces has become a priority for many schools, not only for implementing emerging methodologies but also for sanitary reasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools struggle to find solutions for the lack of space in order to respect the required safety distance, especially public schools with a very tight budget and many…

This article focuses on the schools developed by Mary and David Medd within the Ministry of Education in Great Britain, 1949-1976. Their main contribution to the field of Educational Architecture was the definition of a design strategy known as "Built-in variety," where the self-contained classrooms ("empty-box-school")…

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…

Instruction based on active learning is being promoted in higher education by the creation of new collaborative teaching and learning spaces, but capacity does not yet exist for all courses to be held in these new spaces. In this study, we examined how students choose between sections of the same course, with the same materials and techniques used…

When classroom facilities are out of date, students complain (Habaci et al., in Procedia Soc Behav Sci 64:58-64 2012, https://doi-org.bibliotheek.ehb.be/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.11.008). But, before students arrive on campus, what do they know about their classrooms? Media has changed how people acquire information; websites are second only to college tours in…

Arousing and sustaining young students' curiosity within school environments is an important concern in contemporary education. Our study investigated the triggers of curiosity in elementary classrooms centered around social constructivist discourse, specifically knowledge-building. To this end, we performed longitudinal network analysis on 4166…

An "active learning" classroom design recognizes the importance of students becoming engaged in their own learning. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study compared student-reported data (n = 219) and used the "community of inquiry" framework to evaluate the impact of environmental features on students' experience. Students…

This article addresses how those who plan education will be profoundly affected by Artificial Intelligence and suggests ways in which the potential benefits may be optimised. UNESCO's contributions to the AI debate are recognised and applauded, despite AI having, as yet, no direct voice in its discussions. Most significantly, there is a widespread…

Recent years have witnessed the spread of purpose-built active learning classrooms throughout the higher education sector. While these innovative learning spaces are well-suited for a variety of active learning strategies, their lack of a single focal point means they are inconvenient spaces for lecturing. While educational developers often…

Background and Context: A continued gender disparity has driven a need for effective interventions for recruiting girls to computer science. Prior research has demonstrated that middle school girls hold beliefs and attitudes that keep them from learning computer science, which can be mitigated through classroom design. Objective: This study…

In this qualitative study, the authors examined how care was enacted, understood, and valued by teachers and students in nine ninth-grade English language arts classrooms. Following two yearlong cohorts of teachers, the authors explored sociopolitical interpretations of care, specifically focusing on how care was an everyday, political phenomenon…