Thursday, 15 April 2010

Physical classroom design - research

Room use is influenced by;
Culture - of the subject, of the institution and beyond Social - including the teaching and learning dynamic, and the pedagogy
physical design - including any technology [digital or otherwise]. - [adapted from horne-martin 2004]

A paper by p.woolner et al 2007l, reviewed imperical evidence behind physical design research in the area. They did this for the schools for future initiative.

Highlights include;
The are some obvious basics you need, lighting temperature, air quality, noise reduction that are backed up by research.

Cost benefits - as there is little evidence, would money be better spent elsewhere. The conclusion is 'yes' unless users are involved.

Colour - there is no clear evidence, but the suggestion is made use of colour behind the teacher to aid concentration. Colour is also highly visible, and is noticed by students [as in my own research] therefore it is suggested that this could make an impact on student conception of room quality [maxwell 2000]. Nice quote from student 'a giant magnolia prison' [burke, grosvener [2003] sundstrom [1987] warns claims are always over optimistic for affect of colour.

'wow' factor - there are no longitutinal studies, but there are fears over initial enthusiasm draining away.

Displaying student work - increased feelings of ownership, involvement leading to improved motivation [killeen et al 2003]

Change for change sake - can be stimulating [gump 1987]. Rivlin and wolfe 1985 say its rare that anyone moves furniture in the classroom or aeven the home.

User centred design - builds ownership. But this needs to be at a deep level and at different stages

Architectural determinism - warnings that there is an over estimation of affect design has on human activity. Brennan et al work on open plan offices 2002. [Horne 1999] humans resort to coping with environments if they have no involvement in design.

Room use is influenced by;
Culture - of the subject, of the institution and beyond Social - including the teaching and learning dynamic, and the pedagogy
physical design - including any technology [digital or otherwise]. - [adapted from horne-martin 2004]

A paper by p.woolner et al 2007l, reviewed imperical evidence behind physical design research in the area. They did this for the schools for future initiative.

Highlights include;
The are some obvious basics you need, lighting temperature, air quality, noise reduction that are backed up by research.

Cost benefits - as there is little evidence, would money be better spent elsewhere. The conclusion is 'yes' unless users are involved.

Colour - there is no clear evidence, but the suggestion is made use of colour behind the teacher to aid concentration. Colour is also highly visible, and is noticed by students [as in my own research] therefore it is suggested that this could make an impact on student conception of room quality [maxwell 2000]. Nice quote from student 'a giant magnolia prison' [burke, grosvener [2003] sundstrom [1987] warns claims are always over optimistic for affect of colour.

'wow' factor - there are no longitutinal studies, but there are fears over initial enthusiasm draining away.

Displaying student work - increased feelings of ownership, involvement leading to improved motivation [killeen et al 2003]

Change for change sake - can be stimulating [gump 1987]. Rivlin and wolfe 1985 say its rare that anyone moves furniture in the classroom or aeven the home.

User centred design - builds ownership. But this needs to be at a deep level and at different stages

Architectural determinism - warnings that there is an over estimation of affect design has on human activity. Brennan et al work on open plan offices 2002. [Horne 1999] humans resort to coping with environments if they have no involvement in design.

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