It’s said that the environment can impact our wellbeing. Imagine if you are in a messy and noisy place, it won’t be easy for you to concentrate. For students, they spend a lot of time in school. The classroom has a significant impact on their wellbeing both physically and mentally. The learning environment can influence their behavior and motivation to act. A comfortable classroom encourages students to interact, so your priority is definitely to let students feel safe in the space.
Here, we will let you know how you can create an effective classroom design to engage students. There are 5 principles to follow.
1.Comfortable – Makes Students Feel Safe
Students spend long periods in a learning space, the space should make people feel safe and comfortable to stay. If a classroom provides uncomfortable furniture or poor acoustics, students will definitely want to bolt out. To create a learning space that supports wellbeing and safety, you can make use of natural light and make sure of good air quality and stable temperature. This is the first step to create a learning environment that encourages collaborative work.
2.Social – Creates A Sense of Community
A sense of community is essential to creating a positive learning environment. We should make sure that students feel comfortable enough to ask questions and share ideas with each other. Room layout is the key to making the environment social. That includes considerations such as movement paths through the space, seating density and visibility of learning activities. To let teachers interact with students easily, it’s better to leave spaces for teachers to physically move around. The classroom should also allow students to discuss and work as a group. Putting items like whiteboards, sticky notes and mobile devices in the classroom can encourage students to brainstorm and visualize ideas.
3.Connected – Enables Smooth Information Sharing
Many schools leverage educational technology to meet the need for hybrid learning and provide effective online teaching. A good and stable internet connection is essential in the classroom now. It allows students to connect with others remotely in the virtual classroom, and share projects with the whole class easily. This also helps teachers to use Edtech easily.
4.Flexible – Supports Different Learning Activities
In school, students may need to work as a group or take a test. It’s better to put movable furniture for quick reconfiguration of desks and chairs to support various learning activities. With flexible design, teachers have the opportunities to bring various learning activities to students.
5.Scalable – Responsive to Operational Realities
When you finish working on a new active learning classroom with team-based design and latest Edtech, will it be easy to maintain? Is it possible that the design can adapt to changing needs of the faculty? If the room’s capabilities can align with the faculty’s pedagogical goals? The classroom design should be financially and operationally sustainable.
Enhance Students’ Engagement with AV Equipment
It is essential that every student has equal access to technology. For example, if some students have laptops while others only have tablets, then both groups need to have access to the same software. They should also be capable of sharing their projects with devices they like in the classroom. That’s why you should feature a wireless presentation system. ASTROS wireless presentation solutions support Windows PC, MacBook, iPhone or Android smartphone to share the screen wirelessly. For teachers, you don’t need to worry if students share inappropriate content, because you can easily control the sharing content through the moderation mode. If you are interested in knowing how to use ASTROS in the classroom , check our customer stories.
Conclusion
No matter how you design your classroom, make sure it can engage students, allow them to express themselves and assist them to easily get the information they want. In the end, students are the focus.