Designing Classrooms to Maximize Student Achievement
نویسندگان
چکیده
Improving student achievement is vital for our nation’s competitiveness. Scientific research shows how the physical classroom environment influences student achievement. Two findings are key: First, the building’s structural facilities profoundly influence learning. Inadequate lighting, noise, low air quality, and deficient heating in the classroom are significantly related to worse student achievement. Over half of U.S. schools have inadequate structural facilities, and students of color and lower income students are more likely to attend schools with inadequate structural facilities. Second, scientific studies reveal the unexpected importance of a classroom’s symbolic features, such as objects and wall décor, in influencing student learning and achievement in that environment. Symbols inform students whether they are valued learners and belong within the classroom, with far-reaching consequences for students’ educational choices and achievement. We outline policy implications of the scientific findings—noting relevant policy audiences—and specify critical features of classroom design that can improve student achievement, especially for the most vulnerable students.
منابع مشابه
Learning Together While Designing: Does Group Size Make a Difference?
As the use of project-based learning becomes more frequent in the K-12 science classroom, and in chemistry classrooms in particular, teachers have begun to identify practical questions about implementation that should be addressed empirically. One such question concerns whether there is an ideal group size that fosters individual student achievement. The current project was designed to assess h...
متن کاملAB-10-C037: Effects of noise from building mechanical systems on elementary school student achievement
This project seeks to determine what relationship, if any, exists between background noise levels in elementary classrooms due to the building mechanical systems and student performance on achievement tests. Previous research in classroom acoustics has clearly identified that lower background noise levels result in higher speech intelligibility which is crucial for the learning process; however...
متن کاملClassroom Emotional Climate, Student Engagement, and Academic Achievement
The emotional connections students foster in their classrooms are likely to impact their success in school. Using a multimethod, multilevel approach, this study examined the link between classroom emotional climate and academic achievement, including the role of student engagement as a mediator. Data were collected from 63 fifthand sixth-grade classrooms (N 1,399 students) and included classroo...
متن کاملBest Practices in Increasing Academic Learning Time XX OVERVIEW
How children spend their time in classrooms continues to be a topic of importance for teachers, school psychologists, administrators, and educational researchers. Recently, researchers concluded that as little as half of each school day may be devoted to instruction in some classrooms, and engagement rates among students may range from as low as 50% up to 90%, depending on teachers’ managerial ...
متن کاملRelationships between unoccupied classroom acoustical conditions and elementary student achievement measured in eastern Nebraska.
Building standards recommend maximum background noise levels (BNL) and reverberation times (RT) for unoccupied classrooms. However, existing research does not show a consistent correlation between these parameters and student achievement. Through in situ testing, this research seeks to determine what acoustical conditions should be attained in elementary schools for students to meet educational...
متن کامل