Literary Review

A Place for Learning: The Physical Environment of Classrooms

by Mark Phillips

Published on Edutopia on May 20, 2014

Meghan Rotkosky

National University

TED 690: Masters Capstone

 Abstract

Authors: Mark Phillips

Title: A Place for Learning: The Physical Environment of Classrooms

Publisher: Edutopia

Year: 2014

Reviewed By: Meghan Rotkosky, National University, TED 690

This online on the popular education site Edutopia features the first hand accounts

of a teacher and educational journalist assisting a teacher in a masters program with

transforming the physical environment of her classroom to provide students with a better

learning environment and a better sense of classroom community. In this article the

author provides insight and suggestions for how to make each classroom an effective

environment for learning.

 Literary Review

I never considered the actual physical environment of a classroom to be as

important as the social environment created through relationships between the students

and the teacher. In this article the author, Mark Phillips, describes working with a teacher

in a economically underprivileged area in the Appalachian mountains. In this article the

students had struggles being engaged in the content and establishing a relationship with

the teacher. The environment itself was described by Phillips as being more like an

interrogation chamber than a classroom, (2014) being situated in a uncompleted

subterranean level of the school.

In the article Phillips tells of the suggestions that he gives this teacher on how to

change the physical environment of her classroom to not only be more inviting (painting,

carpeting, decorating) but also incorporate the students tastes and designs into the class as

well. When the project was completed students not only had a more inviting and creative

environment in which to learn but also they had the satisfaction of knowing that they

helped to improve their environment and they and their peers created the design of the

classroom. Phillips mentions, The teacher told me that the process of doing this had

created trust, community, and ego strength, unlike our misplaced exercises. She was

finding the students far more motivated. They were happy in this place theyd created,

(2014).

The author tells another story of a doctoral candidate studying classroom

environments that took a job as a custodian to learn more about differing classroom

environments. This doctoral candidate found that classrooms were arranged in order to

benefit custodial and cleaning staff more often than they were designed with the students
or teachers needs in mind. The author even mentioned This was reinforced for me both

as a high school teacher and university professor. I always arranged the chairs in a

semicircle and always returned the next day to find the chairs placed in rows, (2014).

It seems like such a small thing the ways in which a classroom is designed. I

have experienced first-hand that there can be issues with classroom designs but I never

stopped to think that the ways in which classrooms are physically situated would really

cause students to feel one way or the other. In my student teaching assignment, one of my

master teachers classrooms was gutted the summer before I began teaching with her.

They took a science classroom full of laboratory desks, storage cupboards, and

demonstration tables and created a cold, sparse room that reminded me of every college

level math classroom I have ever set foot in. The floors were tiled, there was no storage

anywhere, individual desks and laboratory tables were switched out with easy to move

desks on wheels, and what I have been told was an incredible demonstration table topped

in flame-proof soapstone was replaced with a linoleum topped storage table where each

drawer (all 19 of them) required a different key. This made absolutely no sense to either

my master teacher or me, but it had to have made sense to somebody or the changes

would not have been made.

Thinking back on that classroom and the stories from this article, I can see that the

physical environment of a classroom can have just as much effect on teaching and

learning as the social environment of a classroom. Phillips provides a short course on

classroom arrangement for those teachers that are lucky enough to come back in the

morning to a classroom just how they left it. His suggestions include configurations that

make it easier for students to work collaboratively with each other, having students help
to create a more inviting environment by giving suggestions on how to make their

environment more meaningful to them, and by creating an open floor configuration that

allows for students to share with each other and with the teacher.

After reading through the suggestions and Phillips two experiences with other

teachers, I can definitely see how the actual physical environment of a classroom can

have a big impact on student comprehension and learning. I am a big believer in having a

positive classroom environment where all students feel they are appreciated and part of

the community of learning. I realize now that I should consider the physical aspects of the

environment as well if I want students to feel like their needs are being met and they are

in a positive enough environment to learn effectively.

Reference:

Edutopia. A Place for Learning: The Physical Environment of Classrooms. May 20,

2014. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/the-physical-environment-of-

classrooms-mark-phillips