Teaching and Learning Inside the Classroom [The learning environment – Display and Layout]

1. Teaching and Learning Inside the Classroom[The learning environment – Display and Layout] Yr 1 Professional Practice Semester 2 Week 10

2. Phil Beadle as The Guardian’s teacher of the year 2005 quoted intellectual Linda Powell: If the environment in which a child learns is shoddy or in disrepair, then a child’s sense of themselves is undermined. Devalue the school buildings, devalue the child.” What are your views? Now consider what Phil discovered…

3. It was the same person who told me my classroom should be "an Aladdin's cave of learning". I found this difficult to achieve, though I respected the idea. Display was not something that came together particularly easily in my first years of teaching. I am a boy and a retired Goth. I don't go much for pretty colours. But, under advice, I took a trip to a local primary school. This, to my surprise, revealed fresh vistas of wonder. This place was riven - I mean, literally overflowing, floor to ceiling - with cultural artefacts: washing-lines hung across classrooms festooned with kids' work, dresses stuck to walls, papier-mâché severed heads, macramé weapons and, in one instance, a Bedouin tent in the corner of the classroom. Here there seemed to be an ethos, a belief system, around the fripperies on the walls; a genuine sense that an exciting environment makes for an excited child. You could tell that the children loved, and felt loved by, the place in which they learned, and this affected how well they learned the stuff they were meant to learn, and how happy they were doing so. Look what I can do, mum Colourful displays of work in the classroom make for happy and valued pupils Philip Beadle guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 April 2005 02.11 BST

4. Display – What’s it For? • Consider the following points: • Will the same reasons apply to displays in: • public areas e.g. the hall, the school entrance? • How might class displays differ for the different ages of the pupils? • What features might be incorporated to include pupils with specialeducational needs?

5. Teachers create displays to: Celebrate Stimulate Inform A visual means of focusing on specific learning outcomes, which form part of the current curriculum.(Hughes, P. 2008)

6. The following slide shows two primary classrooms. With the person next to you identify the key features of this as an environment for teaching and learning in the primary phase.

8. A well thought-out and organised classroom environment can greatly enhance children’s learning. • What do you think the main rationale was for the teacher organising the classroom in this way?

11. Classroom Layouts Arrangement of tables can impact upon the behaviour and motivation of the children. What are the advantages / disadvantages for learning in the following arrangements?

12. Arrangement for “Small Group” work

13. Arrangement for “Large Group” work

14. Arrangement for “Quiet Work” (individual, paired or whole class work)

16. On a practical note … Will the space I have created support the learning and teaching I have planned? Will it send appropriate signals to the children, creating positive expectations? Will it support positive behaviour? Are different learning styles catered for? Will children’s social needs be addressed? Will it support inclusion?

17. Video Debate Identify the key points from this clip: What are the educational reasons cited for different displays? http://archive.teachfind.com/ttv/www.teachers.tv/videos/positive-learning-environment-primary.html Classroom environment What are your views? You may wish to refer to Phil Beadles views at the beginning of the session.

18. Independent Study Task • Read (in Reading Pack) Hastings and Chantry (2002) – Does classroom organisation matter? • In your Reflective Journal: • Consider your views: What kind of classroom would you like? • On SE observe the way in which the layout of the classroom supports learning. • Visit other classrooms – how does organisation differ? Why might this be?