ORGANISING

16 CLASSROOM SPACE

Understanding and managing classroom space

Classroom environment interacts powerfully with teaching and learning, so how can
you ensure teachers throughout your school are making the best use of the space to
maximise the learning that goes on? Jane McGregor explains how, even when changing
the size of the space is not possible, there is much that can be done to change how the
space within classrooms is used
Space is fundamentally implicated in creating and
maintaining the school and the classroom. In this
understanding, rather than a predetermined place,
schools may be seen as a result of relationships and
materially embedded practices. As discussed
elsewhere in this publication, the architecture of
schools and classrooms embodies ideologies of
education and pedagogy through their physical
arrangement and the interaction with social space.
This is employed through timetables, rules and other
habitual organisational practices. Space has such a
taken-for-granted quality that it blinds us to the
fundamental ways in which the school is spatially
constituted. In secondary schools, the almost
ubiquitous orderings of classrooms, laboratories,
dining halls and staffrooms obscure the way in which
the setting is active in sustaining certain power
relations between adults and students and between
different groups of students (McGregor, 2004b).
The environment can only make a difference if it is
used by creative teachers with an appropriate
curriculum and resources. Yet for many teachers
their environment is still a blind spot: unchanging,
unchangeable and beyond their control an
obstacle that they must work around, rather than a
tool to support and enhance their practice.

CB VOL 5 NO 2 2007

(Design Council, 2005b)

Schools and classrooms that trace their origin back

to the late 19th century present universally
recognised images across nations and cultures.
Their familiarity and continuity presents them
unproblematically, somehow pre-existing and
almost immutable. The hidden curriculum is one
way in which power operates and school space is
increasingly understood to be important in
constructing and maintaining it. People are shaped
not only through social interaction but also through
the material world in which they live. The physical
setting, such as the arrangement of rooms and the
objects within them, conveys subtle (and more
overt) socialisation messages, of which most people
are typically unaware.
The classroom itself represents a hidden form of
curriculum. Low-quality, standardised and
institutional classroom environments and resources
are not just uninspiring, they can be harmful see the
box above right.

Changing structures
The box-like structure of many classrooms, with the
teacher zone of the desk or dais (in laboratories) at
the front, sends immediate messages about control,
supporting a didactic approach and mindset, yet the
pattern is so familiar, we often fail to question it.

Harmful effects of poor learning environment

The effect of low-quality learning environments can be to:
reduce the range of teaching and learning styles possible and affect the
interaction between teacher and student
undermine the value placed on learning
not meet individual needs by being poorly adaptable
hinder creativity
be inefficient, wasting time and effort
cost more in the long term.
General teaching spaces have been dominated in
the last century by one type of design: tutorfocused, one-way facing and presentational,
with seating arranged in either a U-shape or in
straight rows. Technologies have subsequently
been added interactive or conventional
whiteboards mounted on the wall behind the
main speaker, ceiling-mounted projectors with
cabling to a laptop, a wireless network and/or
wired computers but these have rarely altered
the dynamics of the design. (Alexi Marmot

Associates, 2006).

Yet, it does not have to be like this. If starting from

scratch, there are more possibilities for innovation
and, as a precursor to the Building Schools for the
Future programme, a series of well-funded and
innovative pilot designs for Classrooms of the
Future have been developed with 12 local
authorities, sponsored by the DfES. The ideas are
available on the website: www.teachernet.gov.uk/
futureclassrooms, although not all of them have
actually been built or posted on the site as yet. The
case study article on Yewlands School in Sheffield,
on pages 4450, shows how one example
Classroom of the Future is integral to a Skills for
Learning curriculum.

The classroom
itself represents a
hidden form of
curriculum
low-quality,
standardised and
institutional
classroom
environments and
resources are not
just uninspiring,
they can be harmful

Teacher- and learner-centred lesson models

Teacher-centred lessons
Content focused
Requires memorising
Rote-learning
Individual testing
Problems not real
Set tasks
Subject/discipline based
Rigid timetables and supervision

Learner-centred lessons
Process-focused pupils are learning to learn
Critical thinking
Ability to communicate
Teamwork/collaboration
Authentic problem-solving
Project-based learning
Cross-disciplinary working
Ability to self-organise
Source: (R. Fisher, 2005)

17

Classroom ownership

Spatial analysis

In conventional secondary schools, it is generally

teachers who are allocated teaching rooms and who
own the classroom, while the students move around
the school. Although there are commonly ongoing
negotiations and resistance over the control of space in
the classroom, Gordon and Lahelma found that they
were seen by students as teachers spaces: For teachers
their classroom is more of a private space, for students
it is more of a public space (Gordon and Lahelma,
1996). Hence hierarchical relationships may be played
out where the teacher is perceived to be the sole authority, transmitting knowledge and being in control.
Classrooms embody pedagogic ideologies and
relationships, resulting from different approaches to
the control, or facilitation of activities. Spaces tell
students a great deal about adult expectations and
power structures. Teachers draw on space to assert
their authority, often through the control of movement, noise and even light in the classroom. They
place value on maintaining orderly relations, and the
control of noise and movement in the classroom can
be seen as a measure of teaching success as much as
what pupils know or have learned.
One way that teachers exert this control is through
teacher-centred learning. This has often become so
entrenched that it can be easy to lose sight of what
makes for a learner-centred lesson. The box at the
bottom of page 16 sets out the key elements that illustrate the difference between the teacher-transmission
model compared with the learner-centred one.
Research has shown that non-traditional
teachers are more likely to modify the classroom to
produce what they believed to be a more effective
working environment, for example, through
displays and alternative furniture arrangements
(Bissell, 2004). Curriculum managers need to put
systems in place to help all teachers to move towards
this approach to the classroom as a learning
environment. The articles contained in this
publication give various strategies that you can use
to help in this endeavour.

Much of the work relating to space and the classroom

has derived from research into gender relations and
inequalities in schools. A spatial analysis of relations
may be traced through research into classroom
dynamics, where well-documented studies have
shown that (some) boys dominate the processes of
construction and use of space (Paechter, 1998).
However, there is an increasing interest in spatial
arrangements in the classroom, exploring
inequalities in spatial processes as well as outcomes,
as evidenced by this edition of Curriculum Briefing.
It is the interaction between the physical, social
and organisational environment that create
particular spaces for learning and support different
types of relationships. The familiar and taken-forgranted architectures of schools often feed into our
lack of awareness of the workings of spatiality.
However, increasingly, research demonstrates that
the learning environment affects the engagement,
motivation, self-esteem, attendance, wellbeing and
achievement of students (Higgins et al, 2005). So
schools do need to pay attention to spatial issues and
how they impact on the learning environment. It is a
primary responsibility of adults in schools to
configure the environment so that there are different
spaces for different activities and forms of learning.
A spatial approach to exploring relationships can
illuminate the dynamics of the class, developing a
spatial literacy (R. Fisher, 2005) that makes possible
the creation of different and more democratic
relationships. The notion of learning spaces and
spaces of dialogue are increasingly employed to
identify such possibilities and it is suggested that
learning that takes place in those spaces has the
potential to transform relationships.
The environment can also close off spaces for
learning. Most teachers are aware of how easy it is to
focus attention on the middle of the classroom,
rather than the sides, with the result that students
not wishing to participate in whole-class work sit at
the side, while those who may misbehave
traditionally try to sit at the back. Likewise, peer
pressure can be a significant element, positive or
negative in taking up opportunities to learn.
As discussed above, if students and teachers feel
valued and secure they are more likely to achieve
their goals.

Janice Bissell, in a study of teacher modification of

the classroom environment, found that:
Teachers whose work patterns are predominantly
traditional make few modifications to their
classrooms, although most have added shelving
and file storage. In contrast, teachers with
predominantly non-traditional work patterns
made significant changes to their classrooms;
some permanent, others that take place as
needed. Teachers view these modifications as
critical in supporting their conceptions of effective
teaching. (Bissell, 2004)
However limited the resources in terms of time and
money, small changes can always be made to the
physical environment to make the dullest
classroom more attractive and welcoming. This
could be borrowing plants from the science
department or using coloured backing paper for
display. Bissell noted that the non-traditional
teachers who modified their classroom, often
drastically, spent a significant amount of time and
effort in making the classroom an effective
workspace and learning environment.

It is the interaction
between the
physical, social and
organisational
environment that
create particular
spaces for learning
and support
different types of
relationships

e-learning types
Same

Distributed
synchronous
learning

Time

E-classroom
E-library

Different

Same

Distributed
asynchronous
learning
Different

Location

E-campus

(Yapp, 2004)

CB VOL 5 NO 2 2007

Improving given environment

The physical
setting, such as
the arrangement of
rooms and the
objects within
them conveys
subtle (and more
overt) socialisation
messages, of which
most people are
typically unaware

ORGANISING
18 CLASSROOM SPACE

Space for personalised learning

Space has such a

There is currently much discussion about
taken-for-granted
personalising learning, putting the learner at the
quality that it
centre, enabling them to learn at a pace agreed
blinds us to the
between student and teacher. It will require changes
fundamental ways
in school organisation and this may include greater
in which the school
autonomy, more individualised learning, a different
school day and year, all-through schools, perhaps fully is spatially
integrating special educational needs provision, or
constituted
schools within schools, where large schools are
subdivided into smaller self-contained units with
vertical structures. The personalisation agenda has
strong implications for the classroom environment
and also the potential to be strongly supported by
digital technologies within and beyond the classroom.
Chris Yapp, Head of Public Sector Innovation for
Microsoft, has identified types of e-learning with
different implications for organisation in the
classroom and the school (see the diagram at the
bottom of page 17).
The rapid development and uptake of
technologies has a profound influence on
possibilities for learning and the skills needed to
employ them productively. In the same way that the
growth of the internet could not have been predicted
50 years ago, we do not know the changes in
technologies and economies that the pupils of today
will face in the next decade.

Small changes can

always be made to
the physical
environment to
make the dullest
classroom more
attractive and
welcoming

Criteria for modern classrooms

Modern classrooms have to:
accommodate the formation and functioning of small learning groups while providing
a sense of separation because groups working
together will experience distractions and nonproductive interaction
be flexible enough to allow the continual
reorganisation of the whole class into various
sizes and numbers of small learning groups;
this means the space must be as free as possible of permanent obstructions
be manageable by a single teacher who has
command of the entire space (Dyck, 1994);
this means the space must be compact and
open.
One thing that is likely is that effective
personalised learning environments, supported by
ICT, will be those that extend beyond the classroom.
Learners can create a coherent experience of
learning in diverse locations, collaborate with
experts in areas of personal interest, track and
renew their own learning across different sites
and stages of education, have access to resources
in forms and media relevant to their language
skills, abilities and personal preferences. (Green

et al, 2005).

Different classroom layouts

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Fat L classroom
The Fat L layout, designed
by Dyck (1994), evolved from
an understanding that the
classroom should provide
individuals with places
where they have the
opportunity to learn from
their engagements in the
physical environment. This
reflects an understanding
that the learning
environment not only affords Fat L classroom layout
multiple activity settings, but
also is an integrated, flexible and variable environment. Each leg
of the Fat L may be used to create activity settings for individual,
one-to-one, small-group, and large-group activities, where the
teacher moves around, always in view of what is happening.
Outside of the classroom there may be related activity settings,
such as niches, hubs and alcoves that can extend and connect
learning activities, especially in relation to themed or project
work. Unlike a traditional square shape classroom, the L-shape
may be understood as a learning centre that has been designed
to support multiple activity settings. This provides opportunities
for explorations that challenge pupils to work in their zone of
proximal development but in a safe setting (Lippman, 2004).
Triangular classroom
The triangular classroom was developed at a special school called
Cam House in Dursley, Gloucestershire. The school caters for
boys aged 1116 taken out of mainstream education due to
behavioural and emotional difficulties. Classes are no more than
eight, so the triangle formation is rather different there than it
would be in a conventional 30-pupil class.
It works by putting the longest line of pupils on the front row, and

then tapers towards the back with just one pupil on the back row,
explains Gail Howells, who teaches at Cam House. The big
advantage is view: I can see them all better. It is a very flexible
arrangement, too it means it is easy to regroup them quickly, if
we want to, during a lesson. (Moorhead, 2001)

360-degree classroom
One of 10 Design Council Learning Campaign projects was the
creation of a 360-degree classroom at St Margarets High School
in Liverpool (for more details on this, see the article by Sean
McDougall on pages 1015). This all-boys school relied on
whiteboards around the room that could be projected on to or
used horizontally, and specially designed chairs that allowed
students to face in any direction as appropriate.
Instead of simply standing at the front, their teacher circles
them on a curved racetrack, occasionally taking up a position on
a podium in the centre of the room. Reluctant students can no
longer skulk at the back of the class or plant themselves on the
periphery of the teachers field of vision.
The whiteboards fit back on to the walls of the classroom so the
classs work can be discussed. To see this, the boys swivel round
on their seats, before swivelling back into a semicircle around the
teacher to examine a diagram. The wallboards can also become
screens for computer projections. The temperature and light in
the room are electronically controlled and mirrors mounted at
three points serve as eyes in the back of the teachers head.
Thorpe and Asthena (2005) sum up the benefits of this
classroom arrangement:
Consigning the teacher to a desk at the front is thought to stop
him or her thinking freely, while the cheaper chairs commonly
used in schools can cause back pain over the 15,000 hours spent
sitting down in an average school life. The round classroom also
eradicates the so-called attention zone, a triangle immediately
in front of the teacher which inevitably receives 90 per cent of
his or her attention.

19
Different forms of classroom arrangement facilitate or
inhibit different forms of learning. If teachers are more
facilitative than didactic and learning occurs through
full participation in an appropriate variety of often
exploratory activities, then we may move more towards
an education appropriate for the 21st century, rather
than the production line of many 19th- and 20thcentury schools, effectively designed on a factory
model (see my overview article on pages 39).
Dyck (1994) developed some criteria for the modern
classroom see the box at the top of page 18. Different
styles of layout used in modern classrooms are
discussed in the box at the bottom of page 18.

Relating teachers to their rooms

Type of room
Efficient, well organised

Teacher type
Technocrat

Anarchic art studio

High priest

Home from home

Social worker

Anthropological
museum

Pedagogue

Room types
Much can be learned from early years practice and the
organisation of primary classrooms. Research studies
of primary teaching have repeatedly shown that the
way classrooms are usually organised makes learning
unnecessarily difficult for most pupils, whose attention
and behaviour have been shown to benefit from
creating a better match between working contexts and
tasks (Hastings and Chantrey-Wood, 2002).
In an article on art teachers and their rooms, Richard
Hickman (2001) suggests that art teachers show an
awareness of needing to work in an environment not
threatening, institutionalised or dull, but welcoming,
personalised and intriguing, although he does point
out that some art rooms could also be sterile. The box
above right relates room types to teacher types and
links each to a pedagogic aim.

Being flexible
To facilitate different modes of learning,
classroom/faculty space should ideally be as flexible as
possible, with the means to facilitate individual and
group activities as well as whole-class work. Since
different room arrangements serve different purposes,
it is necessary for classrooms to have some degree of
flexibility the case study on a classroom of the future
developed at Yewlands School is one example of this

Pedagogic aim/belief
Opportunity to explore
and understand
materials
Facilitating individual
expression
Classroom as therapy
room, pupils feel
nurtured
Visually rich
environment will
facilitate perpetual
development
Source: Hickman, 2001

Personalisation
agenda has strong
implications for the
classroom
environment and
also the potential
to be strongly
supported by
digital technologies
within and beyond
the classroom

Flexible displays
To allow for flexibility of displays in the classroom:
have semi-permanent displays, such as important words, concepts or
objectives, but interestingly presented
make sure that every paper-based display has a learning/teaching focus
think carefully about whose work is displayed, how it is displayed and
why
make sure that students can interact with technologies, such as whiteboards, but also use walls for activities, for example, with Post-It notes
use and maintain high-quality materials where possible.

(see pages 4450). Different approaches to classroom

layout, with horseshoe shapes or groups of tables, are
as familiar as the traditional desks facing the front
(where the teachers desk and blackboard/ whiteboard
are situated). It is important to achieve a balance
between permanent and changing classroom
elements, such as displays. Frequent changes to
display could leave students not knowing what to
expect and feeling insecure in the learning
environment; displays that never change could mean
the environment feels stale and boring. Considerations
to counter this are outlined in the box below left.
For more on how to maximise the impact of display
space on learning, see the article on pages 2834.
Some schools have a designated member of staff
who is responsible for displays and who can advise
teachers on points regarding visual literacy.

Challenge for future

In relation to education and schools, we may ask:
where does student-centred learning take place, in
what modes, in what places and at what times?
Schools and education for the 21st century need to be
designed in relation to what we know about learning,
with the flexibility to respond to what we do not know
about the future. This is the challenge, to create true
classrooms of the future.

Jane McGregor, Research Fellow, Nottingham

University
Jane also works with local authorities on issues
around space and schools. You can email her at:
Jane.McGregor@educationresearch.co.uk

CB VOL 5 NO 2 2007

Spatial arrangements