So You Want to Run a Successful College?

2.03 Classrooms

The classrooms should be seen as the place for and belonging to the student; students must not have the feeling that they ‘are playing away from home’ as this will restrict their learning.

In the classrooms, focus should be on contemporary learning methodology incorporated into classroom design. This means that the classrooms should have attractive ambience, clear sight lines from seating to whiteboard / screen / plasma TV, sound absorption materials on the walls to prevent sound pollution from adjacent rooms. It may be advisable to engage an architect or surveyor to specify what is required.

Technological aids should be provided to allow the students the most up-to-date visual learning opportunities with video, cd etc.

Teachers should use coloured pens on whiteboards; colours, shapes and diagrams used together are more useful as memory aids than black and white writing - more areas of the brain are stimulated. Notice boards, for the display of good work as well as information, should be fixed to most walls at eye level. This provides visual stimulus, competition and proof of reward for good work, all psychological attributes to learning. Teachers should be offered choices in the arrangements of seating. At times learners will work in groups close together; at other times, teaching in a semi-circle may be more appropriate so the seating and writing facilities need to be easily adjustable and flexible and this may influence the choice of what to purchase. It may be suitable to provide desks and chairs but alternatives include chairs with wide arms on which to write. If this form of seating is chosen ensure that at least 15% of the chairs are suitable for those who write with their left hand.

To maximise flexibility, some classrooms will have desks and others will have chairs with armrests and others simply chairs. The Director of Studies will be aware of the demands of the options to be employed by teachers in each of their lessons and will allocate the classroom laid out most appropriately.

The position of the teacher and seated learners is important; a fixed desk separates the teacher behind it from the learners in front of it. It forms a barrier between teacher and learner and discriminates. Is this what is wanted? Does it impede the relationship between teacher and learners? Again depending on the knowledge of the teacher and Director of Studies, when planning the allocation of rooms, students of certain cultural backgrounds actually prefer a formal approach.

There are some cultures where inter-action with the teacher is not usual; students from some cultures demand to ‘sit at the feet’ of professors and expect a ‘lecture’ with minimum of interaction and in these cases, desks, lecterns or a teaching dais are not unusual nor abnormal but expected; they show, in some cultures, an inherent formal relationship between the teacher and the taught. Early negation of this can lead to student discord and confusion.

There should be natural light, fresh air, and in cold or hot weather appropriate temperature control. The heating source must not be intrusive because fan heaters in cold weather and noisy, oscillating fans in hot weather can disturb student concentration.

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