Are Classrooms Conducive to Learning?

March 1, 2010  
Filed under Feature

“The most important action an effective teacher takes at the beginning of the year is creating a climate for learning.”

This quote from Mary Beth Blegan, former U.S. Department of Education teacher-in-residence, sums up what students and teachers need to be successful during school. This need is a good classroom environment that is conducive to learning and teaching.

According to research, a good learning environment takes into account colors, lighting, sound, resources being used and other factors that may cause distractions. Do Ottawa High School classrooms create an environment good for learning?

A typical OHS classroom is an approximately 20 by 22 ft. room with tannish-grey floor tiles and cream or blue, cement block walls. There are about 20 single desks in each room and a white board running the length of a wall. About half of the rooms have a few computers for student use and all have an overhead projector that allows presentations from the main computer. The ceilings are lined with fluorescent lights and the walls vary from being plain to highly decorated with posters that illustrate themes of good work or principles taught in the class. Each class can have up to 25 students, according to Janay Blome, OHS counselor. However, she said that specialty courses may have fewer numbers due to safety and ensuring that a good, productive learning environment is maintained.

Counselors Rich Mobley and Blome said that the resources and conditions of classrooms at OHS are currently up-to-date.

The administration has set up some rules that the classroom must follow. First of all, in the OHS student planner there are rules for a dress code that students and faculty must follow to create a modest and appropriate environment that will help students focus on what is being taught. For example, excessively short and tight clothing is not allowed. Another item that is prohibited is clothing that has crude or distasteful writing or graphics. The administration also regulates the use of cell phones. Students are not allowed to have them on or in possession from 7:45 a.m. to 2:52 p.m.This is to help concentration in class and to stop cheating.

Starting on a good note, in line with research about the correlation between learning and colors, the paint choices in the classrooms at OHS are beneficial to the learning environment.  Lighter hues like blues and beiges, which Ottawa has, create a better atmosphere than bolder colors. These light colors can make students and teachers feel calmer and less stressed, while stronger colors can result in a shortened attention span.

Another fundamental, structural issue is one that Ottawa is falling behind in. This issue is lighting. The best light source for people to be exposed to is natural light from the sun. However, since classrooms are located inside, many schools use fluorescent lighting. This is not a good choice for an effective learning environment. This lighting that is hung in rows on the classroom ceilings has negative effects on behavior, health and learning. Studies done at the National Academy of Integrated Learning says it causes bodily stress, hyper-activity, attention problems, anxiety and other issues that degrade the learning of the students.

The next important trait a classroom must have is sound quality. The sound quality in the rooms is close but not quite where studies say they should be. Most of the time, next door classes are not audible. However, if a movie is going on or voices are raised, then the commotion can be heard. This occurs especially in classes that have wooden doors connecting two rooms. The noises from other areas can be distracting to students and teachers and makes it hard to concentrate.

Now, do the classrooms have the resources needed to teach a generation that has grown up using and depending on advanced technology? Mobley said that the resources and conditions of classrooms at OHS are currently up to date. Each classroom either has several computers for student use, access to a lap top cart, or computer labs that can be used. Many teachers also have an overhead projector that does not obstruct the student’s view of the board. These projectors can show power points from the teacher’s computer, videos, and many other things.  The science classes also have tools called Lab Quests that allow students to take and graph any type of data in an advanced way.

“I think classrooms are [overall] well equipped, especially compared to other districts,” science teacher James Deane said.

However, there is still a need for more textbooks in some of the classes like foreign language courses.

“We need to have a big inventory of supplies [novels and textbooks] to meet the needs of classes,” English teacher Shawn Denton said.

Depending on the teacher, certain personal items and technologies from home are allowed in class. However, are these allowances helpful to learning or are they just distractions?

First, students are allowed to listen to iPods in class during independent study time in most classes. A U.S teacher, Elona Hartjes, who has done extensive research on what helps learning, said that IPods help many students stay on task while working.  OHS teacher, Kristi Miller said that the effectiveness of iPods really depends on the student. She said that it helps some focus but distracts others.

“It gets distracting when people start talking about the songs or when they spend a lot of time looking for songs,” Miller said.

OHS sophomore Ebonia Covington agrees that IPods are helpful for independent study time but she said that they can get distracting when people turn the volume up.

Most every student carries their back packs with them to keep their books and binders together. Some teachers make students leave them by the door and others like Deane post signs that prohibit bags to be sprawled on the desk tops because they clutter tables and get in the way of experiments.

“[Backpacks] interfere with moving around and the stuff carried inside them can be distracting,” Deane said.

According to Denton, another important aspect that a good learning environment must take into consideration is the attitudes of the students and teachers. He said that first, you need dedicated teachers and faculty that are passionate about helping young people. Denton also said they need to not have anxiety about what they are teaching or instructing. Second, students also need to be passionate about what they are learning and have a want for knowledge. Third, as for the social environment, there needs to be respect towards each other. All of the good classroom conditions and guidelines previously stated all help set positive attitudes in the classrooms.

Overall, OHS has rules that, if followed, create a good learning environment for students. The school also has materials that keep up with this technology dependant generation. However, according to teachers and research done about conditions helpful to learning, the school needs to improve on the amount of textbooks available, and the actual building conditions like lighting and sound quality.

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Kali Hinman

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