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Resource 1: 4 Research Backed Ideas to Upgrade Your Classroom

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Resource 1: 4 Research Backed Ideas to Upgrade Your Classroom

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4 Research-Backed Ideas to Upgrade Your Classroom

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Resource 2: Creating a Positive Learning Environment

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Resource 2: Creating a Positive Learning Environment

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Creating a Positive Learning Environment

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When students' mental, emotional, and physical needs are met, they're more likely to love school-and they learn more.

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Have you ever walked into a classroom and felt seriously overwhelmed? Not just about being back in school, but by the magnitude of anchor charts, posters, and materials that literally cover the room, floor to ceiling (sometimes even on the ceiling!)? In today's classroom, that seems to be the norm and the expectation. But in my classroom, this just wasn't possible.

I am, what you would call, a neat freak.

At home, at school, in my car, I just like a clean, organized space. When it comes to setting up and maintaining my classroom, I keep it neat all year. But I noticed that my classroom was different from others, especially as I heard comments colleagues made about it. For example, when our custodians repeatedly claim that I have the cleanest room in the building. Or when teachers visit my classroom and say, "Wow, your room feels so open" or, "This room just calms me." It got me thinking, isn't that what it's supposed to do? Aren't our classrooms supposed to feel like a safe, engaging space for students to learn?

My classroom doesn't look like my fellow teachers', and I'm okay with that.

A study at University of Salford, UK, explored how various environmental factors in the classroom impact students' learning and achievement. As researchers examined 153 classrooms across the UK, they considered factors including lights, air, temperature, wall displays, and access to nature. Overall, the study found that the classroom environment played a major role in student learning: that students' achievement increased when the visual stimuli was at a moderate level and suffered when the classroom environment was overwhelming.

Another study looked at achievement levels of kindergartners placed in either a well-decorated or a sparse classroom. Results showed that the students in the well-decorated classroom not only spent more time distracted from learning, but also performed lower on post assessments than their peers in the sparse room.

If our environment yields such influence over student performance, why the great pressure to post everything? Why are educators constantly told by higher powers to hang up this and display that if we know it's at the expense of our students' potential learning?

Since this realization, I've taken on the title of Aspiring Minimalist Teacher.

I make sure that my classroom assists my teaching by providing an enriching yet calming space for my students to learn. I avoid clutter, clean often, and attempt to keep only the materials I use frequently. Therefore, to aid other aspiring minimalist teachers, I've come up with suggestions to help them evaluate their classroom environment and arrange it to best fit their and their students' needs.

Big furniture should act like a map.

At the beginning of each school year, I start with a clean slate. I move all the furniture to one side of the room, and then start to envision how my classroom would best function. Furniture should create well-defined areas and easily accessible pathways to maneuver around the classroom. Anyone should be able to come to your classroom and see where various learning centers are, how they are used (individual vs. group work), and how to get to them easily. Furniture should not block windows, as they provide students access to nature while they're inside.

Pick the right colors and don't overuse them.

Think of a place that calms you. Did you say a beach? Sunset over the mountains? Rolling hills or a starlit night? If those places are calming for you, mimic those colors in your classroom. Natural wood furniture and colors found in nature will bring a serenity to your classroom without looking dull. If you bring more intense color into your classroom, balance it out and have a reason to draw students' attention to the bolder hue. Too much color or not enough can be distracting to the eye-and a daydreaming child.

Keep what you need; chuck what you don't.

Teachers are notorious hoarders; we accumulate things over the years, and no matter how often we clean out our room, the stuff never goes away. Now, I'm not telling you to go full Marie Kondo, but really assess what you USE and NEED. If there are activities you like, take a picture and keep it in a binder along with master copies, instead of keeping bulky projects. If there are materials or resources you haven't used in a year, maybe it's time to find them another home. Having too many materials makes the space feel smaller and overwhelming. For the items you do keep, find them organized homes in bins or inside cabinets to diminish the cluttered look.

Clean off your desk!

This one also blew my colleagues' minds. When I leave school, EVERY DAY, I leave my desk completely clean. Yes, nothing on it but a clipboard with my lessons for the next day. Crazy, I know. But sometimes that clutter gets to be too much for you, and your students, to overcome. Anxiety builds as the layers of papers on your desk do, and your students can feel it too. For me, it was like leaving my day with a clean slate and inversely starting the new day with one too. Visually allowing my space to be neat and organized helped me keep my mind more organized. Whether you have trays for your papers or need to take 10 minutes after class to find your desk, I think it really helps your mental space remain clear.

Reset the classroom each day.

Take the principle from above and now apply it to your students. Your students need to have a clean slate each day too, and that means coming into a clean, tidy classroom. I used to take time after school (seriously 15 minutes, not long) to straighten up tables, put away materials, and hopefully get my materials out and prepped for the next day. When my students came to my class, they knew what to do and where to go because their class was organized. I know many teachers at the end of the day have procedures where students aid in cleaning the room. That's a great way to have them help keep the classroom organized and also declutter their minds.

Adopt the one-month-on-the-wall rule.

This topic gets a lot of talk from principals, districts reps, and mentor/coaches. But believe it or not, our students' achievements and our teacher efficiency is not measured by the number of items hanging on our walls. I try to only put items on my walls that are meaningful to my students and their learning at that moment-no fluff, no extras, just what's important. Thus, most items stay on my walls for no longer than a month (the usual length of our units). Usually, I try to change out student work weekly. I know that might sound crazy, but I felt that if it wasn't in the top three things I was teaching that week, I didn't need to display it.

Hopefully, you haven't been scared off yet and these suggestions get you thinking about your teaching practice and your classroom. As you start your next school year, or semester, think of small changes you can make in your room. How will this benefit my students? How will I be able to tell? How can I make my room work for us, instead of spending hours working on my room? It just takes a few steps in the right direction to start seeing big changes. Happy organizing!
We'd love to hear your thoughts on minimalist classroom design: yea or nay? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook. Plus, how Pinterest-perfect classrooms get in the way of learning.

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Minimalist Classroom Design: Why It's Effective & How to Do It

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Have you ever walked into a classroom and felt seriously overwhelmed? Not just about being back in school, but by the magnitude of anchor charts, posters, and materials that literally cover the room, floor to ceiling (sometimes even on the ceiling!)? In today's classroom, that seems to be the norm and the expectation.

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A Place for Learning: The Physical Environment of Classrooms

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It’s conventional wisdom that different types of instruction require different seating arrangements. It’s also a no-brainer that classrooms should be inviting, environments that make students feel good to be there. Unfortunately, over the years I’ve visited classroom after classroom where conventional wisdom appeared to be disregarded. So here’s a short course.

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University of San Diego - Professional & Continuing Education

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Designing a classroom is about more than colorful decorations. Good classroom design involves creating a space that supports instructors, encourages learning, adapts to different needs and fosters collaborative, project-based engagements.

But before you second-guess your alphabet banner, let's explore the philosophy behind effective classroom design.

Philosophy of Classroom Design

Many of today's classrooms are far removed from the one-room schoolhouse of days past. Learning is no longer even limited to a single shared classroom space - today's students learn in virtual classrooms, experiential classrooms without walls, and even tall ships or the great outdoors.

Students who learn in more traditional classrooms tend to perform better when there are fewer visual distractions, as illustrated by a 2015 study conducted by researchers at the University of Salford, Manchester, UK. Another study published in Psychological Science also found that kindergarten students who learned in a well-decorated classroom performed lower on tests than children in a sparser room.

School-aged children are always learning, whether they are ingesting academic content, practicing interpreting social cues or making sense of the world around them through tactile experiences. To ensure learners actually absorb the information they are given during lessons, educators need to ensure their classroom space supports learning retention.

Educause, a nonprofit association that researches and promotes the use of technology in education, developed the Learning Space Rating System (LSRS) to score how well a physical classroom space supports learning. The system works like this:

1. A classroom's design characteristics are scored against a set of 50 credits.

2. If the design meets the criteria for a specific credit, a point or points are added to a compiled score.

3. As you proceed through the credits, the score for the room's design rises.

4. The higher the score, the better the design for active learning.

The active learning approach seeks to actively engage students with course material through dynamic experiences, such as group projects, discussions, field trips or role playing. This is in contrast to lecture-based learning, in which the teacher typically delivers a lesson from the front of the classroom and the students quietly listen. Classroom design is steadily moving in the direction of active learning, with furniture and floor plans that encourage student-led learning and collaboration.

8 Elements of Classroom Design

If you're poised to design or redesign a classroom space, Educase recommends asking yourself the following questions about your ideas:

Is the design based on research, observation or educational best practices?

How does the classroom design fit in with the rest of the school or campus?

What effect will the design have on students?

How will the space impact others, including visiting teachers, substitutes, principals or future students?

What kind of maintenance will the space require?

Does the design accommodate those with different needs and abilities?

Will the design be suited for long-term use?

How will you measure the impact the space has on students' learning?

How does educational technology fit into the space?

Can the design adapt to changing instructional needs?

Does the design support sightlines, traffic patterns, comfort and safety, etc.?

Below are some general best practices to help guide your proposed classroom design.
1. Minimalize Your Space
As much as we like to make our classrooms colorful and interesting, remember that too much of a good thing can negatively impact student performance. Take a less-is-more approach to classroom decor, and even ask your students to weigh in on what they like or don't like in the room.

Try taking items out on a trial basis to see if you can teach without them in the space. Prioritize creative organization solutions that get in-progress projects off the walls, off the floor and off counters and tables. Overall, you want a clean space that best prepares students to focus on the learning at hand.
2. Provide Comfortable and Flexible Seating Options
Grade school education is steadily moving toward a student-centered approach, as opposed to the traditional teacher-centered format. For many students, sitting quietly in a chair and facing forward for an entire lesson is not conducive to their learning; they might experience more success with active, hands-on learning. To support all students, implement flexible seating options that can be rearranged or removed for different types of learning engagements.

You can even encourage students to suggest types of seating that work best for them - just make sure the final solution supports the following:
3. Reduce Your "Teaching Footprint"
In teacher-centered learning, the front of the classroom draws all the attention; this is the teacher's domain. In student-centered classrooms, however, the teacher's space is de-emphasized. When a teacher sits or moves among students during lessons, it encourages more dynamic participation and student-teacher dialogue.

Most teachers still need a space to call their own for paperwork and organizational purposes, but make time to clear this space at the end of each day. Do the same for the rest of the space - you and your students should find a clean classroom every morning, ready for more learning.
4. Create Spaces for Collaboration
Replacing students' single desks with shared tables makes group work much easier, since students don't need to relocate or shift their desks to work together. Shared spaces also support students' social-emotional learning, because working with others helps young students practice lifelong skills like communication, problem solving, compromise and sharing.

Even if you can't place students at shared tables, maintain a clear space in the classroom for collaborative work or group discussions.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT TEMPLATE [FREE TEACHING TOOL]

Use our handy 3-page Classroom Management Template to create a plan for everything that goes into successfully operating a classroom.

5. Add Spaces to Highlight Student Achievements
Students like to see evidence of their achievements, so maintaining a space for finished work can become a point of pride. Displaying finished projects can also make learning tangible, so students can easily point to the outcomes of their projects - whether it's a diorama from a unit on marine ecosystems or posters illustrating fractions.

Be mindful of cluttering the walls, though, as we covered in tip #1. We Are Teachers recommends adopting the "one-month-on-the-wall" rule for finished student work or unit-specific materials. Maintain a steady schedule for students to take home their projects; alternatively, start a digital showcase portfolio that students and their families can access from home at any time.
6. Simplify Your Color Palette
In general, the younger the grade, the "busier" the learning space - or at least, that's the instinct many teachers have. But since heavily-decorated rooms tend to distract students and negatively impact academic performance, apply the less-is-more approach to your color choices as well.

This doesn't mean the walls need to be sparse. Try limiting your classroom color palette to three main colors, with the furniture and supplies being variations on those shades. Remember that the decor should limit visual "noise" and support students' learning, so opt for neutral or calming colors like blues, greens and earth tones.
7. Increase Writable Spaces
Composition notebooks may be timeless, but they are far from the only writing surface available to today's students. Personal whiteboards, chalkboards, tablets and digital whiteboards are just some of the tools students can use for their written work.

Teachers no longer need to be the "keepers" of the writing surfaces. Paint a classroom wall with chalkboard paint for student-led learning (or free-time doodling), or cover students' desks in dry erase vinyl for in-class exercises.
8. Ensure Proper Use of Technology
With great educational technology comes great responsibility, both on the part of the students and the teacher. Teachers who implement new technologies in their classrooms need to be sure the technology will enhance, and not replace, their own instruction. Likewise, educational technology should not draw attention away from course content; the primary purpose of new tech tools should be to advance learning, not distract from it.

When it comes to the physical space, make sure tools like laptops or tablets can be stored safely and securely when not in use. If students are sharing tech tools, provide enough collaboration space so they can access the tools equally.

Classroom Design Ideas and Examples

Pinterest offers unlimited ideas for classroom designs and decorations. Be aware of original sources though, and prioritize ideas that will support both students and the instructor. Find five roundups of great ideas from real teachers below:

FAQs About Classroom Design

How can I design my classroom on a budget?

Designing or redesigning your classroom does not require expensive materials or upgrades. Big box stores like Walmart and Target sell attractive, affordable classroom organization solutions, and Pinterest features hundreds of thousands of ideas for designing a classroom on a budget.

How can I design a classroom for students with special needs?

" Special needs" encompasses such a wide range of student abilities and challenges that no one space can accommodate all physical or behavioral needs. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) states that all public school classrooms must be ADA compliant, meaning that they must be accessible to wheelchair users and that teachers must make reasonable accommodations when it comes to technology tools. In general, best practices for classroom design apply to students of all abilities, such as minimizing distractions, making the space safe and comfortable, ensuring every student has access to the tools they need, and that the layout supports both independent and collaborative work.

Helpful Resource Links

A 50-point scoring system for classroom design, developed by nonprofit Educause.

How to enrich your educational community through continuing professional development.

Going beyond the textbook to teach real-world skills.

Professional development that helps teachers support students' social-emotional learning.

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8 Classroom Design Ideas + Best Practices to Follow

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Effective #ClassroomDesign supports #teachers, encourages #learning and can adapt to different educational needs. Learn about the philosophy behind classroom design in our latest blog post from the USD PCE Education program:

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How Can We Design Classroom Space to Maximize Student Learning? | Heinemann

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Learn how to design classroom spaces that motivate students to engage with learning in ways that help them accomplish their content, language, and behavior goals.

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Resource 7 - Design and Executive Functioning 

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Resource 7 - Design and Executive Functioning 

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Effective classroom design can help elementary students develop skills like organization and task initiation.

At the beginning of a new school year, many of us spend a lot of time working on our classroom design-arranging desks just so and putting up engaging bulletin boards.

But designing a space is not decorating. Instead, it should impact learning and have a purpose. Teachers often re-create the same classroom year after year without assessing whether their design guides students' learning. Websites such as Pinterest give teachers ideas for decorating a room, but do these ideas support student learning?

Good classroom design supports the acquisition of not only content skills but process skills. We believe that when students are aware of the purpose of the process, they are more likely to internalize these processes. This year, we are intentionally designing spaces that give students opportunities to learn content and also executive functioning process skills.

Executive functions are process skills that allow us to successfully complete tasks. In any given classroom, there will be a wide range of students with a variety of executive functioning skill levels. These skills include working memory, task initiation, organization, metacognition, inhibition, planning and prioritizing, time management, emotional control, sustained attention, flexibility, and goal-directed persistence.

Executive functions develop biologically but also through experience. Students need to practice executive functioning skills just like they need to practice phonetic skills, math facts, and reading comprehension skills. Therefore, teachers have a responsibility and, more important, an opportunity, to cultivate these skills. The design of the classroom is one way to support these skills.

How Classroom Design Impacts Executive Functioning

1. Working memory. Working memory is one's ability to hold information in order to complete a task. It's been described as a "sticky note" to help students complete their work. Good classroom design supports working memory by limiting teacher language and verbal directions. When the design of the classroom tells students what to do, it frees up working memory for learning content rather than procedure. The design creates routine and transparency for the students.

Classroom teachers should create visuals to support their daily routine, which will limit teacher directions. These visuals could include anchor charts that outline the procedure of the daily routines, checklists, or visual cues to help with classroom organization.

2. Organization. The design of the classroom should help students organize their bodies, their materials, and, most important, their thinking. There need to be clear systems in place. For example, your classroom meeting area needs to have enough room for each student.

To help organize materials, homework should be dropped off in the same place each morning. Teachers need to be consistent so that students internalize the systems.

A well-designed classroom models for students how organization helps accomplish tasks. We realize that when teachers model structures, students can start to generalize and implement these structures with their own work and thinking. An outsider should be able to walk into a classroom and understand most of these systems.

3. Task initiation. Task initiation is one's ability to start a task independently. The setup of your classroom should prompt students and help them prioritize the steps of a routine.

For example, if supplies are clearly marked and accessible, students can initiate their work independently. It's important that the materials do not distract students. When too many materials are available, students have difficulty assessing what is necessary and can become focused on the materials rather than the task.

4. Inhibition. Inhibition is one's ability to self-monitor one's own behavior. When design is clear and simple, students won't be as easily distracted and can better regulate their own behavior. Color can be a good tool to organize information, but when color does not have a purpose and instead is used to decorate, it can confuse students. For example, alternating two colors when listing steps can help; however, rainbow information can hinder production.

Design should not be stagnant. Your students' work and product should help you decide if your classroom is working. Teachers spend time creating their classrooms prior to student arrival, but often the design that works in September is not the design that works in January or in May. It's important to continually reassess your design choices. Students' perspectives can be an important part of the design assessment. When students' input is included, the process becomes more transparent, and students can understand that design has purpose.

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4 Ways Classroom Design Impacts Executive Functioning

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Effective classroom design can help elementary students develop skills like organization and task initiation. At the beginning of a new school year, many of us spend a lot of time working on our classroom design-arranging desks just so and putting up engaging bulletin boards. But designing a space is not decorating.

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When a team of researchers led by University of Salford professor Peter Barrett analyzed the design of 153 classrooms across 27 elementary schools in the United Kingdom, they went all in and kept it real, taking measurements and making observations of seating arrangements, wall decorations, and often-overlooked ambient factors such as lighting, temperature, acoustics, and air quality-all inside real classrooms.

Good classrooms should be "designed to make attending school an interesting and pleasurable experience," the researchers enthused, balancing visual stimulation with comfort and a sense of ownership. Combined, these classroom design elements accounted for 16 percent of the variation in students' academic progress.

We tried to take a similar approach, getting beyond the more obvious classroom design factors to survey the science of learning environments more comprehensively. Not everything in this list is within a teacher's purview-you can't very well open your walls and let in more sunlight, at least not without a good saw and the district's permission-but we tried to identify factors that might be addressed within classrooms immediately, or within school or district budgets over a longer term.

"Lighting is one of the most critical physical characteristics in a learning space," researchers explain in a 2020 review of 130 studies. Poor lighting not only makes it harder to see materials clearly but also can dampen engagement, especially for students with developmental disabilities. Good lighting, on the other hand, has a significant impact across many dimensions of successful learning, including "attention rates, working speed, productivity, and accuracy, among other reported effects."

If you have outside-facing windows, try to allow as much natural sunlight into your room as possible, researchers suggest in a 2021 study. After analyzing over two dozen variables, from lighting type (artificial, sunlight, or a mix) to window size and window shades in 53 European schools, they concluded that lighting is "a strong enabler of performance, which is crucial for child development."

There was one notable wrinkle: Too much direct sunlight impaired test scores, the researchers found. You might consider using shades or window decorations to prevent glare from entering the classroom, especially when students are focused on screens or paper for longer periods of time.

VENTILATION AND AIR QUALITY

When three coal-fired power plants closed at about the same time in Chicago, Illinois, the downwind effects in schools were significant. "For the typical elementary school in our sample," researchers studying the shutdowns reported, there was a 7 percent reduction in student absences, translating "into around 372 fewer absence-days per year." Students in classrooms with poor air-conditioning saw outsized improvements after the plants closed, indicating that school ventilation and air-purifying systems had been keeping kids healthier and in school more often. Two years later, a study analyzing pollution data from over 10,000 U.S. school districts found a direct link to academic performance, concluding that elevated levels of particulate matter in the air-dust or soot, for instance-lead to reduced test scores.

Installing air-conditioning, better HVAC systems, or new windows is the responsibility of administrators and district leaders, but there are simpler measures teachers can take. Researchers, for example, found that carbon dioxide, a by-product of human breathing, steadily accumulated in classrooms over the course of the day-readings were often six times higher than the level that a 2015 Harvard study linked to substantial declines in higher-order thinking.

"If air quality is OK at the start of the class, it won't be by the end unless you do something," according to Barrett, whose team recorded the gas levels, when we interviewed him in 2018. The fix is easy enough: "You have to open a window or a door," he suggested.

COMPLEXITY AND COLOR

There's a difference between cluttered walls and visually stimulating ones. In a landmark 2015 study that was largely confirmed by two studies we recently reviewed ( here and here), researchers found that students are more frequently off task when visual clutter overwhelms "their still-developing and fragile ability to actively maintain task goals and ignore distractions."

The good news, as we recently reported, is that the studies tend to point to a commonsensical middle ground, where classrooms are neither too cluttered nor too austere: "Classroom decoration can alter academic trajectories, the research suggests, but the task shouldn't stress teachers out," we wrote. "The rules appear to be relatively straightforward: Hang academically relevant work on the walls, and avoid the extremes-working within the broad constraints suggested by common sense and moderation."

Color palettes make a difference, too, according to a 2022 study. The same principle of moderation applies: Avoid extreme wall colors such as black or neon green, and opt for a pleasant mix of color across your walls, floor, and wall displays. Use a simple scheme, such as a single neutral color that's accompanied by splashes of brightness, for example.

Some schools believe that data walls motivate students to try harder. The research casts doubt on that conclusion, especially at the margins-where struggling students need the most help.

Students in "the red zone" of public data walls are "often mocked or derided by other students for their poor performance," researchers who reviewed 30 empirical studies on the topic explain in a 2020 review, dampening enthusiasm and confidence for kids who need it the most. Data walls can trigger "positive emotions such as pride, hopefulness, and joy, as well as negative feelings of stress, anxiety, or disappointment," depending on where a student ranks in the list, the researchers asserted.

"The idea behind 'data-driven decision-making' is a good one," explains assessment expert Lorrie Shepard. But even data walls that use an "anonymous ID number" are harmful to many students because kids "know what it means if they see themselves as a red or a yellow learner."

The takeaway: Using data to inform instruction is good practice, but public displays or public ranking are neutral or beneficial for only a subset of higher-performing students.

NATURE, PLANTS, AND GREENERY

A classroom space that is conducive to learning should feel natural and fresh, not cramped and stuffy, researchers explain in a 2021 study. Views of nature and green spaces from windows appear to make a difference: "Students reported less stress and were more focused on a task in classrooms with more natural window views." If you don't have open spaces outside your window, you can bring in plants and other natural decorations-"students displayed stronger feelings of friendliness and comfort in the presence of these plants," the researchers note.

When researchers added potted plants to high school classrooms, the older students also expressed more satisfaction in their surroundings, paid more attention in class, and rated the lessons and their teachers higher, a 2020 study found. "Incorporating indoor nature can thus improve students' satisfaction with their study environment, which may positively influence retention and students' beliefs about their academic performance," the researchers concluded, though you can expect improvements to be modest.

REPRESENTATION

Students can experience representation in classrooms by seeing their own or peers' artifacts on walls and in shared virtual spaces, or by being exposed to images and references that mirror their interests, passions, and backgrounds.

In a 2015 study, researchers explain that "intimate and personalized spaces are better for absorbing, memorizing and recalling information." To help students see the classroom as a space they belong in, "you can use your walls to showcase your students' nonacademic talents and activities," writes special education math teacher Rachel Fuhrman. "It's incredibly empowering for students... to see something they did or something they created on display in the space."

Exposure to resonant cultural imagery on walls and in materials-what researchers often call the "symbolic classroom"-also appears to improve a sense of belonging and has positive effects on engagement and academic outcomes. In a 2014 review and a 2019 study, for example, researchers discovered that making culturally relevant adjustments to lessons-and displaying inspiring, inclusive posters and other visuals that mirrored student interests-helped students feel a greater sense of connection to their classroom learning and could boost final course performance by nearly a full letter grade.

FLEXIBILITY

Teachers sometimes chafe at so-called flexible classrooms that look like they were designed by the House of Dior. Beautiful classrooms, the teachers argue persuasively, are not necessarily successful learning environments, and flexibility as a standard of classroom design should be judged by factors like versatility (they support multiple uses) and modifiability (they allow for "active manipulation and appropriation"), according to one review of modern classrooms.

The research on flexible classroom design, meanwhile, is scarce but promising, we reported a few years back, with Peter Barrett's team concluding that flexible classrooms were about as important as air quality, light, and temperature in boosting academic outcomes. Taken together, flexibility and a student's "sense of ownership" account for just over a quarter of the academic improvements attributed to classroom design.

In the end, flexible classroom design contributes modestly to daily academic outcomes but has the benefit of durability: It works behind the scenes to improve learning for the entirety of the school year. If you're interested in trying the approach, consider cheap options like rugs, standing desks, and reading nooks with pillows, and use the full range of seating alternatives to support independent and group learning, as the educational tasks demand.

Learning Differences and Neurodivergence

Out of the 7.3 million students with a disability in the U.S., about one in three has a learning disability or neurodevelopmental condition such as autism. For these students, who often have sensory or executive function issues, colorful, richly decorated environments may be perceived as a cacophony of visual noise, according to a 2021 study.

The study provides several research-based recommendations to guide teachers, which actually align nicely with the best research on general education environments:

Align wall displays with the current topic so that "if students focus on the visual displays rather than the teacher, they will still be focusing on relevant information."

Use the front wall for daily materials such as a calendar and word walls.

Create distinct activity areas-circle time, reading space, and desk work, for example-to help students transition between tasks.

Be mindful of excessive brightness and glare. A partially shaded window can still allow natural light to enter the room, and carpets can block the glare from vinyl floors.

Sweltering classrooms can have profound academic effects. In a 2018 study, researchers analyzed 10 million PSAT scores and found that a one-degree Fahrenheit rise in local temperature resulted in a corresponding 1 percent drop in test scores. While air-conditioning helped mitigate the impact, the researchers observed stark differences in the school infrastructure and funding: "We estimate that between three and seven percent of the gap in PSAT scores between White students and Black and Hispanic students can be explained by differences in the temperature environment," the researchers concluded.

In a popular Reddit thread, teachers share their own ideas for dealing with hot classrooms. While it may seem counterintuitive, you can use fans to direct air into the hallway to regulate the air pressure in your own classroom-pulling cooler air from outside into your room, suggests a physics teacher. If you're looking for fun art project ideas, you can replace some of your window shades with stained glass art to soften sun glare. Other teachers suggest turning off heat-generating electronic devices, such as computers and projectors.

ACOUSTICS/NOISE

Five decades ago, progressive schools began experimenting with open classrooms. In an attempt to create "a less authoritarian environment," the classroom walls came down, ushering in an era that promised "a greater range of learning methodologies and group sizes," according to a 2023 study. But the results fell far short. Students in the open classrooms read half as fast as their peers in the traditional classrooms, largely because the open layouts were acoustical chaos and probably "require a significantly higher degree of listening effort."

When deep focus is needed for independent learning, there's really no substitute for quiet spaces-and conveying information orally only works when kids can discern who is speaking and what they're saying. "Effective listening is a linchpin of school learning," researchers assert in a 2013 study.

SEATING ARRANGEMENTS

Should you assign seats or let kids choose? Several recent studies arrived at what appear, superficially, to be conflicting conclusions. One 2021 study found that assigned seating can forge new friendships between students who would otherwise never bond. Another, published in 2013, suggests that intentionally separating close friends can reduce classroom disruptions by as much as 70 percent.

The contradiction is easily reconciled in light of other research that finds that it's best to think of classroom seating arrangements within the context of learning goals. While there's some evidence that elementary school children are most attentive when they are arranged in semicircles-as opposed to rows or clusters-the best arrangements should match the learning task. For more collaborative work, small clusters of desks or standing arrangements are best, the researchers suggest, while for independent work the oft-demonized row arrangements work well. Likewise, friends can be seated together or apart, depending on the teacher's immediate objectives.

Finally, consider the space between desks and configurations carefully, or find other ways to allow for movement during the day. Dozens of studies reveal that brain breaks and movement breaks are underestimated as methods to improve engagement, behavior, and learning outcomes.

LEARNING ZONES

In a 2019 study, researchers made the case for creating multiple learning zones in your classroom-a main space for teacher-centered instruction and several smaller areas that can be rotated throughout the school year that involve "students actively working on learning tasks and reflecting on their work, apart from watching, listening, and taking notes."

Such classrooms often resulted in "improved measurable student learning outcomes, whether those outcomes are traditional quantitative measures such as exams and course grades or measures of '21st century skills.'"

Using learning zones can be a low-cost approach to tailoring instruction to meet the needs of students, according to a 2020 study that encompassed 610 elementary and middle school classrooms. The researchers point to a growing body of research suggesting that learning zones have a wide range of benefits, allowing teachers to improve transitions, facilitate differentiated instruction, and motivate and engage students more effectively.

"Don't let a small classroom be your kryptonite," writes former teacher and principal Veronica Lopez. "You can set up a learning zone in a bookcase, on a shelf, on one bulletin board, or on a small desk or table."

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Our comprehensive, all-in, research-based look at the design of effective learning spaces.

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Do you feel anxious in a yellow room? Does the color blue make you feel calm and relaxed? Artists and interior designers have long believed that color can dramatically affect moods, feelings, and emotions. "Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions," the artist Pablo Picasso once remarked.

Color is a powerful communication tool and can be used to signal action, influence mood, and even influence physiological reactions. Certain colors have been associated with physiological changes, including increased blood pressure, increased metabolism, and eyestrain.

This article discusses what color psychology means and how colors affect the mind and body. It also explores research on the effect of color and the psychological reactions people may experience.

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What Is Color Psychology?

Color psychology is the study of how different colors affect human mood and behavior. It explores how colors can influence emotional responses, as well as how responses to color are affected by factors such as age and cultural background.

Different topics that are of interest in this area include:

The meanings of colors

How colors impact physiological responses

Emotional reactions to color

Factors that impact color preferences

Cultural differences in the meanings and associations of different colors

Whether colors can impact mental health

How colors can influence behaviors

Ways that colors can be utilized to promote well-being

How colors can be used to improve safety and design more optimal home and work environments

History of Color Psychology

The scientific exploration of color psychology is relatively new, but people have long been interested in the nature and impact of color. In ancient cultures, colors were often used to treat different conditions and influence emotions. They also played a role in different spiritual practices.

It was in 1666 that the English scientist Sir Isaac Newton discovered that when pure white light passes through a prism, it separates into all visible colors. Newton also found that each color is made up of a single wavelength and cannot be separated any further into other colors.

Further experiments demonstrated that light could be combined to form other colors. For example, red light mixed with yellow light creates an orange color. Some colors, such as green and magenta, cancel each other out when mixed, resulting in white light.

"Given the prevalence of color, one would expect color psychology to be a well-developed area," researchers Andrew Elliot and Markus Maier noted in a review of the existing research on the psychology of color. "Surprisingly, little theoretical or empirical work has been conducted to date on color's influence on psychological functioning, and the work that has been done has been driven mostly by practical concerns, not scientific rigor."

Much of the evidence in this emerging area is anecdotal at best, but researchers and experts have made a few important discoveries and observations about the psychology of color and its effect on moods, feelings, and behaviors.

The Psychological Effects of Color

Why is color such a powerful force in our lives? What effects can it have on our bodies and minds? While perceptions of color are somewhat subjective, some color effects have universal meanings.

Colors in the red area of the color spectrum are known as warm colors and include red, orange, and yellow. These warm colors evoke emotions ranging from feelings of warmth and comfort to feelings of anger and hostility.

Colors on the blue side of the spectrum are known as cool colors and include blue, purple, and green. These colors are often described as calm, but can also call to mind feelings of sadness or indifference.

Symbolic Color Meanings

One 2020 study that surveyed the emotional associations of 4,598 people from 30 different countries found that people commonly associate certain colors with specific emotions. According to the study results:

Black: 51% of respondents associated black with sadness

White: 43% of people associated white with relief

Red: 68% associated red with love

Blue: 35% linked blue to feelings of relief

Green: 39% linked green to contentment

Yellow: 52% felt that yellow means joy

Purple: 25% reported they associated purple with pleasure

Brown: 36% linked brown to disgust

Orange: 44% associated orange with joy

Pink: 50% linked pink with love

The study's researchers suggested that such results indicated that color-emotion associations appear to have universal qualities. These shared meanings may play an essential role in aiding communication.

Color Psychology as Therapy

Several ancient cultures, including the Egyptians and Chinese, practiced chromotherapy, or the use of colors to heal. Chromotherapy is sometimes referred to as light therapy or colorology.

Colorology is still used today as a holistic or alternative treatment. In this treatment:

Red is used to stimulate the body and mind and to increase circulation.

Yellow is thought to stimulate the nerves and purify the body.

Orange is used to heal the lungs and to increase energy levels.

Blue is believed to soothe illnesses and treat pain.

Indigo shades are thought to alleviate skin problems.

While more research is needed, a 2020 study suggested that chromotherapy may be an effective way to help combat feelings of compassion fatigue and post-traumatic stress in intensive care unit nurses.

Modern Research on Color Psychology

Most psychologists view color therapy with skepticism and point out that the supposed effects of color are often grossly exaggerated. Colors also have different meanings in different cultures.

However, existing research has found that color can impact people in a variety of surprising ways:

While-colored pills are associated with greater pain relief., while red pills are associated with having greater stimulant properties.

Red causes people to react with greater speed and force, something that might be helpful during athletic activities according to researchers.

Black-uniformed players are more likely to receive penalties in competitive sporting events.

Additional Research Is Still Needed

Interest in the subject of color psychology is growing, but there remain several unanswered questions. How do color associations develop? How powerful is the influence of these associations on real-world behavior?

Can color be used to increase worker productivity or workplace safety? What colors have an impact on consumer behavior? Do certain personality types prefer specific colors? As researchers continue to explore such questions, we may soon learn more about color's impact on human psychology.

Zena O'Connor, a faculty member in the Department of Architecture, Design, and Planning at the University of Sydney, suggests that people should be wary of many of the claims they see about the psychology of color.

"Many of these claims lack substantiation in terms of empirical support, exhibit fundamental flaws (such as causal oversimplification and subjective validation), and may include factoids presented as facts," O'Connor explains. "In addition, such claims often refer to outdated research without referring to current research findings."

Recap

Color Can Influence Performance

Studies have also shown that certain colors can have an impact on performance. No one likes to see a graded test covered in red ink, but one study found that seeing the color red before taking an exam actually hurt test performance.﻿﻿

While the color red is often described as threatening, arousing or exciting, many previous studies on the impact of the color red have been largely inconclusive. The study found, however, that exposing students to the color red prior to an exam has been shown to have a negative impact on test performance.

In the first of the six experiments described in the study, 71 U.S. colleges students were presented with a participant number colored either red, green or black prior to taking a five-minute test.

Color and Consumer Purchases

Color psychology suggests that various shades can have various effects, from boosting our moods to causing anxiety. But could the color of the products you purchase ever say something about your personality? For example, could the color of the car you buy somehow relate to some underlying personality traits or quirks?

When buying items, your color preferences might say something about the image you are trying to project. Color preferences, from the clothes you wear to the car you drive, can sometimes make a statement about how we want other people to perceive us. Other factors, such as age and gender, can also influence our color choices.

White: As many of our readers have suggested, the color white can feel fresh and clean. The color is often used to evoke a sense of youth and modernity.

Black: Our readers often describe black as a "powerful" color, which might be the reason why black is the most popular color for luxury vehicles. People often describe the color as sexy, powerful, and mysterious.

Silver: It's the third most popular vehicle color and is linked to a sense of innovation and modernity. High-tech products are often silver, so the color is often seen as new, modern, and cutting-edge.

Red: Red is a bold, attention-getting color, so preferring this type of car might mean you want to project an image of power, action, and confidence.

Blue: People often describe blue as the color of stability and safety. Driving a blue car or SUV might indicate that you are dependable and trustworthy.

Yellow: According to the experts, driving a yellow vehicle might mean you are a happy person in general and perhaps a bit more willing than the average person to take risks.

Gray: The experts suggest that people who drive gray cars don't want to stand out and instead prefer something more subtle.

A person might prefer brighter, more attention-getting colors when they are younger, but find themselves drawn to more traditional colors as they grow older. The personality of the buyer can play an important role in color selection, but buyers are often heavily influenced by factors such as price as well as availability.

For example, purchasing a white vehicle might be less about wanting people to think that you are young and modern and more about the climate you live in; people who live in hot climates typically prefer light-colored vehicles over dark ones.

A Word From Verywell

Color can play an important role in conveying information, creating certain moods, and even influencing the decisions people make. Color preferences also exert an influence on the objects people choose to purchase, the clothes they wear, and the way they adorn their environments.

People often select objects in colors that evoke certain moods or feelings, such as selecting a car color that seems sporty, futuristic, sleek, or trustworthy. Room colors can also be used to evoke specific moods, such as painting a bedroom a soft green to create a peaceful mood.

So what's the bottom line? Experts have found that while color can have an influence on how we feel and act, these effects are subject to personal, cultural, and situational factors. More scientific research is needed to gain a better understanding of color psychology.

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Can Color Affect Your Mood and Behavior?

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Color is all around us, but what impact does it really have on our moods, emotions, and behaviors? Color psychology seeks to answer this question.

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Resource 1: 11 Real Ways to Build School Culture

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Resource 1: 11 Real Ways to Build School Culture

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Resource 2: Toxic School Culture, 8 Key Warning Signs to Look For

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Resource 2: Toxic School Culture, 8 Key Warning Signs to Look For

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Discover 8 signs of toxic school culture, how it impacts the educators and students, and how to turn things around in your school.