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Furniture > About
Classroom Furniture
About Classroom
Furniture and Classroom Environment
- Some classroom
design information to facilitate learning
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Choosing capable workstations,
acoustically sound cork bulletin boards, and other classroom
furniture, considering different ways to think of and use
space and student desk layout, being alert to ambiance in
your classroom environment - these factors and more can
all contribute to, or distract from, student motivation
and learning.
Contemporary
education accommodates both individual learning and learning
in small groups, ergonomics, as well as the student's sense
of well-being. Maximizing incentives and minimizing distractions
is important, yet, in addition, tight budgets often call
for the desks and chairs to accommodate multiple-uses and
ages of students.
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Ergonomics
is defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as "an applied
science concerned with designing and arranging things people
use so that the people and things interact most efficiently
and safely." These human factors include desk factors, computer
and keyboard placement, lighting, reading distance, height,
ease of access to files, among other factors.
Rather than placing computer equipment on regular desks
or on tables, classroom design utilizing
adjustable
workstations specifically constructed to accommodate
computer equipment offers plentiful advantages for the user.
Numerous university studies
have proven the importance of
correct desk ergonomics and computer posture in reducing
physical ailments and increasing productivity. Increased
functionality also allows increased flexibility.
Classrooms can serve several
different age groups when the workstations can be easily
adjusted. Check the smooth and quick adjustment possible
with pneumatic
workstations and
crank workstations,
as examples. These come in both single and dual user widths.
There are also workstations allowing
individual adjustment
of keyboard platforms even when two people are using the
workstation.
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1891 history classroom at the
University of Northern Iowa (UNI). Note the front-facing
hard-backed wood bench-style chairs, the lack of carpeting
on the wood floors, lack of student writing surfaces, and
round-the-room blackboards - a comfort and acoustic nightmare!
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Most western educators have come to believe that the placement
of desks should foster community and cooperative learning,
so there's now a greater emphasis on group learning and
agile classroom design. Selecting mobile workstations or
desks that can be easily moved where needed or set into
innovative arrangements such as "U' or "fishbowl" concentric
circles, or using workstations specifically designed to
be clustered into groups
of 4 or
groups of
3 and 6 classroom computer workstations offer more benefits
in these type of environments.
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There's increasing awareness
of the necessity for un-crowded seating arrangements,
plenty of "elbow room," and seating that allows
individuals to move without distracting from the
instruction of others around them. Some studies
suggest that when teachers adjust the environment
to match student preferences, an improvement in
academic performance and personal behavior results.
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Shoulder-to-shoulder instruction
on wood-backed benches in 1893 at UNI was very different
from today's agile, modern classroom designs.
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Numerous studies have shown the detriment of noise upon
learning within the classroom. Sometimes students literally
cannot hear the instructor. Other times the sounds are distracting,
and, at time, an annoying distraction affecting emotions.
Noise may be vibratory from the A/C, exterior noise, hall
noise, or classroom noise. Many schools are designed without
any buffering materials. Typical classrooms are constructed
using brick or cement walls, hard floors, metal-framed desks,
high ceilings, broad undraped windows, large whiteboards
or chalkboards. Most of these items encourage sound vibration
and none absorb sound.
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Earth Day Bulletin Board display
from Bulletin Board
Ideas for Music Teachers.
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Ensuring strategic placement of
large cork bulletin boards
within the classroom can have a significant affect, because
cork is well-respected for its ability to "swallow" noise.
Noise doesn't bounce off cork, and it can also reduce mechanical
and noise vibration by absorbing reverberations. Some schools
or teachers have, literally, painted over cork bulletin
boards to create a colorful backdrop, but the addition of
the paint surface has reduced the acoustic benefits in those
situations as paint does not absorb sound.
Bulletin boards, including
vinyl tack boards and mobile presentation display boards,
also play a vital function as a backdrop for upbeat classroom
decorations and in easily displaying student work, projects,
and announcements.
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Since the invention of the blackboard, writing boards have
been a primary means of educating large groups of students
in the classroom and meeting room. When a classroom is designed
in the traditional row method, situating one or two large
chalk boards or whiteboards in the front of the room has
some benefit. Yet, when a room uses flexible seating arrangements,
there is definite benefit to ensuring there are writing
boards in locations that are easily viewed by people seated
in different locations. This allows different teams to use
boards close to their own location without disrupting other
students in the room. It also reduces the necessity of students
twisting in their seats and straining their necks to see
different boards. Placing children's easels at different
locations in younger age classrooms can be another perfect
accommodation facilitating young group interaction.
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Glare may make writing on the board unreadable for some
students, dependent on their seating location. Also, some
people work better in low light, others work best in brighter
light. Some students may become hyper in bright light. Attention
to these factors and establishing different lighting conditions
in sections of the classroom can offer students a respite
from uncomfortable illumination.
There are now some boards made
of materials and processes that can reduce glare or increase
clarity in other ways. The
Convex whiteboard,
for example, is praised for its innovative glare reduction
design and is a popular product. There are some other
magnetic dry erase boards
that offer the benefit of reduced surface light distortion
and also demonstrate improvement in contrast sensitivity
and visual acuity to the human eye by three-fold. Some
education chalk boards are
also quality-built with a finish that enhances visibility
and color contrast.
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