https://usir.salford.ac.uk/33995/4/1-s2.0-S0360132315000700-main.pdf

The impact of classroom design on pupils' learning: Final results of a holistic, multi-level analysis

The impact of classroom design on pupils' learning

A large body of evidence supports the importance of focused attention for encoding and task performance. Yet young children with immature regulation of focused attention are often placed in elementary-school classrooms containing many displays that are not relevant to ongoing instruction. We investigated whether such displays can affect children’s ability to maintain focused attention during instruction and to learn the lesson content. We placed kindergarten children in a laboratory classroom for six introductory science lessons, and we experimentally manipulated the visual environment in the classroom. Children were more distracted by the visual environment, spent more time off task, and demonstrated smaller learning gains when the walls were highly decorated than when the decorations were removed.

Visual Environment, Attention Allocation, and Learning in Young Children When Too Much of a Good Thing May Be Bad

Learning space research is a relatively new field of study that seeks to inform the design, evaluation and management of learning spaces. This paper reviews a dispersed and fragmented literature relevant to understanding connections between university learning spaces and student learning activities. From this review, the paper distils a number of core concerns and identifies some gaps in the literature. One of its primary goals is to clear the ground for the construction of models of learning space that can be used by the various parties involved in the design and evaluation of new learning spaces: teachers, architects, interior designers, IT managers, educational leaders and students. A closely related goal is to help those participating in learning space research locate and understand each other's contributions. Fragmentation in research related to learning and physical spaces makes progress in the field slow. Our review makes two passes over the field: drawing together research from architecture, the learning sciences, environmental psychology, human computer interaction and elsewhere to identify research foci and gaps, and then also capturing some work by learning space researchers that directly attempts to model the main relationships in the field. The paper ends with a summary of implications for research and practice.

Models of learning space: integrating research on space, place and learning in higher education

https://estudogeral.sib.uc.pt/bitstream/10316/27894/1/Assessment%20of%20indoor%20air%20quality%20and%20thermal%20comfort%20in%20Portuguese.pdf

Joanne Moffat

Papers

A holistic, multi-level analysis identifying the impact of classroom design on pupils’ learning