Can flexible classrooms boost student achievement? – Edutopia
For the Student-Led Conferences, the Kindergarten class decided that together they would rearrange the room to best accommodate their parents’ visits.
This provocation, ‘how shall we set up the room today?’ was instantly engaging for the Kindergarten kids, who set about trying different ways to move the tables, cushions, stools and chairs so that conversations could be had, resources accessed, and learning tasks explained.
A 2018 study from the UK captured by edutopia.org as ‘an ambitious study of 153 classrooms’ provides evidence that flexible classrooms can boost academic performance.
“The big insight? Optimizing all of (the) physical characteristics of primary (Elementary) classrooms improved academic performance in reading, writing, and mathematics by 16 percent. The personalization of classrooms—including flexibility, … defined as “student choice within the space”— accounted for a full quarter of that improvement.
Another way to look at it: When isolated from other measured factors, classroom flexibility is about as important as air quality, light, or temperature in boosting academic outcomes.”
To read more: Flexible classrooms – Edutopia
