The Physical Environment and Student Performance
Introduction
This action research is to determine how manipulating the physical environment (color, lighting, arrangement, and furniture selection) of a classroom can impact student academic performance. I have chosen to analyze a high school special education class at a Charter Middle and High School (242 students enrolled). I will focus on my class of 12 students, six females and six males, grades nine – twelve, ages 14 – 19. This class provides support in all core academic classes, organization and study skills. The students have various disabilities, such as Autism (AU), Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) in reading, math or writing, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Tourette’s Syndrome, and
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The implications are that schools should begin to analyze the physical environments of classrooms and make changes based on student perceptions. However, if these implications are ignored we will continue to have classrooms, which negatively impact student performance. The author’s initial point of view was that there would be no difference in the perceptions of the subgroups.
This article did analyze the impact of the physical environments on student learning and motivation, but did not address special education, nor did the author employ a before/after strategy that I intend to utilize. This research was relevant to my action research because it examined physical elements such as color, lighting, and furniture. This research illustrated that students are aware of their surroundings and the physical environment impacts their school performance/motivation.
Guardino, C.A., & Fullerton, E., (2010). Changing behaviors by changing
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S. Merritt of the University of Missouri has published 19 articles in the area of environmental psychology and has several professional memberships. The main purpose of this article is to determine if the “red effect” would translate to classroom performance. The authors addressed the following key concepts “(1) students in the red condition will perform significantly worse on an in-class exam than those in all other conditions, and (2) that anxiety will mediate this effect, with those in the red condition reporting higher anxiety (Smajic, Merritt, & Blinebry, 2013, p. 38). The most important information is that while other studies found a significant connection between color and academic performance, this study was unable to produce the same findings. The main conclusion was that further research is necessary to determine if any connection exists between color and academic
Her mother recognized that environmental factors like “getting angry once a tantrum started…[and] noisy places” (Grandin, 2006, p. 34) were things to avoid and something to keep Grandin’s teachers aware of. Grandin’s teachers needed to know as to what might provoke a distracting and upsetting environment. Decreasing stimuli in the classroom atmosphere allows more conducive learning for both Grandin and her peers. Laura Barnes similarly discussed in her applied behavioral analysis lecture the idea of being aware of “people, places and things” (Barnes, September 18, 2015) as possible environment instigators. Though people with autism often have more difficulty with processing external stimuli, maintaining a proper environment is helpful to everyone. In a hospital, a nurse may come across a once pleasant patient who has become more irritable and having trouble with recovery after treatment. An inspection of the patient’s environment may show that things like beeping machines, led to a restless night resulting in the mood change. Within the healthcare field, possible environmental irritants should be reduced to help patient recovery. Distractions have the ability to affect everyone, obtaining the skills to spot and avoid them are
Students with high incidence disabilities or HID are the most common in schools. The group of high incidence disabilities include students with emotional, behavioral or mild intellectual disabilities as well as those with autism, speech or language impairments and attention deficit disorder (Gage et al., 2012). Students with HID are usually taught within the general education classroom. There are either co-teachers or a resource teacher that takes the students out of the general education classroom for short periods of time to work in a more individual, structured environment (Per...
Instruction. These two strategies are approaches that address classroom diversity in general education settings, and inclusion classroom settings. The idea of UDL is that instructional lessons, strategies, and assessments are planned with supports, which are more likely to be well-suited for students with special needs. The supports minimize the need for adaptations at a later time. Properly designed classrooms require fewer adaptations for students with special needs, is an ass...
Woolfolk, A. E., Winne, P. H., & Perry, N. E. (2011). Educational psychology (5th ed.) Toronto: Pearson.
The space and area in which a child is learning must be accommodating to all of their needs. A responsive environment is a space of any size that is set up and presented in a manner that promotes social-emotional development, physical development, spiritual development, intellectual/cognitive and language/literacy skills. It is important that the class or room promotes a healthy learning environment which allows the children to be independent while still pushing their skills and abilities. Environments are able to shape and direct a child’s learning experience, “We now know that the environment is a valuable teacher if it is amiable, comfortable, pleasing, organized, clean, inviting and engaging…This is true of floor space, ceiling, and wall space” (Krentz, Emerita, & University of Regina, 2013, p.44).
There are several school-level processes that may affect student outcomes either as direct effects of instructional practice or indirectly through support of students’ social-psychological needs (Rowan, B., Chiang, F.-S., Miller, R. J., 1996).
The physical layout in this classroom consists of the students’ desks in small groups around the classroom and three small group tables at the front of the room, side of the room, and back of the room. There are also cabinets up againt the walls and drawers in the counter in the back of the room. They have the alphabet twice on the wall and numbers one through twenty on the wall, along with pictures that show each number. The room is not very colorful because it is a bluish white color, but the things on the wall make it more comfortable. There is a master schedule on the wall as well. There are labels around the entire room like wall, chair, desk, window, door, etc. There is a Smartboard in the front of the room behind one of the group tables, and two computers beside it. There is also a board behind the Smartboard. To the right of the Smartboard in the c...
...ysical exposure can contribute to the child’s education. Not only can it affect how they are taught, but the facility is important too. Just think about it: schools with higher SES have up-to-date conditions on the building and grounds. They would most likely have top of the line equipment to teach more efficiently and properly. In addition to just having the best equipment possible, the higher SES schools may pay more close attention to their classrooms. If a classroom is filled with fun, colorful, and inviting decorations, it will promote and encourage the child to learn in a more inventive way. If the classroom is not colorful, or does not have any decorations, it may not facilitate development or encourage the child to learn. The physical exposure is not the only aspect that can affect children 's health, but the psychosocial exposure plays a role too.
When building a classroom, the indoor learning environment will be influenced by the building and play area that surrounds the building. A classroom needs to have adequate space for children to play, explore and learn. Children need to have continuous access to water, bathrooms and a sink for handwashing. Although each room or center will be different they need to maintain areas that are easily and safely supervised from all areas of the classroom. The space needs to be organized into learning centers with well-defined areas. Areas such as science, art, sensory, bathrooms and eating areas need to be near a water source. Other areas such as block areas, library and housekeeping should be kept in areas with large area rugs or carpet.
Many teachers believe classrooms are too small. Many teachers and students believe classrooms are not big enough. If students are working on a group activity that takes up a lot of space will have to do activity in the hallway. If students are watching a film for class will have to move or adjust because most likely students in the back of the classroom cannot see. Teachers may not have enough desks some students may end up sitting in a part of the room where it could be the size of a coat closet.
For Doman 1, planning and preparation, I believe that I demonstrate adequate skills. I work hard to make connections to my content knowledge with other subject areas through discussions with general education teachers for social studies and science curriculums (Danielson, 1996). As a special education teacher, I must have a full understanding of my students (Danielson, 1996). I design lessons that are the instructional match for my students, modify grade level curriculum, and accommodate for different learning styles. I also try to choose books that would be interesting to my students and create math story problems around the activities that students participate in. Assessing student learning is critical to monitor instruction and to report student progress accurately (Danielson, 1996). The development of this component was a goal of mine during the first semester of this school year. I feel that now, I have acc...
Although our research project continues—it is far from finished—there were several considerations which brought us to the decision to write this book. First, in none of our publications had we spelled out the theoretical framework within which we have operated. It is consequently, with the relationships of our findings to each other, as well as to broader psychological issues, have not been discussed in a manner satisfactory to us. Second, is about we had a fair amount of unpublished data which we felt could only be evaluated within the context of all we have done. Third, is about we became increasingly aware that our work had important implications for psychological practices and procedures in the public schools. This awareness was due not only to our interpretation of our formal findings, or to the fact that we spent a great deal of time in the school setting, but also to the response of various school personnel who felt that our studies could be of great relevance in the development of testing procedures which would be more meaningful than those currently employed in our schools. The final factor entering into the decision to write this book was our inability, for reasons beyond our control, to remain together as a research team. We have worked intimately together for several years, all of us participating in the over-all
Zulling Keith J; Koopman,Tommy M and Patton, Jon M. School climate:Historical Rview,instrument development and school assessment,Journal of psychoeducational assessment,28(2) 139-152,2010,sage publication.
There are three main dimensions of learning environment. The physical environment refers to the equipment and materials, the room arrangements, the playground and the facilities available. The Interpersonal environment refers to the number of teachers, the ages and numbers of children in the group and the style of interactions among them and the temporal environment refers to the timing for transitions, routines, and activities (Gordon & Browne, 2011).
This paper will present the various relationships of color and highlight the impact that color has on the memory and attention to information presentation. First we will go into the way that color has impacted normal settings and how it has impacted the world as a whole within the scope of human history for both nature and our current environment. Over the last 10 to 20 years the standards within the educational environment has put a higher demand on the higher standard of academic achievement, to which a student has to utilize their cognitive ability in an increased manner to achieve the new academic standard. These students need to have new type of strategy to achieve a more complete learning style so that they may understand, maintain attention, process, extract, and remember the lessons that they are given within a classroom or lecture environment. Colors could be just one of the elements of this memory retention system and allow the further motivation to student applications so that they can further profit from any education