Who cares about a few pencils on the Floor?
A look at environment and its impact on Learning

Summer Term 2013
Taking Stock!

Hay McBer
• Teaching Skills and
Professional
Characteristics
(input measures)
• Classroom Climate
(Output measures)

Teachers drive Climate
Teachers need to determine what they can
“input” into their daily teaching and classroom practice that will deliver effect “output” scores in terms of classroom climate.

Power of Environment
The environment is the foundation block for establishing a clear learning culture and everything else builds upon it. It sends out powerful hidden messages about what is valued and the wider ethos of the school

Visiting two schools

Excellence and Enjoyment
Excellence and Enjoyment
(2003)
“The physical environment has a significant influence on learning. It gives children clear messages about how we value them and how we value learning” (Part 3 p 56)

Sea View
Why does a sea view room in a hotel command a premium price if environment has no impact?

Britain in Bloom

Power of Displays
“Educational psychologists have found that environment can have a large impact on children's learning. There are classrooms that alienate children and those that engage them, and much research shows that children who feel engaged in their classroom are more receptive.”
(www.Teachernet “Classroom Displays”)

Impact of Environment
“Research demonstrates that the learning environment affects the engagement, motivation, self-esteem, attendance, wellbeing and achievement of students”
(Understanding and managing classroom space
Jane McGregor)

Hay McBer
“Pupil progress data from the primary classes in the classroom climate study correlated strongly with overall classroom climate This suggests that a pleasant physical environment is particularly important for academic progress in primary schools.”
(Teacher Effectiveness p30)

Peter Barratt’s Research
“A full 73 percent of the variation in pupil performance driven at the class level can be explained by the building environment factors.“
Peter Barrett
Salford University

Peter Barratt’s Research
“All other things being equal, a child in the best environment could be expected to make two
SATs sub-levels more progress during a school year than an equivalent child in the "poorest" classroom environment. That equates to a whole year's average improvement for a child in reading, writing and maths”
(quote from The Guardian 25 th April 2013)

All other things being equal

The “Broken Window Theory”.
In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell makes reference to the
“Broken Window
Theory”.
Philip Zimbardo (1969) professor at Stanford
“The Two cars and the Broken Windows”

The Essence of the theory
“it is not so much the actual broken window that is important, but rather the message the people receive from the broken window.”
(Wikipedia – Broken
Windows Theory)

New York Transit company
In 1980 George Kelling was hired by the New
York Transit company
• The blitz on graffiti

New York Transit company
In 1980 George Kelling was hired by the New
York Transit company
• The blitz on graffiti
• The Fare dodgers
– 1 in 7 had an outstanding warrant for arrest
– 1 in 20 had a weapon

Result
As Galdwell points out; “after a while the bad guys wised up, and began to leave their weapons at home and pay their fares.”
All started by a lick of paint!!

Broken Windows theory
“Broken Windows theory is based upon the premise that an epidemic can be reversed, can be tipped, by tinkering with the smallest details of the immediate environment”
(Gladwell, 2000, p. 146).

The Link into schools
“When secondary school children were asked how they knew which teacher to play up in class one of the key factors that determined their behaviour was the state of the teacher’s desk”

The Bookcase test
They say if you want to find out what a man believes look at his bookcase and see what he reads
The School in Bath

Quote
“Those schools that have books falling off the shelves, with books laid on top of other books, some with ripped covers, others with pages falling out, give the visitor a clear impression of the school, and the culture”

“… write neatly in their books”
Effective learning does not occur in arenas of dissonance

Quality produces quality
“Get rid of everything which is broken, has pieces missing, or is worn and looks tatty.
Although this may seem ruthless, remember it is impossible to create an ethos of respect for resources if they are in a poor state of repair and appear ‘unloved’
(High-quality environments for learning Pat
Brunton and Linda Thornton 2007)

OCD or Good Teaching?
“to ignore one piece of trash on the floor. . .one shirt improperly tucked in, one fight between kids, one bit of foul language, would send a disastrous no-one-cares message”
(No Excuses,
Thernstrom, 2003)

The Reality is…
“We set standards by the environment we offer to children” (Dean, 2001, p.197)

Power of the Cultural Message
A well cared for and attractive environment sends powerful messages about expectations, and is“a potent influence on how well students achieve a range of desired educational outcomes”
(Fraser, 1986, p.182).

Educational Warehouses
The First day of term

Visual Displays
“Using visual displays in classrooms breeds success because 'students are provided with specific examples of how success is obtained”
(The effect of the physical environment on teaching and learning
Culp, B 2006:14).

Broken Window Theory
“Fixing broken windows and attending to the physical appearance of a school cannot alone guarantee productive teaching and learning, ignoring them greatly increases the chances of a troubling downward spiral.”
(An Application of the Broken Windows Theory, S
Plank, 2009)

Working Walls
What message do they send out?

Working Walls
‘It gives the students a real sense of ownership of the classroom in which they are taught, and this being so, they will be more likely to respect not just the school fabric, but also the learning that takes place in the room they have ownership over.’
Emotional ownership – Dr Who

Back to the Bookcase
The bookcase is “our” bookcase not only for us to use this year but it is a bookcase that others will use in the years after us, so why would we not wish to look after the books upon it?
Care for the global environment
Care for the presentation of work
The power of “This is what we do around here”

Returning to Classroom Culture
“We are a tribal animal, which leads us to have a deep need to belong to a group of some sort.
Conforming to group norms is a signal to the other group members that ‘
I am like you.”
David Straker

Solomon Asch (1950’s)

Solomon Asch (1950’s)
75% of the participants gave an incorrect answer to at least one of the questions
Only 25% were willing to “go it alone”

Solomon Asch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F17JGDZDV
Us http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player
_embedded&v=uuvGh_n3I_M

Cultural Messages

Lady in the Burning Building

The Power of Display
“Displays are not just creating an aesthetic base for the children to work in. They are delivering a very powerful cultural message to the children that “this is the way we do things around here”
They are laying down social markers that will underpin what the class comes to believe and accept as their cultural norm”

Cultural Expectations
We cannot expect children to put pencils back in pencil pots if we leave coffee mugs on a classroom display.

Cultural Expectations
We cannot ask children to clear away at the end of the lesson, if some of the artefacts from yesterday’s lesson remained piled up by the door waiting to be returned to the dungeon

Environment and Culture
The environment is a powerful driver; as it sets the tone and is the visual backdrop for all the learning that is undertaken in the class

A Final Quote
Malaguzzi, founder of the Regio Emilia schools, wrote;
‘Education must come to be recognised as the product of complex interactions, many of which can be realised when the environment is a fully participating element.’
(Malaguzzi, L, 1998 ‘History, Ideas and Basic
Philosophy’)