Classroom Design Essay

Introduction: The classroom is the primary educational environment, providing students with a safe and suitable place to learn. The “classroom” as a concept enjoys a wide range of definitions in the literature according to the aims and interests of the individual researcher. Even though the shape and form of the classroom may seem unchanged from the 19th century to the present day, many features in the design of classroom environment have in fact changed. The Questions and the Objective of the

Study: The current paper aims to answer the following questions: 1-What are the major differences in American classroom design from the 19th century to the present?, 2-What are the factors relevant to these changes?, and 3- What are the theories that

Furthermore, not only students are affected by the transformations of the physical design of the classroom, but instructors as well. Factors and Theories Impact the Evolution of American Classroom Design from the 19th to the 21st Century

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Introduction

The classroom is the primary educational environment, providing students with a safe and suitable place to learn. The “classroom” as a concept enjoys a wide range of definitions in the literature according to the aims and interests of the individual researcher. For example, Bonwell

(2000) differentiates between classrooms by the activities that students carry out within the classroom. In the conventional classroom, which supports the teacher-centered lecture format, students learn and gain information by listening to the teacher/professor, while in the active classroom (or student-centered classroom) students practice active participation (e.g., reading, discussing, writing, analyzing, evaluating, etc.) rather than passive listening (Bonwell, 2000).

Classrooms are also distinguished by size and location, whether outdoor or

The second type is the contextual transformation, which is defined as the change that happens suddenly in either one or more personal, social, or physical factors, and significantly affects environment or behavior (Stokols, 1988).

2) Changes in the Classroom and the Factors that Underlie them

A) Fixed vs. Moveable Furniture/ Classroom Layout “Contextual Shift”

The changes in classroom design: From the middle to the end of the 19th century, classroom furniture was fixed to the floor and sometimes all the tables and chairs were connected to each other. This furniture always included long tables that accommodated from two to five students at once. This set-up made different arrangements of the furniture within the classroom impossible. On the other hand, the beginning of the 20th century saw movable classroom furniture, and long tables became shorter to accommodate no more than two students at a time.

Finally, the single chairs and tables or the table-chair combination become popular in the present, though we still have the tables that fit two students. Both types allow different layouts of the classroom furniture (see figure 1 & schedule 1).

The factors involved in the design changes: The pragmatic theory popular in the 20th