Dynamically Different Classrooms

Create spaces that spark learning

Claire Gadsby

• Publisher: Independent Thinking Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781781353196
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

In Dynamically Different Classrooms: Create spaces that spark learning, Claire Gadsby and Jan Evans provide teachers with a visually striking masterclass on how to maximise the potential of every cubic inch of the learning environment.

Classrooms are private places. A lucky few - consultants and inspectors among them - get to visit hundreds of classrooms a year, yet many teachers never get the opportunity to see how other practitioners 'do it'.

In Dynamically Different Classrooms, however, experienced educators Claire and Jan take away the guesswork by inviting teachers into a unique journey of classroom discovery that shows them how to design and use the space within their classroom in such a way that enhances their pupils' learning experiences.

Bursting with a rich variety of practical ideas, this inspiring guide to the great indoors talks you through the 'clue corners', 'ceiling circuits' and 'windows of opportunity' waiting to be discovered in your classroom and shares 148 high-impact techniques proven to boost pupils' engagement, long-term learning and progress.

The techniques are dispersed across five chapters - each covering a specified aspect of the classroom (e.g. wall displays) - and are tagged to cross-reference with the following six key themes in order to help you navigate your own pathway through the chapters according to your development priorities:

Metacognition and self-regulated learning
Emotional engagement
Retrieval and revision
Responsive teaching
Oracy and 'word wealth'
Collaborative learning.

The strategies can be adapted for use with all age groups and will stimulate busy teachers to reimagine the learning space through a more creative lens. Each theme is underpinned by robust research in the book's introduction, in which the authors discuss the key findings and explore how effective classroom design can help unlock the potential of various pedagogical approaches.

The book also features a range of illuminating case studies from various schools across the UK, and is beautifully decorated with full-colour photographs that capture the techniques in action to make it even easier for you to adopt and adapt these design principles in your own dynamically different classroom.

Suitable for teachers, trainees, teaching assistants and senior leaders in both primary and secondary schools.

Chapters include: Chapter 1 - Beyond displays: from static to dynamic; Chapter 2 - Nothing wasted: storing learning to resurrect and revive later; Chapter 3 - Floors: not just for standing or sitting on; Chapter 4 - Zoning: one classroom, endless possibilities; Conclusion: the legacy of the learning.

Customer Notice: this book contains a large amount of full colour images, therefore any digital version would be better rendered by being viewed using a device with a colour display.

Chapter 1

BEYOND DISPLAYS: FROM STATIC TO DYNAMIC

In this chapter

Whilst this book is about rethinking the use of the entire classroom space, and starting to extend the approach into the wider school environment, the obvious starting point for most teachers is to rethink their displays. We invite you to consider how your walls can become more than structural supports, by functioning as interactive agents for deeper learning, social interaction and individual growth. As outlined in the introduction, more than ever, teachers are recognising the value of metacognition and this chapter focuses on a highly visible and accessible way of placing this at the forefront of classroom practice.

Sound familiar?

Teachers invest a lot of time and energy producing attractive wall displays of which they can be proud. However, we would like to ask the question, ‘If it is merely beautiful, why not just put up Laura Ashley wallpaper?’ Having worked in hundreds of schools over the years, we have come across many well-intentioned policies and guidelines for displays. Indeed, we remember well the days of triple mounting and neatly aligned staples. Whilst many of these policies aim to create attractive and stimulating environments, they are often concerned primarily with aesthetics and with the outcomes of pupil and staff work. They also tend to assume that any information presented on the walls is automatically being noted, understood and retained by all pupils.

Perhaps this is hardly surprising when we consider some definitions of the word ‘display’:

A collection of objects arranged for public viewing.

A show or event staged for public exhibition or entertainment.

Even when used as a verb – ‘to put something in a prominent place so that it may readily be seen’ – the implied action is relatively finite. Once again the emphasis is on the product. As a result, walls are often used to house attractive but static displays of finished work. Whilst celebrating pupils’ achievements is undoubtedly important, this approach does little to support them and move their learning forward.

So what needs to happen?

Repurposing

For all our well-intentioned policies, and the effort put into creating displays, it can be argued that this is not having a significant enough impact on learning. Pupils are not routinely engaging with what is on their walls. The novelty of even the most striking display soon fades to ‘wallpaper’ and does little to actively engage the pupils in thinking about the content, even if it is occasionally referred to by the teacher.

As we’ve discussed, over-complex, bright, cluttered displays are not beneficial to learning. However, by consciously making thinking processes and pupil progress highly visible – through well-structured, purposeful and dynamic displays – these spaces can pay dividends.

The nasen guide mentioned in the introduction made the following recommendations in relation to classroom displays and pupils with SEND:

Ensure your displays:

Are informative, interactive and relevant

Are uncluttered so that information can be easily found

Can be seen from every position in the classroom and used regularly by all pupils as a point of reference

Show a good use of colour – avoid white background and black text

Show keywords that are understood by all pupils

Celebrate pupils’ work and make them feel valued.

(nasen, 2015: 7)

These guidelines contain well-thought-out, useful advice that would actually benefit all pupils, not just those with SEND. However, it would be very easy to glance at this list and overlook a keyword: ‘interactive’. This is the overriding element we want you to think about as you move ‘beyond displays’.

The EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit demonstrates that teaching metacognition can have a very positive effect on pupils’ outcomes.1 Pupils must be supported to engage with challenging concepts and articulate and own their learning. If used to stretch pupils and engage them in active responses, wall display space becomes a vibrant, high-profile, public area for developing and refining higher-order thinking skills.

Reweighting

Wall space is limited, and therefore valuable, so ultimately it needs to cover those things that pupils find most difficult to understand and remember. There is a value judgement to be made here: the display you have in mind, or have historically used, may be beautiful. It may be celebratory. It may make the pupils feel proud … and all these points are important and have their place. But, the Pareto principle (named after the economist Vilfredo Pareto and also known as the 80/20 principle) reminds us that, surprisingly often, around 20% of the inputs lead to around 80% of the outputs (Koch, 2017). In education, this broadly means that a relatively small number of vital concepts may hold significant value in te...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Praise
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Beyond displays: from static to dynamic
• Chapter 2: Nothing wasted: storing learning to resurrect and revive later
• Chapter 3: Floors: not just for standing or sitting on
• Chapter 4: Zoning: one classroom, endless possibilities
• Conclusion: the legacy of the learning
• References and further reading
• List of strategies
• About the authors
• Copyright