Classroom Environment

Classroom environment or classroom ecology refers to the general and overall climate and atmosphere of a classroom. Teachers create, provide, or facilitate the classroom environment for learning. Effective classroom environments of the twenty-first century will ultimately be substantially different from those of the industrial era. The range of attributes constituting classroom-environmental contextual factors and variables can be characterized as physical, material, personal/interpersonal, school/institutional and social/psychosocial. The instructional variables of a classroom environment refer to all of the features that influence the nature of teacher and student performance. A positive classroom environment provides advantageous conditions for effective student learning, whereas a negative classroom environment results in disadvantageous conditions that may cause students not to succeed. Research has found that teachers who have established orderly and enabling classroom environments are those who are most likely to teach for understanding and meaning.

Overview

Many researchers describe the elements of the physical environment that impact the learning culture, including the shape and arrangement of the classroom, the grouping of the students in the available space, and the learning materials available for students’ use. Teachers who use these elements strategically encourage students to participate enthusiastically in the learning process. The environment of a classroom should enable students to master intended learnings. All students should have the same conditions while learning and demonstrating their competence. A classroom should stimulate purposeful student activity and allow for a depth and range of activities that facilitate learning. Teachers should honor various approaches to learning, and balance the interests of individuals with the group as a whole. The classroom elements that teachers can employ daily to help achieve desired learning outcomes include time, space, resources, student groupings, instructional or learning strategies, partnerships, and presentation or teaching strategies.

A classroom can be thought of as a living organism, much like how biologists think of the ecosystem of a pond. Like a pond, "the classroom is bounded in space and time and contains within it a number of relatively autonomous components that interact with one another in a mostly purposeful fashion" (Smith, Smith, & De Lisi, 2001, p. 7). Classroom environment—also called classroom ecology—describes the overall climate or atmosphere of a classroom. This environment is created by the interplay of the physical dimensions of a classroom with the interpersonal interactions between students and teachers. As such, a classroom's environment can have a strong influence on the teaching and learning that occurs within it.

Each class has a collective personality that is made up of individual students' needs and interests, and every student contributes to a class's "personality" (Smith, Smith, & De Lisi, 2001). Teachers create, provide, and facilitate the classroom environment according to this unique class personality. A positive classroom environment unites students as they work, achieve, and grow. When teachers set up the proper classroom environment, students can develop competence in intellectual endeavors.

For much of the nineteenth century, teachers in U.S. elementary school classrooms held a strong degree of control over the classroom setting. Class rules and procedures were strict: teachers generally told students where and when to sit, stand, and hang their coats. Desks were arranged in straight rows to serve the lecture-based instructional model as well as practical custodial needs. Although the efficacy of the lecture-based instructional model has since been found wanting, the same classroom structure characterized U.S. public education for more than a century.

Although classroom environments of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were relatively static, effective classroom-learning environments of the twenty-first century became substantially different from those of the Industrial era. The "same old classroom" no longer met the requirements of visionary educators, and as Fielding (2006) stated, the future will belong to students who look in directions other than straight ahead.

Applications

Contextual Factors

A classroom environment includes contextual factors such as the related circumstances, conditions, and situations of teaching and learning-school size, class size, educational level of students, number of students, absenteeism rate of students and many others. Teachers must assess and address these environmental variables.

Environmental variables can be organized into contextual domains. Among the hierarchy of contextual domains in education are

• The individual or personal domain,

• The school or institutional domain, and

• The schooling or societal domain.

Schubert (1986) classifies the range of attributes of learning environments into five different dimensions:

• Physical, such as the tables, desks and chairs

• Material, such as curricular and instructional materials used

• Interpersonal, the ways in which the students and teacher are poised to interact

• Institutional, meaning the style of governance of the school, and

• Psychosocial, meaning the culture or atmosphere of the school.

From Schubert's perspective, these characteristics focus on environmental features that are internal to specific teaching-learning situations and do not apply to wider contexts such as community and socioeconomic surroundings.

Classroom Physical Settings

Classrooms are dynamic and complex physical settings (Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation, 1988). The physical surroundings of the educational setting and learning environment, including available usable space and adjacent space or storage, may be relatively staid or quite evocative.

In contemplating the design of a classroom as an educational setting, four criteria should be kept in mind:

• Adequacy, or spatial planning

• Suitability, or the types of activities that will take place in the classroom

• Efficiency, or the operational characteristics of a classroom, and

• Economy or the cost of creating the desired environment.

The physical classroom setting includes the basic four-wall classroom and any and all elaborations beyond it. This environment includes factors such as the architectural arrangement, seating and grouping patterns, furnishings and accommodations, including materials and equipment. It includes the types and combinations of fixed and moveable chairs and the presence or absence of learning centers. The furniture, desks and other physical features within a classroom can be arranged and rearranged so as to serve a variety of instructional needs.

The physical classroom environment also includes the general physical atmosphere-factors such as room temperature, air circulation and ventilation, lighting, acoustics, outside noise, furniture noise, and even smells. Noisy and distracting surroundings, inadequate lighting, or unusually high or low temperatures can all interfere with student learning. Although some characteristics of the physical surrounding of a teacher's classroom may be out of his or her control, many factors of the teaching setting (e.g., lighting, temperature) can be controlled or improved upon.

The physical layout and appearance of a classroom reflects a teacher's personal perspective and conveys a powerful message to students. Along with the physical arrangement of a classroom, a teacher should consider how the room is decorated. The emphasis in decorating a classroom should be on functionality, for as Marzano (2003) notes, a teacher's job is not to create a "pretty" environment but to create a "learning environment." The physical features of classrooms such as bulletin boards and wall space can be used for creative, aesthetic, or instructional purposes at any grade level.

Influences & Constraints

A classroom operates within certain influences and constraints that may be outside the control of the teacher. These include general geographic and social characteristics such as economic trends and societal dynamics. They also include the general circumstances of a neighborhood or school; community characteristics and community expectations; the economic status of the community; and the state of communication between teachers and parents. Mills & Keddie (2012) found that, across many parts of the world, the student population is becoming increasingly diverse, bringing to classrooms divergent racial, ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic experiences. Additionally, the number of students assigned to a teacher, the turnover of students in a teacher's classroom during the school year, and the ethnicity of the student body, the students' first languages, and their fluency in English all contribute to the classroom environment. Many of these influences are outside the teacher's control.

Other factors influencing the environment which may be outside of a teacher’s control are amounts of time and space available, as well as the kinds of equipment, textbooks, and technologies to which they have access.

Another important factor is the availability of support services. Support services can take the form of professional support, the expertise and contributions of colleague, or informal work relations. A school's organizational structure, leadership, decision-making policies, and financial resources are other influences and constraints on classroom environments.

Climate Variables

In addition to its physical surroundings, a classroom environment is shaped by an intangible element called classroom climate. Learning is best achieved in a classroom climate that is warm, bright, friendly, and relaxed. A classroom climate can be stimulating and conducive to learning if it is active and buzzing with purposeful activity. In contrast, a classroom atmosphere can be dreary and unstimulating, and it can also be oppressive where quiet is maintained at high expense.

For the sake of the academic enterprise, interruptions and distractions in a classroom need to be minimized. A policy of keeping interruptions to a minimum establishes a tone of respect towards students' work. It is important that a positive learning climate be maintained and student involvement in noninstructional activities be minimized. Teachers should handle problems promptly and, when possible, use nonintrusive interventions to maintain student involvement in lessons and activity flow. A good classroom climate enables consistent partnerships to be built so that students can navigate both successes and failures as a normal part of learning. A positive classroom climate does not guarantee student success, but opens the way for it. Teachers create a climate in which all opinions are considered equally and ridicule is not tolerated so that students respect the teacher, the classroom, and the school.

A safe and orderly classroom environment is one in which students and teachers are safe, and perceive that they are safe, from physical and psychological harm. Order can be defined as the extent to which a leader-a classroom teacher in this case-establishes a set of standard operating procedures and routines. Order in any dynamic environment, such as a classroom, is created by structure. Structure can improve the academic performance of students.

Classroom routines and rules assist in structuring the learning environment. Routines include such procedures as role-taking, preparing for instruction and cleaning up following activities. Teachers need to provide and reinforce clear structures, routines, rules and procedures for students.

An effective classroom climate is also dependent on practical rules of classroom management. With established behavioral rules, students understand what is and is not acceptable behavior, and behavior problems are handled efficiently. Many students need guidelines for behavior and benefit from rules that are consistently and fairly enforced-not occasionally enforced or never enforced. Teachers need to be consistent in student behavioral expectations and use positive reinforcement. In order to know what to improve, students need specific corrective feedback.

Classroom climate directly relates to the amount of time teachers spend observing and monitoring students and the amount of time they spend working alone. The more attention a teacher pays to the physical environment and routines of the classroom, the fewer chances there will be for misbehavior and disruption.

Students' Contextual Variables

Personal contextual variables of the classroom environment describe students' attitudes, interests, and needs, as well as the affective curricular domains. Many factors of the classroom learning environment affect students' attitudes towards learning. Students invariably associate the surroundings in which they are asked to learn with their attitudes about what and how they learn. Distractions, anxieties and frustrations can prevent students from doing their best. Teachers should make every effort to build wholesome and positive attitudes in students.

A basic need of children that affects learning and growth is a feeling of adequacy to the tasks they are expected to carry out. As such, students need to be provided with many successful experiences. Students perform better in activities in which they have self-confidence, a strong desire to achieve, and a feeling of successful performance. The “self” that each student brings to a classroom learning setting is an important student characteristic to consider.

Teachers' Contextual Variables

The environment of a classroom may be largely determined by teachers' attitudes. At any given time, the classroom affect can be characterized as being positive, negative, or neutral. Classroom affect has much to do with how teachers make students feel about their own abilities and themselves. A related factor is whether a teacher has a genuine desire to teach and to be in the classroom on a daily basis. The experience, preparation, and organization of the teacher ensures that all students have respectful and fulfilling academic work.

Because of the multiplicity of classroom tasks combined with their frequency and rotation, teaching can be exhausting. Teachers need to manage time, control noise, make flexible use of space, organize and distribute materials and resources, monitor student work, and make time to work with small groups and individual students. It is difficult for teachers to do all the things that need to be done in a classroom in which the expectation is that everyone will work on the same task in the same time frame.

Teachers need to hold high expectations and communicate them to students. Teacher expectations can be communicated both implicitly and explicitly. When teachers communicate positive expectations, they lay the foundations for students to attempt new tasks, reach new goals and be successful. Offering praise to students needs to be deserved to be effective. Effective praise includes informative feedback and genuine teacher approval for students' good performance. Appropriate teacher praise can provide great encouragement to students.

Incentives, awards, and the team spirit that is generated by working toward a common goal can contribute to establishing an overall positive climate in some classes. Extra-credit activities and activity reinforcers provide tangible recognition of student successes and make the classroom a more rewarding place. Incentives made available to individuals, such as behavior contracts, will also improve a classroom climate as long as students do not have to compete for them.

Viewpoints

Advantages of the Positive Classroom Environment

• A positive classroom environment contributes to effective learning.

• A positive classroom environment is a supportive learner-centered classroom environment that prepares students to succeed.

• It facilitates students' academic achievement and attends to their socialization needs.

• It builds a "classroom community" in which students' cognitive, affective, and physical needs are met.

• It nurtures a broad array of learning styles and experiences while emphasizing individualized student-learning.

• It promotes collaborative-learning opportunities.

Disadvantages of the Negative Classroom Environment

The disadvantages, weaknesses, and difficulties associated with a negative classroom-learning environment are not only problematic but they can also cause students not to succeed. In a predominantly negative classroom climate,

• Students are typically involved in traditional, passive learning activities and non-interactive instruction.

• There is little or no interaction between teacher and students.

• Learning is lecture-based, whole-class "talk-and-chalk" sessions that does not make use of individualized or small-group instruction.

• The environment is tightly structured and crowded and students lack necessary resources and materials.

• It is a stimulus-deprived setting that bores students.

• It is focused primarily on competitive situations, and lends no attention to affective dimensions of the curriculum.

• Class time is used ineffectively.

• Teachers are disorganized, unprepared, and fail to communicate their expectations for student work.

• The classroom is poorly managed, students are poorly disciplined, and the rules of proper behavior are not communicated or enforced.

In such environments,

• Students fail to develop a sense of personal responsibility and are instead made to rely on extrinsic motivators (Joint Committee, 1988).

• Students' social competence is affected which may cause emotional and behavioral problems.

• Students may not gain interpersonal or leadership skills;

• They may become anxious and withdrawn; develop low self-esteem; or become aggressive or disruptive.

Research

Research has found that teachers who have established orderly and enabling classroom learning environments are most likely to teach for understanding and meaning. Research also indicates that the classroom discourse that is effective in promoting students'achievement is highly interactive and actively involves students in the production of knowledge. Classroom environments supporting student learning are highly personalized, encourage active participation in the learning process, and use investigative skills in learning activities.

There are abundant research results on students' classroom-environment perceptions and these tend to differ based on class size, grade level, subject matter, teacher personality, and the use of alternative curricula, among other factors. However, classroom climate is perceived by students as more favorable in secondary schools than in primary schools. For example, Ferguson & Fraser (1998) found that secondary schools involve less competitiveness and friction. They also found that the quality of teacher-student interactions are generally perceived as deteriorating on most dimensions from primary to secondary school. During this transition, perceptions of class satisfaction were found to deteriorate for girls but to improve for boys.

Middle-school classes have an even less favorable perception of their learning environment than do either elementary or high-school classes . Fifth-grade students have been found to prefer group learning rather than individualistic and competitive learning. The same students also prefer hands-on classroom activities rather than passive activities.

Terms & Concepts

Classroom Climate: The general and overall atmosphere of a classroom including a variety of elements that may be physical conditions, situations or circumstances (e.g., classroom order, structure or management) or psychological/mental affects.

Classroom Ecology: Synonymous with classroom environment; the general and overall climate and atmosphere of a classroom including all the environmental contextual factors, variables, influences and constraints affecting teaching and learning.

Classroom Environment: Also classroom ecology; the general and overall climate and atmosphere of a classroom including the environmental/ecological contextual factors, variables, influences and constraints affecting teaching and learning.

Climate Variables: Intangible factors or elements of the classroom environment that dictate the general and overall atmosphere of teaching and learning.

Contextual Domains: Also contextual dimensions; the hierarchical groups or categories of attributes, contextual factors or variables, generally classified under physical, material, personal/interpersonal, school/institutional and social/psychosocial.

Instructional Variables: Factors and aspects of the classroom environment that directly influence and relate to specific conditions, situations and circumstances of teaching and learning.

Learning Incentives: Recognition, praise, rewards or awards provided to students by a teacher to reinforce academic achievement, class and individual successes and behavioral growth.

Student Contextual Variables: Factors and aspects of the classroom learning environment related to students' attitudes, affects, moods, interests and needs.

Teachers' Contextual Variables: Factors and aspects of the classroom teaching and learning environment that are determined and affected by, related to and embodied in teachers' attitudes.

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Suggested Reading

Kuklinski, M. R., & Weinstein, R. S. (2000). Classroom and grade level differences in the stability of teacher expectations and perceived differential teacher treatment. Learning Environments Research, 3, 1-34. Retrieved September 14, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=17020411&site=ehost-live

Morrison, K. L., & Marshall, C. S. (2003). Universities and public schools: Are we disconnected? Phi Delta Kappan, 85(4), 292-297. Retrieved September 14, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=11595335&site=ehost-live

Patrick, H., Anderman, L. H., Ryan, A. M., Edelin, K. C., & Midgley, C. (2001). Teachers' communication of goal orientations in four fifth-grade classrooms. Elementary School Journal, 102(1), 35-58. Retrieved September 14, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=5164596&site=ehost-live

Scott, B. N., & Hannafin, R. D. (2000). How teachers and parents view classroom learning environments: An exploratory study. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 32(3), 401-416. Retrieved September 14, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=2914329&site=ehost-live

Tallman, J., & Fitzgerald, M. A. (2005). Blending online and classroom learning environments: Reflections on experiences and points to consider. Knowledge Quest, 34(1), 25-28. Retrieved September 14, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=18587925&site=ehost-live