Data Walls: Why you will never see one in my class.

As a relief teacher currently, I get around a fair few schools.  I love to look at how other teachers store equipement, the resources they have and the displays on their walls.  I love to see new ideas to me as an experienced teacher which I could implement when I next set up my own class.

 

However, I also do despair at one thing I often see lacking in classrooms: a lack of student work on the walls.  And it is often because the walls are covered with data displays and next steps for learning.

 

As teachers, we need data.  We have always collected data through tests, observations, peer assessments, self-evaluations.... we process that data to inform our teaching for groups and individuals; we feedback to students; we inform parents of their child's progress; we feed the data into school systems to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of our school and where we need to focus on improving; we send data to the Ministry to allow them to assess strengths and weaknesses as a country; and sadly data is used by news media to create league tables to compare our schools to each other without regard to the contexts of our communities and the individual journeys our students are on with their learning.

 

But, is the data becoming the down fall of our profession and the love of learning our students should have?

 

I have made comment on data walls and the like many times over the years.  I often make comment in the NZ Teachers page on Facebook.  Here are three pictures I have shared over the last couple of years to provoke comment and reflection in my fellow teachers.

 

 

This quote from and opinion piece in the Washington Post This ed-reform trend is supposed to motivate students. Instead it shames them, explains how data walls came to be:


The data walls concept originated with University of Chicago education researcher David Kerbow, who in the late 1990s promoted visual displays to chart students’ progress in reading. Kerbow called these displays “assessment walls,” and he meant them to be for faculty eyes only, as tools for discussion and planning. But when that fundamentally sound idea met constant anxiety over test scores in K-12 schools across the United States, data walls leaked out of staff-room doors and down the halls.
“Diving Into Data,” a 2014 paper published jointly by the nonprofit Jobs for the Future and the U.S. Education Department, offers step-by-step instructions for data walls that “encourage student engagement” and “ensure students know the classroom or school improvement goals and provide a path for students to reach those goals.” The assumption is that students will want to take that path — that seeing their scores in relationship to others’ will motivate them to new heights of academic achievement. They are meant to think: “Oh, the green dots show my hard work, yellow means I have more work to do, and red means wow, I really need to buckle down. Now I will pay attention in class and ask questions! I have a plan!”
How efficient it would be if simply publishing our weaknesses galvanized us to learn exactly what we’re lacking.


The writer describes how it has affected one child in her class in particular and how that child has a story behind her that influences her learning journey.  Data walls just do not reflect the story of the child that the data belongs to.


It also seems that these data walls are also an invasion of privacy and are against US privacy laws - so education authorities were telling US teachers to swap out names on the charts for codes.  But children still know.


And clearly, this form of motivation is rather demotivating for adults, so why do we inflict it on children?


Someone from Delaware in the USA even sent a letter to schools telling them to get rid of their data walls or a law suit would be filed:  Delaware Public Schools:  You Have Until Thursday T Get Rid Of Your Data Walls Or I Start Filing FERPA Complaints.  This quote says it all:


My unfiltered definition of what a data wall is? It’s a tool used to shame and bully students into making them do better. Under the guise of competition, someone who’s in the “red” will just magically, one day, decide to change his or her performance to get into the “yellow” or “green.”
For some students this will work. Fine. But for others, like the many children with special needs I’ve taught over the years, this will not work and will continue to be a demotivator and could… cause unnecessary emotional harm.


What do I have on my walls....
I started at a new school in 2013 and when I entered the classroom to begin setting it up, there was a data wall of sorts on the wall for writing.  It was the first thing that was removed.  In my opinion walls of a classroom should be about celebrating the learning within the class, supplemented with resources that can support learning.

 

In my class there is always on the walls:

 

• Children's writng

 

• Children's art

 

 

• Children's project work

 

 

• Information about our topic theme

 

 

• Resources to support the learning and act as teachers

 

 

What got me reflecting....
What prompted me down this recent reflection was a post on NZ Teachers by an experienced junior teacher asking for some fresh ideas on displays for Reading, Writing and Maths to show where children are at and displaying their next steps, as she and her colleagues wanted to show consistency across their school.  I made several comments on this post and some interesting and thought provoking discussion was engaged in by a variety of professionals that was both enlightening and alarming.

 

And that is what my classroom walls and wires are all about:  celebrating the child's learning journey and supporting their learning.

 

In the discussion on Facebook, a couple of interesting snippets came out:

• people identifying what the poster was wanting to do immediately as a data wall.
• people seeing this as a great way to let students know the next steps.
• the concern that this was a name and shame tactic unwittingly.
• people seeing it as a way of showing progress through reading, maths or writing levels and stages.
• some prefer these sorts of things within the students own books, for example, I personally would put goals in their own writing books, show progress in their Learning Journey book or give them their own bookmark with goals on it.
• others get the students to set their own goals and work towards them... some of which are publically displayed for celebration.
• ERO are expecting to see these data displays and are questioning teachers' practice if they do not have them.
• some teachers said the children asked for these displays and their classroom cultures were supportive and respectful.
• some teachers talked about parents caring more for data displays than the children and comparing students to each other without understanding their learning journey or progress made within a level.
• some teachers talked about being the child who is always lower, whose progress is not happening as fast as the rest of the class.

And then the poster (name not used for privacy) and I had an interesting interaction in regards to her commenting that ERO was now expecting to see data walls in classrooms:

 

Me:   ERO really wouldn't like my opinion on data walls then.

 

Poster:  I sometimes wonder if it is due to children not being able to articulate their goals very well when ERO come. After years of PD in schools around Clarity in the classroom, Learning Intentions, Success Criteria....Yet a 6 year old still has trouble articulating their goal....which is not that surprising if you ask me as even my Year 5 children still got caught up in context over goal. Soooo they now think data walls will help as when they ask, the children can point, say "that's where I am" and that's where I need to be???????

 

Me:  They're children. Not mini teachers. We're expecting them to articulate things that are well and truly above what they really should be focused on: the joy of learning. This is how we kill the joy of learning in my experience.

 

Poster:  AMEN!

 

Me:  Frustrating isn't it!

 

Poster:  Sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do! .........and yes it is.

 

Me:  I just won't do data walls. I'm embracing the whole #DisobedientTeaching vibe. Actually, I've always been disobedient.

 

And this is where I get frustrated.  We expect children to articulate stuff that their brains are not necessarily ready to do so.  No one asked me when I was at school what learning goal I was working on, and quite frankly, I still learn lots of stuff.  We knew if we were learning about 3D objects or using descriptive words to improve a story or looking for information in the text because our teacher told us, yet we didn't have endless goals within these learning ideas and we didn't have success criteria.  I teachers did, however, take us step by step through the process and then let us do it.

 

Nowadays we are expecting our children to practically know the New Zealand Curriculum and the Literacy Learning Prgressions and National Standards and the associated next steps as well as a teacher does.  Nothing will turn the average child of learning any faster than this. 

 

That's not to say that we do not talk to the children about where their next step in learning is.  But it is our job to scaffold them in being able to say it, and I just do not think data walls are an appropriate support to do this.

 

And then...
Then a couple of days ago, a tweet from a PLD specialist I follow caught my eye leading to this blog post by American educator George Couros (who I also follow), You Are Not A Number.  In this post, George discusses the importance of assessment and data, but his assertion that data driven is the stupidest term in education.  We are child driven.

 

George writes about remembering that the face should be in front of the numbers and not the other way round, that our students are human being on their own journey and are more important than the data they create.  He dislikes being data driven  and prefers the term evidence informed; he talks about trying to reduce a piece of art or a musical or performance down to a grade to show achievement which kills the passion the individual has for the art within. 

 

George wrote this thought provoking question:

 

How often do you go to a conference and they are really focusing on how to get better grades out of our students?
vs.
How often do you go to a conference and they focus on seeing the genius and finding the strengths of each student you serve?

 

And then he told a story about how he became a mere number resulting in him 'checking out' of the learning and barely passing.

 

George then finished with these three truths and a summary:

• If I struggle, that I can be comfortable asking for help. 
• I am valued as an individual.
• If I work with you, you know my name (at least), and I know yours.

These are all characteristics of being “student-driven”, not “data-driven”.  If the “real world” is crappy, I don’t want our students to adjust to it; I want them to make it better.


So why the data walls?
These just weren't around twenty-two years ago when I stepped into the classroom.  But these things work in cycles.


Last year, as part of one of my Masters of Education papers, I looked into how we got National Standards.  I published this paper on one of my other blogs, Back to the Future: How has economic policy influenced the development of education policy and how the educational achievement of children in New Zealand primary schools is measured?  Yes that is a mouthful of a title, and if you click through to read it, may I suggest you have a large cup of coffee and a large piece of cake to sustain you through the 5000 odd words I wrote.


To cut it short however, we had data walls of a sort and league tables back in the late part of the 19th Century and we have merely come a full circle with the formation and implementation of National Standards in 2009 resulting in league tables and the obsessiveness with data we now have.


Over 100 years ago, one had to pass a standard set, and if you didn't, you stayed another year in that 'standard class' until you did.  Results were published in local papers and teachers were compared to each other by the success of their pupils.  Initially this was done through an external examiner coming to the school but was later changed to a written exam administered by the head teacher.

Passing the standards was abolished in 1955 and a norms based assessment was initiated.  This has been largely in place ever since, improved and changed as research and evidence deemed appropriate, until the implementation of National Standards.


And this is the system I grew up and was educated in and it was largely the case until 2009.


Which brings to mind a story from Welby Ings' book Disobedient Teaching that I want to share now:


Back in 1962, at Pukeatua Primary there were also lions, cheetahs and rhinosceroses.  They lived in Room 3 and sat at desks in lace-up shoes.  The lons and cheetahs, who made up most of the class, didn't have much to do with the incinerator, but Nigel Terpstra and I, who were rhinoceroses, did.  As the only members of the bottom group we were delegated the dubious responsibility of being rubbish monitors..
We were a result of the sixties, a decade in New Zealand schools that saw a clear push towards reassessing the highly steamed nature of education.  J.C. Daniel's essays on the effects of streaming in the primary school were wdely cited in the argument for continued social promotion and mixed-ability grouping.  Unfortunately, at Pukeatua Primary and in many other schools up and down the country, what happened was that roups one, two and three were simply replaced by lions, cheetahs and rhinosceroses (or their equivilent), and eventually most of the rhinoceroses woke up to the fact that a fancy name still equated with beng at the bottom of the pile.
Being at the bottom of the pile isn't much fun.  It's the place where many of us have found ourselves at some time in our schooling, and it's the place where we are most unmotivated to learn.  Nearly all of us have come through school systems that use comparative methods of assessment, and most of us have learned that they do one thing very well:  they teach us that we are not as good s ther people.  They teach us that in the race for learning, there are winners and losers and, as in most races, the losers outweigh the winners.


Data walls have come in with the drive for accountability.  In the 1980s that drive was started with the rise of neoliberal politics in New Zealand.  The Picot Report brought about the devolution of our centralised education system to self-managing schools.  By the time National came in during the 1990s, education was in community control but funded by the central government and they wanted to know if they were getting bang for their dollar.  The call for a national testing system in primary like the one in the UK went out, saved by the 1999 election being won by Labour who opposed such a system.  Yet when National won the election in 2008 they were ready to put a softer plan in action to ensure accountability for the dollars in education, and National Standards was formed and implemented and data walls followed that as night follows day, just as they have in the US and UK with their testing regimes.


Reflecting on where I have been...
So while I tried very hard over the last twenty odd years to mask it, my students probably always knew that the Kereru group was the top reading group and the Kiwi group was the bottom reading group, and the Short Tailed Bats were the highest numeracy stage and the Weta group was the lowest numeracy stage.


Yet nowhere have I advertised that.  On the book box and the modelling book cover will be the name of the group and who is in the group, but no indication of reading level or numeracy stage.  Yet children know.  They look at the colour wheel on the back of the reader and they know.  They look at the content of the numeracy worksheet and they know.


And they look in their Learning Journey book and they know.  Because as a teacher, I collect and record their data and it goes in their Learning Journey book (or whatever your school calls it).  I collate that data and put them into groups to teach them.  I collate that data for senior management and the Ministry and I put it on the SMS.  I collate that data to inform each student's parents.  But most importantly, as I collect that data, as I analyse it, as I put it into the Learning Journey book with the student, I talk to that student about where they are, where they came from, what they do now that they didn't do then, what I envision them moving towards and how they will get there.  I talk to them about what they will have to do and what I will have to do as a teacher to move them forward.


During the year I inform the student and the parents of the progress.  Below is a summary I came up with that I update each term for some of the basics, spelling, basic facts, numeracy stages and reading levels.  This is in their Learning Journey book and I think it gives much more information and context alongside any writing report I write.

But I also include each of the assessments (except Gloss and running records because they are very teachery) so parents can see the raw data, so they can see how close their child is in spelling certain words, so they can see which sorts of problems their child is struggling with for basic facts.


I include a full summary of their child's running record.

Instead of a copy of the Gloss, I put this rocket of the Number Strategy Progression in that explains what each strategy means and the expected time a child should be at this strategy.  I highlight and date where the child is at, and when I retest, I do another highlight colour and date that.

I also use a similar rocket for the basic facts.  The child highlights what they can do and put in an astrix beside the ones they need to focus on.  This one allows the child and parent to see at a glance what the child has mastered and which areas they need to focus on to move up the rocket.

I have had a variety of other ways to inform parents about how their child is doing in my classroom.  I use these in the Learning Journey book to show understanding of the learning or activities undertaken.  Photos are fabulous for doing this.


First up is a good old fashioned self-evaluation using smiley faces and a comment box.  I video the students completing each of these tasks and then they watch themselves and colour in the face they think best applies.  We do this at the beginning and end of the swimming season so the student will see the progress made.  In the comment box the student writes what their goal is next to be a better swimmer.

This is an example of using pictures to tell the story.  We used one of Judi Billcliff-Canton's poems and drama activities as a trial for her.  I took photos of the students as they completed the challenges as an example of their learning.  The pictures clearly show their ability to meet the challenge set, which is included along with the poem to inform parents.

This evaluation was for PE after several sessions on soccer skills with our Sports Energizer, Garth.  He explicitly taught the skills for trapping, kicking and dribbling and I took photos to use as a reminder for me as a teacher and to enable the students to reflect.  Hence I have included the photos in this document that the students reflected on and glued into their Learning Journey book.

Below are two assessments I have used to assess student knowledge for a Science unit and a Health & Safety unit.  I use a mixture of multiple choice questions, questions requiring a written answer, matching and self-assessment.

Below are two matrix type assessments.  I have used these personally as the teacher when assessing or as self-evaluation for each student as well as a criteria for them to refer to.  The first matrix is one for writing a pursuasive text for Anzac Day.  We make the meal that the average Anzac soldier ate at Galipolli and eat it and then we need to justify if we could eat that meal every day for eight months.  The second one is for writing a pursuasive speech.

These are a sample of some assessments I use to inform students and their parents of their progress and ability in my classroom.  These are in their Learning Journey books and the students and I discuss these entries as they are completed and glued into the books.  They are encouraged to take these home to discuss with their parents, who are also encouraged to write responses in the book.  These books are used as discussion document during parent-teacher interviews and provide specific examples when discussing the learning done and next steps.  These books are practical for parents to refer to when reading the bland written reports we now have to produce.


Yes, they are a lot of work, but I have a real sense of satisfaction at the end when they go home.  More so than a data display wall would give me.  I feel pride in my students for having a record of their learnng and progress, a book that celebrates our learning journey throughout their time with me.  It is their book, and no one else can nosey through it without their permission, which negates the parents gathered around a data wall commenting on every other child but their own.  Students are excited to go back and see how much they have changed and deciding on which aspect they are most proud of.


I have also used things like bookmarks that the students bring to reading to remind them of their goals.  Each time I assess the student, I update their bookmark.

I will also get the students to directly glue things like this Sheena Cameron description of how a reader uses prediction directly into their own language book for their own reference.

To conclude...
While I acknowledge that children will always know if they are bottom of the class or not, we can give them the dignity of some privacy.  To display their next learning step or what they have achieved on some reading rocket is garish in my opinion and unneccessary.  There are other ways of informing students of their achievements, next steps and goals that do not make them despondent about learning.  As one of the first photos I published at the top of this post says, "How would you like to be Norissa?"

The Anzac Biscuit Man & Other Classic Kiwi Tales - the book that just keeps on giving.

One of my most favourite books to use in the classroom, as the teacher and as a reliever, is The Anzac Biscuit Man and Other Classic Kiwi Tales by Peter Millett.

There are a number of ways I have used this book over the years it has been in my posession.

• I have simply read the stories to classes - occasionally this has even resulted in applause from a class in appreciation of good expressive reading.
• I have focused on the rich language within the book to teach alliteration, idioms, colloquial language, onomatopoeia and all sorts.
• I have used the stories to focus in on virtues and life lessons.
• I have used the stories to enable the students to be creative.

And that last point is what I am going to focus on in this post, because I've used this book twice in the same class in recent weeks while relieving and the children have lapped it up and I've been professionally satisfied.


So the class I was with is a fairly confident group of Year 7/8s in a semi-rural school on the edge of Hamilton, whose student are actually pretty urban.  These students are articulate, used to using ICT and are keen to express their creativity.  I've enjoyed these students immensely each day I have been with them.


On the first day I took this book in and gave them the choice out of these stories:

• The Three Woolly Coats Fluff
• The Hare and the Tuatara
• Pigs in Sheds
• The Little Blue Swamp Hen
• The Anzac Biscuit Man
• The Dodgy Duckling

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the book, here are the stories Peter Millett was re-imagining or, as I like to call it, Kiwi-ifying:

• The Three Billy Goats Gruff
• The Hare and the Tortoise
• The Three Little Pigs
• The Little Red Hen
• The Gingerbread Man
• The Ugly Duckling

The children choose the The Dodgy Duckling on the first day and I gave them the following options:

• do a mini-research project on kiwi and negotiate how you want to present it (e.g. poster, PowerPoint, etc).
• Kiwi-ify another classic tale or nursery rhyme
• what does it mean to be a "kiwi"?

A lot of the students choose to research and present information on kiwi.  Some choose to do this as a poster; some choose to do this as a digital presentation.  Some choose to work independently and some choose to work in twos or threes.


One group choose to combine the idea of the kiwi and the ducks with their learning about the Treaty of Waitangi and the Land Wars and created a mini-movie of a land war between ducks and kiwi.


When the group who were at an intersports for swimming came back, they were employed in the movie group or by others to help finish their projects or completed outstanding work.  But one girl decided to Kiwi-ify the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle and publish and illustrate it.


Alas, I did not take pictures of their work that day.  I am kicking myself now.


Yesterday, the students choose the story The Anzac Biscuit Man.  We then brainstormed some possible activities inspired by the story, as seen in the picture below:

The red pictures on the right were used to decide which story we would read.  But as you can see we brainstormed:

• play - direct or alternate version
• movie/movie trailer
• puppet show
• comic strip
• story map (including a battle ship type map)
• movie poster
• research recipe and present as either a page in a flash as recipe book or a step by step guide
• song/rap/spoken work

Later on a student came up with another option: the packaging of the Anzac Biscuit Man biscuits (see picture below).

Immediately I saw students making decisions on their choice of activity, who they would work with and how they were going to get on with the task.  There was a high level of enthusiasm and a willingness to help out other groups when required as "subcontractors".


The group who had made the movie on the ducks and kiwi having a land war the week before bunched together to make a sequel.  Another group of boys wrote a script and decided to make a direct version of The Anzac Biscuit Man as a movie.  A group of girls decided to make a live play and asked to hire students from another class to help them out as actors.  One girl decided to make her's as a movie trailer.  She hired other students as actors but did the technical side herself.


One pair decided to make a movie poster, with one doing the technical work on the computer, while the other person did the drawings.  Another pair made a comic strip based on Anzac Biscuit Men breaking out of an oven to take revenge on frogs.  One boy came up with the idea of the Anzac Biscuit Man combined with The Flash to make a new super hero and merchanising biscuits.


I loved that the students came up with ways of making masks for their characters:

   

  

 

I loved how they were using their creativity to write scripts:

I loved that they were using their creativity to create a comic strip:

I loved that they were using their skills in multimedia to combine a drawn picture with a poster made on the computer:

Sadly I neglected to take a copy of their finished product.  But they took a photo of their characters with the iPad, got it on the laptop, using the Snipping Tool they cut around the picture and inserted it in their poster they made on the laptop.


And I loved how one girl used the movie trailer app on the iPad to map out her trailer and filmed it up:

At the end of the day, the students invited the neighbouring class (some of whom they had hired to help them out), the DP and the principal to watch the finished product.  The students who had gone to the swimming sports yesterday had a bit of jealousy and their teacher was thrilled they had had a creative day and was looking forward to viewing what they had achieved.


Personally I found it very satisfying professionally.  Yes, if they were my class, we would spend longer on story development and getting a better finished product.  But what I am finding is that what we do achieve in one day is a lot of problem solving (socially, creatively, technically), learning about managing our time, learning about working in a group situation, learning about supporting other people in their learning.  I'm just their to make sure they achieve something at the end of the day.


And I can not wait to go back and see what they can come up with in reponse to the next story!


This is a Storify of the tweets from yesterday:

Sadly, Storify has deleted itself from the Social Media scene, so all my Storify stories have gone.  😭😭😭😭😭

Modern Learning Environments - how the furniture and space work with learning.

Modern Learning Environments or MLEs - this is the big catch phrase floating around in education at the moment.  Schools are reinventing their spaces, opening up single cell classrooms to join the spaces together and create breakout spaces.  Along with it comes the notion of teachers sharing students and working with all the children that would normally be with two or more teachers in a single cell classroom.

Our Lady Star School - sourced through Google.

Alongside the opening up of spaces is the modern classroom furniture that has been popping up.  Bright and colourful, and not always the dreaded beanbag, classroom furniture has been reinvented for the modern learner with low tables to work at while sitting on the floor to normal height to "bar leaner" table, with cushions, blocks, chairs and tall stools to sit on (or you can choose to stand).  Individual desks have become a dirty word; the theory is that the child will work where they are most comfortable and may change where they work according to the task, who they are working with or how they want to sit.

With desks gone, it then requires other storage solutions for students to keep their exercise books and writing implements.  Storage cubes and shelving is therefore employed to do the job, with tote trays holding classroom learning and teaching resources.

Te Puru School - sourced through Google.

I haven't had the opportunity to create a MLE yet.  But I have admired a few classes.  Last year I went to Hautapu School near Cambridge for an EduIgnite.  They held it in their junior class block which had recently been remodelled as an MLE opening up two classes so they could work together.  Each class had a slider if they wanted to close off from the other, and inbetween was a shared wet area for art and cooking.  There was also access to a toilet from the classes.

These were the things I noted at the time that took my fancy:

• it was bright and colourful and had lots of natural light.
• it opened up to a shared courtyard with other class blocks off a deck.
• there was a variety of storage, including under seating.
• there were a variety of options of chairs to sit on and options for putting together some of the furniture to create couches in a circle or S bend.
• the table that you could draw on with whiteboard markers - we all had a go and it was fun.
• a variety of table heights, and a variety of sorts of tables.
• the fact there was a cooking facility within the class to enable cooking to be part of every day class work.

One thing that I noted, that would distress me, was the lack of wall space to display student work.  I love to have lots of work up and I don't want to have to take stuff and change it every week.  I want enough space to display lots of work over a period of time.

The next EduIgnite was held at St Peters on State Highway One north of Cambridge.  We were meeting in their newest block of classes for their Year 7 and 8 students.  Again they had tables of various heights and an array of chairs and stools.  Classrooms were off a corridor on one side of the building, which doubled as shared space, separated with a clear bank of windows and were able to be closed off from the corridor with a clear sliding door.  There was also a large shared space in the middle of the building.

Stonefields School  -  sourced through Core Education via Google

Recently I have done some relief teaching at Cambridge Middle School.  I also did some relieving there in 2007/2008 while studying my GDITE qualification, and back then many of the rooms felt cold, dark and over crowded with students and resources and classroom equipment.

Russley School - sourced through Google.

While Cambridge Middle School does not have shared spaces as such, they have obviously taken on some serious modernising in the last six years since I was there.  The classrooms seem to be decluttered, more natural light is able to enter, most of the prefabs have been fitted with ranch sliders onto newish decking that connects them, new carpets, wall coverings and paint have lifted the rooms, and there are a variety of desks, seating and storage solutions in each space around the school.  They also installed heat pumps, which is great because I remember those rooms being like freezers in the winter.  The rooms appear bright and friendly and have a sense of "lets learn" in them.  The whole feeling of the school is respectful, relaxed and friendly, but we're here to learn.

And last year EducampTheTron was held in the library at Maeroa Intermediate.  I had the pleasure of sitting on a wobbly stool.  I hadn't seen one before, and I'm not sure I'd be that keen to have them in my classroom initially, but I loved being the naughty teacher in the back row wobbling away on this novel piece of furniture.

Which brings me to what has inspired me to write this blog.  This link came through my Twitter feed before I went to bed (so instead I am typing this) called Blame the Furniture for the Poor Education.  I thought, "What the heck?"  So I clicked on it and read it.

In the learning process, there are determinants if the students do really learn as or not. Factors such as the ability and effectiveness of the instructor, the method of instruction, the attentiveness of students But did you know that the furniture arrangement in the classroom affects learning too? Yes it does.

A classroom is called as the learning environment of both teachers and students. The former has the control over the classroom setting while the latter are in one way, is controlled by classroom environment and its elements. According to recent studies, teachers hold dominion over their classroom environment- they even make it personalized in most cases. Teachers believe that through this, they are able to control the social interaction among students. If the classroom is being set in such a way that students would be able to feel free and comfortable, the teacher could ask them or encourage them to participate in much easier means.

Sensory stimulation is another effect of a good classroom setting. For children, it is easier to learn in a very appealing classroom- like the elements of the things that would appeal to the senses are there. Pictures, colors, sound, and so forth. The arrangement of furniture affects space allocation and space allocation has effects to the learning atmosphere. If the classroom looks narrow and small for students, they feel restricted and they do not interact well. On the other hand, if a classroom provides adequate space, students feel that there is space for interaction.

Many teachers and administrators tend to focus on pedagogical and interpersonal issues, ignoring the physical-spatial context in which the teaching-learning process occurs. (Loughlin & Suina, 1982; Weinstein, 1981). As observed, this is indeed true. What is a class of seemingly smart students when a classroom seems too dark for interaction?
In modern times, technology is being integrated to the curricula. On the other hand, if the classroom setting is not improved in such a way that it will not create an atmosphere of participation, it is useless.

By tradition, classroom arrangements come in two patterns: the territorial and the functional arrangements. In a territorial set-up, desks are arranged by ownership while in the functional, they are arranged according to the tasks in an activity. Both may be effective as long as external factors are considered well.

It is surprising to know that furniture arrangement affects learning- but indeed, it is true.
The three schools I discussed above all have these elements in common:

• increased natural light due to taking down walls, changing windows, putting in ranch sliders or changing window treatments.
• a variety of tables and chairs for students to use.
• a variety of storage solutions.

This article states: "If the classroom looks narrow and small for students, they feel restricted and they do not interact well. On the other hand, if a classroom provides adequate space, students feel that there is space for interaction."  The classrooms I have visited have created space artificially with improved windows and doors and, in some cases, the removal of walls and changing usage of space.  By doing these simple (but no doubt expensive) things, the classrooms become so much bigger and are more inviting for students to enter.

The article explores how teachers control the space:  "According to recent studies, teachers hold dominion over their classroom environment- they even make it personalized in most cases. Teachers believe that through this, they are able to control the social interaction among students. If the classroom is being set in such a way that students would be able to feel free and comfortable, the teacher could ask them or encourage them to participate in much easier means.... The arrangement of furniture affects space allocation and space allocation has effects to the learning atmosphere."  It is true that teachers like to control who sits where and why.  And I have witnessed this at the schools I have been at recently.

Some teachers like to know who is sitting where and that they will stay at that seat because when so and so sits beside that kid all chaos breaks loose or so and so gets nothing done!  Yet the philosophy behind MLEs is that children will take ownership of how and where (along with the what, why and when) of their learning and self-manage themselves while choosing who they will work with and where.  Of course, you and I know that this does not happen overnight, and most classes will need to be trained up to even attempt this ideal.  So this concept can be hit and miss from class to class in a school.

I taught in a digital classroom for two years.  It was not an MLE, and each child had their own desk with all their own stuff in it and they were rather possessive of their chairs.  But because we had eight desktops and ten laptops in the classroom, and excellent access to the Multi-Purpose Room, my class had a lot of flexibility as to where they wanted to work.  So if they wanted to work on the floor underneath a spare desk at the side of the room, they could.  If they wanted to record something without the extra class noise, they could pop next door to the MPR and use it.  If they wanted to collaborate at tables and move their desks to do so, they could, as long as it went back to the original grouping at when that work was over or at the end of the day.  To me, it was about utilising the space and furniture and tools we had available to us to get the best out of our learning each day.

This statement also spoke to me: "For children, it is easier to learn in a very appealing classroom- like the elements of the things that would appeal to the senses are there. Pictures, colors, sound, and so forth."  In a blog post last year, The Classroom Environment - what makes a class attractive?, I discussed a blog by Bruce Hammond and how it inspired me to look at what was on my walls and why it was there. 

My class at the end of March 2014.

For me, it is essential that the classroom reflect the children in it and what they have been learning.  The children like to see their work on the walls and wires.  They like to show it off to their older and younger siblings, parents and grandparents when they come into the class.  I enjoy watching and listening to the children exclaiming with excitement when they see their work has been displayed and weeks later going back and discussing how they did that piece of work.  That is the essence of a an appealing classroom.



Old school desk arrangements - sourced from MOE via Google

Gone are the days of the desks row on row.  Any teacher still teaching like this should probably be taking a hard look at their teaching methods and classroom management. 

But the Ministry of Education is actively encouraging schools with property money to spend to go in the direction of MLEs.  Many teachers who have been around long enough to have seen and/or taught in the open plan classrooms of the 70s and 80s have voiced that the wheel has reinvented itself yet again.  Some schools like Ngatea Primary School have found innovative ways to create shared spaces and have worked hard to bring their teachers on board the bus to change the way they teach, to work collaboratively with their colleagues and students in shared spaces.

Which brings me to the point that it is all very well having lovely new furniture and bright rooms with natural light streaming in, but if you do not have people working together who have strong, trusting, honest and respectful relationships and a shared pedagogy, then your MLE will fall flat.

In this article, Modern Learning Environments, by Mark Osborne of Core Education, talks about MLEs having these three core elements:

• flexibility - to work as a whole group, two groups, small groups or independently.
• openness - a shared space with less walls and more windows that allow observation.
• accessibility to resources - a variety of spaces: wet area, study areas, reading nooks, group teaching...

Mark emphasises that it is not just about the space, but the people too.  How people behave, learn, teach, believe, commit, participate, access, engage, reflect... this all affects how MLEs work.  Therefore these are some key questions that schools should consider when going down the MLE path:

• What is your school’s vision for teaching and learning? Does everyone share this vision?  How do you know?  Which aspects of your school culture would you like to improve?  How would you measure the improvement?
• What are the key pedagogies required by teachers in the 21st century?  Are these the ones in use in your school most days?  What systems and processes are in place to help teachers reflect on their own practice and learn from each other?
• If you were to build a new learning space that reflected your school's vision and commitment to learning, what would it look like?  What would students need to have access to over the course of a day?  What activities would they engage in over the course of a day?  What technology would be required to support this?
• If curriculum, pedagogy and learning environments are helping to make learning more personalised, what other elements of the schooling ecosystem need to change?  Who is a 'teacher' and who is a 'learner'?

I am actually rather pleased that I have not engaged in an MLE yet.  Why?  Hopefully everyone else who currently is will iron out most of the pitfalls and then I when I do get the opportunity to be part of an MLE I will have lots of people to turn to for advice.

In the meantime I will continue to make do with whatever furniture is in the room I am provided with, along with what I can scavenge, to provide a safe and welcoming learning space that is comfortable and accommodates the needs of the learners within it, as well as me!

I'd really love to hear your experiences, good and still learning from, about how MLE have been implemented and worked for you as a teacher.