The Clever Classroom project carried out detailed surveys of 153 classrooms from 27 diverse schools and collected performance statistics for the pupils studying in those spaces.

The study took into account a wide range of sensory factors and used multilevel statistical modelling to isolate the effects of classroom design from the influences of other factors, such as the pupils themselves and their teachers.

The study found a clear relationship between well-designed environments and infrastructure and learning and academic performance. The quote is below is from the report:

…Clear evidence has been found that well-designed primary schools boost children’s academic performance in reading, writing and maths.

Differences in the physical characteristics of classrooms explain 16% of the variation in learning progress over a year for the 3,766 pupils included in the study.

Or to make this more tangible, it is estimated that the impact of moving an ‘average’ child from the least effective to the most effective space would be around 1.3 sub-levels, a big impact when pupils typically make 2 sub-levels progress a year.

The report makes a number of interesting and useful findings which can be used in the design of schools and classrooms. Of particular interest to schools in South Africa is that many of the recommended actions can be carried out by Educators themselves.

Quotes on the findings from the study are outlined below:

Surprisingly, whole-school factors (eg size, navigation routes, specialist facilities, play facilities) do not seem
to be anywhere near as important as the design of the individual classrooms. This point is reinforced by clear evidence that it is quite typical to have a mix of more and less effective classrooms in the same school. The message is that, first and foremost, each classroom has to be well-designed.

A very positive finding is that users (teachers) can readily act on many of the factors. The suggestions included show that small changes, costing very little or nothing, can make a real difference. For example, changing the layout of the room, the choices of the display, or the colour of the walls.

Detailed findings and recommendations from the study will be covered in STE Teaching and Learning Environments Course.