As all students have to spend so many hours each day in classrooms,the incentive is great to investigate which classroom design is best for
the children's developments, learning skills and creativity?
To date, some countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, have already started redesigning classrooms to ensure that their students do not have to sit still on rigid chairs behind a blackboard in a square room all the time.
They are now exploring many ideas. Most of them are to provide flexible, colourful learning space, which looks set to inspire and motivate children.
Currently, all demonstration schools in Thailand have embarked on a mission to reinvent their classroom designs too. Fixed seating in some classrooms is gone. It is also easier for children to move around, interact and get ready for group discussions.
They will show that classrooms need not always come with a linear layout and fixed furniture. Andwith creative classrooms, students clearly should be able to enjoy learning more.
As activities in classrooms may vary from subject to subject, it is clearly best to give flexible space in which students and teachers can adjust to and work in. The redesign can also engage students in classroom activities more.
With the new design, schools may be able to put an end to "dek lang hong" (students who sit in the back of classrooms to avoid getting attention from teachers or classmates, either because they are shy or not very good at studying). The new design will require all students to interact and actively engage in learning. That way, the quality of students should improve.
At Learning Institute(LI) of KMUTT, we have re-designed physical space such as classroom layout, furnishing, painting and decoration -in order to investigate whether the new room design has any influence on the way that the student learns.
Our classrooms are now colourful, with wider walkways and common space. Our revamped classrooms also consist of movable tables and allow learning space to change easily. Additionally, furniture and fittings can be reconfigured for multiple use in both formal and informal classrooms.
Our goal is to provide our students with learning space where they have greater opportunities to be collaborative, connected and creative. We have now embraced flexible learning space that enables collaborative activities, not a frontal teaching layout in which the teacher is always the centre.
Our new design focuses on the students' learning styles and needs. They are also intended to accommodate the new way of learning such as multitasking, non-linear learning, interactive, and social contact.
Although we still use a traditional whiteboard, it is not always placed at the front.
Our flexible, student-friendly classroom - large space, comfortable chairs, soft seats area and lightweight interconnecting tables, are now in service. We expect to see positive, solid results soon.
We, therefore, would like to urge authorities to include the classroom redesign on the must-do list for the upcoming educational reform. Classrooms, after all, are the learning environment all students have to rely on.
Priyakorn Pusawiro
Learning scientist, Computer Engineering Dept, KMUTT
pusawiro@cpe.kmutt.ac.th
