Edu-Snippets

Decorated classrooms, open-plan classrooms, microlessons

Photo: JohnnyGreig (iStock)

Highlights:

• Highly decorated elementary classrooms can be a source of distraction for children.

• Children’s reading skills develop at a slower rate in open-plan classrooms.

• Microlesson videos reduce the need for students to seek additional tutoring.

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Heavily decorated elementary classrooms: A source of distraction for children

A recent observational study by Godwin et al. (2022) examined whether a classroom’s visual environment (e.g., decorations, colour variability etc.) can be a source of distraction and as such reduce children’s attention on instructional tasks and learning outcomes. This study extends prior research by exploring the theme in genuine (real) classrooms hypothesizing that children would exhibit less on-task behaviours in classrooms containing greater visual noise and display quantity (e.g., overly decorative classrooms). In this study, visual noise is defined as an index of the overall degree of visual distraction present in the classroom based on the number of decorations and level of general clutter.

Researchers observed 58 classrooms involving 12 Kindergarten, 13 first-grade, 13 second-grade, 5 third-grade, 13 fourth-grade, and 2 mixed-grade classrooms (age range: 6–9 years). Observations recorded children’s behaviour as either on-task or off-task using the direction of gaze. Children were considered on-task if they were looking at the teacher, instructional activity or instructional materials and children’s behaviour was recorded as off-task, if they were looking anywhere else and the distraction source was noted.

While it was observed that children were largely on-task, some off-task behaviours did occur. The top two distractions were peer-distractions followed by environmental distractions, as in class decorations. In a large and diverse sample of 58 classrooms, the researchers found that children exhibited less on-task behaviour in classrooms containing more visual noise.

It is important to recognize that the investigators were not arguing against all classroom decorations. “There is evidence that classroom visual environments can be used successfully to improve a sense of belonging” (Godwin et al., 2022). However, this work calls into question the assumption that elementary classrooms should be highly decorated to promote student engagement and learning.

This research contributes to a growing body of literature exploring the impact of the classroom’s visual environment on children’s attention during instruction and learning (Fisher, Godwin & Seltman, 2014; Godwin & Kaur, 2021; Hanley et al., 2017, Rodrigues & Pandeirada, 2018). The study serves as a reminder to educators to consider this impact while making decisions regarding classroom design and decoration.

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Reading fluency develops at a slower rate in open-plan classrooms than in regular classrooms

How does a child’s classroom environment affect their literacy development? A recent article published in Nature’s npj Science of Learning journal compared the growth of children’s reading skills in two different environments: open-plan classrooms versus enclosed (traditional) classrooms. Which of these environments better supports young readers?

An open-plan classroom is a spacious learning environment that accommodates a large number of students (e.g., 100) who are supervised by a small team of teachers. The idea is to use the shared space to flexibly organize students into subgroups and team-teach them according to their differing needs and abilities. In the early 1960’s and 1970’s, there was a great deal of interest in open-plan classrooms. However, they fell out of favour in late 1970's for a variety of reasons. One significant drawback was the increased noise level, as sounds from various activities and discussions could make it difficult for students to concentrate or hear the teacher’s instructions. Visual distractions were another problem; the movements of students in other groups could disrupt learning. Nevertheless, in recent years, there has been renewed interest in open-plan classrooms, with some researchers making efforts to revive the concept and further explore its educational potential.

The Nature study examined 146 children between the ages of 7-10 over the period of three school terms. The study’s findings revealed that students’ reading fluency improved at a faster rate in enclosed-classrooms (i.e., regular classrooms) than in open-plan classrooms. Some learners were more adversely affected by open-plan classrooms than others. Children who had trouble maintaining attention, and children who had difficulty understanding speech in noisy conditions, were particularly disadvantaged.

While the distracting nature of open-plan classrooms have been documented in the past, this is the first study (that we know of) to examine their impact on the development of reading skills.

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Creating microlessons reduces the need for extra tutoring in online courses

A recent study suggests that brief, well-designed instructional videos can significantly reduce student need for extra tutoring in online courses. 

The study examined the impact of embedding 54 microlesson videos into the instructional materials of an online post-secondary statistics course. The instructor personally developed 32 of the 54 videos. Fourteen of the 32 videos were concept videos that offered clear explanations of statistical concepts (e.g., the normal curve, sampling, and correlation). Another 18 were how-to videos that provided step-by-step examples of how to run different statistical tests. The remaining 22 videos were drawn from YouTube and other external sources. All videos were constructed using evidence-based practices: videos were brief (6 minutes or less), focussed on only one or two points, and followed multimedia design principles. 

The goal of the study was to see if the video microlessons were effective in reducing student need for extra help. Monthly tutoring requests were separated into two categories. One category comprised course sections that were taught prior to the construction of the videos, encompassing the period from January 2020 to July 2021. The other category included sections that utilized the course videos, spanning August 2021 to December 2022. The findings revealed that tutoring requests dropped by 55% once the videos were made available.

While the study’s findings are not terribly surprising, they do highlight the value of embedding microlessons in course materials. This research is consistent with other recent findings regarding the educational use of microlessons.  Such lessons can provide learners with clear descriptions of key concepts and worked examples of different problem types. One of the strengths of video lessons is that students can start, pause and replay them as often as necessary. Microlesson designers should be sure to incorporate subtitles, which are of great benefit to second language learners. 

References

Fisher, A.V., Godwin, K.E., & Seltman, H. (2014). Visual Environment, Attention Allocation, and Learning in Young Children: When too much of a good thing may be bad. Psychological Science, 25(7), 1362-1370. 

Godwin, K. & Kaur, F. (2021). The Decorated Learning Environment: Simply Noise or an Opportunity for Incidental Learning?  Proceedings of the the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 43, 2087-2093. 

Godwin, K. E., Leroux, A. J., Scupelli, P., & Fisher, A. V. (2022). Classroom Design and Children’s Attention Allocation: Beyond the Laboratory and into the Classroom. Mind, Brain, and Education, 16(3), 239–251. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12319

Griffith, J. (2023). Reduce external tutoring by using videos in online college courses. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 25(1).

Hanley, M., Khairat, M., Taylor, K., Wilson, R., Cole-Fletcher,R., & Riby, D. (2017). Classroom displays-attraction or distraction? Evidence of impact on attention and learning from children with and without autism. Developmental Psychology, 53(7), 1265-1275.

Rance, G., Dowell, R.C. & Tomlin, D. (2023). The effect of classroom environment on literacy development. npj Science of Learning, 8, 9.

Rodrigues, P. & Pandeirada, J. (2018). When visual stimulation of the surrounding environment affects children’s cognitive performance. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 176, 140-149.

Sachdeva, N. (2023). Designing evidence-informed microlearning for graduate-level online courses [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto]. University of Toronto T-Space Repository.