The settings - or: why are the rooms the same everywhere?

Because this is the first entry for this new blog, that goes into the magical and mystical sides of education, alas giving news, and discuss topics about education, first, let's define this "room"!

"The educational space is not a space of "suchness", but a room full of equipment and materials, and they are linked with actions and their expectations, in short, it's a staged room." (1)


It is always said that a setting for teaching has to be able to make a harmonious atmosphere for easy learning. This means for example the choosing of the color of the walls, fitting posters or images on the windows and walls, a good, non "clinical" light, and an arrangement of chairs and tables that invite into the room. Also the tools and materials available have to be able to be used with ease. The image on the left, for example, isn't a very good example on that at all. For a good learning environment, it is too sterile, it is not easy for anyone to identify oneself with such a room.

It clearly depends on the institution as well as the rules for educational institutions how the rooms can look like. For example at a university, where class rooms are accessed by a various of different groups, with different intentions and lessons, it is very hard to create a good learning atmosphere. Therefore, those often show the typical sterile empty walls, with the tables and tools arranged in an easy accessible way, and also the light is one that simply produces the best light. Most schools seem to be that way as well, it seems to be an unwritten standard for classroom environments. The older the students get, the less there seems to be an emotional setting in the staged rooms.

But most of the staged rooms are far away from normal life, therefore, life and learning have been divided from each other. Is this helpful or not? Well, it surely depends on the topic that is being taught. The questions is more: "How can you learn about - and for - daily life in a room that is away from daily life?"

Rousseau probably asked this questions as well. His plan for education for his fictional child "Emile" was not to put him into a classroom, but to educate him with staged happenings in the real world. Therefore he changed the setting inside the real world into one in which the materials to educate have been highlighted. "The room for learning is in his sense a fully educationally constructed world, that is fixed by the pedagogue."(2) However, there is the possibility that learning can be limited, if the part taking of daily life demands results more than the learning of the progresses.

In the end, however the setting is constructed, and in a way it has to be constructed for intended (formal) learning processes, but there are always good and bad points. The learner, as well as the teacher, has to identify their own role into the setting they take part in, being affected by the arrangement of the room, for the better or worse. However, it goes both ways: When the setting changes, it can affect the people, but the people can also change the arrangements into something that is more to their liking. This is good for a good learning atmosphere, but, for example, too much decorations, specially those that go away from the intended topics, can affect the concentration and therefore affect the learning.

(1)&(2): Göhlich, M.; Zirfas, J. (2007): Lernen. Ein pädagogischer Grundbegriff. Stuttgart, p. 99, p. 102


As for this blog, let's hope it will change into a colorful and wonderful learning experience!