The Stage Design of a Classroom

The Stage Design of a Classroom

Paper presented at the ECER Conference in Hamburg,

17-20 September, 2003-09-16

Gunilla Jedeskog

Department of Behavioural Sciences

Linköping University

Sweden

The stage design of a classroom

Abstract

A classroom is a well-known environment for most people in the world. Almost everybody knows what a classroom looks like. It is a room in a school with a lot of desks for the pupils and one desk for the teacher. The pupils´ desks are often arranged in rows. There is a blackboard and along one side there are some windows. Sometimes there is a computer. How does this context influence the life going on indoors? The aim of this paper is to discuss the interaction between classroom – teacher – pupil, how these actors influence each other with focus put on the classroom.

Introduction

In the theatre as in school there is a need for preparations before a performance or education, teaching and learning, can take place. Every situation is dependent on its own circumstances, human as well as non-human. So, even a classroom calls for stage design, choreography and direction. The stage design of a classroom deals with physical conditions, the "affordance"[1] of the classroom (Gibson, 1979). The aim of this paper is to discuss the interaction between classroom - teacher - pupil, how these actors influence each other with focus put on the classroom.

The descriptions of classrooms are in the paper reduced to a prototype, a "standard-model" with distinguishing features. The prototype does not claim to describe structures and objects typical of all classrooms. Anyhow, the prototype contains a "family resemblance", which means that every single classroom has at least one, probably more, typical distinctive features in common with one or more other classrooms but none or a few in common with all (Hogg & Vaughan, 1995, Rosch & Mervis, 1975).

A traditional classroom

This picture of the furnishing of a classroom can be regarded as classic as well as universal (Jackson, Boostrom, Hansen, 1993, Bengtsson, 2003). Classic as a picture over time well-known from art, film and literature. Universal as a picture possible to apply to mostclassrooms, at least in countries with a relatively developed school system.

The furnishing mainly consists of desks and chairs. At one wall there are some windows, usually with curtains and sometimes with flowers. In front of the pupils there is a blackboard for the teacher to write on, an overhead projector and in the ceiling a screen, possible to pull down, and some easily accessible maps. Other technical equipment to be found in a classroom is a tape-recorder, a television and a computer. The tape-recorder might be the most common one. At the other walls there are, mainly in younger pupils' classrooms, traces of their activities e.g. individual paintings, lists of accomplished activities and the rules of the school. There are also calendars, pictures for months and seasons which draw the pupils' attention every morning. Usually one pupil gets the task to tell the other about day of the week, date and month. The properties supply the picture of a classroom, a room of teaching and learning, where routines and structures appears to be important.

The teacher's desk, traditionally teachers' place of work and the symbol for knowledge and authority, is to be found in every classroom, but its place and function varies (Granström, 1994). The place indicates both the teacher's view on his/her own role and on the interaction with and between the pupils. The teacher's desk has a central place in older pupils' classrooms but can even be hard to find out in younger pupils' classrooms. There it has the function either as a storage space or as a seat for the teacher. That means that its role as a symbol of power will be of less importance for the pupils. The teacher's desk as "an observation-tower" (Foucault, 1993) is not relevant any more, at least not for younger pupils.

The importance of pupils' comfort in relation to the physical environment is pointed out (Krupinska, 1992, Manke, 1997, Skantze, 1999). It is possible to state that there are differences between classrooms, respecting pupils' age. Younger pupils' classrooms have been given strong characteristics by pupils and teachers. They often have a lot of educational supplies. The environment has similarities with a home, with flowers, curtains and carpets, sometimes with a sofa or an aquarium. Anyhow, that does not mean that the classroom necessarily needs to look like a home. The walls of older pupils' classrooms on the other hand are decorated with anonymous products as posters from other countries and sometimes with pieces of work done by groups of pupils. More seldom works done by a single pupil is to be found. Older pupils' classrooms look more like impersonal meeting places.[2]

Taking the interaction between human and environment as a starting point regarding as well both the stage design of the classroom and its objects, it is possible to state a more individual adaptation to younger pupils. Older pupils are more considered as a collective. Hence, the conditions for a rewarding interaction with the physical environment, the classroom, vary for pupils of different ages. The conditions for learning, development and shaping of identity appear to be more favourable for younger pupils.

Findings

The possibilities of furnishing a classroom are limited. You have to take into consideration the number and age of the pupils as well as the size of the furniture in relation to the floor-area and to activities taking place.

Two studies, from 1995 and 2002, indicate that more than 50 percent of the pupils in the compulsory school still have their seats in rows in the classroom (Granström, 1996, 2003a).

The table shows the furnishing of classrooms, 1995 and 2002.

Tabel 1. Pupils' seats in the classroom 1995 and 2002 (seats for school year, 1-6, 7-9, %)

______

1995 (1-6)2002 (1-6)1995 (7-9)2002 (7-9)

______

Rows42509470

Groups5050611

Other8--19

______

n=12n=14n=17n=26

Both studies show that more young pupils are placed in rows in 2002 than in 1995 whereas the seats for the older ones vary more in the latest study. Anyhow, most of them are in rows too. A classroom with pupils' seats in rows can be regarded as a manifest for law and order (Jackson, 1969). A teacher's strategy to get control over pupils' behaviour and activities in the classroom might be to put their seats in rows. The teacher maintains a structural role (Granström, 2003b).

In 2002 more than 50 percent of all pupils are sitting in rows with their faces directed to the blackboard and to the teacher's desk. Our study, 2002, concerning forms of working indicates that 44 percent of the time for teaching is appropriated for lectures and 41 percent for individual work (Granström, 2003a). That finding could at least to some extent explain why rows are dominating.

Lectures mean communication, usually in one direction, from the teacher. Pupils in rows make both verbal and written communication more easily. Furthermore, furnishing with pupils in rows enables more direct "eye-contact" between teacher and pupil that might have a positive influence on the classroom discipline. On the other hand conversation and discussion between pupils will be more complicated, organised as well as spontaneous. There might be a relation between furnishing of a classroom, pupils in rows, and forms of working.

Pupils in rows can mean fairly favourable possibilities for an individual work but at the same time restricted possibilities to encourage interaction and learning. In stead rows mean a stronger interaction between teacher and pupils. Teaching will be concentrated on teachers' possibilities to control pupils' activities. Hence, the furnishing of a classroom is mainly to be seen from discipline aspects. The balance between pupils' responsibility for their own school-work and learning and teachers' need for control and discipline is unequal. The need for structure and discipline appear to be of greatest importance. To keep pupils in rows to a great extent favours teachers' work.

The physical design of a classroom will not only influences the discipline but also the quantity of work. The quantity of completed work increased and the quality of products remained the same when students sat in rows. The teacher also reported that there was a noticeable improvement in classroom behaviour when the pupils were seated in rows. Some of the students seemed to prefer the work atmosphere in rows but complained of a loss of available working space (Bennett & Blundell, 1983, p. 402).

It happens that a disturbing pupil gets a seat separated from the rows. He is expected to behave more self-possessed and to work more effectively, one more discipline measure. But there also exist situations when a pupil asks for a secluded corner to get peace and quiet.

To sum up, the stage design of a classroom is of importance for the role of the classroom as a shaper of identity and as an actor influencing teaching, learning, development and behaviour.

It is possible to discern three phenomena that represent pupils' interaction with the physical environment, the classroom. Firstly, this interaction can change depending on pupils' experiences of "affordance". In a classroom, experienced as pleasant or comfortable, partly as a home, pupils will behave respectably. The "affordance" of the classroom is welcoming the pupils to take part and to be active. Pupils are important and the classroom is theirs. Secondly, in a classroom experienced as impersonal and anonymous pupils are in different ways marking territories. Pupils' protests against anonymity, crowding and discomfort can result in destructive actions as scribble or destruction. Thirdly, the inability of a classroom to afford every pupil a space of his own can cause anxiety and aggressiveness.

Definitions

What is a classroom? Which is the role of a classroom in relation to a human being?

Definitions will change according to the observer's perspective.

Room for teaching. In form 1-6 a class often has a room of its own where textbooks and other materials are stored, and where the main part of teaching takes place. Subjects requiring specific tools, like sport, handicraft and music very often have rooms of their own. In form 7-9 and in upper secondary school pupils are usually taught in different subject rooms (Pedagogisk uppslagsbok, 1996, s. 305).

A room where a class of children or students is taught (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2000, s. 214).

Classrooms are settings specifically intended to promote children's development (Weinstein & Mignano, 1997, s. 37).

A classroom is a behaviour setting, that is, an ecobehavioral unit composed of segments that surround and regulate behaviour (Doyle 1986, s. 397).

Classrooms are places where students construct, in their discourse with teachers and one another, institutional biographies which follow them through school and help to shape their life changes (Florio-Ruane, 1994, s. 797).

In these definitions the classroom is described partly as a physically limited room, partly as a room influencing pupils' learning, development and shaping of identity and teachers' as well as pupils' behaviour. Hence, the stage design has different meanings for those using the classroom. For teachers particularly the possibilities of the stage design to discipline and control are pointed out. For pupils it is more a question of adaptation.

Interaction human - environment

Referring to the statement of a mutual influence between human and environment the classroom is given the status as one actor among others. By virtue of the meanings of the definitions and of the actor network theory, ANT,[3] the classroom can be regarded as an actor.

In the actor network theory both human and non-human actors are seen as equal actors in a network. The importance of interaction between human being and artefacts including signs, machines, technologies, texts, physical environments, animal, plants and waste products is emphasized (Urry, 2000).

This means that the human and physical worlds are elaborately intertwined and cannot be analysed separately from each other, as society and as nature, or humans or objects (p.14).

The "affordance" of the classroom will contribute to and influence the interaction. In this perspective the classroom can be regarded as an actor who alone or with others, e.g. the teacher, may influence pupils' activities and behaviour. Our study, 2002, indicates that the "affordance" of the classroom is received in different ways by the pupils. In a comfortably designed environment the pupils behave as "good guys" whereas Spartan furnishings arouse dissatisfaction and aggressiveness.

Conclusions

Teachers' interaction with the physical environment is different from that of the pupils'. The classroom can be considered as teachers' domain and tool. Pupils in rows strengthen the need for structuring the work and for disciplining the pupils. The teacher maintains a structural role (Granström, 2003b). The stage design of a classroom also influences the forms of working. The row-system means that lectures and individual work dominate at the expense of group work.

Pupils' interaction with the classroom appears to be more problematic. Their negotiations with the teacher deals with a secluded corner of their own or to work outside the classroom. The pupils' negotiations with the teacher means a change of the teacher's role from a structural role to an interactionistic one (Granström, 2003b). The traditional, structural classroom is considered as more adapted to teachers' wishes and needs than pupils'.

Pupils' dissatisfaction when they enter the classroom can find different expressions. One way to show that the room is too small, that the space of one's own is not large enough, means that pupils search for a secluded corner. Equipment like a headset when using the computer or the tape recorder can for a while offer peace and quiet and serve as an attempted escape from the collective in the classroom. Then the artefacts act as pupils' allies. More often single pupils or groups negotiate with the teacher about working outside the classroom in school or at home. The interaction human - environment, but also the interaction human - human, prove to have substantial weaknesses and an amount of strategies are asked for to handle the situation that has arisen.

The study has resulted in some preliminary conclusions:

- pupils' and teachers' interaction with the classroom are different.

- teachers make use of the stage design of a classroom to control and discipline pupils' behaviour and activities by organising seats in rows. The classroom can be considered as teachers' domain and tool.

- the stage design of young pupils' classrooms appear to be more favourable for learning, development and shaping of identity as they to a greater extent take individual needs into account.

- pupils search for a secluded corner by using a headset or by leaving the classroom.

- pupils are negatively influenced by limited space which cause destructive actions.

- the stage design of the classroom influences the form of working; lectures and individual work dominate.

Referenser

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[1] "I mean by it something that refers to both the environment and the animal in a way that no existing term does. It implies the complementarity of an animal and the environment." p. 127.

[2] Compare; Gallego & Cole, (2002).

[3] See; Latour, (1998).