This paper explores the role of material design as a form of institutional power within contemporary school settings. Drawing on concepts of "coercive design" and "hostile architecture" from design studies, the paper examines three "innovative" designs for classroom chairs -- relatively mundane but integral elements…

We explored how furnishings and technology impact pedagogical agility and student engagement across three flexible learning spaces. We collected various kinds of data from faculty and students teaching and learning in multiple classrooms, such as focus group interviews with students, faculty responses to reflection prompts, and pre- and…

Understanding the educational environment and effectively regulating it in consistent with educational objectives is an important factor in facilitating teaching and a crucial ability for the teachers. Investigating the perception of 12 classroom teachers at four elementary schools about their classroom environment, this study aims to reveal the…

The likelihood of teaching a student with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has steadily increased over the past two decades. However, the practical information about working with students with ASD has not increased at a similar rate. Teachers may therefore be unaware of simple modifications they can make to their classrooms to meet the needs of…

This research explored the best shapes and layouts of seating arrangements for fostering process performances of students in studio-style learning spaces, which have emerged in the development of collaborative learning environments in higher education. We conducted a design case study to explore both team and individual process performances during…

It is seen that studies on learning spaces in higher education institutions are very few in the literature. However, spaces have the power to affect behaviors and interactions with others. This study aims to determine the wishes of university students regarding the physical environment. For this purpose, it is planned to determine the missing…

The importance of classroom architecture has long been recognized and supported as a significant factor in Early Years teaching and learning, garnering an explicit focus in policy and practice in Scotland. The same cannot be said of practices beyond the early years, where the explicit role of classroom architecture has been less clearly defined.…

Stability balls have become a common option for alternative seating in classrooms. While the social validity of stability ball classroom seating remains high among students and teachers, findings on the effectiveness of this alternative seating method are mixed. This is particularly true when the intent of the intervention is to increase student…

This philosophically driven work is intended to trouble the position of the small chair in early childhood settings. It is theoretically driven by an aspect of sociological and cultural theory called hauntology, and by the theories of new feminist materialism. The work of Sara Ahmed influences the direction taken here. An assemblage of personal…

This paper reports the findings of a case study that examined the importance of flexible learning spaces and student-centred pedagogies for facilitating effective teaching and learning in schools. By exploring the arrangement of learning spaces at the school level, the study compared a case school in Germany with the Future Classroom Lab Model.…

Classroom furniture has evolved over time from fixed desks facing the front to maintain order and control to a range of flexible furniture types to encourage student-centred pedagogies. This article reports research that applied a socio-material approach to explore how furniture is used in a flexible learning environment. Data were gathered from…

School-related sedentary behaviors are associated with adverse health outcomes and poor academic achievement of elementary students. Dynamic seats, where chairs allow movement, are an intervention that increases physical activity without interrupting academic instruction. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore teachers'…

This study draws on the analysis of 56 hours of classroom video recordings and daily room usage checklists as well as interview data from students and faculty teaching in a large, flexible, technology-rich, and collaborative classroom, "Collaboration Café." The goal is to explore faculty practices and student perspectives to increase our…

The emergence of active learning classrooms (ALCs) on university campuses introduces a need for university teachers to have knowledge of the pedagogical use of physical space. We consider expanding two well-known frameworks for teacher knowledge. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) describes teacher knowledge about teaching discipline-specific…

Educators are beginning to consider the physical learning environment as an additional resource in meeting learning outcomes in modern classrooms. In order to better utilise classroom space, schools have begun to eliminate desks and chairs and to replace 'traditional' furniture with 'flexible' furniture that is capable of multiple reconfigurations…