When I was a student in the 80s, schools were mainly designed with individual classrooms for each class and one teacher. Another common feature was to have a double classroom with folding doors which could be opened or closed depending on the nature of the lesson being taught. This afforded the opportunity for two classes to work together in the learning space with both teachers team teaching to facilitate learning. From memory, the dividing doors were closed most of the time.
Unfortunately, school design has changed and it is very obvious that new schools are being designed by architects who have absolutely no idea of the educational consequences of aesthetically pleasing, open plan classrooms with no walls or doors and, in some cases, huge internal glass windows or walls. These schools look fantastic when prospective parents are touring schools to find the perfect setting for their children. However, they are having a significant impact on student learning.
When I decided to write my book about ADHD, I decided to work as a Casual Replacement Teacher. This had many benefits:
- Flexibility to choose the days I worked
- Teaching in a variety of school contexts
- Meeting lots of students and their teachers
- Observing the positives and negatives in school design
- Testing my strategies in different classrooms as a CRT.
I’m a reflective teacher and, at the end of each day of casual teaching, I reflect on the things that worked well in my day as well as the challenges. Frequently, the challenges are related to the learning spaces and the effect it has on student behaviour.
The world has become faster, louder and more emotionally charged. The effects of this can be observed in classrooms every day: shorter attention spans, the need to be entertained, the need for instant gratification, less resilience, and higher levels of aggression. Basically, the world, and our schools, have become overstimulating places and this is influencing the ability of students to regulate their emotions and to be able to learn. The culmination is noisy classrooms filled with students who are overstimulated and not able to regulate their behaviour. Sadly, this impacts the school environment and makes it extremely difficult for the entire learning community; students and their teachers.
What does it mean to be overstimulated?
Basically, our sensory system is bombarded with information all day, every day. It enters our brain through the five senses and needs to be filtered and then processed. If the environment we find ourselves in is really loud, has too much visual stimuli, is too hot or cold, or smells offensive, we can become overstimulated. This means that we will probably have trouble concentrating, we might not be able to process the important information needed to perform a task and things might become so overwhelming that we are unable to function effectively. This causes our brains to become stressed and stress impairs our brain, causing the prefrontal cortex (the thinking part of the brain) to shut down and causing us to react to the adverse stimuli. This triggers the fight or flight response. We see the result of this in classrooms every day.
What does overstimulation look like in the classroom?
- anxiety
- depression
- Lethargy
- Inability to focus
- Inability to complete tasks
- Aggression
- Work refusal
- Tardiness
- Acting out
- Defiance
- Back chat
- Rudeness
- Violence
- Irritability
I had an interesting experience yesterday. I was teaching Performing Arts, as a casual replacement teacher, in a reasonably new primary school. This school has open plan learning spaces for Junior School (P-2), Middle School (3-4), and Senior School (5-6). This means there are roughly 100 students in the one space, trying to listen, focus and learn. I am quite sure that there are many students in these learning spaces that find it extremely difficult to do any of these things! Also, it was raining during recess and so the students were expected to stay inside, in these huge learning spaces, and play. The noise was atrocious and the fact that they were unable to expend their energy by stretching their legs outside made things even more challenging for the sensory kids (and their teachers!)
Another observation I made yesterday was that I realised the impact that these open plan learning spaces have on the teacher’s ability to teach their own class. I was conscious that my Performing Arts class, who were meant to be playing a game that involved them singing at various different volumes, were singing so loudly that we were disturbing the students next door. I quickly abandoned this game because I soon realised that we were too noisy. The problem being that there was no door for me to close to contain our noise. I have no idea how they use the many instruments that were in the room without annoying the teachers trying to teach next door.
Yes, we can give headphones to the students who are sensitive to sound, but what about the kids who are overstimulated by visual stimuli? Being able to hear and see 100 students wandering around the learning space, or simply just doing different activities, is a significant distraction and, I believe, has huge consequences for the well being of all.
Please, can we stop building beautiful, architecturally designed schools that impede learning and rebuild the walls?
