Overstimulating classrooms are harmful for students. Classrooms need a happy medium between over-decorated and bare walls. Most educators do not realize their classroom is over-decorated. Thus, resulting in overstimulated students.
• An over-decorated classroom feels overstimulating to students. Therefore, they are unable to focus on a specific item. Everything blends together.
• Educators decorate with either teacher-made content or store bought material. Thus, there is no room for student generated material.
• Teachers do not reference the teaching aides while teaching. The displays become a backdrop with no particular meaning or purpose other than decoration.
Overstimulating Classroom Study
A study published in 2014 in the Psychological Science journal reports, “when kindergartens were taught in a highly decorated classroom, they were more distracted and scored lower on tests than when they were taught in a room with bare walls.” However, a similar study conducted at Carnegie Mellon found when the classroom was bare, students were distracted by each other.
Classrooms must be inviting and comfortable for students. A comfortable environment enhances the learning experience. All bare walls makes learning boring. However, the priority is lesson planning and not decorating. Classrooms must reflect school values and celebrate student learning. It doesn’t mean money spent on charts and posters.
Decorating For a Purpose
Decorating with purpose and for maximizing learning is best.
• Decorate the majority of the classroom with student work. It is important for students to choose their own work to display. Consequently, they reflect of the work they complete.
• Next, students set up a display to develop organizational skills of creativity, measuring and writing.
• Make sure the display connects to the curriculum, lessons, and content.
• Keep displays fresh with no clutter.
• It is important that all students contribute in the display. This gives them a sense of belonging to the classroom community.
The classroom area belongs to all students. Displays, posters and charts must reflect students’ work to demonstrate the message that learning is important.
