Innovation in the education process consists in the concern of teachers to find methods, ingenious solutions that have the role of keeping the student and his learning needs in the foreground, whether it is a lesson of teaching, consolidation, evaluation or self-evaluation. The new trends in world and national education have brought among the topics of interest the way in which the work rooms for students are arranged and decorated. Classrooms, laboratories, offices, or other educational classrooms should also be rethought in line with new, modern, valuable trends in education, supporting changes in teaching and learning. Maximizing learning opportunities and creating meaningful experiences, by rethinking the educational space, should be a desideratum of any teacher. The classroom should be specially decorated to make it the most suitable place for learning.
Creating a fun and productive learning environment in the classroom should be a concern for every teacher. A thematic `welcome’ is more likely to generate involvement than a sterile environment. A visually appealing classroom supports and inspires the learning process, encourages creativity and teamwork. Here are some useful principles for decorating a classroom: You need to consider who you are decorating for, who are the beneficiaries of the decorations. The level of the class, the subjects studied, the interests, the general cultural context and the differences will guide you in choosing the display. The decor should not only look good, but also be functional. Chapter diagrams, maps, drawings, can be aesthetically appealing and very useful for assimilating / fixing content. Making a sketch of the room, including the theme, color scheme, furniture, available space is very important. Also consider the vision of the school you belong to and try to make your project part of the complex project of the school.
The chosen topic should be related to the age-specific areas of interest and, as far as possible, to the curricular challenges specific to the school year to be covered. It is useful to ask the students for their opinion as well. In this regard, you can ask them to draw what they would like their class to look like. If you do not have enough ideas, you are not very sure that you have made the best color combinations or you do not have the ability to put into practice what you would like to achieve, ask for the help of a visual artist, possibly a colleague, specialist in the field. Choose a color theme. Two or three predominant colors will be enough to create a „clean” and consistent decor.
If you decide to paint the walls, it is advisable to choose a single color. More colors or patterns used will make your eyes tired and distracting. Also consider the vision of the school you belong to and try to make your project part of the complex project of the school. If there are a number of rules (such as the possibility for students or teachers to make murals, the existence of display spaces outside the classroom, where general or class-specific announcements or even art or science projects, etc. can be posted).
Personalize the class with photos and projects of the students. This will create a unique and meaningful environment for your class. Artwork, creative writing projects of your students, various scientific projects, explanations of a math problem, photos from themed excursions can complete the decor of the classroom and add value to the children’s work. They can be the result of previous work or we can create spaces to frame the new projects that will come. These are preferable to decorations and posters purchased from the store. In this way, students will feel valued, and the motivation to be creative will increase. The success of your products gives you a unique sense of pride and ownership. It is a public statement of the value of the student. For this reason, it is advisable to leave a considerable space in the classroom to display the students’ work.
The internet is a very valuable source of decorating ideas. Enjoy the chance to use it. There are a lot of specialized sites around the world that can help you. Plants or small pets can be an option to cheer up and animate the class and also a good way to empower students. Whether they have their own plant that they need to take care of on a daily basis, or whether they will be responsible for taking care of themselves or their pets, this will be a good way to take responsibility. In choosing the animal, we will generally stop at fish or hamsters, being eventually accepted a turtle or a rabbit. In all cases, the consent of a doctor will be required, given the predisposition to allergies of some of the students.
Before you decide to purchase materials for your landscaping project, make sure that you have not already forgotten them in your closet or that you cannot obtain them from a colleague whom I no longer use. There are always stray tempera tubes, colored paper, cardboard sheets, pillows or even pieces of furniture. Depending on the budget allocated for this design project, the need to fully or only partially decorate the intended room, you will need to think about the acquisition strategy.
We all agree that the aesthetics of a class matter to the mood of its students and teachers. There is a very close relationship between people and their environment. As early as 1950, researchers found that a visually unattractive room produced dissatisfaction, fatigue, and a desire to escape (Maslow & Mintz, 1956). More recent studies show that simple aspects such as the climate, the color and decor of the walls, the adjustable lighting system and the placement of students in the classroom, have the role of positively influencing students ‘emotions and play an important role in determining students’ attitudes and behavior of attendance, class participation and relationship with the teacher. (Graetz, 2006; Sommer & Olsen, 1980; Wong et al., 1992). Research has shown that the mere presence of a poster related to a classification or calculation task, as well as one suggestive of creative tasks, has increased students’ confidence and enjoyment of work.
By simply selecting and posting posters with a pleasing aesthetic appearance in the classroom, the visual interest in the classroom will increase. In turn, this creates a pleasant environment that encourages positive attitudes and positive behaviors of students. While this effect could be achieved by exhibiting art prints, most science teachers will opt for science posters. Such a strategy visually stimulates students and also creates a scientific environment for them. At the very least, this can change the mental orientation of students, especially if they move from their classroom, with which they are accustomed, to a special space for science. While all posters are designed to be educational and the formal education community is the main consumer of science, many are not well designed to support classroom work. There is sometimes a tendency to include as much information as possible on a poster, to the detriment of images and diagrams or to the detriment of a suitable size of writing, which allows the student to decipher the writing effortlessly.
The most appreciated and useful are those with large, emblematic letters, numbers or images. 3D images also have an increased educational value. Images that inspire a sense of curiosity, that are discrepant or provocative can enhance the teaching efficiency of the poster by going beyond its static nature and actively engaging students in the content. Wall posters, with scientific content, are common in most science labs, both in middle school and high school. They convey a set of scientific content, through a mix of text and images. The goal of every teacher should not be to turn educational posters into simple pieces of decorative wallpaper designed to fill a gap or mask a dirty wall. While there is a great demand for such posters from teachers, very often their educational value is inaccessible and many are simply forgotten „beautiful pictures” on the wall.
The pedagogical literature identifies five strategies or tips that have the role of maximizing the educational value of posters or posters in the learning process, in the light of what is known about the complex relationship between the learning environment and students:
- Displaying posters to arouse students’ curiosity and motivation to learn, to learn more about scientific content;
- Selectivity in the choice of posters, in particular as regards the type and size of the image, as well as the extent of the applicable text;
- Rotating posters from one learning unit to another to maintain visual and cognitive elements that permanently stimulate students’ thinking, connections between information and generate questions in the minds of students;
- Rotate the posters, in the same unit, to keep the students’ attention awake and highlight the key contents;
- Posting pictures to focus students’ attention on more important goals, especially for those students who tend to lose interest easily.
The visibility of images in the classroom plays an important role. If they are visible from any position in the class, then their value increases. It is advisable to avoid positioning behind the door, in the immediate vicinity of a closet, etc., situations that obstruct the view. Making decorations can go much further than changing the atmosphere.
Therefore, we must ask ourselves, „How can these decorations enhance the student’s learning experience this year?” Teachers often underestimate the long-term impact of posters. What you post on the walls actually has a huge potential to provide a sense of community and ownership. The display on the walls provides an opportunity for passive absorption of information. It consolidates their formulas, rules, life lessons and academic discoveries. Decorations can also develop a sense of community. They must be actions of the whole educational community, aspects valid for all those present and something that everyone can see.
Thus, the following can be posted: class and school rules, academic or civic class objectives, school or class slogan, etc. The three sides of development, targeted by the classroom-learning, ownership, and community display, lead to significant increases for the student.
By contrast, posters that contain old, wrong, incomplete, scientifically outdated information have no positive input, and may even have a negative one, causing confusion or misinformation.
Some practitioners even think that it is not good to display anything before these materials have been explored, created by them, or based on contact with students.
Bibliography
1.. Hattie, John, Învățarea vizibilă: ghid pentru profesori, trad. Cristina Dumitru, București, Editura Trei, 2014
2. Ionescu, M., Radu I., Didactica modernă, Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 2001
3. Moise, C., 1996, Concepte didactice fundamentale, Ankarom, Iaşi
4. Stefan, C., tribunainvatamantului.ro/cand-invatarea-devine-vizibila/