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<\/a><\/p>\nLittle wonder that decorating a classroom feels like a natural way to welcome our students, and make them feel right at home.<\/p>\n
Also compelling: we can\u00a0control<\/em> our classroom decoration.<\/p>\n Whereas so many other parts of teaching life\u00a0must respond — second by second — to the random chaos of young learners, our classrooms show what we can do when our plans come beautifully to fruition.<\/p>\n And, let’s be honest: we’re often evaluated on classroom decoration. If we can get easy points for decoration on an evaluation form — why not grab them?<\/p>\n To add to all these incentives, let’s add the potential for one more: research<\/em>. I often see highly specific claims\u00a0about the benefits of classroom decoration.<\/p>\n For instance, one popular blog post notes that research encourages classroom decorations\u00a0 — although teachers should leave 20% of wall space blank. (I’ll come back to this number, so it might be worth remembering.)<\/p>\n If our intuition and experience tell us that classroom decorations benefit students<\/i>, can we find research support<\/strong> for that intuition?<\/p>\n For several years now,\u00a0research has increasingly thrown those intuitions into doubt.<\/p>\n For the most part, research suggests that classroom decorations can overwhelm students’ limited cognitive resources: working memory, and attention.<\/p>\n Ten years ago, a research team found<\/a> that kindergarten students learn less in “more” decorated classrooms compared to “less” decorated ones.<\/p>\n Over several years, a research team in Portugal has found<\/a> that K-16 students score lower on attention and working memory tests taken in busy environments.<\/p>\n Most recently, researchers found<\/a> that\u00a0students don’t get used to decorations<\/em>. That is:\u00a0decorations\u00a0distract students in the first week of school, and still distract them 15 weeks later.<\/p>\n If we set intuition (and training) aside, the research-based answer to our question seems clear: less decoration probably results in more concentration and learning.<\/p>\n And yet, in my experience, teachers find this research-based answer unsatisfying…even alarming.<\/p>\n We have, after all, been\u00a0trained<\/em> to decorate. We’ve been\u00a0evaluated<\/em> on our decorations. The colleagues we most esteem, and the grad-school professors who seemed the wisest, all champion the importance of decoration.<\/p>\n What should we do when our beliefs (decorate more!) crash into research findings (decorate less!).<\/p>\n Earlier posts this month have focused on getting details<\/strong> just right. This post, instead, looks at core principles<\/strong>.<\/p>\n First<\/strong> Principle: when research and intuition\/training conflict, resist the urge to choose one over the other. Ask if we can improve teaching by drawing on both\u00a0perspectives.<\/p>\n In this case: can we use research to inform our decorating strategy<\/em>?<\/p>\n For instance, this well-known review<\/a> crunches an ENORMOUS amount of data.\u00a0Only a few of its conclusions focus narrowly on “decoration,” but at least one point strikes me as important.<\/p>\n Specifically, researchers look at the question of “ownership”: the degree to which the students feel like the classroom belongs to them. Their conclusion:<\/p>\n Personal displays by the children create a \u2018sense of ownership\u2019 and this was significantly correlated with learning progress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The word “correlated” is important in that sentence. We can’t say that putting up students’ work\u00a0causes<\/em> them to learn more.<\/p>\n But: if both<\/em> research and<\/em> our teacherly intuition suggest that personal displays boost learning — that’s a great combination right there.<\/p>\n Second<\/strong> principle: keep the decorations largely academic.<\/p>\n Twenty years ago, I used to have lots of interesting photographs and posters and quotations up in my room. They didn’t relate directly to the material I taught — but they seemed somehow inspiring and energizing.<\/p>\n These days, I keep things much simpler. For instance: I have a set of posters highlighting analytical vocabulary (definitions of “metaphor” and “personification” and “symbolism”).<\/p>\nBeyond Intuition<\/h2>\n
Guiding Principles<\/h2>\n