From time to time, when training adults, I offer the option of standing instead of sitting during the sessions. Some participants happily take up this option and choose to stand, walk around a bit or lean on a wall. I noticed that this very simple change would lead to greater participation.  These colleagues often say how much better they were able to engageas a result of having that freedom to change position. So why for the past 200 years have we expected all children to be able to sit in one position for extended period of time? Some students find that easy; for others it can be torturous! Wouldn’t it be great to have a learning environment in which you are free to change sitting position or to stand and move around a little?

New research seems to be adding weight to what many teachers intuitively knew. Researchers from the
University of Salford, in the United Kingdom, studied 153 classrooms across 27 schools in a variety of building types and communities. They looked at three dimensions of classroom design: naturalness (factors like temperature and light), stimulation (colour and visual complexity) and individualization (things like flexibility and student ownership). The study found that some changes to the learning environment made a difference to academic performance in reading, writing and mathematics by 16%.

But the researchers also pointed out that just a change of furniture alone wasn’t the important thing – rather, it is how it changed the dynamics of learning and teaching, giving students more control and responsibility.

Making effective flexible classrooms work would take serious thought and planning, but basic changes like offering the option to stand or move may already be a step in the right direction for a significant number of learners.

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