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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640 Likes: 1
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640 Likes: 1 |
Very colorful textbooks with lots of illustrations may also not increase learning. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/rethinking-the-colorful-kindergarten-classroom/Rethinking the Colorful Kindergarten Classroom By JAN HOFFMAN New York Times JUNE 9, 2014 5:15 PM Imagine a kindergarten classroom. Picture the vividly colored scalloped borders on the walls, the dancing letters, maybe some charming cartoon barnyard animals holding up “Welcome to School!” signs.
That bright, cheery look has become a familiar sight in classrooms across the country, one that has only grown over the last few decades, fed by the proliferation of educational supply stores. But to what effect?
A new study looked at whether such classrooms encourage, or actually distract from, learning. The study, one of the first to examine how the look of these walls affects young students, found that when kindergartners were taught in a highly decorated classroom, they were more distracted, their gazes more likely to wander off task, and their test scores lower than when they were taught in a room that was comparatively spartan.
The researchers, from Carnegie Mellon University, did not conclude that kindergartners, who spend most of the day in one room, should be taught in an austere environment. But they urged educators to establish standards.
“So many things affect academic outcomes that are not under our control,” said Anna V. Fisher, an associate professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon and the lead author of the study, which was published in Psychological Science. “But the classroom’s visual environment is under the direct control of the teachers. They’re trying their best in the absence of empirically validated guidelines.”
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Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 848
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Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 848 |
Interesting. This is one of the things that is typically different about Montessori classrooms, far less (if any) bright colors... our sons classrooms were more muted (think unpainted wood blocks, natural wood furniture). The color came from work the children created.
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Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 67
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Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 67 |
I have always disliked the bright cluttered kindergarten classrooms. (And bedrooms for that matter) I had to advocate hard with my husband to keep decorations out of my sons bedroom.
I personally find it overwhelming. My son has sensory issues too... I wonder where he got that.. lol
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 2,498
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Reading the walls is a typical 2E tactic for not participating in circle time.
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 5,181
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Very colorful textbooks with lots of illustrations may also not increase learning.Wow-- someone should alert math textbook developers. 
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 1,489
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Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 1,489 |
Very colorful textbooks with lots of illustrations may also not increase learning.Wow-- someone should alert math textbook developers. And the makers of Junior High/High School Planners. Our schools/districts try to "sell" us these crazy high school planners as necessary for the child to be organized. They are so crammed full of of stuff (school spirit stuff, ads) that it's hard to find the calendar planner stuff and thus IMO very hard to use. The ONLY thing useful in it is a the schools schedule. Everything else is just a distraction and makes them hard to use, thus my kids never used them even if I bought them. Cheep empty except for the dates planner from the office store much more effective.
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Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 1,489
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This also reminds me of another issue in K or early elementary that I didn't consider when making my "choice" for my older daughter. The highly regarded alternative K my daughter got into was in a 1970's building that built when schools without walls was the new fashion. By the time my daughter attended WALLS had been added but not doors. There were open doorways and no real halls, to get to some classrooms you had to walk through the backs of others. All the classrooms opened into each other. When touring this facility it had been explained as a good thing. And being a naive parent I saws it as a good thing, thinking it was part of this schools charm because it felt more "open".
But when you as a parent realize that you have really distractable 1st grader, this open floor plan does seem like such a great idea. One child making noise in one room could distract the entire 1st and 2nd grade. Children walking through the classroom during a test is a MAJOR distraction. Teachers had to coordinate not practicing a song, while another was taking a test.
Last edited by bluemagic; 06/10/14 08:57 AM.
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 5,181
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Posts: 5,181 |
My mom taught in one of those spaces for years, bluemagic. Yup. First grade in "the big room" (with another first grade and two second grade classrooms). There was always ONE teacher of the four that didn't have good classroom control... {sigh} Or needed to YELL at the class to keep it.
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 263
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 263 |
Can we add Cuisenaire rods to the list? You know, those colorful, fun, wooden sticks of different lengths? I am sure they do help many kids understand fractions, but for my boy, they were a. total. distraction. An invitation to play instead of learn. Paper instructional materials in black and white were much more effective/efficient for teaching him fractions.
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Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 1,228
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Posts: 1,228 |
Can we add Cuisenaire rods to the list? You know, those colorful, fun, wooden sticks of different lengths? I am sure they do help many kids understand fractions, but for my boy, they were a. total. distraction. An invitation to play instead of learn. Paper instructional materials in black and white were much more effective/efficient for teaching him fractions. I don't think of Cuisenaire rods as being gratuitously colorful. The colors are just a way of telling them apart and recognizing them.
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