Classroom Design Essentials for Educators

Our comprehensive, all-in, research-based look at the design of effective learning spaces.

What you put on your classroom walls can affect your students’ ability to learn.

How to design your classroom environment and materials to support a wide range of executive function skills, from managing distractions to boosting planning skills.

Effective classroom design can help elementary students develop skills like organization and task initiation.

These design strategies can help support relationship-building and active learning in a team-teaching environment.

After visiting thousands of classrooms, the authors share a high-level overview of the common elements they’ve seen in rooms that hum with learning.

Teachers can use classroom decorations to promote and showcase student learning while spending little or no money.

These ideas help school leaders arrange their offices to facilitate conversation and collaboration and to celebrate students and learning.

Arranging desks in L-shaped groups has advantages for both the students and the teacher.

A veteran elementary teacher shares what he’s learned from eight years of building a student-centered environment.

Use design thinking (brainstorming, prototyping, testing, building, and reflecting) to co-create your classroom environment with the students who will be learning in it.

Classroom walls don’t have to be Instagram-worthy so long as they display the right information and allow students to shine.

Teachers can enhance students’ sense of belonging with classroom decor that incorporates their cultural backgrounds.

By identifying classroom values and celebrating peers who embody them, students can develop their metacognitive and social skills.

Teachers can use this visual rubric to help elementary students reflect on and evaluate their own learning as they move through the curriculum.

As you ponder curriculum, seating, and policies, here are some ideas and resources to consider that will assist you in making your class a welcoming, safe, and inclusive space for your students.

By dedicating space to pictures of students learning in your classroom, you help ensure that everyone feels like a part of the group.

With the right prompts, the bulletin boards in a school hallway—and their digital equivalents—can be used to foster social and emotional learning.

The messages found on school and classroom walls should reflect the values that staff and administrators hold dear.