Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms pdfdrive com

participants took cognitive tests on computers. The results showed that cognitive
function scores were significantly higher when the participants worked in the
two environments with better than conventional air quality; the results, on
average, were 61 percent better during a green building session and 101 percent
better during a green+ session (Higgins, 2015). Although the experiment was
created to simulate indoor office spaces, the researchers concluded: “These
exposures should be investigated in other indoor environments, such as homes,
schools, and airplanes, where decrements in cognitive function and decision
making could have significant impacts on productivity, learning, and safety”
(Allen et al., 2016, p. 812).
When I told Minna about the study of the office workers, she didn’t seem
surprised at all. “There are so many things in the environment that . . . affect the
learning,” she said. In my own research for this book, I’ve found several other
environmental factors that influence learning, several of which I discuss in these
chapters: classroom decorations, noise, insufficient lighting, and poor heating.
“[A] plethora of scientific evidence suggests that student learning and
achievement [are] deeply affected by the environment in which this learning
occurs,” wrote the authors of a research review (Cheryan, Ziegler, Plaut, &
Meltzoff, 2014, p. 10), which investigated how the physical classroom
environment influences student performance. While teachers have little control
over the structural design of the schools where they teach, there are small things
we can do to make the physical classroom environment better for our students.
Here’s a useful list, based on several recommendations provided by the
researchers in a 2014 press release by Sage Publications:
• When students are exposed to more natural light, they perform better. With

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• When students are exposed to more natural light, they perform better. With
this finding in mind, seek to minimize artificial lighting in your classroom.
• According to the researchers, the temperature range of 68°F and 74°F is
optimal for learning. So, while opening the classroom windows during the
winter might benefit air quality, the cold temperature might hinder student
achievement.
• Researchers have discovered that classroom objects showing educational
accomplishments of traditionally disadvantaged groups (such as posters that
depict female scientists) can bolster the performance of such groups.
• Displaying “token” symbols in the classroom setting, such as American
Indian mascots, can lead students of such groups to report lower self-
esteem.
Informed by the findings of these researchers, the Department of Computer
Science and Engineering at the University of Washington redesigned its facilities
(including the computer lab), and its faculty and students have responded
positively, suggesting that the learning environment has become more inclusive
and success oriented (Sage Publications, 2014). As teachers at the K-12 level,
we can do something similar by tweaking our classroom environments.