The origin of an idea

Learnlab’s goal was “to create environments that best support meetings, dialogues and storytelling in school.  The narrative classroom was both visual and practical proof that, by combining modern technology with a well thought-out interior, they could create the best conditions for pupils’ learning”

In the Falköping project, a large, single classroom was used to create a microcosm of the narrative classroom featuring all the elements that a collaborative approach to learning would demand of the school environment.

We named this UK project The Narrative Classroom.

Setting the scene

A seminar was held in London in June 2010 where the concept of the Narrative Classroom was presented to a number of local education authorities, head teachers and education experts. This led to the BCSE engaging with Alan Howson, then Head Teacher at Chiswick Community School who was keen to pilot the ideas with students and staff at his school which uses the Opening Minds curriculum – a flexible delivery program developed by the RSA for years 7 and 11.

The concept works best when there is flexibility in the layout of a classroom to facilitate the provision of life skills or competencies in a variety of teaching methods.

Consultation

Two teachers at the school who use the classroom for lessons were asked to take part in the research. They had between them very diverse groups of students and were teaching different lessons. Therefore the impact of the classroom on different groups of students learning in different ways could be analysed. The three groups are:

• Yr10 English – set 8 of 8, lowest set. 12 students, 11 of whom are male
• Yr7 Opening Minds – 25+ students on 12 week course of active, project-based learning
• Yr11 Religious Studies – 19 students, 5x enthusiastic, 5x unengaged and the rest apathetic

Student feedback

Two groups of students took part in workshops before the narrative classroom was installed. They were asked about their existing classroom and what impact they felt it had upon their ability to learn, their behaviour and their attitude to learning. They were also asked about their aspirations for the narrative classroom and the impact that they felt it would have upon them and their learning.

A new beginning 

Following the consultation, Kinnarps designed and installed furniture for a flexible classroom - where students could choose the type of workplace best suited to the task in hand and the teachers could reconfigure the room according to their preferred style for the class that day.

Initial perceptions of the new classroom were recorded after staff had been working in the narrative classroom for a few weeks with their respective classes.

A new term

Once the classroom had been installed and used for one term we went back to speak to the students in another workshop. They rated the impact of the environment against a number of statements devised from the results of the initial workshops. Their reasons for the ratings given were discussed.

After using the narrative classroom for 6 months, staff were asked for their perceptions of the impact of the furniture on students, their learning, attitude and behaviour.

One year on, staff and students were once again independently interviewed to see the difference that furniture had made to life in the classroom.

The results

The project was managed out by the British Council for School Environments (BCSE) with the help of Dr Jennifer Thomas, Managing Director of Performance Consultancy in conducting the research with the school. A publication - The Classroom Experiment - has been produced, documenting the process and the findings. It includes top tips for those considering refurbishing school classrooms and is available FREE on request.