Homing into school to create the ideal classroom: young people want to combine the best of home and school learning environments

ABSTRACT

We asked 28 young people (16–18 Years old) from two schools in Lancashire to reflect on their COVID-19 experience and Co-Design the ideal learning environment. In this paper, we present young people’s vision for the ideal classroom that combines the best of the home and school learning environments. Young people would like to have flexible furniture arrangements, with space for group and individual activities, a bespoke learning environment that can be appropriated and adjusted according to individual preferences (e.g. sound, light, temperature, ventilation levels). Furthermore, they aim for comfortable environments with earth colours, natural materials and a direct connection with nature. We argue the importance of taking young people's perspectives presented here to inform future policy, the design of learning spaces and school rebuilding programmes.

KEYWORDS:

• Young people’s perspectives
• classroom design
• ideal learning environments
• physical learning environment
• home learning environment
• school learning environment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval

Lancaster University, FASS & LUMS Research Ethics Committee & UREC

Ethics approval reference FL20057.

Notes

1. Guidance posted on the Microsoft Teams chat: a) Define the Ideal Learning Space (where would you like to learn)?; b) Identify the ideal learning activities (How would you like to learn)?; c)Identify the Ideal learning tools (What tools would you like to use?); d) Add some annotations and emotional tags; e) Present your future (blended) learning space to the rest of the group.