Can School Chairs Improve Student Engagement?

School chairs are important pieces of classroom furniture that are often neglected by educational institutions. Not everyone understands how they also hold the student’s ability to focus, comprehend and collaborate with their peers and teachers.

Look at it this way, in a traditional classroom, the student sits on their assigned armchair. Commonly, students stay on their spot from 7-9 hours a day. They also have limited activity, exercises or space to move around and engage before an official break. 

This is why schools should not only upgrade their curriculum but also pay attention to their classroom furniture in order to meet the standards of Education. 

Classroom ergonomics like seating arrangement, desks and chairs are one of the crucial elements of an engaging learning environment. However, let’s narrow our discussion to school chairs. 

Fundamentally, school chairs must fit the children’s size and height to allow movement and encourage good posture. 

If done right, the school chairs have a major impact on the student’s concentration. The more comfortable they are the better they can focus on their lesson.

MEASURING ENGAGEMENT

When a principal observes a classroom, they ask teachers about a certain type of feedback, “Are your students engaged?”

Researchers, educators and policymakers are becoming increasingly focused on student engagement as a factor in addressing the problems of low achievements, boredom, alienation and dropout rates. 

While measuring engagement isn’t easily done as it includes behavioral, emotional and cognitive factors of a child. We can start with a student self-report.

A self-report survey measures and can reflect the student’s thought and experience. They are easy to administer and can be given to a large and diverse group of children.

However, students may not also honestly answer their teachers without any anonymity provided. 

Another exercise to measure engagement is through an interview. Interviews provide more detailed descriptions from the students. And to verify the interviews, observation methods can also let the capture and make sense of what information was previously acquired. 

It is a painstaking process to measure a student’s engagement. However, we can narrow down the discussion to five of the important factors of improving student-engagement in a traditional classroom.

5 FACTORS OF STUDENT-ENGAGEMENT

Collaboration

The first factor in improving student-engagement is to make collaborations easier. Even if the classroom was designed in the last century, you don’t have to wait for a new building to start modernizing your school chairs and other furniture.

These furniture must foster collaborations and the openness of students to share and interact with their peers and teachers. 

Active Involvement

Classmates should not only fall between rivals and comparisons but to ultimately become partners in learning. Respect and hierarchy within a classroom does form but it’ll also help the ones struggling to be assisted by a friend and not just a leader.

Focus / Stress Levels

Focus is also related to stress. Stress is defined as the our body and mind’s response to the loss of control from an adverse or uncomfortable situation or with people. 

In small amounts, they are quite healthy and build resilience in children. However, high levels of stress can affect a child’s physical, psychological, emotional and cognitive functions. Elements that affect brain development, academic success and social competence. 

This part highlights the balance needed for learning which is to find the centerfold of a challenging day to a fun and stress-free day in a school setting. 

Opportunity to Engage / Relationships

All children need reliable, positive adults in their lives. When their early experiences are chaotic or lack of a parent’s involvement. The child’s developing brain becomes insecure and stressed. 

If the home can’t be a secure and strong environment for good relationships, we must make it so that the students are able to grow up with positive relationships with their peers. Failure to provide a good experience will negatively affect the students’ engagement and achievement.

Health and Nutrition

While mental and emotional health supports the student’s engagement and learning, physical health and nutrition will be the greatest factor in that’ll affect focus and mood of a child.

Without proper nutrition, it can affect the student’s memory and then their performance. While poor nutrition cannot be ignored, they should not be used as an excuse for letting students underperform. 

As a teacher and as an educational institution, you have a greater effect on your student’s performance. Compensate with a highly engaging classroom and discuss strategies you can apply to regulate a child’s nutrition.

CONCLUSION

School chairs are an environmental factor that are often neglected even when it plays an effective role to help students learn. It opens opportunities for schools to improve their student’s learning and engagement by focusing on proper classroom furniture.

Schools and universities must make an initiative to invest in proper school furniture solutions than settling for conventional models. School chairs must go beyond regular designs and encourage collaborative learning that suits every child’s needs.

RESOURCES:

https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/southeast/pdf/REL_2011098.pdf 

https://www.lcsc.org/cms/lib/MN01001004/Centricity/Domain/108/The%20Measurement%20of%20Student%20Engagement-%20A%20Comparative%20Analysis%20of%20Various%20Methods.pdf 

https://dovetail.in/blog/why-classroom-ergonomics-is-important/ 

https://www.academiafurniture.com/insights/how-classroom-furniture-affects-student-success 

https://blog.mindresearch.org/blog/flexible-classroom-seating 

https://theeducatorsroom.com/using-furniture-increase-student-engagement/ 

https://smithsystem.com/smithfiles/2019/11/13/how-classroom-furniture-can-facilitate-collaborative-learning/