Comprehensive Project

• Home
• Management and Discipline Defined
• Motivation and Discipline
• The Physical Environment
• Time Management
• Proximity and Mobility
• Praise, Prompt and Leave
• Visual Instruction Plan
• Say, See, Do
• Calm and Consistent
• Limit Setting
• References
• About the Authors

The Physical Environment

 The physical environment can impact behavior upon how the educator sets it up. Students need to know how they should act in different environmental settings. The overall physical environment should be warm and welcoming for students. It should be personal and inviting. Students should feel comfortable spending time in the classroom space provided. If the room seems cold and uninviting it will promote behavior problems in students. An educator needs to plan ahead on how the physical environment should play a part, which should then lead to how students should act. The goal is to set the physical environment in a way that prevents students from being disruptive.

Classroom ambiance is “the feeling that one has when entering the space” (Savage, 1999, p.66). “The ambiance of a place is created through orderliness, light, sound, texture, color, temperature, and odor. These elements can be combined in ways that are pleasant, to create feelings of comfort, security, and warmth, or they may create a sense of insecurity, threat and coldness” (Savage, 1999, p.72). Educators need to ask themselves what type of behavior they want their students to have. How an educator sets up the environment plays a huge role in how the students will behave in their class.

 The goals you should include for planning the classroom environment are: helping students develop a personal identity, encouraging feelings of competence, promoting intellectual growth and stimulation, providing a sense of security, and allowing for both privacy and social interaction.  Students should feel comfortable inside the walls of their classroom. They should feel at home in a sense. The class should be decorated with students work displayed on the walls. It should be personalized and students should have their mark in the classroom. There should be an area where students just need to get away and take a break because something might be going on with them, emotionally. Students should feel safe in their classroom and comfortable enough to express themselves when they need to. The classroom arrangement is a vital part of the makeup of the environment that needs to keep peace within the students.

Spiritual application: 1 Corinthians 14:33(New Living Translation) “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.” God gives us the hope that with Him there is no confusion or disorder. He is not a God of confusion, instead He administers peace. Trust in the Lord and may the walls of your classroom have peace and orderliness.