A quarter of Australian schools now have flexible classrooms, but do they help kids to learn?

New classrooms are very different from the ones today’s parents and grandparents remember. And the way kids are taught is changing. See video, photos.

Exclusive: It’s the school where you can write on the desks, move the furniture around and sit on a ‘wobbly’ stool and wiggle – and the teacher won’t tell you off.

Kids can choose to stand and do their work, sit on high stools, kneel at low tables, or even lie on a beanbag on the floor.

The desks and cupboards double up as whiteboards and children can write their sums or spellings directly on them.

And, instead of a class of 30, there are two classes in the same space and two teachers.

This, according to many, is the classroom of the future.

But critics at the Grattan Institute question whether all this “razzle dazzle” improves learning outcomes.

Curl Curl North Public School students Keira Stephens 10, Rosie Lawry 10, Matisse Hayes Black 11 and Carmen Schreiber 10, sitting on the floor and using the whiteboard desks to do their work on. Picture: Tim Hunter

“It’s not a question of, ‘Does the room look nice?, but, ‘Does it support learning?’,”

the Grattan Institute’s director of education program Jordana Hunter, said.

Ms Hunter said when the institute’s researchers recently visited a Melbourne school, they saw how the teacher was struggling to be heard over the noise of the other class being taught a different lesson in the same space.

She said the Australian Education Research Organisation – an independent body - had found ‘explicit teaching’ is best form of teaching, backed by robust research and universally acknowledged.

Explicit teaching is when a teacher instructs the students in a highly structured environment such a traditional classroom.

The yellow wobble stools are popular with teacher Michelle Picknell and students Vivian Trabona 11, Arturo Schnauzer, 11, and Paige, 11. Picture: Tim Hunter

She said some teachers have given feedback to say they don’t like their flexible classrooms.

Associate Professor Wesley Imms, from the University of Melbourne and a leading expert in this field, found students gain a deeper level of learning working in flexible spaces.

Asst Prof Imms said other quantitative studies showed up to a 17 per improvement in learning outcomes in maths, science and English assessments.

He estimated that around a quarter of Australian schools have flexible, innovative learning spaces, and they are on the increase.

At Curl Curl North Public in Sydney’s north, the innovative classrooms are state-of-the-art and designed with the input of teachers with the aim of encouraging students to develop 21st century skills such as collaboration, creativity and critical thinking.

Each space has a conference room, a shared drama and presentation space, and a ‘traditional’ 30-seat classroom. All of those rooms can be opened up or closed off from the main space using soundproofed sliding glass doors. Sound-absorbing wall and ceiling panels help reduce noise.

The kids prefer it. The teachers do too.

Curl Curl North Public School Principal Donna Blatchford. Picture: Tim Hunter

Principal Donna Blatchford said their classrooms are truly flexible and offer the best of both worlds. But the real difference is that teachers co-teach two or three classes. Their methods include ‘explicit teaching’ and group work.

Ms Blatchford said co-working allows one teacher to take a small group of students struggling with a concept to one of the soundproofed quiet spaces for some extra help, while another can push the most competent kids with harder tasks.

She said if anything the innovative spaces are quieter than traditional classrooms because children are more engaged.

“These spaces have empowered students to be leaders of their own learning, be more engaged, allowing a deeper learning to occur,” Ms Blatchford said.

Year 6 pupil Viv Trabona, 11, prefers it to her previous traditional classroom and said she liked being able to choose where to sit.

“I usually go for wobble chairs or the cushions because the one thing about me is that I always fidget,” Viv said.

“I always lean back, so on these, I’ve got the freedom to do that without getting into trouble or falling off.”

Australian Education Union Federal President Correna Haythorpe said teachers are best positioned to determine the most effective approach to deliver learning programs for students and that it may involve using methods that are different from conventional teaching methods, such as a flexible classroom.

She raised concerns about public schools getting enough funds from the Federal Government to create spaces like these.

Originally published as A quarter of Australian schools now have flexible classrooms, but do they help kids to learn?