You’ve heard it before – the school furniture and physical environment your students learn in has a direct impact on their academic performance. But did you know that this includes the very colours you use in your classroom?
Countless research has concluded that different colours stimulate different parts of the human consciousness. The psychological effects that colours have on students can impact their mood, attentiveness, focus and overall productivity. So, the way in which you incorporate colours into your classroom, whether it’s the stationery or the school furniture you use will play a critical role in their ability to learn.
In the classroom, each activity has an expected behaviour and student response. So, we’ll look at which colours are most effective for activities that require concentration, creativity or rest.
Often, teachers riddle their classroom walls with posters and artworks, however this can have adverse effects on a student’s focus and concentration by distracting and overwhelming them. Studies have shown that too many artworks and decorations in the classroom can disrupt learning, especially when the decorations don’t correlate with the task at hand.
The study found that students who took a test in a less decorated classroom performed better on the test than in a decorated classroom. It also revealed that the time spent off-task was higher in more decorated classroom than in a less decorated classroom. This indicates that a multi-coloured classroom should be avoided if you are to give students the best chance at focusing on task.
To encourage concentration, studies have shown that opting for green and blue in the classroom is effective. Since blue and green connote a sense of calm, students are better able to think clearly which helps with problem solving and critical thinking tasks. Since blue and green are common colours found in nature, they help students relieve stress which can allow them to be more productive.
You can incorporate these colours when students are expected to complete a task that requires them to focus. Whether it’s reading comprehension or more complex tasks that require critical thinking, blues and greens can be incorporated in the school furniture or stationery to help stimulate a clear state of mind.
Colours have the power to stimulate little minds to feel excited and alert. But which colours work best? Studies have shown that warmer colours like yellow, orange and red contribute to improving students’ level of creativity. Although, there is a lot of overlap between which colours influence which behaviours, since greens and blues have also been found to stimulate creativity because of their calming nature we discussed earlier.
Warmer shades stimulates energy and inspiration because it keeps students on high alert. This level of inspiration is effective in encouraging students to be more creative and imaginative. Using yellows in the classroom induces creativity in students which is why it’s recommended for art classes. The sense of happiness that omits from this colour also contributes to these feelings of creativity with studies revealing those positive emotions broaden the mind allowing for greater innovation.
However, too much warm colours can also be over-stimulating and distracting, so it’s counterproductive to make your classroom walls orange, yellow and red. Because of the nature of these bright colours, they can quickly become overwhelming, so they should be avoided in areas where students are required to stay focused or relaxed.
Maximising the level of creativity in the classroom with colour whilst preventing overstimulation is a hard balance to reach. The trick is not to make too many permanent changes but implement coloured school furniture that will give you more control over the level of stimulation you want to implement in the classroom.
Kids are easily distracted. That’s why in any classroom, you should be purposeful about the coloured decorations and school furniture you want to implement. For tasks that allow for relaxation like quiet reading or cool tone colours have been proven to be effective.
But since a mix of colours can be too overstimulating to facilitate a relaxing environment, an effective solution is to divide the classroom allowing for a designated quiet reading space with reduced visual distractions. This ensure you can separate a relaxing space from spaces where you’re trying to promote creativity. This peaceful environment helps prevent students from becoming distracted. Less distractions mean their minds aren’t focusing on too many things at once and creating unnecessary stress.
Generally, cool tone and neutral colours best facilitate for a relaxing and calming environment. For the same reasons greens and blues are favoured in environments that require concentration, greens, blues and violets are also favoured for inducing a relaxing environment. These colours calm and clear the mind to allow students to fully engage with their activity.
So, what do we know about colour in the classroom? All research points to colour playing a significant role in not only the classroom, but our everyday life.
Understanding that colours influence our emotions and behaviours means we should be more mindful of what colours we incorporate into the classroom.
School furniture is a great place to start when it comes to facilitating for individual environments that enable concentration, creativity and relaxation. This is because it doesn’t require any permanence so it can be altered when necessary to accommodate for your classroom needs.
Reed Furniture has been supplying school furniture for over 45 years. So, you can trust that our team can point you in the right direction when it comes to facilitating a classroom your students can thrive in. Contact our team today to get started!
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