Physical Classroom Environment and Anxiety: Primary School Teachers’ Consideration of Their Physical Classroom Environment

Abstract

As a young child, I suffered from anxiety so that even a classroom with walls that were covered with academic work, the ceiling with artwork and the floor with blocks would set my mind off into a panic. As the classrooms became more structured and bare in secondary school and at university, I thought I was over this, but on my fourth practicum, the classroom environment was so ‘noisy’ that my problems with anxiety returned, and I found that one of the students seemed to be affected in much the same way I was. This led me to examine the literature on the significance of the physical classroom environment and its effects on student outcomes, leading me to hope that my experiences can encourage readers to self-reflect and reconsider their beliefs about physical classroom environments and how they may affect the students in their classrooms.